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.