Istanbul,Turkey

We had a week off here in Spain for "Semana Santa", also known as Holy Week. This is the week leading up to Easter Sunday. Which I can't believe I've been here that long already! Time is flying by.

For our Semana Santa we decided to travel to Istanbul, Turkey. I know what some of you are thinking. Why Istanbul, Turkey? A whole week off from school and you didn't want to visit a beach or some huge party location. What kind of college kids are you?

But this whole semester and experience isn't about partying. If I wanted to do that I would of just stayed at home. This semester is about getting to know other cultures and learning and exploring new things. There is nothing new about drinking or getting drunk. It is, roughly, the same no matter what country you're in.

Back to Turkey.

This is Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He was and is, still to this day, very important and vital part of Turkey. He was there first President and led their nation to full independence and into what they call Modern Turkey.

For tourists seeing the images of Ataturk everywhere, literally E-V-E-R-Ywhere, might be a little off putting and seem rather strange. However after learning who he was and what he did for their country I can see why the Turkish people love and admire him so much.

If you'd like to learn more about Ataturk, which I stroungly suggest, here is a link... M. Kemal Ataturk. His military background and reforms are quite impressive.

Fun and interesting things to do in Turkey include, but not limited to, the following....

• Archaeology Museum
• Hagia Sophia Museum
• Basilica Cistern
• Maidens Tower
• Topkapi Palace & Dolmabahçe Palace
• Harem
• Mosques
• Grand Bazaar & Egyptian Spice Bazaar

The Archaelogical Museum

There are three museums in one complex.the Museum of Ancient Orient (Eski Şark Eserleri Müzesi), the Tiled Pavilion Museum (Çinili Köşk Müzesi) and the Archaeology Museum (Arkeoloji Müzesi) itself residing in the main building.

The museum of Ancient Orient houses pieces from the pre-Islamic Arabian peninsula, Mesopotamia (currently Iraq), Egypt and Anatolia (mainly Hittite empires).

The Tiled Pavilion Museum is the tiled kiosk of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror. The kiosk was built in 1472 and is one of the oldest examples of Ottoman civil architecture in Istanbul.

And then the last and biggesst building is the Archaeology Museum. It is four floors with collection of Hellenic, Hellenistic and Roman statuary and sarcophagi, Thracian, Bithynian and Byzantine collections on the ground floor, next floor up was Istanbul through the ages, collections from Anatolia and Troy up from there and Anatolia’s neighboring cultures, a gallery devoted to Cyprus and Syria-Palestine up from there.

It was utterly amazing to be in the same room with these historical artifacts.

Hagia Sophia Museum

The Hagia Sophia was a  former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey.

This thing was huge and beautiful!

Basilica Cistern

This cistern is beneath the city of Istanbul and was featured in the 1963 James Bond "From Russia with Love". There were two Medusa Columns in the Cistern and their origin is unknown, but believed to have come from a Roman building.

The Maiden's Tower 

Was built in 408 bc to control the movements of Persian ships coming into the Bosphorus Strait. It has since been restored and modified. It was also featured in James Bond "The World is not enough", "Hitman", and "The Amazing Race 7".

We took a cruise over from the European side of Istanbul to the Asian side and came across this tower. There is a cafe inside and you can go up to the top of the tower and get a 360 degree view of Istanbul.

Boat ride view. On the way to the Asian side

Palaces and Harem

Turkey crazy for tulips.

Mosques

Inside the New Mosque

Outside of the Blue Mosque

No shoes allowed inside the Mosque

Honestly don't remember which one this is...

This was my first time in a Mosque. I'm so glad I got to experience it too.

We went to five different Mosques. Although they all look very simliar, each one was unique in it's own way.

There were cats everywhere! This particular cat was in the Hagia Sophia 

Shopping

Of course there was a lot of shopping to do in Turkey. Two Turkish Lira equaled one Euro, this made shopping very very exciting. When something said it cost 10 lira that meant it only cost us 5 euros.

The Grand Bazaar and The Eygptian Spice Market were a must see. For warning though, Turkish people are very friendly people and they are even more friendly when trying to sell you something. Embarrassingly enough me and Meredith fell into the trap of a very smooth scarf salesman at the Grand Bazaar. It honestly was not overpriced, but we definitely did not NEED to buy that scarf!

On top of all of the attractions and shopping the food was delicious! And again, the prices were reasonable because it was almost half the cost for us. One word....Kebab! They were everywhere and SCRUMPTIOUS! We ate a kebab wrap almost everyday. It had kebab meat, french fries, lettuce, carrots, and fejita cooked veggies inside. MMMMMmmmm.

