Last Days and Homecoming

Hello all!
I'm writing from my living room in North Carolina; Edward and I got back to the US about 4 days ago. It's a little strange to have to reflect on our last days from America, but I feel obligated to finish what I started almost 2 months ago.
So Sunday was our last full day in Istanbul as a group. Being us though, we still requested a full agenda. We started at the Yerebatan Cistern, an incredible early Byzantine site a stone's throw away from Hagia Sophia. There's not much water in it today (only about a foot), but there's a forest of columns and a bunch of fish, which is bizarre:

The red lighting and classical music in the background (for some reason Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto was playing) heightens the surreal atmosphere. In the very back of the cistern are the two famous Medusa heads, monumental column bases that no one has been able to sufficiently explain:

We emerged from underground to catch a boat for our tour up the Bosporus. Because of time, we didn't go all the way up, but were able to see all the sites up until Rumeli Hisari, the fortress built by Fatih Sultan Mehmed II in 1452 before taking the city:

No shortage of great picture opportunities on this trip; one of my favorites was sailing under the huge Bosporus Bridge:

Also, the view of Ortokoy Camii and the bridge:

We got back to our flats in the afternoon to get ready for our final dinner together. William and Sarah took us to a beautiful restaurant right on the Sea of Marmara. Here's the group, with the view:

We had such a good time, eating the (huge amounts of) delicious food and reminiscing. Even Hande, our Turkish teacher, showed up!

The very next day, starting at 2am (!) our group began to drift back to the United States. For those of us left on Monday, it was a day to get a little more sleep, work a little on our assignments, and take one final walk through the city that had been our home for 5 of the last 7 weeks. To use a completely original word, it was quite bittersweet. We payed a visit to our donercis (the guys who operate the doner stand/restaurant where we got about 25% of our meals), and got some pictures:

David with Scowly and Smiley (what we called them before we learned their names, Olcay and Tuncay). The next day, before Edward and I left for the airport, we went to say goodbye. Though we made clear we were in somewhat of a rush, Tuncay told us to sit down, and ran off. When he came back, he had a Fenerbahce (one of Istanbul's 3 club football teams) banner which he proceeded to wrap around my shoulders. It was an appropriately Turkish ending to our trip. A new friend (who spoke no English!) sent me off with an obviously meaningful gift; I think it was his, because it doesn't really look brand new. We got their email address, so we'll be able to send them the pictures and check up on the doner business.
Edward and I's journey back to the US was, barring a slight crisis in Ataturk International Airport, fairly uneventful. When we arrived at the airport, our flight to London, scheduled for 2, had been moved back to 5:30, ruling out any chance of our making the connection to Washington. Through some finagling I still don't understand, we were put on another set of flights (Istanbul-NYC, NYC-Washington), and ended up arriving at the same time at Dulles.
The past few days have been incredible, and I've loved every minute of being home. Seeing family, friends, and Peaches (who is not happy about all the cats she's seen on the blog) has been great. I wouldn't say I miss the city yet; I've only been home for 4 busy days. I know that I will though, which only makes me more excited for my inevitable trip back. In case you haven't gathered, I kind of had a good time in Turkey, and my considerable pre-trip interest in the country has been immeasurably widened and deepened. The trip hasn't really given me more insight into whether I want to pursue academia or foreign service, but I know that in either of these fields, I want to specialize in Turkey.
So I guess that's it; the blog has finally come to an end. I thank each and every one of you for following it, even casually; I can't tell you how happy it made (and still makes) me every time someone mentioned reading it. I hope that I've been able to explain 'why Turkey' a little more clearly. It would be futile for me to succinctly name the reasons, as I tried to do before in my inaugural post; instead, I'll let the blog stand in its entirety as a testament to what is surely one of the most fascinating and engrossing countries on Earth. I'd also like to thank Professor Shields and William for their incredible leadership on the trip; there's no way we could've learned as much, or had as much fun, without them. And before I overstay my welcome, I want to thank the 9 other UNC students, my new dear friends; I had such an incredible time with all of you, and I cannot wait to hang out with y'all in Chapel Hill.
Until "Why Turkey- Round 2!", that's it!
Clayton

