so i started keeping a notebook for "ethnographic purposes" and i'm just not capable of writing two different journals, so, blog fail.
here are some highlights of my time in armenia with only two days before i head back to istanbul (for anyone still out there):
1) the cool swiss guys i met at the first homestay. we hung out, went to "the club" where we had a good "western armenian" meal, and i went with them to khor virap, my first time taking public transportation to a famous site in armenia. a really nice old lady wrote down the return schedule for us.
2) being back at the same homestay. it really makes it feel a lot more comfortable staying with people i know in a bedroom that feels familiar, etc.
3) the famous armenian artist museum tour: sergei parajanov (filmmaker), mardiros saryan (painter), hovannes toumanian (poet), and aram khatchadurian (composer). not done in one day.
4) being recognized and welcomed when stopping by birthright. seeing ani and anoush (language instructor's daughters and my language instructors).
5) birthday! etchmiadzin, christina made a cake, and a cafe/hraparag night with christina, ani, and anoush.
6) garni/geghart trip with birthright. a fun group, and a great conversation with mikael and haykak.
7) a 3-day trip to gyumri, including the feast of Asdvadzazin, where they blessed the grapes on a platform in the main square. was fed too many pastries by overzealous host-mother. met another birthright girl. feel like i have a feel for gyumri.
other than this list, i've pretty much just been living. spending a lot of time reading and going to cafes. i guess the main lesson for this trip is how important it is to spend a lot of time in a place if i figure i'm going to get any ethnographic 'work' done. especially in the post-soviet world. especially in the post-soviet world.
so, its been good. i feel like the other really important thing is a feeling of normalcy of being in armenia. even though i developed a schedule, working, etc. last time- this trip feels even more normal. so, yeah, its been good. its been good to practice armenian, to keep up relationships with people i know here and make some new ones, and to realize how hard fieldwork is. am i any closer to an idea for a dissertation? maybe upon reflection.
well, i have to get a few final gifts, change some money into georgian lari, and get ready for a bus ride friday morning. i have to say, 'one week AND counting.'
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
these churches look really familiar; i.e: i swear its not a new research project
so, at first i just called it, "georgia" but that wasn't a verbose enough title. now that i'm in armenia, i can tell you about my first border crossings needing a passport (read: not tijuana or vancouver) and my time in georgia.
friday afternoon, i got on a freakishly long overnight bus that i planned to have take me to hopa, the turkish side of the turkish-georgian border. then i found out the bus would take me all the way to batumi, the georgian coastal town from which i planned to take a marshutka (i think i'm spelling this right, its basically a van that serves as the best public transportation, long or short distance, in the post-soviet world) to tbilisi. well, the bus got me to the border. i took all my bags off, walked across the border (no problems), and then waited for the bus. i was literally standing next to my bus, waiting for it to slow down and park. i guess everyone else was on the bus and they didn't care about me since i hadn't paid for past hopa anyhow, because it just took off. yup, hit the main road and kept rolling as i stood next to it. after a minute or two, i shrugged my shoulders and got in a taxi to batumi.
in batumi, i got pretty much directly on the marshutka to tbilisi. once there, i made my way to the 'green stairs hostel' where i had a reservation. but alas, i was several hours after i put my reservation down for, so i was asked if i minded staying in an apartment for the same price... a little out of the way, but an apartment to myself. a-ok by me. the metro ended up being really easy, and finally, after close to 24 hours of straight travel, i passed out in my solo apartment.
i woke up sunday to get a move on and get into the metro (after a long shower and shave, ah). i made my way to the st. george armenian church, where i attended badarak. and, very exciting, i saw sayat nova's grave (sayat nova being an 18th century armenian troubador, which parajanov's 'the color of pommegranate' is about- i may have subjected some of you to this film). after church, i ate some georgian bbq, and then wandered around old town, seeing, you guessed it: georgian churches! there are many old ones throughout town, and a few old armenian churches too. as the title of the post suggests, the similarity between church architecture and other aspects of armenian and georgian Christianity is really interesting, and have left me scratching my head. i've heard the strong national lines on each side as to why they look the same, but it really is strange how similar they are. after seeing the patriarchate and the oldest church in town, i had a beer at the "hangar bar" and read: drinking georgian beer steps from the oldest church in tbilisi at tbilisi's "only irish pub." yeah, it was strange. after some internet, i metroed back to the apartment (a mild endeavor since the thing stopped one before the last stop and i had to counterintuitively get on on the other track) and had a great encounter buying things at the store on the way. speaking absoultely no georgian, it was fun to interact with the girls at the store. and also use the subway, since i don't read georgian either- basically the one stop with numbers in it was my landmark, letting me know which of two directions to get on. that, and i'd count stops to the transfer station.