Another delectable treat was Baklava

flakey layers filled with nuts, like pistachios, and sweetened with syrup or honey.

There is no way I could live in Turkey because I couldn't image the weight I gained in a week multiplied by 52 weeks in a year...

Let's just say things wouldn't be looking very good by the end of a year in Turkey. I would probably have to invest in a Hoveround.

 

We found this cafe that ran along the street. It was not in a building, just some couches, a coffee table and an awning. The owner was very nice and very funny. He taught us some turkish phrases to help us get by and gave us free Apple Tea. Apple tea was so stinking good too.

 

I have way too many stories about this trip. I could go on and on, but this post is already long enough. If you want to know more then you can always ask.

Up for telling more stories,

Kimee Paige

“Everyone has a 'risk muscle.' You keep it in shape by trying new things. If you don't, it atrophies. Make a point of using it at least once a day.” - Roger Von Oech

Here, there and Everywhere

Man, it's been a while, sorry...I literally have been running from point A to point B for the last couple of weeks.

Let's start with Barcelona.

If you ever get a chance to go, then go. It was absolutley one of my favorite places thus far. Well, except for when the taxi driver yelled at me. Bitter old man. Lesson learned do not put your foot on the seat in a taxi cab. They don't like that.

We went to the beach, the Adele concert (which was AWESOME!!!), Gaudi Park, Sagrada Familia, Monteserrat to see the oldest boys choir and the black virgin and enjoy the great outdoors, took a boat tour, the Picasso museum, shopped on la Ramba, ate A LOT of gelato, and delicious seafood.

I honestly cannot tell you what my favorite part of the trip was. The hour trip to Monteserrat is definitely up at the top of the list (mostly because I got to climb around and be outside hiking up a mountain).

Seana came back to Madrid with us. It was so nice to see her. For those of you who do not know Seane, we use to work together at Texas Roadhouse and now we are both in Europe doing our thing. We ran into a large group of drunken english men on Wednesday here in Madrid. It was Tottenham's first time to be this far in the Champions league, so they uhh...were quite roudy.

Now to the fun stuff....
As all, or most, of you know... My little brother's wedding was coming up. So I made the journey home for the weekend.
Friday morning at 7 am Spain time, I left Madrid.

Made it to London...no problem.

London to Chicago...let the fun begin.

By the time I made it to Chicago I had been in route to America for about 12 hours. I was exhausted, but amped on adrenaline because I was almost home. This is where I messed up. Getting excited about anything usually means something is going to go wrong.

Land in Chicago and check-in for my next boarding pass to OKC.

We're sorry ma'am it's been cancelled due to weather. (cancelation number one)

WHAT? Uh. I couldn't tell if I was nauseous from the long flight, airplane food, or because I was so close to home I could almost smell the sweet aroma of wheat fields mixed with cow pies and good ole red clay. HOME is where the heart is.

Luckly she found a seat on a flight that had been delayed earlier.

YAY! I'm going to make it, and sooner than my original fight time.

So I hurried through security and ran down to the gate to find that it had been delayed a little longer. Ok, ok I'll take it. I'm almost home. As I waited I made friends with two lawyers, Jim and Joy, headed to OKC for a conference. They were really nice and pretty funny. We all sat and waited in anticipation for this plane. A few hours went by and finally it arrived! YAY!

We all boarded the plane. Smiles were across the whole cabin because some had been waiting since 2:30 for it's original flight time. I think the happy emotions must of smothered the pilot or something because right as we were at our peak of blissfulness, we were shot down.

The pilot announced, "Excuse me ladies and gentlemen we are sorry for the inconvience, but we need to make a repair to our windsheild. If you will kindly unboard we will patch it up and get you in the air shortly."

They lied. Flight was cancelled. (cancelation number two)

Jim, Joy, and I took off running to get a seat for the 9:45 flight. Jim and Joy got the last two tickets. UHHH! I was first on stand-by but there was no guarantee that I would have a seat for that flight.

I lost it. I couldn't hold back the tears. I was so close to home, but so far away. In a frantic frenzy I started checking out my options. I called home and they were trying their best to help too. They found a flight with 6 seats available on another airline. I found a counter to try and exchange my flight, but she was too busy. Doing what? I don't know. Looked like to me she was just standing there.

Ran to another counter and finally made it to the front of the line and that flight was booked. But she assured me that since I was first on stand-by that I would be on that 9:45 flight.

I wasn't convinced.