Update- Last Week in Istanbul

Hello all!
Sorry for the lack of updates the past week; it's been a pretty quiet/busy couple of days. For the most part, this last week is for working on our final projects (as part of our classwork here, we're doing a oral history/research project about some aspect of Turkish cultural identity; I'm doing the tourism industry, and how Turkey markets itself to the international audience), so we've been busy with those. Still, we've found some time for fun.
Tuesday:
Got back to Istanbul on the early morning train from Ankara; didn't sleep very well, but it was infinitely more comfortable than a bus. Also, no chance of the driver hijacking us (see: first day in Ankara). Slept/laid around for the rest of the day.
Wednesday:
Most of us worked on our projects, doing research, lining up and carrying out interviews, and writing some of our papers. Edward and I also desperately needed haircuts, so we went with Yekta to Istiklal to find a little barber shop. It was a fun experience: Edward got a real Turkish haircut (lots of gel, stuck up in the back, flattened down in the front; we call it The Rooster), I got a semi-Turkish haircut. Yes, I have gel in my hair for the first time since 8 grade. Hopefully this won't last long. Kind of expensive, but it did come with a temple massage and tons of mystic Turkish ointments. Here's Edward, post-cut:

Thursday:
Big activity was going to the US consulate, which is located about 2 hours north of where we live. It's still Istanbul though. The building sits on a hill, surrounded by walls and barbed wire. The fortress:
We were lucky enough to be able to talk to several top officials for an hour and a half. We talked about the duties of the consulate (outreach mostly, as the embassy in Ankara handles policy discussions), US-Turkish relations (OK, but necessary, with lots of bumps in the road: Iraq, Armenian Genocide resolution, etc.), and foreign service (something I might want to do). We came back around 6 to keep working on our projects and our party on...
Friday:
Fourth of July! We decided while on the road that we wanted to have a party, but weren't really able to prepare for it, especially in terms of inviting people. The 30 people we invited spanned the spectrum of people we've known here: professors who've talked with us about academic topics; our local pilav and doner sellers; mystics; and fellow Americans in the city. Despite the best efforts of all the subcommittees (yes, we divided ourselves into subcommittees to prepare for the party; I was privileged to serve on the Meat-and-Cheese and Day-of-Food Subcommittees), we had all of about 2 RSVPs by the morning of the 4th. Prepared for a possible12:0 host to guest ratio, we still got ready for the party. Props to the Decorations Subcommittee for creating a real live American atmosphere on the terrace:

(there was much more food than this, also balloons and a banner). In the end, about 10 people showed up; not the group we originally intended, but it was a great time. It was especially good to meet 2 Bogazici students who are studying in the US next fall, one at UNC. They stayed later than everyone else as we compared notes about college life and got them ready for living in America. We are all really excited about welcoming the 3 Bogazici students who are coming to UNC next semester; we finally have a chance to repay these people for all the incredible hospitality we've received here.
Saturday:
A day of intense project work, on everyone's part. I had an interview set up with Gunhan Borekci (see day on Hagia Sophia), our guide for the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia; he is still a liscensed tour guide, so I figured he would be a good person to talk to about tourism. How right I was. We ended up talking for 5 hours, discussing Turkish tourism and how it relates to identity for a good 3 of them. The rest of the time we talked about academia (he's a PhD student at OSU in Ottoman history), literature, and Turkish history. It was a great time, and got my paper fairly well prepared too.
Pictures from today's Bosporus trip coming later today or tomorrow. Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to (and probably see) you soon!

Ankara, Pt. 2: Who's Your Daddy?

