Eight Cal U students are exploring Turkey on a 10-day trip organized by Cal U’s Office of International Programming and sponsored by the Turkish Cultural Center of Pittsburgh.
Today’s report comes from Istanbul, a world city at the junction where East meets West. The writer is Emily G. Dickey, a communication disorders major with a minor in Spanish:
Merhaba!
Today (Tuesday, June 17) was a great first (full) day in Turkey! We did a lot of touring around Istanbul. At the start of the day we ate a breakfast unlike any breakfast I've ever had in the U.S. It was very eclectic, including bread, olives, a strange juice, warm yogurt and milk, French fries, watermelon, more olives, lots of vegetables, and little green sour plums.
The first place we went to was a miniature museum, called Miniaturk, to learn about the history and background of many of the sites we would see later. It had dozens of miniature models of buildings all throughout Istanbul and the rest of Turkey. Some of us went to a photo place there and got dressed up in traditional Turkish garb. After that we went to a mosque. … The stained glass windows were awesome and the architecture was amazing.
We ate lunch at a restaurant next to the mosque, where we fed chicken to a cat under the table. There are many cats around Istanbul. … Next we went to Taksim Square, where the protests were last year, and we walked down a walkway lined with shops.
Then we had another short ride to go to our boat tour. … We went right under the bridge that connects Europe and Asia. After that we went to dinner at a restaurant called Vefa, which means Loyalty, where we had a lot of good food, and of course Turkish tea. After a short break at the hotel we went on a walk to find Turkish ice cream, which was a great end to our day.
Some other interesting things we saw and learned today:
- There are many Syrian refuges in Turkey because of the violence in Syria.
- Turkish toilets are very different from American toilets.
- Some French words are used in Turkey, such as merci (“thank you”).
- People eat dinner late in Turkey, around 8:30 p.m.