We have finally returned to our home away from home in Istanbul! As nice as Ephesus and Izmir were, not getting back to our hotel until 1 am definitely took the energy out of us. The bus ride from the airport to the hotel may have involved some tears and laughs of exhaustion…….or delirium….that matter is still up for debate.
Luckily for us though, our wonderful professor let us sleep in today and then later explore the city on our own. Personally I think some of us enjoyed the sleeping in more than the exploring. Like I said, flying in late can really take the steam out of you. Those of us that did explore the city had a wonderful time actually finding our own way to many of the sites we had either heard about or seen. Gone were the confused looking tourist and in their place were confident world travelers! Some people went to the Grand Bazaar for last minute shopping, some went to nearby mosques, and some just merely wandered. I personally had the pleasure of getting lost on the way to the Egyptian Spice Bazaar and wandering onto what seemed like a government compound. The police at the entrance understood that we were simply just confused tourist and didn’t arrest us. Not exactly something on our to do list in Turkey. Regardless, everyone seemed to really enjoy the down time today.
In the early evening the class came together to have a concluding session on our time in Turkey. After experiencing so many wonderful parts of the Turkish culture and history, it was really nice to finally come together as a large group to discuss everything. Most of the class agreed on the idea that Turkey truly is a torn country with one foot stuck in Asia and Islam while the other is stuck in Europe and modernization.
Until next time!