Hello all!
Our second day in Ankara began with a trip to the city's most famous site: Anıt Kabir, Atatürk's mausoleum. Since my day was cut a bit short by illness (Turkish food got me again!), this post will mostly be about Ataturk the man, and what we've come to know about him throughout Turkey.
Atatürk was born Mustafa Kemal in 1881 in what is now Thessaloniki, Greece. He quickly rose through the ranks of the Ottoman military, becoming a colonel by 1915, when he found himself at Gallipoli. He eventually became commander of the Turkish force, and his successful defense of the peninsula gave the Ottomans their only victory of the First World War. After the Ottoman Empire surrendered in 1918, its vast holdings were partitioned among the victorious Allies. More ominously for the Turks, the Allies even sought to divide up the Anatolian heartland of the Empire; by the 1920 Treaty of Sevres, well over 2/3 of what is now Turkey (including Istanbul!) went to Greece, Italy, France, Britain, and a newly created Armenia (for a dramatic map, go here). Mustafa Kemal refused to accept the settlement and waged over the next three years a titanic struggle primarily against the Greeks for Turkish independence. Improbably, they won, and in 1923, the Turkish Republic was born, with Kemal as its first president. Over the next fifteen years, he revolutionized every aspect of Turkish society: he upturned the calendar, introduced last names (he picked 'Atatürk', a name by law reserved only for him; it means 'Father of the Turks'), changed the alphabet, introduced women's rights, revolutionized dress, and that's just the beginning. Since his death in 1938, politics in this country has revolved around his legacy, and what relevance it has in the current era. One key platform of his ideology, secularism, has been seized upon by the military establishment as the core principle of Kemalism; they have enforced it rigorously, including 3 coups since 1960.
Some call the omnipresence of Mustafa Kemal the 'Cult of Atatürk'. It's a hard notion to disregard out of hand given these kind of images; he really is everywhere:

Conventional heroic equestrian statues (this from Bursa)

Statues of the Great Man, striding forward, winning the War of Turkish Independence (this from Taksim Square in Istanbul)

Huge pictures of him atop decrepit buildings (from Fatih, in Istanbul)

Double sided (Ataturk as Janus?) statue, with Ataturk's famous phrase "Happy is he who calls himself a Turk" emblazoned on both sides (this from Sirkeci train station)
Golden Ataturk head emerging from map of Turkey (this from Kultepe)

Or perhaps you'd like an Ataturk tea service, with the GMK ('Gazi Mustafa Kemal'; Gazi is Arabic for holy warrior) monogram on the cups?

And just in case you've missed the other 4,000 Ataturk portraits right next to you, they're occasionally posted randomly along the street (here outside of Bursa).
After seeing him everywhere, it was pretty cool to go see the center of 'Ataturk worship' in the country, his enormous mausoleum. It's situated on a hill such that it dominates the city (facing down the 1987 Kocatepe Mosque about which I posted yesterday). First you walk down the 'Lion's Road', lined with stone lions (ancient Hittite symbols of power) and Turkish soldiers:

You finally reach the colossal mausoleum itself, a kind of austere Lincoln Memorial:

While we were in the building (all that's inside is his 40-ton sarcophagus which marks the place where, 7 meters below, his actual body is buried, in Turkish soil), the Turkish Minister of Sports or Youth or something marched in with a general and an entourage to place a wreath on Ataturk's grave; I guess that kind of thing happens every day.
There's a huge museum underneath the mausoleum that's equally as interesting, with huge oil paintings showing critical moments of Ataturk's leadership in his various wars. Unfortunately, by that point I was already starting to feel bad; I was almost completely unable to pay attention at the incredible Museum of Anatolian Civilizations and was sick/asleep by 6 in a hotel.
It was great to visit the Big Man's grave, a definite stop for anyone in this part of town. The ostensible purpose of this trip is to define 'Turkishness', to explore what makes a Turk. Is it religion? History? Something in the water? More and more, I'm coming to think that it's Ataturk; that an identification with this man truly defines someone as a citizen of Turkey (I'm using Turk in the political sense, not as an ethnic construct), and everyone in this country frames their politics and identity either in line with or in opposition to Him.
That's probably enough historical and political musings for now; thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you soon!

