‘Turkey: At the Crossroads’ CategoryPage 2
January 15 in Istanbul by Mandy
Today was, once again, a beautiful day in Istanbul. First, our tour guide Ender (the man, the myth, the legend) took us to Dolmabahce Palace, which was mind-boggling. It was built in 1856 and, surprisingly, Mimar Sinan was not the master architect. After Sultan Selim III was murdered in Topkapi Palace, the move to this […]
Blackout in Istanbul
Today it started out drizzling lightly as we walked to Little Hagia Sophia (not to be confused with Hagia Sophia). However upon arriving there, we realized that the mosque was closed. On the way there we had heard what we thought was a call to prayer, but it was actually an announcement of a death […]
Gusties in Istanbul…
Dear parents and those of you following our adventure in Turkey, Here are some group pictures from Istanbul… First night in Istanbul – II
Friday the thirteenth!
We started out the morning with breakfast in the hotel restaurant at 8am, and met upstairs at 9am to begin our daily tour. We began walking through the steets and after about 5 minutes arrived at the Topkapi Palace. Just to interject, I think it’s great that everything is in such close walking distance from […]
Journey to Old Town Istanbul
As the title of this blog entry might suggest our first full day in Turkey was spent in Old Town Istanbul, and therefore, was historically based. As a history buff, I knew that I was going to thoroughly enjoy learning the history of each destination on the schedule for today, but to say that I […]
The Journey: MSP > ORD > IST (…Finally!)
Fresh bread. Hotel room. Downtown to the left. Suburbs to the right. Merhaba, or hello from Istanbul! We have finally arrived at our destination. Before I discuss Istanbul itself, let me retrace our steps to our departure from the United States. On 10 January, 2012 at 12:00 we departed from Gustavus for Minneapolis St. Paul […]
January 9th, POL-155
Well, the most surreal day of our Turkey trip is finally here: the final hours before departure. After a week of preparation in background on Turkish history, popular culture, controversies, and role in global affairs, it is time to be guests in the wonderful city of Istanbul. On this last day of class on-campus, it […]
Turkey Adventures, Day 4
We began the fourth day of class by discussing different “house keeping items” and questions that have started to pop up as we get closer to the departure date. Things such as expected weather, money conversions, hotel rooming arrangements, and such were just a few of the many topics discussed. Unfortunately for us, the weather […]
Turkey: At the Crossroads of East, West, North and South, January 5 – On Campus Class
Today in our class discussion we talked about the massacre of the Armenian population in Turkey during the first World War along with the Kurdish minority in Turkey and it’s terrorist organization the PKK(Kurdistan Workers’ Party). On the Armenian massacre or “genocide” topic we discussed the two differing views that the Turkish and the Armenian […]
Day 2
Day 2, Gustavus Campus We began the second day of class by reviewing the assigned readings on political Islam. The class discussed the line between the public and private sphere which we all concluded was very blurry. In Turkey, which since 1923 has had a secular government, religion is considered a private affair and thus […]