monday, i found my way to one of the bus stations, and managed to find the marshutka to mtskhetka (i think i've got this right this time, it took me a few when asking for it)- this is basically the georgian vatican, their old capital and home of their oldest churches. one, jvari, is perched way up on a hill, and is THE georgian church to see. i hired a taxi to take me up the hill, and managed to make a day out of it. he drove me further north into the mountains to visit a fortress/church ananuri. while i paid more than i wanted to, i definitely saw more of the country than i'd planned this way. we also managed to communicate quite a bit (it never ceases to amaze me how much information can be conveyed without a common language), and i had some georgian dumplings and beer outside of tbilisi. i feel like i got my money's worth. plus, he took me straigh back to my apartment. if i had been on top of it, i would have gone out to the internet, but a call home suggested, like i remembered the web site saying, that i wouldn't need a print out of my visa for the border crossing... (this is foreshadowing)
today, i woke up, packed, and the guy that i was renting the room from came and picked me up, drove me to the bus station, and made sure i was on the right marshutka to yerevan. got through the georgian border fine, and ah-hah, the guy at the armenian border asks me for my print out. luckily, 'we have internet, we have printer' and the fact that i was armenian seemed to make him happy. so i went to the back room and printed it out- it was, in fact, the first time this guy had ever seen the e-visa website. yeeeeah, you do need a print-out of your visa. i suppose i'm lucky to have made it across with my rather make-shift print-out visa (there are no graphics, its just stuffed in my passport), although considering how long i'll be here, i could have just gotten the 21-day visa. well, now i know. i'm sure the rest of the riders were annoyed with me, because i was definitely the last one through the border. but i made it to yerevan.
i was going to stay at the "envoy hostel" at least for the night, since i couldn't get a hold of my host family yesterday- but they were full. nicely, the set me up in a homestay. so i'll stay here for at least a night, and then move back to my old host family.
i have to say, it's good to be in yerevan.
and, like istanbul, its a very strange feeling to be in a city that you are familiar with, at least to a degree. its an unusual, but nice feeling. so i think i'll go enjoy a famous armenian ice cream and wander around this beautiful city...
friday afternoon, i got on a freakishly long overnight bus that i planned to have take me to hopa, the turkish side of the turkish-georgian border. then i found out the bus would take me all the way to batumi, the georgian coastal town from which i planned to take a marshutka (i think i'm spelling this right, its basically a van that serves as the best public transportation, long or short distance, in the post-soviet world) to tbilisi. well, the bus got me to the border. i took all my bags off, walked across the border (no problems), and then waited for the bus. i was literally standing next to my bus, waiting for it to slow down and park. i guess everyone else was on the bus and they didn't care about me since i hadn't paid for past hopa anyhow, because it just took off. yup, hit the main road and kept rolling as i stood next to it. after a minute or two, i shrugged my shoulders and got in a taxi to batumi.
in batumi, i got pretty much directly on the marshutka to tbilisi. once there, i made my way to the 'green stairs hostel' where i had a reservation. but alas, i was several hours after i put my reservation down for, so i was asked if i minded staying in an apartment for the same price... a little out of the way, but an apartment to myself. a-ok by me. the metro ended up being really easy, and finally, after close to 24 hours of straight travel, i passed out in my solo apartment.
i woke up sunday to get a move on and get into the metro (after a long shower and shave, ah). i made my way to the st. george armenian church, where i attended badarak. and, very exciting, i saw sayat nova's grave (sayat nova being an 18th century armenian troubador, which parajanov's 'the color of pommegranate' is about- i may have subjected some of you to this film). after church, i ate some georgian bbq, and then wandered around old town, seeing, you guessed it: georgian churches! there are many old ones throughout town, and a few old armenian churches too. as the title of the post suggests, the similarity between church architecture and other aspects of armenian and georgian Christianity is really interesting, and have left me scratching my head. i've heard the strong national lines on each side as to why they look the same, but it really is strange how similar they are. after seeing the patriarchate and the oldest church in town, i had a beer at the "hangar bar" and read: drinking georgian beer steps from the oldest church in tbilisi at tbilisi's "only irish pub." yeah, it was strange. after some internet, i metroed back to the apartment (a mild endeavor since the thing stopped one before the last stop and i had to counterintuitively get on on the other track) and had a great encounter buying things at the store on the way. speaking absoultely no georgian, it was fun to interact with the girls at the store. and also use the subway, since i don't read georgian either- basically the one stop with numbers in it was my landmark, letting me know which of two directions to get on. that, and i'd count stops to the transfer station.