The Best Part of Ankara

Hello all,
So we left Cappadocia on our tour bus about 8 on Saturday. It's a four hour drive, so we settled down for a short sleep before getting off in Ankara. I dozed off, despite the horribly uncomfortable seats. I was awoken by the sound of the driver yelling in Turkish, and the tour leader yelling back in English; my fears were confirmed when the clock read 12:30 and there was no sign of a city around. It gradually came out that we had missed the city, and the driver was not turning around. After an extremely tense 20 minutes (lots of yelling and cell phone calls) he did, but he was not happy about it. We got off as soon as possible in Ankara, and took taxis to Bilkent University, where we were staying in dorms. As you might imagine, we resolved to make that our last contact with the Fez Travel agency.
Our first activity in the morning was to visit the site of Gordion, currently being excavated by UNC's own Ken Sams. Gordion was the capital of the Phrygian Kingdom (c. 8th century BC), whose most famous ruler was the legendary King Midas. The site is about 2 hours outside the city, and we were given a complete tour by Prof. Sams. Only about half of the old city has been excavated, the most impressive site being the main gate, which once would've stood 20 meters over the surrounding plane:
Our next stop was Midas' tomb itself, discovered in 1957. It lies under a man-made mound known as a tumulus around 50 meters tall, making it the second largest such grave in Anatolia. Most of which was in the grave (mostly bronze bowls and sculptures) has been removed to museums, but it's still pretty cool to see where King Midas was buried.
By the time we got back to Ankara, it was about 6, so we took the metro downtown to grab dinner and watch the Euro Cup final between Germany and Spain. After dinner, we still had a good 2 hours until the game, so we decided to go try to find Ankara's largest mosque, Kocatepe Camii. It's one of the largest mosques on earth, with a capacity of 100,000:

Finished in 1987, we were a little skeptical about how nice it would be; we've been a bit spoiled with all the beautiful Sinans of Istanbul. But the mosque is as beautiful as it is large, a larger-than-the original replication of the Blue Mosque with a huge circular chandelier in the center:
We found a bar around kick-off and watched the game. As the game progressed, Kristina felt worse and worse, becoming obviously quite sick by the end of the game. We rushed back to the metro, but when we got to the deck, Kristina had to run back up to use the bathroom. We thought the next train would be the last, so we decided to get on the train and meet Edward and Kristina at the train stop (the last stop on the metro line). Somehow, there was another train after ours, which they managed to get on, saving themselves a costly cab ride. Equally inexplicably, I arranged a dolmus from the train station to our dorms for 30 lira (about half what we were expecting), and, an hour and a half after leaving the bar, all of us were back safe (though Kristina still had some intestinal issues to work out).
When the Turkish poet Yahya Kemal was asked what his favorite thing about Ankara was, he responded, "Going back to Istanbul." By the end of our first night, we were beginning to understand why. After our two weeks on the road, we were ready to get back and with only one day left, our excitement was palpable. We still had one day though and who knew what adventures/digestive problems it would bring. Day 2 of Ankara coming later today.

Cappadocia- Is This For Real?!?

Hello all!
I have not posted for a week. A week. Last you heard from me, we had just left the village; we arrived back in Istanbul this morning. Dear readers, brace yourselves for the 15,000 pages of posting I plan on putting up today.
First, Cappadocia! Cappadocia is the Roman name of a region in central Anatolia that is easily one of the craziest-looking places on earth. We arrived at about 7, greeted by this view:

Sunset over Cappadocia.
Here's the view from our hotel's terrace in the morning, with some huge, snowcapped mountain in the background:
First item on Day 1's agenda was, obviously, exploring. A couple of us went climbing through some rock-cut houses by our hotel. To give you an idea about how weird this place is, this is the police station:
That is a big rock with entire floors carved into its center, and that's the way people have been living here for thousands of years. More pictures of this crazy place:
Half the group standing in a halfway eroded room of one rock-cut house, overlooking the valley.

