So... I think I committed a major blogging foul last night, by which I mean I realized within ten or fifteen minutes of posting that I'd left out part of my day on Tuesday. And not one of those "and then I used the restroom" parts of my day that I routinely leave out because, let's be honest, none of you want/need to hear about it. It was an actual part of the day, if not a huge one considering how much I did that day.
So, between the Palace Mosaic Museum and the lack of History of Islamic Science Museum, I also stopped by the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, and actually spent a decent amount of time there. I would have spent longer, but they were also undergoing, you guessed it, renovation. The complex consists of three museums: a small museum of ancient civilizations, a tile museum, and the main museum including exhibits on all sorts of archaeological... things. That main part was the bit that was largely closed though. I spent a lot of time in the Sarcophagi of Sidon exhibit, because they were quite possibly the most beautiful pieces of sculpture work I had ever seen, but I was exhausted by the time I made it to the History of Istanbul exhibit, so I might not have paid as much attention as I could have. By the time I got to the three thousand pots and pieces of metal found in the ruins of Troy, I was really ready for another simit. So that's how that went. Sorry I missed it the first go round...
The reason I realized this, however, was not my brilliant memory. In fact, I was asked. No sooner had I posted last nights blog and shut my computer than those wonderful people having all that fun I was talking about drew me into their conversation. It was a group of four Croatian girls, a Turkish guy, an Italian guy who was oddly obsessed with Spanish, and a Polish guy who joined us later, in addition to the ever present Marsum, who works at the hostel and always seems to be around for some comic relief.
Anyway, one of the girls asked me if I'd been to the Archaeological Museum and it tipped me off, but our conversation hardly revolved around museums the whole time. It was one of those lovely spur of the moment hostel conversations I love so much, talking about life and music and travel. They'd been working on a literacy project in Eastern Turkey and were, like me, stopped over in Istanbul as a last hurrah. It was a lot of fun to start connecting with travelers again. Just what I needed, perhaps. There was much chatting and music and dancing in our seats and I think it was a great time all around. We're Facebook friends now. That's kind of the end of the story.
Then today, as expected, I took the Bosphorus Cruise. The weather was gloomy, as it has been all week. It didn't rain, but it was cloudy and bleak the entire way up the strait. When we landed at Anadolou Kavaligi for a three hour break for lunch and castle visiting (because there was a castle!) before we headed back, the sun finally decided to show itself. I even had ice cream with lunch. But when we loaded back on the boat after the break it was back behind the clouds in ten minutes flat. It was worth being freezing and miserable to see the beauty of the straight, but it was still freezing and miserable. Not to mention I had a camera scare on the way there when it wouldn't turn on. It's working again now, except it still has the black spots on the lens I can't get off that have been there for the past few days and seem to be getting worse. At any rate, I suppose imperfect pictures are better than no pictures at all.
The cruise got back into port around 16:30, which in the grand scheme of things isn't too late at all, but there wasn't anything in particular I felt like doing. I knew I needed to go back to the Spice Market, but I wasn't really in the mood, so I decided to make for the hostel to get some housekeeping done. It was a good decision, because on the way I found a salep street vendor and an awesome borek place. Not that I needed more food, but... salep. And borek. So I ate well today, by which I mean I ate a lot, but not necessarily things that are good for me. >.<
The housekeeping went well though. I bought my tickets to Scotland and Paris, as well as finally getting the Eurail Pass worked out and confirming with Laura that I'll be going to Thailand in August. And I talked to my parents, which might have been a little overdue considering, and caught up with some friends. It was pretty productive from a planning perspective, even if there's a lot left to go. Iraqi guy got creepy again though. He saw me packing up my clothes to take to the laundromat tomorrow and took that as an opportunity to ask if I was leaving, tell me he sold some artwork, 'accidentally' show me a painting of a nude woman, explain that he was going to America soon to become a famous artist and that he planned to marry an American first. I might have been a little rude with how quickly I raised an eyebrow, wished him mildly derisive luck, and walked off. Okay, more than a little rude. He deserved it though.
On the other hand, I finally talked to the Iranian guy for all of a minute at breakfast and he was pretty nice. I've forgotten all my Persian, but I can still understand him when he speaks it, so I guess that's something. Then again, our conversation didn't progress beyond "Where are you from?" and "Where did you learn Persian?" So... that might not be the best measure. He seemed pleased to not be stumbling through his broken English for once though, so I'm glad I could provide the service of listening to three or four sentences in Persian for him.
