All things Dutch

As I announced I am done with my masters!! Well...to be technical, I just finished the thesis and report I was required to submit, still have to work until the end of my internship contract at Deltares. I am now on summer vacation and arrived in Encinitas late the other day. Still jetlagged and waking up at 6 am, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. ^_^ In any event now I have time to sit and write about what I have been up too. This will be the first of two blogposts.

First to the activities/excursions in the Netherlands...

 Kinderdijk

In April managed to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Kinderdijk, which is a village in Molenwaard (Molen meaning windmill) outside of Rotterdam. In order to drain a polder (low-lying tract of land enclosed by dikes, often land reclaimed from the sea or river) a system of 19 windmills was built around 1740 and also happens to be the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands.

Liberation Day Festival (Bevrijdingsdags)

Just like last year I went to Waginingen on May 5 to celebrate the day WWII ended in the Netherlands. This year was a bit sunnier, but there the headlining bands in the main city square were not as good. Instead we milled around to the various music stands, got scammed to pay extra for meat in our Döners and enjoyed one of the only nice spring days.

Pinkpop

This was the longest running music festival in the world (since 1970) usually held over Pentacost weekend (Pinksteren in Dutch). We arrived on a Friday, set up our tent in the sea of other tents and got the grounds in time to see The Script and The Killers. Saturday we had a lazy start to the day, walked the supposed "500 m" to a grocery which turned into 1.5 km, made a BBQ lunch/dinner and went off to see Elle Goulding and Phoenix. Sunday was a big in terms of bands my friends and I wanted to see, so we packed up all our stuff and went to see Kensington, Tom Odell, Bastille, Lianne La Havas, Ben Howard and Alt-J. My favourites of the weekend ended up being the Killers (duh!), Ben Howard (pretty good concert for chill music), Elle Goulding (yay girls!) and Bastille (so awesome, loved the drums!). All in all it was nice weekend for music, camping and relaxing but not for our wallets since everything was so expensive therefore I decided to spend the money on food and not on lots of beer.

Irish Dancing

As many of you know I went back to Irish Dancing and joined a small school based in the Hague. They hold both children and adult classes in Dutch or English, which is perfect. I have come to really enjoy it again and like the fact that there is not as intense or pressure to compete. We do get to take part in various performances in the Hague throughout the year, like an International Festival last December, St. Patrick's Day in March and a local neighbourhood party turned music event (Zeeheldenfestival) this past July with a live band! This past Saturday they also put together an all-day workshop headed by a Welsh girl who studied Irish Dance and Music in Limerick, Ireland. It was a really great day learning (or re-learning) jumps and trick, but really realize that my hard shoe rhythm sucks haha, need to work on the basics again :P At least my soft shoe skills hadn't regressed as much in the 10+ years that I took a break, whew!

Koninginnedag in Amsterdam!

Free orange blow-up crowns!

Last year I spent my Queen's Day (Koninginnedag) in Den Haag and Utrecht, so this year I switched it up to act like a tourist and go to Amsterdam for the day. And I have to say, it was a lot of fun!

History lesson time for those who don't know, Queen's Day began originally as Princess Day on August 31, 1885 to celebrate the birthday of Princess Wilhemina, heiress to the Dutch throne. This tradition continued when she became queen, changing to Queen's Day and changing to April 30 when her daughter, Juliana, eventually became queen. Queen Beatrix was the granddaughter of Wilhemina and kept Queen's Day the same day as her actual birthday is in January and the weather is not as nice. This past April 30 was the last Queen's Day for awhile because her son, Willem-Alexander, became King and next year it will be King's Day on his birthday, April 27. 

Also the one major requirement for Queen's Day is to wear orange!! And also go outside and enjoy yourself!

The very anti-climatic train ride to A'dam

My friend, Andrea, and I were told by many a person that Amsterdam would be overcrowded and really hard to get into, so we decided to take an earlier train in and see if these rumors were true. As luck would have it, our train was epically empty! The city itself wasn't overly crowded either so we were able to enjoy a quite relaxing day (and very tame to Utrecht's celebrations on Queen's Night).