monday, i found my way to one of the bus stations, and managed to find the marshutka to mtskhetka (i think i've got this right this time, it took me a few when asking for it)- this is basically the georgian vatican, their old capital and home of their oldest churches. one, jvari, is perched way up on a hill, and is THE georgian church to see. i hired a taxi to take me up the hill, and managed to make a day out of it. he drove me further north into the mountains to visit a fortress/church ananuri. while i paid more than i wanted to, i definitely saw more of the country than i'd planned this way. we also managed to communicate quite a bit (it never ceases to amaze me how much information can be conveyed without a common language), and i had some georgian dumplings and beer outside of tbilisi. i feel like i got my money's worth. plus, he took me straigh back to my apartment. if i had been on top of it, i would have gone out to the internet, but a call home suggested, like i remembered the web site saying, that i wouldn't need a print out of my visa for the border crossing... (this is foreshadowing)
today, i woke up, packed, and the guy that i was renting the room from came and picked me up, drove me to the bus station, and made sure i was on the right marshutka to yerevan. got through the georgian border fine, and ah-hah, the guy at the armenian border asks me for my print out. luckily, 'we have internet, we have printer' and the fact that i was armenian seemed to make him happy. so i went to the back room and printed it out- it was, in fact, the first time this guy had ever seen the e-visa website. yeeeeah, you do need a print-out of your visa. i suppose i'm lucky to have made it across with my rather make-shift print-out visa (there are no graphics, its just stuffed in my passport), although considering how long i'll be here, i could have just gotten the 21-day visa. well, now i know. i'm sure the rest of the riders were annoyed with me, because i was definitely the last one through the border. but i made it to yerevan.
i was going to stay at the "envoy hostel" at least for the night, since i couldn't get a hold of my host family yesterday- but they were full. nicely, the set me up in a homestay. so i'll stay here for at least a night, and then move back to my old host family.
i have to say, it's good to be in yerevan.
and, like istanbul, its a very strange feeling to be in a city that you are familiar with, at least to a degree. its an unusual, but nice feeling. so i think i'll go enjoy a famous armenian ice cream and wander around this beautiful city...
Friday, July 31, 2009
...aaaand, the rest of turkey.
so, having a travelling companion seems to make one a worse blogger than when travelling alone. now that patrick has gone home, i suppose i might blog more frequently. but then, the last week has been the most action packed, so we'll see what happens. as a result of all that has happened since ephesus and selcuk, and because i spent 3 hours in the internet cafe working on a housing application yesterday, this might be more of an overview. but then, i've said that before...
so, wednesday morning in selcuk was spent teaching a trio of lovely canadian children how to play backgammon. patrick had the two girls on his team and i had the little boy on mine. the game took forever due to an increasingly elaborate system of luck (my fault, i had one of the girls blow on the dice in the game patrick and i were playing before).
after this, we got on a bus down the coast to go to bodrum. upon arrival, we checked in at the "bodrum backpacker's" which is not, despite claims in lonely planet clean at all. most people put their stuff in the room and slept outside because of how stuffy (and gross) the room was. patrick and i went straight to the beach, which was clear and gorgeous, but full of restaurants, etc. so we found the one with couches on the beech and had a couple beers. yup, couches on the beach with beer. before going back to the hostel we had pide, which we decided was quite like the pizza that often comes from the fischer's woodburning oven. back at the hostel, we had one more drink before turning down the advances (possibly meant in multiple ways?) of our 30-year bartender who let us know that we were not experiencing the real bodrum without getting ragingly drunk on the boat club. we went to bed. i will not return to bodrum.
except for perhaps the really cool underwater archaeology museum we saw the next day. unfortunately not an aquarium, it was still great- random rooms and towers an old castle held all kinds of treasures, many from shipwrecks. maybe i'll move back to archaeology and go the underwater route, because it was really interesting. i was especially a fan of the reconstructed roman boat and the exhibit from the copper age shipwreck, man!
before going to the museum, we went up to the tomb of mausolus, who gives his name to mausoleum. being one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, we checked off (after the temple of artemis near ephesus) 2/7 in 3 days. not bad.
then, we got the hell out of bodrum. its basically a really terrible tourist/party place. while the water was beautiful, in fethiye, where we went next, the water was just as clear...
we had a relaxing evening drinking with a couple from belgium and then the owner and some of the workers at the pension on the balcony of the ideal pension (that's the name) and contemplating going on a boat trip.
well, friday morning came, and we decided the price was right for the one-night cruise on the mediterranean. we gathered provisions and set sail by 2. to give all the details of the trip would be too much. simply stated, its one of the best things i've ever done, and if patrick wasn't on the trip, i'm sure i wouldn't have decided to get on the boat. way cool. highlights:
1) bayram, one of the hostel workers who came along. a great guy and a lot of fun.
2) miabella, the 5 year old australian girl (whose parents were also lovely), that i taught to play backgammon. we also did some multiplication with the pieces in between games. this girl was a riot, although she never stopped asking questions. luckily there were 12 of us to make sure she was constantly entertained.
3) turquoise water for 24 hours.
4) a gozleme (turkish pancake) boat that came up to us at the place we let anchor for the night.
5) singing "don't think twice" with brian the australian, who is planning to bring crooning back to europe.
6) talking about homer and the odyssey while the waves of the mediterranean softly hit the boat.
7) diving over and over and over again off the front of the boat.
