Week 4: Snowpocalypse Istanbul Edition
It's unbelievable that today marks one month in Istanbul. In this time we've eaten tons of new and different foods (pretty much all delicious), drank a ridiculous amount of çay, walked down city streets and cobblestone paths alike, been 1000 meters off the ground, and visited another continent for a day trip. I know I'll have no problem with that "try something new every week" because there are just so many more things out there to do.
The majority of this week was a bit of a dud. The snow on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday was insane--it felt like walking in a blizzard. Because of the crazy snow, I had no class on Wednesday and my Thursday class was already cancelled because the professor was at a conference. I spent the majority of this unexpected time off trying to stay warm, avoid the snow, and catch up on some textbook reading.
On Saturday we were blessed with some sun! The day and the weather were beautiful and we took advantage of it by going on a little adventure. Our group of four started by hunting down a hidden restaurant located in an apartment down a nondescript street off of the Sishane metro stop only to find that it would not open for another hour. We ended up eating at the Shake Shack and then walking around the busy street lined with stores, more restaurants, and many groups of performers filling the busy walkways with all types of music. We continued our walk towards Galata Tower to enjoy the exquisite view (for only 5 lira!):
After the tower, we walked across Galata Bridge which is known for the hundreds of fishermen that set up there each day. The number of people out and about was mind-boggling.
We ended up being squished through a small strip of shops and into the surprisingly far less crowded Spice Bazaar. The highlight of the Spice Bazaar would probably be the chocolate baklava which sounds about as amazing as it tasted.
From the Spice Bazaar, we walked to Sahaflar Carsisi--a small street book market. After exiting on the other side of the book market, I was once again struck by how absolutely outnumbered I felt. You would think being a female student at Georgia Tech, I would be used to the unbalanced ratio. But sometimes when walking around Istanbul, it seems that we are literally the only women in a fifty feet radius. Pondering on this conundrum, I've done a little more research about gender in Turkey. According to the World Bank in 2011, females comprise 50.13% of the population in Turkey. Despite this equal ratio, Turkey has continued to rank at the bottom in OECD gender equality, or the Global Gender Gap Index (120th out of 136). It's improving, but very slowly and minimally. Also interestingly enough, the majority of countries where there is a higher male population than female population are located in the Middle East, parts of Asia, and Africa. I've also noticed that my political science classes are mostly male majorities as well--which, apparently, is not a surprise in this region of the world (where parliament/the political field is only about 12% female). I'm curious to see how these things change in the future, especially in a world where the fight for women's rights is becoming more active and visible. Last week we actually witnessed a protest that was in response to the rape and murder of a young women in Turkey--and this week I'm reading about more of the aftermath, including this statement made by men in miniskirts.
Anyway, after that tangent, we hopped on the tram and made it to the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople. It was incredibly cool to walk through and around the walls--no gates, no entrance fees, no mobs of tourists. With the remaining snow blanketing parts of the ground and old stone walls, the serenity of it all was incredible.
We finished our evening by walking through a pretty poppin' side street of restaurants and shops, finally settling on a pide restaurant for dinner (so delicious as usual).
On Sunday, we had a super lazy brunch and study day down in Bebek by the water. Turkish brunch is pretty awesome--lots of cheeses, jams, olives, bread, and this time, nutella. Things are starting to pick up in classes, so this week mostly entails schoolwork and hopefully a weekend trip!
After the tower, we walked across Galata Bridge which is known for the hundreds of fishermen that set up there each day. The number of people out and about was mind-boggling.
We ended up being squished through a small strip of shops and into the surprisingly far less crowded Spice Bazaar. The highlight of the Spice Bazaar would probably be the chocolate baklava which sounds about as amazing as it tasted.
From the Spice Bazaar, we walked to Sahaflar Carsisi--a small street book market. After exiting on the other side of the book market, I was once again struck by how absolutely outnumbered I felt. You would think being a female student at Georgia Tech, I would be used to the unbalanced ratio. But sometimes when walking around Istanbul, it seems that we are literally the only women in a fifty feet radius. Pondering on this conundrum, I've done a little more research about gender in Turkey. According to the World Bank in 2011, females comprise 50.13% of the population in Turkey. Despite this equal ratio, Turkey has continued to rank at the bottom in OECD gender equality, or the Global Gender Gap Index (120th out of 136). It's improving, but very slowly and minimally. Also interestingly enough, the majority of countries where there is a higher male population than female population are located in the Middle East, parts of Asia, and Africa. I've also noticed that my political science classes are mostly male majorities as well--which, apparently, is not a surprise in this region of the world (where parliament/the political field is only about 12% female). I'm curious to see how these things change in the future, especially in a world where the fight for women's rights is becoming more active and visible. Last week we actually witnessed a protest that was in response to the rape and murder of a young women in Turkey--and this week I'm reading about more of the aftermath, including this statement made by men in miniskirts.
Anyway, after that tangent, we hopped on the tram and made it to the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople. It was incredibly cool to walk through and around the walls--no gates, no entrance fees, no mobs of tourists. With the remaining snow blanketing parts of the ground and old stone walls, the serenity of it all was incredible.
We finished our evening by walking through a pretty poppin' side street of restaurants and shops, finally settling on a pide restaurant for dinner (so delicious as usual).
On Sunday, we had a super lazy brunch and study day down in Bebek by the water. Turkish brunch is pretty awesome--lots of cheeses, jams, olives, bread, and this time, nutella. Things are starting to pick up in classes, so this week mostly entails schoolwork and hopefully a weekend trip!
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