Prinsengracht - the canal with lots of party boats with many having their own DJ

We started off our day in Amstel (south of Amsterdam's centre), sat at a cafe and looked at all the old junk people were selling (Queen's Day is the only day that people are allowed to hold a garage sale). Then we met up with my friend, Iris, and her boyfriend to start off the day's festivities with some drinks! In the afternoon Andrea and I walked into the city to see everyone celebrating on boats in the canals, on the streets and the fact that it was the last day of Queen Beatrix and the first of King Willem. We ended up on the Museumplein (where the Rijksmusuem, Van Gogh Museum and the "I amsterdam" sign is) where there was a large concert going on with many Dutch singers/performers. 

 

Party time at Java-eiland and dancing to Armin van Buuren!

Dutch royal family after saying hello!

At this point I met up with Iris again and in the evening we went to a concert Java-eiland (east of the Amsterdam Centraal train station) featuring the royal orchestra and Armin van Buuren, very famous Dutch DJ. Around the same time of the concert was the Koningsvaart, where the new King and his family sailed around a canal in Amsterdam to greet everyone. At the end of his boat tour he made a stop at Java-eiland and the whole family got out to say hello to us, which was really cool! The concert itself was fun too, if really short.

The 3 princesses greeting the huge crowd, the king and queen are behind the orange crown on the left foreground.

Flyover with Dutch flag colors trailing behind

Just after the sunset (around 9 pm now) and on our way back to the main train station, we were able to see quite the display from airplaines flying over and water spouting from lots of fire ships! It was quite a nice touch to the end of the day, but I was very glad to be lying in bed that night.

Really cool sight to see with all the fire boats after the sun set

Chillin' in Chili

I have been living in my new room since Feburary now in the neighborhood Lombok, which is also the Indonesian word for chili, and it is about time I show what it is like! When I originally arrived back in the Netherlands last November, I had moved into a temporary room right in the Binnenstad (city centre) of Utrecht. While the location was phenomenal and fully furnished, what I really missed were flatmates. This was the second time I temporarily lived in a studio and goodness, I do not understand how people do it. Really hard to value alone time when you are by yourself all the time unless you invite people over.

Come January I found another room (actually...a second new room as the first one had fallen through for unknown reasons). Lombok is an area immediately to the west of Utrecht's main train station and built between 1880s and 1920s as a working class neighborhood.  It is now multicultural mixed with immigrants, students, young families, etc. On the main street, Kanalstraat, there are a number of Turkish/other ethnic greengrocers, shops, bakeries, and butchers, which is a nice inexpensive, local option instead of the main grocery store of Albert Heijn. A mosque is also being built and a number of times I have heard the call to prayer, which I quite enjoy actually. (One can also hear the church bells tolling out the various hours, people practicing instruments like the saxophone and the trains arriving and departing the main station...so lots happening)

My flat is on one of the side streets of Kanalstraat on the 1st and 2nd floors (2nd and 3rd in America). I live with 4 other Dutch people who are either studying or working. Have still yet to really practice my minimal Dutch other than using simple phrases, but we get the Dutch newspaper so I will read that from time to time. It is about a 10 min walk/3 min bike ride from the main train station, super convenient, and a 30 min bike ride (5.5 km/3.4 mi) from De Uithof, the science campus of Utrecht University.

I have two rooms - a 8 m2 bedroom and a 4 m2 study room. On the 1st floor is my study room, the living room converted into 2 bedrooms, kitchen, toilet, and piano (so cool!). My bedroom and two others are upstairs on the 2nd floor along with the shower after going up some mighty steep steps As I had to furnish the rooms, in mid-February I went to IKEA to pick out everything and then have them deliver it. And it turned out quite nice if I do say so myself.

The cosy bedroom, where surprisingly managed to fit all my clothes and have a small couch with the seat cushion pulling out into a mattress for visiting friends. Nice thing is that the sun shines in this room in the morning while waking up, which is my preferred method of an alarm clock. Still trying to figure out how to decorate the wall space...maybe print out some nice landscape photos or purchase some artwork of Utrecht.

Was so happy that the couch fit perfectly in that niche!

Miffy postcards on the wall; Utrecht is the home of Miffy, aka Nijntje, the predecessor to Hello Kitty

Wardrobe barely fit with the low ceiling, couldn't put the legs on, still need to make wooden block legs.

Bed wouldn't be complete without stuffed animals like Totoro and a dreamcatcher.

Sink awkwardly in the corner, but this is the only thing I don't like of the whole place.

View outside the bedroom window, those "skyscrapers" are next to the main train station.

The studyroom where I am spending many hours working on my thesis (or taking a break to write this blogpost because I am tired of my ongoing date with Excel). As this faces the opposite side compared to my bedroom, the sun shines here in the afternoon. Perfect!