8) diving into the water at 1 in the morning, staring up into the perfect sky and the milky way, thinking about greek myths and the stars.
basically, it was amazing.
we let off in kas saturday afternoon and got straight on a bus for olimpos. another incredibly strange place, other than the nighttime trip to the naturally occurring constant flames that come up out of the rocks (and part of the hike up there), olimpos reminded me of summer camp. "treehouse" rooms, named dorms, camp-kitchen meals. except of course for the crazy bar/nightclub that gets going around 10. summer camp for adults? we had beer and decided to pass on the nightclub part.
sunday, once we got moving, we basically spent in transit, going further east where we slept in silifke. the hotel was nice and relaxing.
monday, we moved by minibus across the coast east of silifke. first, we visited "the chasm of heaven" and the "pit of hell" and the "asthma caves." the last being self-explanatory (a good, not a bad thing), the first two were related to greek mythology and zeus fighting a dragon of sorts. also, the river running through the area is supposed to connect to the river styx! there was an old byzantine church on the very long (and hot) walk down the chasm of heaven. it was a worthwhile stop.
next was kizkalesi, where a castle sits on an island just off the coast and looks like it is floating. if i remember how to put pictures in, there should be one right here:
from there, we got to mersin, where we hoped to go straight to cappadocia. however, we were too late, and took a bus to kayseri instead. although this time was slightly better, i really didn't want to go back there.
tuesday morning, after feeling kind of sick on the road, i woke up and threw up. patrick got me some water and then went shopping while i stayed in bed until 3. he now loves kayseri, while i had another wonderful experience there. that afternoon we made it goreme where i went straight to bed and spent the night feverish.
wednesday, patrick went to the open air museum while i continued recovering, and then we spent the rest of the day with some epic games of backgammon and another serving of manti for patrick. at 8 o'clock he got back on the bus to istanbul, and should be almost home by now. that evening, i met christian in the dorm room i moved to. studying islamic history and sociology and having a year of turkish under his belt he is definitely my german counterpart, and we had a great time the last couple days practicing turkish, wandering around goreme, and playing backgammon (i thought i'd lost my partner after patrick left!)
tonight, after resting a couple days in goreme, i get on a bus for the border between turkey and georgia. it is going to be a very long ride, but sometime tomorrow night i should be in tbilisi, geogria! i am very excited, although sad that patrick has gone- a travelling companion was really fun. and, this part is the real adventure, where i don't speak a lick of the language. i've spent a lot of today preparing, booking a hostel and printing out pages of the georgia lonely planet. here goes...!
so, wednesday morning in selcuk was spent teaching a trio of lovely canadian children how to play backgammon. patrick had the two girls on his team and i had the little boy on mine. the game took forever due to an increasingly elaborate system of luck (my fault, i had one of the girls blow on the dice in the game patrick and i were playing before).
after this, we got on a bus down the coast to go to bodrum. upon arrival, we checked in at the "bodrum backpacker's" which is not, despite claims in lonely planet clean at all. most people put their stuff in the room and slept outside because of how stuffy (and gross) the room was. patrick and i went straight to the beach, which was clear and gorgeous, but full of restaurants, etc. so we found the one with couches on the beech and had a couple beers. yup, couches on the beach with beer. before going back to the hostel we had pide, which we decided was quite like the pizza that often comes from the fischer's woodburning oven. back at the hostel, we had one more drink before turning down the advances (possibly meant in multiple ways?) of our 30-year bartender who let us know that we were not experiencing the real bodrum without getting ragingly drunk on the boat club. we went to bed. i will not return to bodrum.
except for perhaps the really cool underwater archaeology museum we saw the next day. unfortunately not an aquarium, it was still great- random rooms and towers an old castle held all kinds of treasures, many from shipwrecks. maybe i'll move back to archaeology and go the underwater route, because it was really interesting. i was especially a fan of the reconstructed roman boat and the exhibit from the copper age shipwreck, man!
before going to the museum, we went up to the tomb of mausolus, who gives his name to mausoleum. being one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, we checked off (after the temple of artemis near ephesus) 2/7 in 3 days. not bad.
then, we got the hell out of bodrum. its basically a really terrible tourist/party place. while the water was beautiful, in fethiye, where we went next, the water was just as clear...
we had a relaxing evening drinking with a couple from belgium and then the owner and some of the workers at the pension on the balcony of the ideal pension (that's the name) and contemplating going on a boat trip.
well, friday morning came, and we decided the price was right for the one-night cruise on the mediterranean. we gathered provisions and set sail by 2. to give all the details of the trip would be too much. simply stated, its one of the best things i've ever done, and if patrick wasn't on the trip, i'm sure i wouldn't have decided to get on the boat. way cool. highlights:
1) bayram, one of the hostel workers who came along. a great guy and a lot of fun.
2) miabella, the 5 year old australian girl (whose parents were also lovely), that i taught to play backgammon. we also did some multiplication with the pieces in between games. this girl was a riot, although she never stopped asking questions. luckily there were 12 of us to make sure she was constantly entertained.
3) turquoise water for 24 hours.
4) a gozleme (turkish pancake) boat that came up to us at the place we let anchor for the night.
5) singing "don't think twice" with brian the australian, who is planning to bring crooning back to europe.
