IeSrTaAsNmBuUsL (erasmus in ISTANBUL)

"My life is sooo boring...

2009-12-07T20:27:00.018+01:00

And that's why I haven't posted anything for over a month!" is what I would have said to anybody asking why, as said I haven't posted in over a month. But it's not the case! In fact I was just incredibly busy/lazy/sleeping/traveling/forgetting I have a blog/and so on/ and so on.

So here is what happened in the past weeks.

Week-end in Athens! (13-16 November)

The lovely tiny greek girl that is our flatmate invited us to join her on her trip to her country! After having nearly missed our flight on friday morning we (Jochen, Vassia and me) arrived at Vassia's Brother's place. We found out about a new similarity that Turcs and Greeks share: sense of hospitality!

So we did some sightseeing, watched a M. C. Escher exhibition and had lots of good food!

Olympic stadium (the old one)

An Old temple (Zeus)

The Acropolis

The view from the Acropolis

Ouzo (The local Rakı)

From the top of Lycabettus Hill

5-day trip to the East! (27-29 November)

After having been ill for some days (nothing serious), and a mid term exam on Wednesday (nothing serious, got 90%) we (Jochen and me) left, or at least were supposed to leave on thursday, november 27th at 10 am. Our plan was to spend half a day in Kars then to go to Georgia and to Trabzon, in Turkey from where we would have come back to Istanbul by bus on Sunday night. Unfortunately, our flight from Istanbul to Kars was 6 hours late.

Time that we had to spend in the only place equipped with seat in the Sabiha Gökçen airport, Burger King! So we arrived in Kars in the early evening and after a very expensive (without sarcasm) cab-ride we arrive "downtown". We then went straight to a bus agency to check when buses to Georgia were leaving on friday... The answer was a bit annoying: there were none because of the holiday. We found a quite cheap and warm hotel, the temperature outside being close to -10°C.

On the next day spent half the day sightseeing, which means walking to the castle (closed because of the holiday) and having a look at an old armenian church.

the view from the Castle

Blood!!

Finally on saturday we managed to leave Kars. Neither to Georgia as initially planned because there were still no buses, nor to Hopa at the Georgia which was our backup plan. To stick with our plan to be back on monday noon we had to head to Trabzon at the black sea, passing through Erzurum. Even if we were a bit upset not being able to carry out our plan, we really enjoyed this bus trip.

On the bus from Kars to Erzurum

Erzurum

10 ours later we arrived in Trabzon and immediately purchased ticket for the bus on the next day (sunday) at 6 in the evening. On sunday we enjoyed the mild temperatures and the stunning view from Atatürk's Mansion.

Trabzon

Atatürk's Mansion

After an 18-hour bus trip we arrived back home and I still had some time to study for my exam!

2009-10-18T21:39:00.013+02:00

As some people reminded me, I am a lazy ass. I know that, thanks. So here comes some pictures and information about what happened the last 2 weeks.

Saturday, October 10th: We spent the afternoon at the Istanbul Modern. Quiet interesting stuff in there but no pictures I shot myself right now, as I only took my eos 5 film camera (the shown pictures have been taken by Svenja with Jochen's camera).

Sunday, October 11th: The initial plan was to go to Dolmabahçe Palace. Unfurtonately, we arrived too late and it was already closed so we took a walk through Beşiktaş and bought a second hand couch for the flat.

Our local booze shop

cheapest Lahmacun ever

There is forest in Istanbul

One of many ferries that can take you along and across the Bosphorus.

Our new friend

Monday, October 12th: Tibor, Jochen's best friend came to visit him for the week so we went to Princes' Islands in the late afternoon. My camera's battery went empty when arriving on the island so I have only pictures from the trip, though I took sOur new friendome pictures with my AE-1.

Saturday, October 17th: With some of my friends we went do some sightseeing in Istanbul's western districts. The area was quite interesting though we again arrived quite late there so didn't see lots of monuments but found a very good place to eat Tavuk Dürüm.

In the evening, we went with the jolly packed with lots of great people to the Bosphorus to hang around, enjoy the view and a beer. At 1:30 am we enjoyed a nice "Midnight Bath". Water wasn't too cold and surprisingly clean!