Desk with trestles, which I can move in order to fit 6 people and play board games :P

Paintings/drawings of various cities/countries I visited.

Collage of flyers, maps, postcards, tickets, etc. And of course books and games on the shelves.

Scratch-off world map, not many additions in the past year but did get to add Turkey and Jamaica!

Music Festivals

Yesterday I attended the Nordic Delight Festival with a good friend of mine. It was the second of a three-part series of Scandinavian musical events. Featured were many bands and soloists from Denmark, Sweden, Norward and Finland throughout the day. Some were good...some not our cup of tea, but overall we had a good time walking to all the various rooms, chilling in "The Living Room" (room filled with dozens of couches and tables) and drinking hot chocolate from The Village Coffee & Music to keep warm (no heat in the building). The following links are of the artists I enjoyed.

Town of Saints, Finland/Netherlands

Daniel Norgren, Sweden

Steinar Raknes, Norway

Also purchased tickets to the Pinkpop Festival, which is the longest running annual music festival in the world. If you didn't already know, the Netherlands is known for its music festivals. This is one is about 2.5 hours away via train in the south by Maastricht. Some artists that will be playing are: The Killers, Green Day Kings of Leon, Ben Howard, The Script and many many more. Planning to go for the full 3 days with a group of friends here from Utrecht University.

I never mentioned that last year I had the chance to see James Taylor in Amsterdam. It was nice as he is one of the many artists I grew up listening to while staying at my dad's house. Funny how one ends up listening to the music of their parents as they grow older. 

Next post will be about my new room situation in Utrecht! I am almost done decorating and pretty much done reorganising everything, very happy with how things have been turning out! Pictures of course included. :)

Update on University + Bonus Video Clips

Today was the day my thesis was suppose to be done...obviously I asked for an extension, for several reasons:

(1) Started a bit late with the labwork, had wanted to do it last November/December, but as I needed some supervision, did not begin until January.

(2) Received results from the ICP-AES (measured heavy metal concentrations) a few weeks ago, and wow that was a lot to sift through and make preliminary graphs from!

(3) Freaked out because the concentrations from the sequential extraction procedure were just way too low compared to the total concentrations. Finally realised why Tuesday as they were not calculated with the correct dilution factor. Whew, crisis averted, but now have to wait for those new results, re-organised, and make all new graphs.

(4) I have a lot to write! (story of every thesis-writing student's life)

The plan is to finish my thesis within the month of March (of course there will be a blog devoted to that once it is finished!). This would be done in time for me to start my internship at Deltares by April 1, which is an applied research institute in the field of water, subsurface and infrastructure. They mainly focus on deltas (hence the name), coastal regions and river basins. They have offices in Delft and Utrecht; Utrecht's offices are conveniently on De Uithof (the university's campus) and I will be conveniently working there within the Soil and Groundwater Systems unit.

The internship should last 4-5 months, so until the end of August, which is when my two year masters program here in the Netherlands would be complete. I will be working with a PhD student, who has been in the workforce for awhile and decided to take the opportunity to obtain his doctorate degree this past year. He is looking at the hydrological and biogeochemical controls on phosphorus retention in lowland catchments. Phosphorus if you didn't know is a widely used fertilizer in the agriculture, which is definitely prevalent in the Dutch landscape. There is a high demand for phosphorus, but the supply is dwindling, therefore its retention is of particular interest to many and also to ensure minimal surface and groundwater pollution. 

As long as the Exam Committee at the university approves of my internship, I will be looking at mechanisms of phosphate immobilization during the exfiltration of anaerobic groundwater...basically I'll sample groundwater that is not exposed to oxygen (anaerobic) from two locations in the Netherlands, (1) calcium-rich brackish groundwater and (2) iron-rich groundwater, both with high phosphate concentrations. These samples will be brought to the lab so I can set up aeration experiments varying parameters like oxygen levels, temperature and pH while noting the effects on the formation of Fe and Ca minerals.

After those experiments, I will then need to write up a report about the results, hand it in, graduate and then...(scary part)...find a job! If you guys didn't already know, I plan to look here in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany, Canada, and the United States. Keeping things super open because I am not tied down to anything/anyone and looking forward to gaining new experiences/perspectives. Not sure what type of job I am looking as one would think with a masters you would have a better idea, wrong! I do like surface water (think rivers, lakes, estuaries) and soil/water quality, so guess I shall go from there (of course anything to do with water I like...but that entails quite a lot).