6) talking about homer and the odyssey while the waves of the mediterranean softly hit the boat.
7) diving over and over and over again off the front of the boat.
8) diving into the water at 1 in the morning, staring up into the perfect sky and the milky way, thinking about greek myths and the stars.
basically, it was amazing.
we let off in kas saturday afternoon and got straight on a bus for olimpos. another incredibly strange place, other than the nighttime trip to the naturally occurring constant flames that come up out of the rocks (and part of the hike up there), olimpos reminded me of summer camp. "treehouse" rooms, named dorms, camp-kitchen meals. except of course for the crazy bar/nightclub that gets going around 10. summer camp for adults? we had beer and decided to pass on the nightclub part.
sunday, once we got moving, we basically spent in transit, going further east where we slept in silifke. the hotel was nice and relaxing.
monday, we moved by minibus across the coast east of silifke. first, we visited "the chasm of heaven" and the "pit of hell" and the "asthma caves." the last being self-explanatory (a good, not a bad thing), the first two were related to greek mythology and zeus fighting a dragon of sorts. also, the river running through the area is supposed to connect to the river styx! there was an old byzantine church on the very long (and hot) walk down the chasm of heaven. it was a worthwhile stop.
next was kizkalesi, where a castle sits on an island just off the coast and looks like it is floating. if i remember how to put pictures in, there should be one right here:
from there, we got to mersin, where we hoped to go straight to cappadocia. however, we were too late, and took a bus to kayseri instead. although this time was slightly better, i really didn't want to go back there.
tuesday morning, after feeling kind of sick on the road, i woke up and threw up. patrick got me some water and then went shopping while i stayed in bed until 3. he now loves kayseri, while i had another wonderful experience there. that afternoon we made it goreme where i went straight to bed and spent the night feverish.
wednesday, patrick went to the open air museum while i continued recovering, and then we spent the rest of the day with some epic games of backgammon and another serving of manti for patrick. at 8 o'clock he got back on the bus to istanbul, and should be almost home by now. that evening, i met christian in the dorm room i moved to. studying islamic history and sociology and having a year of turkish under his belt he is definitely my german counterpart, and we had a great time the last couple days practicing turkish, wandering around goreme, and playing backgammon (i thought i'd lost my partner after patrick left!)
tonight, after resting a couple days in goreme, i get on a bus for the border between turkey and georgia. it is going to be a very long ride, but sometime tomorrow night i should be in tbilisi, geogria! i am very excited, although sad that patrick has gone- a travelling companion was really fun. and, this part is the real adventure, where i don't speak a lick of the language. i've spent a lot of today preparing, booking a hostel and printing out pages of the georgia lonely planet. here goes...!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
le sigh, istanbul
i love istanbul. plain and simple, this is my favorite city in the world.
but first, about my quick day-trip in paris:
as i've noted, the only times i have been in western europe are on my way further east: vienna my first time to armenia, london last year to turkey, and this time: paris. so i'm getting pretty good at this game. i hopped on the train, got off a little south of notre dame, wandered around the student's district (at jess' advice, but i didn't see either of the cafes she suggested), and then went to notre dame. what a treat! patrick and i talked about the difference between churches in eastern and western Christianity after our visit to the hagia sofia, and it was so cool to see one of the most famous western churches.
after this, i was unsure of what to do, but knew i wanted to try to see the eiffel tower. as i started off the street, i noticed an ad for a boat tour on the seine. i took a look, and lo and behold it was an hour long (about the amount of time i had) and that it was about to leave. so yeah, i lucked out as usual, and managed to see a whole bunch of the city from the boat (which, we all know, i love water and boats). i even have a picture of me with the eiffel tower!
i got off the boat, bought a crepe, and got back on the train to the airport. great success!
saying this may seriously hurt my cred among certain circles, but i really enjoyed paris, and will certainly find the time to make a proper trip there.
i got back the airport and met patrick there (we were on separate flights to paris, but the same to istanbul), and we haven't looked back since.
coming back to istanbul was sheer pleasure. i feel so comfortable there, i think i looked at a map twice, and managed to do a couple new things. we stayed at a different hostel from the one i started in last year, "world house istanbul," and other than a seriously crazy flamboyantly gay man from south africa who had been working in istanbul, hated the city and found it boring (but stayed at the hostel all day long), and woke the whole 8-bed dorm up at 4 in the morning one night, we really enjoyed the place. we went out immediately upon our friday night arrival, and patrick got to see the insanity that is istikal street first hand. it really is indescribable. i got to drink efes (a very smooth, lovely beer) and raki, before eating a couple taksim burgers.
the next morning we started with fresh squeezed orange juice and simit- all the daily pleasures of istanbul i've missed.