After numerous calls back an forth to home, I decided to call in the friend cards. I was calling anyone that lived in a surrounding state or town to OKC. Luckly I have some pretty amazing friends and everyone was willing to help. So at this point I thought it would be wise to reserve a seat to Fort Worth, Dallas. The issue was OKC was scheduled for 9:45 and DFW at 10:15...and of course they had to be in seperate terminals.

Now it was time to wait.

I grabbed two venti lattes, yes I was double fisting, from Starbucks to keep my spirit alive. In the mean time I also clocked how long it took to get from terminal G to terminal K (just to be on the safe side). I had now obtained a couple more friends on the OKC flight. Jacob happened to be on stand-by too. He ran up to the counter and the lady gave him a boarding pass. (I thought) "Sweet! They're handing out boarding passes to the stand-by!"  Eager to get home, I ran up there to get mine too. "Ma'am you'll have to be patient. Your name will be called 15 minutes before boarding if there is room."

WHAT THE FRECK.

I started to panic again and Jim could tell. He went up to the counter to talk to them. Apparently the girl at the counter messed up. (I think she liked Jacob.) But they reassured Jim I would be on this flight. I called home to give them the update. I told them, "I'm still on stand-by for this flight or I could go ahead and take the DFW flight. It leaves at 10:15..."My family, just as eager as I was to get home, was screaming in the background "take the sure thing! Take the DFW!!!" But I was stubborn and secretly hoping I could fly directly into OKC. Oh, but that would make my life too easy and less exciting.

Right as I got off the phone at 9:40 I heard, "We're sorry but flight 6208 to Oklahoma City has been cancelled." (cancelation number three)

I booked it! I was weaving in and out of people, pullin along my bag as quick as I possibly could. I got a few whistles from some young adolescent teenage boys who thought they were "oh so cooool", dirty looks from slow walkers that I passed, and a security guard screaming to slow down. Did any of that slow me down. Nope. I was determined to make this flight! No way was I going to miss this wedding. Especially not after I had made it all this way.

Made it to the terminal and ran up to the desk. I started spouting off my story and asking for a boarding pass all at the same time. (Perhaps two venti lattes wasn't a good idea). Nevertheless, the gentleman who happened to be behind the desk was a pilot and not a fligh agent. So I had to wait for one after I made myself look like a complete fool by not noticing that this man was clearly wearing his pilot costume and not a flight attendant outfit. Finally an agent showed up and I recieved a boarding pass to DFW! I was so happy.

Called home to tell them I was flying to Dallas and to sort out how I was getting to OKC from there. Luckly for me I have some amazing friends who were more then willing to help AND my brothers new soon to be grandparent-in-laws ALSO lived in dallas! Lucky me!

Alright it's all arranged. The soon to be grandparents were going to pick me up at 1 am in Dallas and then the following morning I was going to ride up to OKC with them for the wedding. Awesome! Looks like everything was panning out nicely.

Ha ha.

DFW flight finally boards and my heart is a peace. I battled through the Chicago airport and managed to triumph! Yeeeaaaah put that in your juice box and suck it Chicago O'hare Airport!!!

But then just as I was at peace with the madness, I heard...

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are sorry to inform you that the left engine will not accelerate. Sorry for the inconvience but you will have to unboard at this time. We are looking for another plane and will inform you shortly with new details" (cancelation number four)

Seriously, I wish I was making this up. At this point I was too exhausted to be upset and was preparing my "you will pay for this trip if I miss this wedding" speech for American Airlines.

Fortunately for American Airlines and the Chicago O'hare Aiport they did, in fact, find a new plane. I arrived in DFW a little before 3 AM to be greeted by the nicest people I had never met.

Made it to the wedding the next morning. It was absolutley lovely. I got to see my family and my best friends and my goddaughter. Even though it was a long and stressful struggle to get to home, it was more then worth it because I got to see the faces of everyone I love. I wish I could of spent more time with my brother, but Chicago O'Hare and American airlines thought it was more important to toy with my heart for 12 hours.

So what have we learned today...1. My life is never dull. 2. Do not double fist two venti lattes and 3. If at all costs avoid flying through Chicago O'hare and/or flying with American Airlines (they'll have a missing flight attendant, cracked windshield, or a faulty left engine).

Still fighting off jet lag,

Kimee Paige

P.S. This week is Semana Santa. The roommate and I are headed off to Turkey! YAY! I know you're looking forward to reading about it.

"Calling O'Hare an airport is like calling the Queen Elizabeth II a boat"

-Andrew H. Malcolm