Well now that I got that off my chest and this post is all words and no pictures...here are some lovely short video clips for you to watch:

Used a centrifuge to collect some resuspended sediment from the Horsefly River, but in order to do this we had to kick up the sediment to create plume in front of the pump resulting in a weird dance...and yes I know I look really ridiculous, but that is what we would do for 15-20 minutes at a time.

Marjolein and I made several sampling trips to the Horsefly River and often were accompanied by a research assistant, Ben. We asked him to take a photo and I guess he took a short video instead...

 

Last September when I was in Alberta for Labour Day weekend, we had 14 people and 7 dogs and stayed at my uncle's place along Cowboy Trail with a view of the Canadian Rockies.

 

Driving back from Banff through the Kananaskis part of the Canadian Rockies to my uncle's place.

Drive from Calgary south to my uncle's place, gorgeous view of the mountain range as you drive through farmland. Definitely one of my top favourite views (sorry for all the wind noise).

A whirlwind of 10 months

Well it's been since last April that I did a post and to be honest, I had lots of time available just never could get my thoughts together and feel motivated enough. Here's then to a big update on what has been going on with my life from last spring to this winter.  

Icefields Parkway, Alberta, Canada

Karneval, Eindhove, Netherlands

After determining my masters research, I could focus on finishing up quarters 3 and 4, where I co-wrote a lengthy paper on the "State of Estuaries" (quite depressing sadly), walked around and fell in mudflats, visited Shell's headquarters and lots of coffee breaks during lectures

After my trip to Istanbul in February, I visited Germany twice to go to Berlin and Hamburg (love the Eurail pass!), went to Karneval in Eindhoven, and London for St. Patrick's Day, the famous Keukenhof (think lots of tulips and hyacinths) in Lisse on Easter weekend, and Queen's Night in Utrecht. Come May, I went to a Liberation Day festival with a good friend and her boyfriend (May 5) that was lots of fun  - beers/whiskey-colas, eating Döners and listening to Pearl Jam covers while WWII airplanes flyover.

Now comes my whirlwind where I basically live out of a suitcase from end of May - mid November. Ready? :P

Bodrum, Turkey

We had a long weekend in March so met up with a college friend in Dresden and Berlin since she was visiting family in Poland. Dresden was such a chill city and there happened to be International Dixieland Festival during that time so was able to relax on some steps with a beer in hand, listen to the bands and take in the scene. The city did a wonderful job rebuilding post-war.

Fieldwork in Brest, France

June, when I think of that month I do not remember where I honestly got my energy. It went something like: weekend in Paris, 4 full days of class, weekend to Bodrum, Turkey to meet up with NJ friends, have 4 hours to unpack and go on vans down to Brest, France (Brittany) for a 2 week fieldtrip for my Field Geochemistry class. Our days filled with eating baquettes at 6:30 am, full day out in the field or working in the lab, make dinner, talk about what we did, play volleyball/swim in the ocean/play Bang! and go to bed around midnight. Then work hard on a report and making lots of Excel graphs, jetset to Rome for a weekend and try out couchsurfing (definitely recommend), pack everything up and leave for North America on July 4.

Rome, Italy

Southern California

Needless to say, at the end of Independence Day weekend where I was back in New Jersey, I was so devoid of energy and jetlagged I ended up sleeping pretty much 24-30 hours straight. It was a fun weekend of course with catching up with all of my NJ friends, going down the shore, and just being able to sleep in my bed.

So July consisted of me driving down to Washington, DC to visit college friends, go into NYC at least once, experience a massive thunderstorm in downtown Manhatten (it was glorious) and fly off to California for a week to see my mom's side of the family. It was nice to see my Opa after a year since while I had been away in Utrecht my Oma had unfortunately passed away. 

New Jersey, Photo courtesy of Cleo Chou

Now the real fun begins! Fly back to NJ, next day pack for 3 months and pick up my Dutch fieldwork partner, sleep and set off by 10 am heading due west! So if you want to see the massive 13,000 miles (21,000 km) trip we did, look at Tripcolor, which is a cool app I found that would track your iPhone photos and plot them on a map. Anyways, it was awesome driving and being able to see family, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Rockies, Oregon & California coasts and the Grand Canyon.

