By the third day in Istanbul, I had decided (along with some others) that it might be nice to get out of the city for a day. I’ve tried to make it a point to do this in each country I’ve visited, because I think you learn more about the country as a whole if you can visit the rural parts as well. I REALLY wanted to see Cappidocia or Ephesus, but with the FDP (faculty directed practica) to Sanbanci on Day 2 of only 5 days, there just wasn’t time. Oh well…next Turkey trip, I guess… : ) Instead, Amanda, Greg, Erin, and I settled for a day trip to see the Black Sea.
We booked the tickets the day before at a local travel agency in center of Istanbul. Around 9 PM, we got picked up in a mini-bus right outside of the port area (super convenient!). We drove for about 2 hours over to the Asian side of Istanbul. (What? Asia? Yeah, no big, I was there yesterday….omg, REALITY check, please!!). On the way, we saw the Sile Lighthouse (largest lighthouse in Turkey) and the Sile Castle (a fortress built by the Byzantines out on a giant rock close to the shore. This fortress was used to protect the coast from sea attacks). It was nice because we had time to sit and have a cup of tea while sitting on a very Turkish bean bag on the floor. We were able to soak up the view for a few minutes before it was time to move on.
Next stop was the Kabkoz village, which is a traditional little Ottoman village. The town was so sleepy and our brief walk through its street (yes, one street) seemed intrusive. It was interesting to see the houses, though, because they had all been built of wood and clay along with some straw. I also saw a raw walnut for the first time…it grows in a hard green fruit-like coating (it almost looks like a small, hard, sour apple from the outside), but when you cut it open, you can recognize the pattern of a walnut. Before we knew it, it was time to get back on the minibus for another hour or so drive to Kilimli Bay. Here we ate lunch at a beautiful restaurant with a magnificent view of the sea and bluffs surrounding. The rock formations were awesome – there were coves and interesting erosion patterns everywhere you looked. There were also several pockets of sea foam in certain areas of the sea, which I thought was interesting as well. After a delicious lunch of fire-grilled chicken and assorted side dishes, we popped back on the bus for a quick ride down the hill to the Kilimli Beach. It was sandier then some of the other beaches we had been on lately, so the water wasn’t as clear, but it felt so good to swim for a little in the mid-day heat! The beach was nice, but the most interesting part was seeing all of the different people who were there. Next to my American friends and I were two other girls on our tour – one was from Australia and the other was from Ireland. Our small tour mostly consisted of folks from Saudi Arabia. It was an interesting experience to be swimming and sunbathing next to women who were completely covered from head to toe! It made me feel different and a little unsure about my appearance. The beach had certainly highlighted this difference, but even earlier in the day, I felt different from the other women on the trip because I was not so covered up.
On our way back to Istanbul, we stopped at a little café in the forest. I am not even kidding – it was in the middle of nowhere! It was fun, though, because we had some more tea and hung around for a few minutes in the hammocks that were hanging from the trees.
When we returned to Istanbul, we stopped on the ship to shower and then we went up to a different part of Istanbul called Tasxim (or something like that…I actually need to look up the spelling again, because I forget). We stopped at dinner at a funky little fast-food slash cafeteria style restaurant. It wasn’t the best food we’ve had in Istanbul, but it was fast and we were SUPER hungry after the long day of touring. Afterward, we went to a roof top bar on this swanky hotel that Haley and her partner, Adam, were staying at to have a drink. We then went to another bar – which was actually in a street – to watch some live music. It was a fun night, but I was so tired by the time I got home!
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