saturday, we did a great job being tourists: we went through the grand bazzar, where we managed to buy a chess set that was more expensive than we wanted and definitely not the travel size we wanted ("this no heavy! only 2 grams!" yeeeah, right). we ate lunch in sultanhamet, which would have been reasonable if i hadn't accidently ordered a salad that was more than each of our entrees ("we're okay" apparrently equals "yes, please"). from there, we went to the spice bazzar, and have been enjoying our lokum (turkish delight) ever since. then, patrick went to the hagia sofia while i rested between the hagia sofia and blue mosque. i was (still just barely am) a tad sick, although i think it peaked that night, so a little rest was in order. after this, we went to the sultanhamet/blue mosque (for details on these buildings, you can see my last blog "istanbul is constantinople" chrissheklian.blogspot.com). from there, we crossed the golden horn back to tophane where we smoked hookah and played backgammon and used our new chess set. we were supposed to go out, but alas, the fever kept me in. all in all, i think we accomplished 3/10 top 10 instanbul list from the lonely planet on saturday.
sunday, we had a more "local" flavor day. first, we took a ferry up the golden horn to the eyup (for some reason, this turkish keyboard is set on english and i can't actually get the turkish characters...) district. i had been there before with nicole, but hadn't been the mosque built around the tomb of the standardbearer of the prophet and, according to lonely planet, the "4th holiest site in islam after the 'big three.'" it was a beautiful mosque, and a cool time to visit, because this is where all the boys visit on their circumcision day, all dressed up in white with a little crown and scepter. taking the ferry all the down the horn and then across the bosphorus to the asian side, i managed to find the really yummy yoghurt place nicole had taken me one time. we took the bus up the asian side, ate yoghurt, and then went back to rest. later that night, we went out with a handful of other people from the hostel, including a friend of someone from the hostel who is a berkeley student. go bears! it was a great crew, we all had an appropriate amount to drink, and we finished the night with taksim burgers. did i mention i love istanbul?
after an understandably slow start, on monday we made our way to the ottoman topkapi palace. i had been there before, but not to the treasury or the harem, both of which really make the site 20x better so i'm really glad i did it! the treasury is really beyond belief. i'm trying to figure out how i can start drinking my beer from a crystal stein studded with emeralds. oh yeah, before that, we had tea at one of the tea gardens on the bosphorus outside of the palace, which i had read about, but never visited. the view was beautiful, but a freaking cat jumped up and stole my tost! and i was just beginning to give cats the benefit of the doubt. i don't think he realizes what damage he did for my image of his entire species... anyhow, after the palace we went back to beyoglu, where we went to a comic book shop. i cannot find any tarkan comics! i bought some other turkish comics, but i'm beginning to think these are million dollar collectors items. hopefully i'll find some before i return, otherwise my turkish pop collection might be stillborn. from there, we relaxed around the hostel until our 9 o'clock servis bus to the bus station. well, it got there at 9:45 and let me tell you, we only kept our 10 o'clock bus to selcuk waiting about 5 minutes. that was an e-ticket ride i don't think i'd want to repeat.
we arrived in selcuk this morning around 8 after an all night bus ride, and went to ephesus. you can read about my impressions of ephesus from last year, since this post is (as usual) already reaching massive status. it really is an amazing site, one of the largest extant classical sites anywhere. its a real treat. i took a nap while patrick went to the museum, and now its about dinner time at "homeros" pension, where i stayed last year. they are just wonderful!
so, other than the little bit of being sick, so far so good! i'm looking forward to going south to bodrum tomorrow, because we're entering a part of the country i haven't been yet! and, well, the next few days are going to be spent on beaches on the med.
but first, about my quick day-trip in paris:
as i've noted, the only times i have been in western europe are on my way further east: vienna my first time to armenia, london last year to turkey, and this time: paris. so i'm getting pretty good at this game. i hopped on the train, got off a little south of notre dame, wandered around the student's district (at jess' advice, but i didn't see either of the cafes she suggested), and then went to notre dame. what a treat! patrick and i talked about the difference between churches in eastern and western Christianity after our visit to the hagia sofia, and it was so cool to see one of the most famous western churches.
after this, i was unsure of what to do, but knew i wanted to try to see the eiffel tower. as i started off the street, i noticed an ad for a boat tour on the seine. i took a look, and lo and behold it was an hour long (about the amount of time i had) and that it was about to leave. so yeah, i lucked out as usual, and managed to see a whole bunch of the city from the boat (which, we all know, i love water and boats). i even have a picture of me with the eiffel tower!
i got off the boat, bought a crepe, and got back on the train to the airport. great success!
saying this may seriously hurt my cred among certain circles, but i really enjoyed paris, and will certainly find the time to make a proper trip there.
i got back the airport and met patrick there (we were on separate flights to paris, but the same to istanbul), and we haven't looked back since.
coming back to istanbul was sheer pleasure. i feel so comfortable there, i think i looked at a map twice, and managed to do a couple new things. we stayed at a different hostel from the one i started in last year, "world house istanbul," and other than a seriously crazy flamboyantly gay man from south africa who had been working in istanbul, hated the city and found it boring (but stayed at the hostel all day long), and woke the whole 8-bed dorm up at 4 in the morning one night, we really enjoyed the place. we went out immediately upon our friday night arrival, and patrick got to see the insanity that is istikal street first hand. it really is indescribable. i got to drink efes (a very smooth, lovely beer) and raki, before eating a couple taksim burgers.