Wyoming

Two highlights of the roadtrip itself would have to be:

(1) Getting up early in the morning to drive to Lamar Valley and watch the wolves and being able to listen them howl in unison. It is one of the purest sounds you can hear and fulfilled a childhood fantasy of mine.

(2) Watching the sunset into the Pacific Ocean while in southern California and then swimming in the ocean right after because it was so warm. Ah, I really do miss the salty sea air, the crash of the waves and the feeling of the sand beneath you. 

Grand Teton National Park

Horseback Riding in Cariboo Mountains

In Canada itself, I was able to see the vast majority of my dad's side of the family in Alberta and Vancouver, which was wonderful. Of course the main objective of the trip was to collect sediment samples in the Cariboo mountain region of interior British Columbia. It was wonderful living out there for 2 months and take a step back from the business of life that I had known from growing up in NJ and going to school in Washington, DC and Utrecht. 

Swimming in Quesnel Lake

 Some highlights of being in Likely, British Columbia would include:

(1) camping next to a river and abandoned mine town

(2) seeing bears every week driving to and fro our sample sites

(3) hanging out at the local (and only) pub and playing pool listening to a old jukebox

(4) horseback riding for the first time and seeing the most breathtaking view

(5) driving really into the woods to a lake to just take the afternoon to relax and enjoy nature

Ghost Lake, Photo courtesy of Ben Anderson Millington

Big Sur, California

Needless to say I was quite sad to leave because of the above and enjoying the group of people I had met there. Had a fun time driving back to NJ via the West Coast and stayed there for another two weeks before flying back to Europe. Spent a fun weekend in Manhatten and in Jersey City catching up with friends, before my last week made more interesting by the landfall of Hurricane Sandy and the subsequent loss of power and gas shortages. 

Family Vacation to Jamaica

 

Coming back to Utrecht, I was without a room as it was impossible to search for a room back in the spring/summer (remember my crazy June??). But during my first week back found a temporary room for two months and go off to Stockholm for a quick weekend before starting up another class I decided to take. During this time I was figuring out labwork for my Canadian sediment samples, but was still able to go Aachen for another fun-filled weekend of visiting the Weihnachtsmarkt and drinking Glühwein. Then before I knew it, it was holiday break where I went to: Germany for Christmas, Jamaica during the week, one night in Utrecht for New Year's Eve, and England/Wales for the first week of January. (At the end of this, I did realise that jetlag and I are really terrible friends and I should refrain from such intensive traveling across timezones in short intervals..attempt to at least :P)

Austrian Alps

End of January comes, my labwork finished, the last final taken, I move into a new room and leave promptly on a night train to the Austrian Alps for a week of skiing with Contiki. For years now I have wanted to go back into skiing since I gone for two winters during high school and had enjoyed myself. Things always seemed to get in the way though, like living where there weren't "real" winters, university classes, waitressing my butt off for a year and traveling elsewhere. Well, 8 years went and enough was enough, it was time to bite the bullet and do something. I ended up taking 5 days of lessons with an awesome Austrian ski instructor (who would ski to and from work since he lived on the slopes) and hanging out with mostly Australians (had no idea that Contiki was such a big Aussie thing). Definitely was sad on the train ride back up north to leave all the snow and mountains.

View towards Hopfgarten, Austria

That should bring me up to speed to the current date where my main focus is thesis writing and also obtaining furniture. Also setting up my internship with Deltares, details to come later!

Istanbul: on the border between east and west

Between Quarter 2 and 3, we had a week off during the first full week of February so two friends and I planned to go to Istanbul, Turkey to get away from everything and experience something completely new.  And here is what we did:

Saturday

My friends, Iris and Andrea, and I all took separately flights to Istanbul from Amsterdam.  The day before the Netherlands had a "snowstorm" that was a nice surprise.  As the weather became quite chilly for awhile, the train tracks apparently became "frozen", thus leading to all fast trains around the Netherlands to being canceled. I ended up having to take slow trains to Amsterdam and then to Schiphol, so thank goodness I left early for my flight! 

 

As my flight arrived in the Asian side of Turkey, had to take an hour bus ride into Central Istanbul and meet Iris and Andrea at the Marmara Guesthouse in Sultanakmet near the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.  For dinner we ate at a restaurant around the corner.  During our entire time in Istanbul, we were able to get discounts since it was the off-season and every place was trying to attract customers.  Iris and I both enjoyed some Lam Kebab with yogurt.  I also tried Apple Tea for the first time and discovered that I really enjoyed fruit teas.

