Istanbul

This past weekend I got my first taste of Istanbul. As Turkey's largest city, this cultural powerhouse is a far cry from Afyon. Needless to say, I was impressed and will definitely be returning to check out the numerous sites the city has to offer. Unfortunately it poured rain both days we were there, but we persevered. Saturday was my birthday and Sunday was the Istanbul Marathon, so in spite of the rain the Fulbright crew had good times.


My whirlwind weekend began with a midnight bus to Istanbul with Jaime. [Allow me to interject here that we bought our tickets for November instead of October and didn't realize this problem until were ready to hop on the bus. The crisis was averted by the nice guys at the Pamukkale counter. We took the 1:15 bus instead.]

We arrived Saturday morning. After dropping our bags and eating a bit at the hostel, I went off with 2 Fulbrighters to check out The Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya and the Grand Bazaar. I picked up a pair of earrings at the Bazaar...it was my birthday after all!

Mary, Kara, and me.

Bazaar Goods

Check out the Christian and Muslim influences at Aya Sofya

Sunday was Race Day. We had an early start and took a bus to the Asian side of the city with hundreds of runners from all over the world. Us fun-runners found our starting point and said 'bye' to the 15K peeps. It was a great experience walking from one side of the Bosphorus to the other, but as the rain pelted us from above and as our soggy sneakers squeaked beneath our cold feet, the five Fulbright fun-runners showed signs of slowing down. We successfully completed the 8K, and were more than ready to get out of the unrelenting rain.

Just rockin' a Turkiye headband before I cross continents.

"I shook my tambourine the whole time, because it helped me remember that even though I was going through different neighborhoods, I was still me." --Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.

The end!