istanbuljust amazing

Istanbul...just amazing....

I wanted to post my feelings towards Istanbul starting with

yesterday...but somehow tiredness got into my way.

I arrived in Turkey yesterday morning, at 09,20, at Attaturk airport,

along with all the delegations from Baltic countries. After a hard day

and night of packing and sleeping only half an hour, I first steped in

turkish airport and then something similar caught my eyes:everybody

around was smoking...well, it is the same in Romania, but in Latvia I

already got used that all pubs and cafes are without any trace of

cigar smoke...

We had a very long trip to the venue of IC, a huge University center

with parks and forest around. And a lot of dogs...again similarities

with my home country....Actually, what was amazing was that it was my

first time in Asia...Istanbul is situated on 2 continents (Europe and

Asia) and going to the venue we had to cross Bosfor and get to the

Asian part of the city. I enjoyed the ferry trip so much because it

offers amazing views of mosques, bridges, hills, houses, in one

word:Istanbul!

Leaving luggage there, we decided to run towards sightseeing. How? By

taxi because out guide was in a very big hurry. So I experienced taxis

in Istanbul:cars going like crazy all around, the driver changing

sides and gears and going with 90 km inside the city, so preety crazy.

In Istanbul, all cars go crazy and I am really afraid to cross the

streets sometimes because you really can get an accident ....yes,

Timisoara is like a little child comparing to Istanbul, but Bucharest

is getting closer...

Our first walk in Instanbul started...we first walked in the Asian

part on the streets, had Kebab in a restaurant, along with Turkish

coffee. It was so cool how the waiters were so kind and nice..All

streets were crowded with shops in open air and people trying to sell

you anything! Then we walked by ferry again and then we got to Taksim,

center of Istanbul, where a crowd of cars and busses merge and where a

long and crowded street starts. I never saw in my life so many people

on one street. What is amazing about Turkey and Istanbul is the

energy, the pulse, the huge amount of movements in the street (well,

17 million people livein Istanbul so...).

Lots of shops, cafes, stopping for boys to smoke Nargilea ...(there

are doing it right now also on the balcony of our guest while playing

some games - table in romanian). Girls having coffee or fruit

juice...enjoying the energy of the city...In the evening, thanks to

our dear guests, we had Turkish tea and fruits for dinner...and a well

deserved sleep...

Today we started the walk again...of course, going to famous places

that our guests advised us to go. We started in the early morning with

Grand Bazzar, a market kept in our days for tourists as there are

pretty expensive stuff also. there are long streets of tables with

produtcts, traditional or not. Again, everybody wants to sell you

something. They are so insistent that somehow I didn t like it so

much. And the rule is that you need to bargain for what you buy. They

usually start from the double price. What I bought :)...earings, a

beatiful scarf and a nice blouse and some souvenirs. It was nice, but

once more I decided that I don,t like sales and bargaining.

Moving to more cultural and spiritual places, we finally visited the

Mosquesand the museum of Haiga Sofia. We were first at Blue Mosques. I

wanted to enter it but it was prayer time. There were lots of people

stading in front and just praying. And aside...tourists...Another

amazing part of Istanbul is the fact that in the morning you can be

awakened by the sound of prayers from the Mosques. It is so loud that

many times a day you can get surprised by the same sound of a man

singing. I discovered once more that I am passioanate about

religion...

Haiga Sofia, now a museum after being a chourch in Roman times and

then a Mosque in Sultan times, was also an amazing historic place to

visit. I got to see mozaics and paitings from 9th century!

Afternoon was calm and just reserved a walk for us. We were very tired

and stopped to eat and drink coffee. it had been an amazing

day...Evening brought a short meeting with my sister, Ioana (she is

also joining IC as MC member of Slovakia) and a present from her

(candies from Harrods). I was very happy to see her as I have,t seen

her for some months now.

Now we are back in our guests house. We are staying at Evren and Erdi,

two nice twin brothers working in AIESEC Istanbul (and also in the CC

for IC). thank you very much guys for all the trouble for us and for

hosting us! You are always welcomed in our countries!

In the end, what is specific about Istanbul is : a lot of

possibilities to travel (bus, tram, metro, funnicular, ferry...car:),

there are no garbage bins on the streets (for security reasons),

people are kind and nice when you enter shops or cafees, ice-cream

like a rubber - served by a crazy guy who throws it in the air, Kebab

and Turkish strong coffee, ferries going randomly on Bosfor, sound

from Mosques in the very morning, huge city with millions of people

just stepping eachother...

In one word, really amazing!

I am enjoying so much that I am thinking that I need to see more from

Turkey...

Tomorrow IC starts...another experience...meeting old

friends...energy...network...passion...craziness...