Sunday

This was the nicest and warmest day we spent in Turkey and the sun was shining all day.  There were a number of fruit stands with fresh oranges and pomegranates and we were able to have freshly squeezed juice from them, so good!!  We walked all around the Sultanakmet neighborhood and went inside both the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.  I remember first talking about the Hagia Sophia in World History in high school and my friends who were taking Art History.  So upon first walking into the main section of this old church turned mosque, it was quite the sight and my favorite one.

The Blue Mosque is still active unlike the Hagia Sophia, which has been turned into a museum. As people were going in to pray, I didn't feel comfortable taking any photos so only have some from the outside.  We wrapped our hair in scarves as that is what all the woman were doing and took off our shoes.  Inside, the air was quite cool and only the men were allowed in the main section to pray while the women were in sections along the back.  

Afterwards we walked a local park just below the Topkapi Palace and sat drinking Turkish tea at a tea garden overlooking the Bosphorus River and Golden Horn.  The city has a busy port and lots of fishing boats besides the numerous mosques you can see all around you.  One can also hear the call to prayers all around you - beginning when the sun rises and when it sets.  The sounds of it just echo all around and I found to be uplifting.
 

That evening we walked down to the fish market, where we had the best service ever at fish restaurant called Beyaz Restuarant.  When we first sat down, we were presented with a huge platter of the different types of fish we could order.  You discussed what you wanted and how you wanted it cooked with the waiter.  Two waiters served us all evening - one who wanted to take Iris out on a boat to an island and the other who wanted me to go out that night after he finished work - so they were highly entertaining and hospitable.  Since it was not very busy, they were able to chat with us all evening and even join in having some tea after the meal.  We all had a very enjoyable time together and had a really nice discount too at the end for such a nice meal.

Monday
We decided to go into Topkapi Palace because Sunday the lines had been too long.  This palace was where some sultans had lived and overlooked the river.  There are numerous courtyards, buildings and the harem (that actually was the living quarters of the family and not just for the women of the sultan).  Many of the rooms inside the buildings had been converted into rooms to properly display famous artifacts, jewelry, clothing and other pieces of art.


Next we headed to the Basilica Cistern, which had been a largely forgotten water reservoir underneath Sultanakmet.  It was rediscovered after it was reported that some locals would just drop a bucket down beneath their house for water or fish.  There are a couple of famous pillars inside with upside down Medusa heads serving as their foundations, but historians have no idea why or how they are there.

Afterwards we went shopping at the Grand Bazaar, which is...overwhelming and it wasn't even super crowded when we were there (so can't imagine what it will be like when the weather is warmer).  Think of it as a huge inside markets with various permanent stands of different products like pottery, lamps, jewelry, scarves, bags, carpets, the list goes on.

The thing with Istanbul is that everyone is vying for your attention and calling you out in any language they can think you can speak.  For us, the most common languages we were greeted with were German, Dutch and English.  It was quite impressive how the Turkish people running the shops and stands knew how to communicate in so many languages.

 
 
Side note: A funny recollection is how this one shop owner recognized me on the street.  On Sunday when we had first passed by he kept calling me Lady Gaga and that I shouldn't leave with him, that I was his baby.  Iris just said, no she is my baby and it was quite funny.  Then on Monday when we passed by again where he was just calling out to us randomly to try and get us to go into his shop when he said "Oh wait, Lady Gaga! Lady Gaga I remember you! My baby, come back to me! Lady Gaga!" Oh gosh, we had such a good crack-up after that.  It was crazy all the different names they call out to you.  Definitely a boost to one's self-esteem even if they are just trying to sell their products.


One thing about purchasing items in Istanbul was that you had to haggle the price down even though you may think it quite reasonable.  Andrea was a pro at this because she had lived in India for 5 months.  It was fun to watch her haggle for one of the lamps and she got it down to an really good price.  On the other hand, I was able to haggle prices down a little, but am overall bad at this type of thing.  I was able to come away with a really nice bowl depicting tulips from a shop run by Kaan Yapar, which is probably nigh impossible to find away in the Grand Bazaar. 