the next morning we started with fresh squeezed orange juice and simit- all the daily pleasures of istanbul i've missed.
saturday, we did a great job being tourists: we went through the grand bazzar, where we managed to buy a chess set that was more expensive than we wanted and definitely not the travel size we wanted ("this no heavy! only 2 grams!" yeeeah, right). we ate lunch in sultanhamet, which would have been reasonable if i hadn't accidently ordered a salad that was more than each of our entrees ("we're okay" apparrently equals "yes, please"). from there, we went to the spice bazzar, and have been enjoying our lokum (turkish delight) ever since. then, patrick went to the hagia sofia while i rested between the hagia sofia and blue mosque. i was (still just barely am) a tad sick, although i think it peaked that night, so a little rest was in order. after this, we went to the sultanhamet/blue mosque (for details on these buildings, you can see my last blog "istanbul is constantinople" chrissheklian.blogspot.com). from there, we crossed the golden horn back to tophane where we smoked hookah and played backgammon and used our new chess set. we were supposed to go out, but alas, the fever kept me in. all in all, i think we accomplished 3/10 top 10 instanbul list from the lonely planet on saturday.
sunday, we had a more "local" flavor day. first, we took a ferry up the golden horn to the eyup (for some reason, this turkish keyboard is set on english and i can't actually get the turkish characters...) district. i had been there before with nicole, but hadn't been the mosque built around the tomb of the standardbearer of the prophet and, according to lonely planet, the "4th holiest site in islam after the 'big three.'" it was a beautiful mosque, and a cool time to visit, because this is where all the boys visit on their circumcision day, all dressed up in white with a little crown and scepter. taking the ferry all the down the horn and then across the bosphorus to the asian side, i managed to find the really yummy yoghurt place nicole had taken me one time. we took the bus up the asian side, ate yoghurt, and then went back to rest. later that night, we went out with a handful of other people from the hostel, including a friend of someone from the hostel who is a berkeley student. go bears! it was a great crew, we all had an appropriate amount to drink, and we finished the night with taksim burgers. did i mention i love istanbul?
after an understandably slow start, on monday we made our way to the ottoman topkapi palace. i had been there before, but not to the treasury or the harem, both of which really make the site 20x better so i'm really glad i did it! the treasury is really beyond belief. i'm trying to figure out how i can start drinking my beer from a crystal stein studded with emeralds. oh yeah, before that, we had tea at one of the tea gardens on the bosphorus outside of the palace, which i had read about, but never visited. the view was beautiful, but a freaking cat jumped up and stole my tost! and i was just beginning to give cats the benefit of the doubt. i don't think he realizes what damage he did for my image of his entire species... anyhow, after the palace we went back to beyoglu, where we went to a comic book shop. i cannot find any tarkan comics! i bought some other turkish comics, but i'm beginning to think these are million dollar collectors items. hopefully i'll find some before i return, otherwise my turkish pop collection might be stillborn. from there, we relaxed around the hostel until our 9 o'clock servis bus to the bus station. well, it got there at 9:45 and let me tell you, we only kept our 10 o'clock bus to selcuk waiting about 5 minutes. that was an e-ticket ride i don't think i'd want to repeat.
we arrived in selcuk this morning around 8 after an all night bus ride, and went to ephesus. you can read about my impressions of ephesus from last year, since this post is (as usual) already reaching massive status. it really is an amazing site, one of the largest extant classical sites anywhere. its a real treat. i took a nap while patrick went to the museum, and now its about dinner time at "homeros" pension, where i stayed last year. they are just wonderful!
so, other than the little bit of being sick, so far so good! i'm looking forward to going south to bodrum tomorrow, because we're entering a part of the country i haven't been yet! and, well, the next few days are going to be spent on beaches on the med.
Monday, July 13, 2009
preparations
"you're going there again!?!" is the usual response to this summer's travel plans: turkey, through georgia, a month in armenia, and back again- approximately 6 weeks.
so, while i avoid more substantial preparations (laundry, buying toothpaste, figuring out where i'm staying in armenia), allow me to introduce the basic plan and some background information.
first, why turkey?
well, i love it. i fell in love with the country, especially istanbul, during last year's amazing 2 month trip. and i didn't see the half of it. in fact, i didn't even go to the mediterranean last time, so i plan many sunny beach days this time around.
also, it's going to be about the same amount of money to fly into istanbul and trek across the country as it is to fly direct to yerevan. so, hey, i'll practice the turkish i spent all year studying.
following my cousin arden and his j-pop craze, i'm planning on starting a turkish pop collection: in particular the comics and movies of tarkan: grand bazzar, here i come!
and my good friend patrick will be accompanying me for this two week portion of the journey, which will add both company and adventure.
the flight is 3 days away, and i can't wait!
