July 19

July 19th was the second day of touring the city of Istanbul, before the KPDC starts on the 20th of July. The day was full of exploration and adventure, and as most experiences in Istanbul, begin with a taxi ride that is equivalent to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. With our lack of Turkish language fluency and the inability to pronounce many words in the complex language, the ride down to the Kadacöy (the ferry terminal nearest to the hotel, close to the Haydarpaşa train station), became "interesting." You see, the first time we took the taxis down to the ferry station, the hotel told the cabbies where to go in Turkish, and we successfully arrived at our destination. Not the case this time, where the hotel did not bother to inform the drivers where to go in Turkish. This resulted in Car 1 (myself, Nicholas, and Mrs. Tolksdorf) ending up at Haydarpaşa (a train station, and not the name of the ferry station as we believed). We then had to direct the cab driver to take us to the adjacent ferry station - it is called Kadacöy, as we figured out. Car 2, (John, Yuri, and Mr. Tolksdorf), had a much more lively experience in the difference of English prepositions in relation to the Turkish langauge. They attempted to communicate to the driver that they wanted the ferry at Kadacöy, but the driver took this as the ferry to Kadacöy, which took them to the Eminönü (the destination ferry station in Sultanahmet that both groups were trying to get to via the ferry station at Kadacöy, on the other side of the Bosporus). As seen in previous posts, we eventually met up. And, of course, both trips involved excessive rates of speed (100 km/h plus in a 70 km/h zone), straddling the lanes, driving on the shoulder, having near misses, cursing in Turkish at other drivers, and so forth.

After that whole experience, we rode the efficient T1 line of the Tramway (the Metro) from Eminönü to Sultanahmet to visit the Haghia Sophia, and then the Archeology Museum in Topkapı Palace. The Museum featuring ancient Greek columns and ruins, medieval Islamic pottery, and a exhibit of Istanbul through the ages - showing the Hittite, Lydian, Hellenic Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman influences on the city. Some of the famous exhibits include the Treaty of Kadesh and the Sarcaphagous of Alexander the Great. Metros in Istanbul are extremely crowded and, because they run on tracks on major avenues, are actually driven and not automated. Consquently, when pedestrian traffic is heavy in the Old City, the Metro can move rather slowly. After discovering that the entrance line for the Haghia Sofia was massive, we rode to T1 to the Grand Baazar. The Muesuem of Calligraphy was closed, so we proceeded to the Grand Baazar - a immense series of covered, winding streets in the heart of the Old Town. In the bazaar, we had a quick, authentic Turkish lunch at a cafe, bought T-shirts, and haggled over fake Rolexes. With the "Turkish Night" dinner looming ahead, we headed back to the hotel (involving, of course, another crazy cab ride from the Kadacöy ferry station to the hotel).

The "Turkish Evening" was a nice, outdoor buffet dinner that opened up the 2011 IDEA Youth Forum, where we sat with a Mongolian team that we had attended the United Nations Foundation Youth Leadership Summit (as a prize for the Global Debates) some years before.

Pictures from today are posted below:
Roughly, the order of pictures goes the Kadiköy Ferry Terminal, the Archaeology Museum, the Grand Bazaar).



Post: Alex