What's this little gem? We entered by the tiny entrance and found that it was...

a 7th century church. Just a small, early-medieval church (arches, dome, and all) cut into big rock on the side of the path.
As Paleolithic as it all seems, every once in a while things like these satellite dishes remind you that people are still living in these structures.
These are some of the things we saw on our way to Goreme, the central town of Cappadocia. It's really touristy, so we stayed in another town a few miles away (Uchisar). The main event of our first day was a visit to Goreme's incredible Open Air Museum. This is the set up: there are a dozen or so rock cut churches in the 'museum', built into the cliffs, and you get to wander at will through them. Here's a typical interior example:
The most incredible is the 'Dark' Church; here's the exterior:
It's so amazingly beautiful inside, more visually impressive than everything we've seen so far except maybe Hagia Sophia. I don't know how much you can see of these, but here are some of the best parts:
Christ Pantocrator (ruler of the world), on the central dome.
This is the Emperor Constantine the Great and his mother Helena with the True Cross, which the latter discovered in Jerusalem in the 330s. This scene was in almost every one of the churches. Also, many of the churches' figures had their faces (or at least eyes) scratched out; we're not sure if that was done by iconoclastic Byzantines or the Muslims.
One of my favorite paintings: Christ breaking the gates of Hell, leading Adam and Eve into Heaven. I don't know if the person under Christ's feet is supposed to be Satan or a personification of death.
This place was so beautiful.

Here's the apse of the 'Buckle' Church, the largest in the Museum. I think you can get a sense of the scale- and this was carved into a cliff.
The next day we went to an underground city (writing this post a week later, all these bizarre things seem rather normal). There are several such complexes, which extend up to 8 floors below ground level and could accomodate up to 20,000 people. This is what it looks like going down:
The staircases get narrower the farther down you go. Also, there are thousands of tourist groups, making it a claustrophobe's dream come true. Only way to get around:
Amanda, sporting the ever-popular miner look.
Emerging from our time underground, we took an hour ride to the Ihlara Valley, a kind of large-scale Open Air Museum. It's spectacularly beautiful; the path follows a clear stream, flanked by huge cliffs into which more churches have been carved:
These churches are so inconspicuous; you really do have to look for them.
Really interesting ceiling of one.
Apse of another.
This is what they look like from the outside. I wish our national parks had Byzantine churches in them too!
After our long trek through the valley, we were ready to cool off, so we went to a lake. Located in a volcanic crater, it was absolutely beautiful:

Unfortunately, the lake bed was mud (or, more accurately, quicksand). For some reason, we swam across. I can't really say anything else, because I don't know why we decided to, but we did. Rather an impressive feat; I had to photoshop two pictures together to make the one above. That night we had a little darty in our cave rooms. Yeah, our hotel had cave rooms. So obviously we slept in them, even though they were cold and damp (who would've thought?). Note- 'Darty' is UNC/Turkish for party.
The next day was our last in Cappadocia, so we went to Red Valley, the last major site in the region. Pretty incredible, but you've heard enough about valleys and rock-cut churches haven't you? I still have to post pictures though!
The valley we walked through
The view from one of the hills
Ceiling of one particularly beautiful rock-cut church along the trail.
A cliff- or is it?
It's a huge rock-cut church! One of the biggest we saw, definitely. Still can't get over how incredible these buildings are, carved right into the rock.
David, by one of the columns, for some scale.
So that's Cappadocia. We spent 3 days there, longer than anywhere else on our excursion. I think it was probably my favorite stop, filled with so much history and natural beauty. Ankara to come, either tonight or early tomorrow. Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you soon!