Full of muscle

Well that's it! Since it might interest you, my courses are nice and thanks to the insa I will enjoy one more than initially planned but it's ok. My campus has a brand new swimming pool and I use it at least twice a week. It is a convinient way to do sport in a city where fresh air is rare!

The most south-eastern I have ever been!!

2009-10-05T22:50:00.015+02:00

Istanbul - Kozan - Istanbul

According to google maps, the trip is 994 km long and should last 11:23 h. A very long trip for just one week end. But what google didn't know (yep that happens sometimes) is that our car, the Jolly, could not drive faster than 110 km/h and would have some some serious cooling system issues something like 60km before Ankara.

first things first. What is the origin of this trip. in the "Erasmus flat" next to ours live a Turkish guy, Gökhan, has a cousin who got married and the party was on October 3rd. When he told us about it, me and Jochen asked him if we could come, as a joke. He immediately called his cousin and told us it was ok. We didn't know if he was serious about it until last wednesday when he called me to know if we were still in. The wedding turned out to be in Kozan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozan,_Adana).
We were 10 people riding Gökhan's jolly through half turkey (3 of my flatmates: Jochen, Svenja and Vassia; 2 other german friends: Lars and Frederike; 2 spanish friends: Patricia and David; Gökhan's sister and me). Leaving Istanbul at 9am on Friday we were due to arrive in the morning in Kozan.

The jolly

Crossing the Bosphorus

But then, in the middle of the night it happended!
While David was driving something like 60km before hitting Ankara, the engine's temperature was starting to be quite high so we had to stop... It was something like 2pm, we didn't know what was wrong with the Jolly and if a kind truck-driver hadn't stopped to help us we would maybe not have come further east this week end! Well... it took more than 4 hours between the first time we had to halt on the side of the highway and moment we could continue our trip and it was like very cold this night but everything was fine again!

the sun rising somewhere before or after Ankara

The trip went on without further problems. We made a stop at the Tuz Gölü, a huge salt lake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuz_G%C3%B6l%C3%BC). Quite an amazing landscape and some fresh air after 2 weeks in Istanbul's smog. sweet!

We arrived in Kozan in the late afternoon. The wedding starting around 8pm, we had enough time to enjoy the only thing that could help us to recover from such a trip: the Hamam!! a great experience, but no pictures! haha
After the hamam We enjoyed some of the food Gökhan's mother had made for us. great food!!

Then came the time for the wedding. No big dinner for this occasion but a lot of dancing, a very good mood and a 10-storie cake. We felt a bit like the stranger but everybody was so nice that it didn't take long for us to feel quite comfortable! we really enjoy this moment, even if there was no alcool ;-). sadly, the party stopped at 11.30pm...

After The wedding we headed to a lake nearby to enjoy a couple of open air beers then slept outside cowboy-style beside our proud jolly! On the next day we enjoyed the nice view and drove to Adana to enjoy the famous Adana Kebap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adana_kebap) then to the sea side, 200km further south, somewhere close to Mersin.

After swimming in the still quite warm mediterranean we drove through Tarsus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarsus_(city)) and could see the ancient road and drank some weird red carrot juice! Well, that brings us to Sunday afternoon! time to go home! No problems with the jolly this time. But a very bright moon showed us the way. We arrived on Monday morning at 5. Everybody tired, but no one regretting having spent two nights in a van and one night in the wild!...

At Home

2009-09-28T09:22:00.002+02:00

I found place to live in last Tuesday and I moved in last Wednesday. That is the view I enjoy everyday with my flatmates. I share the flat with 5 other people and the neighbours are also mainly Erasmus students! I also learned what hospitality means in this country, when the family that lives in the flat next to ours invited us all to have Turkish coffee yesterday!

The neighbourhood we live in is called Kustepe, which means "Bird Hill". No pictures from the inside of the flat now as it still is quite empty but as soon as it get more lively you will get some.

First Night in Istanbul

2009-09-21T17:52:00.006+02:00

Well, finally I manage to upload some picture. They are in reverse order but I can't do better right now. The small boat is where I got my fish sandwich. The rest is between Sultanahmet and the Galata tower.
Today I slept late then spent the afternoon walking through the city. Picures about that later

The One with 3 flights within 4 days

2009-09-20T10:28:00.007+02:00

I am at the airport in Budapest and found a bit of Wifi and have an our before my plane boards so I can tell you about what I remember of my 12 our transfer in the uk and my 2-day stay in Budapest.

