DAY 2 – Sally Day!
Topkapi Palace Museum was gorgeous. We get off the buss and walk past the Hagia Sofia and go to these gates with guards watching over those entering. We walk through the first garden and come to another set of gates where, this time, you have to pay to enter. We get our tickets and walk into the second garden. In my opinion, it either was restored in a baroque-esque style or was created in that style. There are five or seven walkways branching off from the entrance and the grass in-between each walkway has somewhat identical, spherical, cone-shaped pine trees (the branches are trimmed, not the trees themselves). It is in the second garden that you can explore the Harem building – but that happens at the end of the tour. We see the chimneys of the kitchens – big enough to feed 4000 people, I believe. And it was not that 4000 people lived in the palace, but the sultan would feed the people of Istanbul to keep their loyalty to him.

We then walk through the next set of gates to get to the THIRD garden! Here, there are exhibits of the GINORMOUS jewels, some of the thrones, the clothing of thr sultans through the centuries (seriously, some of these dudes were as wide as a car --> crazy or what?!?) This is also where the school for intellectuals was held. Mostly, the sultan did NOT have any Jews (too hard to convert to islam ... unless they were taken at a REALLY young age, but then you never know if they will survive to adulthood or not). The views from the fourth garden were great – you could see the ancient Roman walls, which was FABULOUS!

The Harem (in the second garden) was mesmerizing. All the history to it, the tiles and mosaics.... just gorgeous! It was a really hard life for the women. Taken away from their homes, the competition for who was ranked higher than others, the de-hairing process. In this, there is a special type of wax used (I believe honey is an ingredient) and it is used to take off ALL hair covering your body, except for your hair. I can barely do anything other than a leg wax ... I can not imagine what those girls and women went though!!). The only men allowed in the harem were eunuchs, for obvious reason. The sultan did not want any other man touching his women... unless the woman was a gift to a lieutenant or something. I felt like the building was like a made to be like a maze – so if you were an intruder you would get horribly lost and not know how to escape before getting captured.

After this, we went to the Grand Bazaar ... but not for a long enough period of time. We got, about, 45 minutes to look around and get food. I went with Kathryn, Emilio and Maddy. The Grand Bazaar is like a maze of jewelry stores, shirts, fake bags, cafes and cheap traveler sites. We went to Maya’s fabric-man, but then decided that we wanted food, because we are lean, mean, eating machines! We finally found a place, but realized that we only had 30 minutes to order, eat and pay. We tried to tell the waiter that we needed the food really quickly, but we got the feeling that that is more of an American thing than a European/Asian thing (to hurry through your meal) so it took a while to get our food. Because we had to rush, we literally put our food on nan-like pieces of bread, rolled it up, put it in a napkin, paid, and RAN to the meeting place.

We go on a bus to the US Consulate general in Istinye. Honestly, I feel asleep on the bus ride there. Ever since falling asleep during the car rides in Barcelona this past summer, being in an automobile while traveling makes me sleepy. But I bet you are wondering the difference between a Consulate and an Embassy, right? Well, an Embassy is in the capital of the country, while the Consulate is in an important city in the country, or a city that has a need for a consulate. The Consulate in Istanbul was originally in the middle of the city, but a few years ago, it moved more towards the suburbs for security reasons (not that the US is targeted by terrorist communities or anything). Honestly, it looks like a prison ... not a place I would feel welcomed in. But we had to go in, so what could we do? There were two people who talked to us about what they do everyday, what they did before coming, why they chose Istanbul, etc. It was ... somewhat interesting .... but it felt like they were trying to recruit us to join the force more than telling us what their job is really like. Also, personally, I could not fully believe what they said when there was a picture of our President behind them. Petty ... I know .... but I just couldn’t.

We leave, and I realize that I am running late for my meeting up time with my beloved Sally Gordon! I look through my phonebook, trying to find her number, when I realize that I left it on the computer and never put it in my phone! I turn out to be an hour late for my meeting with her – which I felt HORRIBLE about! I get to meet her friends Mackensey and Mickey, and we go to a restaurant that has a Turkish spin on ravioli. The pasta is like gnocchi, and it is stuffed with pieces of beef, and is in a paprika sauce. It was pretty good, but very heavy and filling. We then went to Saray for desserts. I got baklava and it was SO sweet and delicious. I could only eat half of it, after eating my dinner. The waiter saw that I was copying down explanations of the food, from the English menu, and he was so sweet that he gave me a menu, in Turkish, for free!! I thought that that was so sweet, and would be incredibly helpful for my class presentation on food! :)

I get back to the hotel and, although I am asked if I want to go out with some fun people on my trip, decide to sleep instead. I heard that lots of hootenanny went on, and I am mad that I missed out on their fun ... but I value my sleep a lot more.