July 17 and July 18

Türkiye'den Merhaba!

!مرحبا من تركيا

Hello from Turkey!


At 2:25PM (local Istanbul time) on July 17, the Brother Rice Global Debate team touched down in Atatürk International Airport, after an uneventful, yet long series of flights. On the way to the hotel,  which is a solid 45-minutes away from the airport and on the Asian side of the Bosporus, I caught my first glimpses of Istanbul: it exceeded my expectations and preconceptions. It is a curious mix of the ancient and the modern, which fuse together in all aspects of the city. Modern highways and avenues flow through the massive city of 13 million people, across the Bosporus on intercontinental bridges, and share the traffic with a efficient electric Metro system. Small, tight cobblestone streets wind through old portions of town, around the ancient structures like the Haghia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and Topkapı Palace, and up the hills containing Istanbul's  old neighborhoods. Traffic and driving habits are more reminiscent of the United States, except that driving could even be more ludicrous than in New York City. Traffic is very heavy, and by "traffic," I mean private cars, taxis, Metros, buses, motorcycles, and pedestrians that completely and utterly disregard all rules of road. Actually, suggestions might be a better word than rules. That evening, we spent unpacking at the hotel and taking in the city from our room windows (and the routine call to prayer that echoes through the city five times daily).

Today, July 18, we spent taking in some of the magnificent sights of this 3,000 year old city. After an early start, we made our way by taxi to Haydarpaşa (a water taxi transit center near to the hotel) to catch a ferry to Eminönü (another water taxi transit center in the old town "Sultanahmet" district on the European side of Istanbul) and proceeded to visit some of the most famous sites in Istanbul - the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Mosque), the Basilica Cistern, and the Topkapı Palace. We were also able to take pictures outside the Haghia Sophia. We then retired to the hotel and took a swim in the pool. The day of touring also highlighted interesting cultural differences between our two cultures. While at the Palace, it appeared that the ground were being set up for a large event, perhaps a concert - a very modern cultural element. But smoking, which in the United States is trying to be worked out of popular culture and society is extremely prevalent in Turkey. Many smoke and smoke everywhere. Our lunch restaurant, the St. Sophia, attached to the Best Western by the Haghia Sofia, offers naghiles (Turkish hookah pipes) as part of their lunch. This is one example of a very old element of Turkish culture that is fused into the modern culture.

I have posted the pictures from the two days below:
Roughly, the order of pictures goes the airports, Istanbul (Bostancı neighborhood) from hotel, on the ferry to Sultanahmet, in front of the Blue Mosque, in the Blue Mosque, in front of the Haghia Sophia, in the Basilica Cistern, at lunch, in and around Topkapı Palace).



Post: Alex