And now I'm up far later than I intended. Again. And I would still like a shower. We will see if that happens. I would be nice to be clean for tomorrow, my last full day in Istanbul.
So, between the Palace Mosaic Museum and the lack of History of Islamic Science Museum, I also stopped by the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, and actually spent a decent amount of time there. I would have spent longer, but they were also undergoing, you guessed it, renovation. The complex consists of three museums: a small museum of ancient civilizations, a tile museum, and the main museum including exhibits on all sorts of archaeological... things. That main part was the bit that was largely closed though. I spent a lot of time in the Sarcophagi of Sidon exhibit, because they were quite possibly the most beautiful pieces of sculpture work I had ever seen, but I was exhausted by the time I made it to the History of Istanbul exhibit, so I might not have paid as much attention as I could have. By the time I got to the three thousand pots and pieces of metal found in the ruins of Troy, I was really ready for another simit. So that's how that went. Sorry I missed it the first go round...
The reason I realized this, however, was not my brilliant memory. In fact, I was asked. No sooner had I posted last nights blog and shut my computer than those wonderful people having all that fun I was talking about drew me into their conversation. It was a group of four Croatian girls, a Turkish guy, an Italian guy who was oddly obsessed with Spanish, and a Polish guy who joined us later, in addition to the ever present Marsum, who works at the hostel and always seems to be around for some comic relief.
Anyway, one of the girls asked me if I'd been to the Archaeological Museum and it tipped me off, but our conversation hardly revolved around museums the whole time. It was one of those lovely spur of the moment hostel conversations I love so much, talking about life and music and travel. They'd been working on a literacy project in Eastern Turkey and were, like me, stopped over in Istanbul as a last hurrah. It was a lot of fun to start connecting with travelers again. Just what I needed, perhaps. There was much chatting and music and dancing in our seats and I think it was a great time all around. We're Facebook friends now. That's kind of the end of the story.
Then today, as expected, I took the Bosphorus Cruise. The weather was gloomy, as it has been all week. It didn't rain, but it was cloudy and bleak the entire way up the strait. When we landed at Anadolou Kavaligi for a three hour break for lunch and castle visiting (because there was a castle!) before we headed back, the sun finally decided to show itself. I even had ice cream with lunch. But when we loaded back on the boat after the break it was back behind the clouds in ten minutes flat. It was worth being freezing and miserable to see the beauty of the straight, but it was still freezing and miserable. Not to mention I had a camera scare on the way there when it wouldn't turn on. It's working again now, except it still has the black spots on the lens I can't get off that have been there for the past few days and seem to be getting worse. At any rate, I suppose imperfect pictures are better than no pictures at all.
The cruise got back into port around 16:30, which in the grand scheme of things isn't too late at all, but there wasn't anything in particular I felt like doing. I knew I needed to go back to the Spice Market, but I wasn't really in the mood, so I decided to make for the hostel to get some housekeeping done. It was a good decision, because on the way I found a salep street vendor and an awesome borek place. Not that I needed more food, but... salep. And borek. So I ate well today, by which I mean I ate a lot, but not necessarily things that are good for me. >.<
The housekeeping went well though. I bought my tickets to Scotland and Paris, as well as finally getting the Eurail Pass worked out and confirming with Laura that I'll be going to Thailand in August. And I talked to my parents, which might have been a little overdue considering, and caught up with some friends. It was pretty productive from a planning perspective, even if there's a lot left to go. Iraqi guy got creepy again though. He saw me packing up my clothes to take to the laundromat tomorrow and took that as an opportunity to ask if I was leaving, tell me he sold some artwork, 'accidentally' show me a painting of a nude woman, explain that he was going to America soon to become a famous artist and that he planned to marry an American first. I might have been a little rude with how quickly I raised an eyebrow, wished him mildly derisive luck, and walked off. Okay, more than a little rude. He deserved it though.
On the other hand, I finally talked to the Iranian guy for all of a minute at breakfast and he was pretty nice. I've forgotten all my Persian, but I can still understand him when he speaks it, so I guess that's something. Then again, our conversation didn't progress beyond "Where are you from?" and "Where did you learn Persian?" So... that might not be the best measure. He seemed pleased to not be stumbling through his broken English for once though, so I'm glad I could provide the service of listening to three or four sentences in Persian for him.
And now I'm up far later than I intended. Again. And I would still like a shower. We will see if that happens. I would be nice to be clean for tomorrow, my last full day in Istanbul.
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