Basel - London
As you know I left Basel (very cloudy, as youn can see on the picuture) on Thursday afternoon and landed in London Stansted after a bit more than an hour. After a couple of Ales in several pubs and an interesting chicken pie, it was time for bed cause we had to get up at 5:30 on Friday...

London - Budapest
That is what I remember of the road from Smallford to Luton
Budapest
When I arrived (like an hour late) it was like 10°C warmer than when I left Bartenheim on thurday! I followed Martins instruction and somehow managed to find him as well as Benjamin, Romain and Samuel!
We had some local (chinese) food then walked randomly through the city to find a place to drink some coffee, which we didn't! A fresh beer was a better choice for such a warm late summer afternoon. Then the usual: cooking pasta, meeting other erasmus guys at Martin and Romain's place then going to the "Living room", A noisy bar/club. A nice night out with lots of fun and stories I cannot tell about here!

On Saturday, we spent the afternoon at the Gellert hotel baths which is like the best thing if you have a massive hangover.( photos will come later they are still on the camera).

Well, I board in 10 minutes. More news/pictures later!!... and from Istanbul

Prologue

2009-09-16T21:40:00.010+02:00

Introduction
Well, this is my blog. Didn't have one when I was 14 so I use this particular moment to be modern and cool. I will try to give you lots of news about me during my trip to Istanbul. As you may know, I go there to study civil engineering. Building and stuff, you know.
This will be my last semester of courses and I will not lie straight into your eye, I hope I will not have to study too hard. Of course I really like the stuff I study I enjoy learning funny engineer things but to me this trip is more about meeting a new country, new people and a new Continent!... Asia man!! yeah! Maybe I will party a bit (haha), too, who knows!
This is the first time I write a Blog so I am not quite used to all the crap it involves. I will do my best to keep it up to date!

Language
As I hope to be read by a broad selection on very cool people throughout the world, I will start to write in the most universal language I know, so far. Sorry bros, I don't mean Elsassisch... I think I will do most of my posts in English. However, now and then I might feel lazy and post in another language, or not at all!

Pictures

On my trip, 3 of my close friends will be on my side. Of course, I mean cameras. why 3? well... f...k you!

The first in order of age, but the last I bought is a canon AE-1 program (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_AE-1_Program). I used to own one of these for a couple of year but dramatically (stupidly would some say) lost it in York (uk) as some of you may know. Some weeks ago I puchased a new (used) one thanks to my brother. I know I still owe you 20€. I like this camera because it's the one I learned to take photographs with and it's easy to use and very handy. I use it with the original 50 mm lens. The tele has to stay at home for now because my luggage is allready too heavy.
The Second one is a canon eos 5 film camera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_EOS_5). It's a semi-profesionnal film camera from the 90s. quite tough and reasonnably easy to use (like, eeh, even drunk). It's a very cool thing and less bulky than the eos 50D.
Something weird happened last July... I bought a canon eos 50D (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_EOS_50D). As you probably know, the D means I am weak naughty-naughty slave of progress and I should be stoned and slaped in the face with a rolleiflex (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolleiflex). Well, luckily for you, the D also means I will be able to put some pictures online! nice eh?!

The day after two days before I take off

Ok. Here I am. That is officially the first Post. Tomorrow, at 15:45 my plane will take off from the Euroairport Basel-Mulhouse for what is a quite twisted start for my trip. In fact, I fly to London(STN). "What the fuck", must you be wondering. again: f...k you! I promised to some cock-heads in Budapest that I would visit them on my way to Turkey. With my known talent for planning stuff loooong in advance I failed in my plans to do all that by train like in the old Orient-Express times. Instead, like a 2010 low-cost-airline-using bastard, I fly from basel to Budapest with a stop in London where I will see my brother who I haven't seen in a loooooooong time (Monday Sept. 14).
So, that it for tonight. No pictures now, the photo stuff is allready in the bag.
I miss most of you ;-)
More later!