Istanbul, Constantinople

Whew. It's been a long week. Istanbul was long in the sense that it was jammed pack with activities, but little did I know I would be coming home with an incredible amount of class work. The study of study abroad is kickin' in. (I guess it's about time?) Anyway, with the business of everything going on I am just now able to upload more Istanbul photos!

 Enjoy looking through the rest of my Istanbul Day One adventures!

Istanbul is STEEP. They have an underground trolly that is specifically
there to help those go a half mile up this road.

Graffiti? Outside of Copenhagen? No...

I've never appreciated the cleanliness of Copenhagen until having taken public transportation of Istanbul.

After visiting the Hagia Sophia, we made a trip over to the Topkapi Palace. It was the official and primary home of the Ottoman Sultans from 1465 to 1853, housing up to 4000 people. It is simply beautiful, made up of four main courtyards and smaller buildings that overlook the water with a view of Asia in the distance.

DIS treats us like kings and queens. See this view below? That was the view from our first dinner in Istanbul on the seventh floor of a hotel. You could look out and see the entire city. Fun fact: We were eating one of our 7 courses when there was a 4.5 earthquake, causing the entire building to sway back and forth. Terrifying? Yes.

Holler: Hagia Sophia

Our first full day in Turkey was complete with tourist events. Kyra, our personal tour guide for the week, took us to start the morning at the Hagia Sophia, a church that was built by the Byzantine Empire around 320 AD. It has been a Christian place of worship for almost a thousand years, then converted into a mosque for nearly 500 years and since 1935 has been a museum for us all. The structure is remarkable; full of mosaics from the Christian period and Ottoman era as well. I marveled over that fact that it was built in simply 5 years without any of the tools we have today. Take a look.

After touring and dropping our jaws in Hagia Sophia, I ventured with a few friends to find lunch. Very quickly we were overwhelmed with the different culture. Finding a restaurant is stressful as it is in foreign land, but when there are men outside every story reaching out and shouting, "I love you. Best friend, come in. Hungry? Come here, beautiful," you can barely think straight. Luckily we finally settled on a spot and ate more meat than we could handle. Little did we know that this was only the beginning of eating meat, meat, and more meat all week long.

Blue Mosque casually behind us

Trolly back!

And then I took photos of the Hagia Sophia at night...all locked up with only homeless cats and dogs running around through, along with a guard...

Turkey Take One

I don't even know where to begin when describing my trip to Turkey. It was absolutely amazing. I have never been that far east and I can promise you, I have never been in an environment like this before. Upon arrival it was obvious that I was in a different world. There were buildings around me that were over 1500 years old, and the buildings that were considered "new" to the city were existing before America was even founded. It was also quick to see that when the books say there are 15 million people in the city, they aren't kidding  around. The streets were packed and filled with life. With the windows to my fourth floor room open I could hear American Pop, such as the Spice Girls, and people's voices blaring from the streets. It was clear from the first night that my trip to Istanbul would be a trip to remember, and that it was. Without fail, I have plenty of pictures to share and can't do it all in one posting, so over the next few days I'll be adding more and more snapshots of my Turkish experience; starting with only a few photos from the first night. More (and better) pictures to come shortly, promise.

Clair, Becca, and I spent a full hour and a half giving ourselves make overs in the airport before take off.

After a 3 hour flight, we made it to Istanbul on a happin' Saturday night and off we went to find an ATM for some Turkish dollars, the lyra.  

You can't drink the water in Turkey, so we went on a water bottle hunt PRONTO. Water = necessary.

Along with water, the small convenient store had hundreds and hundreds of nuts. Oh, and Turkish tea. Holler.

Four Lakes of Copenhagen

Anne Randolph has been asking me where the Four Lakes of Copenhagen are for the past few weeks and after attempting to point her in the right direction (instead leading her the opposite), we decided to go adventure after class with two of our friends, Zach and Chris. The four lakes are simply four lakes on the outskirts of the city that are known great for jogging around or reading by on a sunny day. 

During my first week in Copenhagen, my Danish class went to dinner right near the Four Lakes. When  I was walking back to the train station and you could see a double rainbow above the water. Probably the prettiest view I have seen of the city thus far. That was also the day I learned to always carry my camera with me. Here is what my phone captured:

Hojskole Casino Night

If you haven't already heard, I am living in the Grundtsvig Folkhosjkole. (To show off a bit of my danishness: Jeg bor pa Grundtsvig Folkhosjkole i Hillerod). Danes grow up working hard in gymnasium (what we call high school in the US) in order to make the grades to enter a good university. However, most usually take at least one gap year before going back to school. Some travel or stay at home, but another option is to go to a hosjkole. Here, they take at least 25 hours of classes a week, but don't get grades or have homework....which means a party of fun all of the time! As American students, we get to live here with all 55 Danes (including some other students from Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Iceland, and even Japan), make great friends, have meals together, play fooseball every night, and really immerse with the different culture. I couldn't ask for a better arrangement. Here are some pictures from the "Casino Party" that they put together last night. They decorated the entire area, set up poker tables, and gave out monopoly money for us to gamble as jazz was playing in the background. 

Keepin' it Classy in Copenhagen.

Now here come the solo personal shots...My favorite

Julie's signature pose! :)

My attempt to be Danish

Met my loves: Freydis from Iceland and Isabella from Jutland, DK

Heddie, the only lucky fellow to be captured throughout the evening