while saying "i haven't been to armenia since 2006" may sound a little privileged (and it is), a lot can (and has) change(d) in three years- especially for a country that hasn't even seen 20 years of independence and especially viewed from an anthropological perspective.
to be honest, i'm not quite sure exactly what i'll be doing in armenia. the technical jargon is "exploratory fieldwork," which is to say, i hope to come back with a better idea about a site and topic for my phd dissertation. i want to spend less time in yerevan than i did in 2006, hopefully staying in gyumri for a week or so with the help of birthright.
one possible project looks at the burgeoning presence of charismatic Christians in armenia, and how their interactions with citizens and the national, apostolic church illuminates the uneasy relationship between church, nation, and state in armenia. so, the "exploratory research" would need to get me out into villages and see what is actually happening: where there are pentecostal, etc. churches, what etchmiadzin's response is, and what peoples' responses are.
another project concerns required military service and citizenship. armenia has recently passed a dual-citizenship law, but for those armenians of the diaspora under 28, military service is required for citizenship. israel has a similar rule (i'm not an expert here), but there is a service component that many israelis by birth and diasporans alike take advantage of. the category of "citizen" has been a recent interest of mine, and according to one of my professors the military service/substantial diaspora population connection hasn't really been interrogated.
basically, i'm going to keep my eyes open, and try to see with the new lenses i've gained since 2006.
but georgia!? really?!
yup. its fine, its safe (i'm not walking into the disputed regions, i'm taking a train to the capital from an important port city), and tbilisi was the center for eastern armenian culture in the 18th century (sayat nova being the best example of this). i don't plan to spend more than a day or two in tbilsi, and perhaps a day in the armenian populated portion of javakh, but i'm really looking forward to this.
it is, after all, the only real way to go overland from turkey to armenia since the direct border is closed. (i can't wait until the kars-gyumri railroad opens up)
so there it is. i love anthropology and the ability to travel for work and research. it truly is a privelege being able to learn more and more about the region that i have fallen in love with and that forms the background and history of so much of who i am today. so, for those of you who will be coming with me again via blog, thanks for the love and support!
now, off to some real preparations.
so, while i avoid more substantial preparations (laundry, buying toothpaste, figuring out where i'm staying in armenia), allow me to introduce the basic plan and some background information.
first, why turkey?
well, i love it. i fell in love with the country, especially istanbul, during last year's amazing 2 month trip. and i didn't see the half of it. in fact, i didn't even go to the mediterranean last time, so i plan many sunny beach days this time around.
also, it's going to be about the same amount of money to fly into istanbul and trek across the country as it is to fly direct to yerevan. so, hey, i'll practice the turkish i spent all year studying.
following my cousin arden and his j-pop craze, i'm planning on starting a turkish pop collection: in particular the comics and movies of tarkan: grand bazzar, here i come!
and my good friend patrick will be accompanying me for this two week portion of the journey, which will add both company and adventure.
the flight is 3 days away, and i can't wait!
while saying "i haven't been to armenia since 2006" may sound a little privileged (and it is), a lot can (and has) change(d) in three years- especially for a country that hasn't even seen 20 years of independence and especially viewed from an anthropological perspective.
to be honest, i'm not quite sure exactly what i'll be doing in armenia. the technical jargon is "exploratory fieldwork," which is to say, i hope to come back with a better idea about a site and topic for my phd dissertation. i want to spend less time in yerevan than i did in 2006, hopefully staying in gyumri for a week or so with the help of birthright.
one possible project looks at the burgeoning presence of charismatic Christians in armenia, and how their interactions with citizens and the national, apostolic church illuminates the uneasy relationship between church, nation, and state in armenia. so, the "exploratory research" would need to get me out into villages and see what is actually happening: where there are pentecostal, etc. churches, what etchmiadzin's response is, and what peoples' responses are.
another project concerns required military service and citizenship. armenia has recently passed a dual-citizenship law, but for those armenians of the diaspora under 28, military service is required for citizenship. israel has a similar rule (i'm not an expert here), but there is a service component that many israelis by birth and diasporans alike take advantage of. the category of "citizen" has been a recent interest of mine, and according to one of my professors the military service/substantial diaspora population connection hasn't really been interrogated.
basically, i'm going to keep my eyes open, and try to see with the new lenses i've gained since 2006.
but georgia!? really?!
yup. its fine, its safe (i'm not walking into the disputed regions, i'm taking a train to the capital from an important port city), and tbilisi was the center for eastern armenian culture in the 18th century (sayat nova being the best example of this). i don't plan to spend more than a day or two in tbilsi, and perhaps a day in the armenian populated portion of javakh, but i'm really looking forward to this.
it is, after all, the only real way to go overland from turkey to armenia since the direct border is closed. (i can't wait until the kars-gyumri railroad opens up)
so there it is. i love anthropology and the ability to travel for work and research. it truly is a privelege being able to learn more and more about the region that i have fallen in love with and that forms the background and history of so much of who i am today. so, for those of you who will be coming with me again via blog, thanks for the love and support!
now, off to some real preparations.
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