The other bazaar, the Spice Bazaar, was nearby so we decided to go there too.  On the way, we walked in a neighborhood where we saw no tourists whatsoever so it was nice to see where the locals actually go their shopping.  The Spice Bazaar was crowded with so many spices, teas...and Turkish delight!! I remember when I read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" for the first time that I had had no idea what Turkish Delight was.  Even after watching the movies I really had no idea.  The first time I had it was at a market in the neighborhood of Borough, London in August 2008, but I had no idea what it was called until trying it again in Istanbul.  Let's just say it mouth-watering, especially rose-flavoured, which I am obsessed with ever having rose-flavoured gelato in Nice, France and Encinitas, California.


After all that shopping we really wanted to sit down and so found a local hookah bar/cafe called Palatium that was over an archaeological site.  We had some excellent hot chocolate and then some Turkish and apple tea.  That night we ate at a restaurant in the more tourist section, so it wasn't the best but we enjoyed sitting outside underneath heat lamps and making friends with a cat who took a particular liking to Iris.


A word on cats: Cats here overran this city, they were literally everywhere! It was funny how they would flock to Iris though, especially since she was not approaching them whatsoever.  The first night this one cat just forced itself onto her lap and didn't allow her to eat or drink for awhile.  Monday night, the cat we made friends with was a little less forceful and took a long nap between Andrea and Iris while we were eating our meal.

Tuesday
Though it was rainy and cloudy all day, we decided to take a river cruise along the Bosphorus River to a small town on the Black Sea.  There were lots of little towns all along the river, which the ferry stopped by.  At the last town we got off and walked up to an old Roman fort where we could have had a nice view of the Black Sea if it hadn't be so foggy.  For lunch we enjoyed some fresh fried calamari and I got some homemade Baklava, which was really good.   Once we got back to Istanbul, we walked across the Golden Horn to the Galata Tower neighborhood.  Along the way, I stopped in one of many shops and got a beautiful plate of deep blue and yellow and of course a shot glass.


At the top of the hill was a long wide shopping street that was quite European-influenced.  There were not many tourists in this part of town and many locals and youths were out walking and shopping.  It had started to pour, so to get warm we sat at a random bar and played cards for over an hour, much to the amusement of the bartender (he was staring at the game we were playing the whole time).  When we got hungry, we found a local restaurant that had live Turkish music.  I think I got a little tipsy from the beers and wine and on the way out accidentally missed a step and fell into one of the musicians, though he was quite nice about it - so embarrassing!

This was still a nice end to our time in Istanbul and I fell asleep to the loll and Andrea and Iris talking about...something, though I would randomly wake up from dozing off and comment (if you know mean this happens often when I get that sleepy).   I do have to say that from all the walking around in Istanbul that every night I slept very well and would wake up in the morning to the Call to Prayer, then doze back off again until 9 and enjoy a lovely Turkish breakfast either on the terrace on the breakfast area.


Wednesday

This was the day Iris and I left Istanbul, as Andrea's boyfriend from Paris would be joining her for the rest of the week.  It started snowing today and was getting quite chilly.  We still managed to go back to the Grand Bazaar one more time to spend the last of our money.  I was able to buy a beautifully painted tile of the Istanbul skyline, which was I quite happy about.  Upon leaving from the airport, instead of flying back to Amsterdam, I flew to Berlin where I went to meet up with Yvonne, who had just arrived back from America to finish up her master's degree at the Hertie School.

I found Istanbul to be a mix of Eastern and Western cultures as they were trying to balance old traditions with Muslim religion and the workings of the modern-day world.  The people were very tourist oriented having learned to communicate and have basic conversations in multiple languages.  The fresh orange and pomegranate fruit stands with juice were everywhere and so appealing, I wish I had partaken more in drinking in the juice, so cheap!  The pastries were very different from those found in France, I don't know quite how to describe it, you just have to try Baklava and Turkish delights and then you will have some idea.  Football (soccer) is of course a huge sport there with jerseys of many teams sold in this knock-off clothing market.  

I do wish that there was time to explore some of the other neighborhoods of Istanbul, like the Galata Tower neighborhood and perhaps I can one day.  The city has a lot to offer and numerous museums that one can go see plus towns and cities that would be fun to make trips to from there.  The nice thing is that I will be going back to Turkey in June for a weekend trip to Bodrum!  This is more of a resort/part town along the coast of the Aegean sea near Rhodes and other Greek islands.  I am definitely excited to experience another part of the country! I am sure I won't be disappointed, I will be staying at an old stone house with some friends right near the water and downtown section. ^_^