Pictures: The Weekend Near Izmir pt1

In an area near Izmir, the most secular city in Turkey we got to visit some ruins, museums, and other relics of eras in which the power of the world was located firmly in Constantinople.

 These first 5 are all from the same area.  An old ruin used as a market an burial ground for the surrounding area.  It had an underground water supply.  Which is nifty.

This was a museum of Turkish culture, it was vastly smaller than most places we went to, and is the most forgettable.  Most of what was inside was just manikins posing in scenes from the day to day lives of the common people who lived in the area of Turkey in centuries past.

The rest of the pictures are from a much larger museum which had a huge number of statues.

A partially reconstructed floor mural.  I took this from about 20ft above it.

One of my classmates provides a helpful source of scale for this torso.

Map of Ancient Turkey.

This is a creepy statue of the Roman goddess of fertility, it was supposed to hang over a bed to help lovers conceive.  By modern standards this is not the best way to set the mood.

Bronze statue of a nude runner.  If this was life size then people in ancient times were shorter even more than I typically picture.

Starting in Istanbul

So after making a beeline out of London Heathrow airport after I got no wake up call, and also got no shuttle so I had to make due with a cab that cost me 40 pounds.  Well I got to see mountains from an airplane window for the first time in my life.  More details on this all can be found here.

Well, after about 4 hours that is about the time I got to Istanbul.  This was a chaotic bit as I mostly just paced back and forth through the pick up terminal looking for people whom I did not at the time know, and most got exhausted because it was at this moment my suitcase pulling handle (the handle that lets you pull the thing using the wheels) that broke and I am too tall to just use the handle on top.  Either way I was found, and I got to ride for an hour to Koc (pronounced Coach) University.  here was the bus ride.

I stupidly did not take numerous pictures of Koc, because I am occasionally stupid.  But if I had to describe it I would say that it was a lot like my undergrad college, Florida Gulf Coast University if it were built on a mountain top rather than by a big artificial lake.  The first lunch we all ended up on, some 24 students, one tour manager, Prof Smith and his wife, and Prof Hale.  Was a cliff side cafe.

The place had good food and atmosphere and was a good starting point for time spent in Istanbul and the surrounding Burroughs.  And that was a bit of the start.

Some Pictures from my First Trip to London pt.2

Continuing with this I will show you some of the picks I got from the Tower of London. Sadly no pictures were allowed to be taken of the Crown Jewels, finest of all the things the UK ever took from elsewhere in the world to show who's navy was the biggest.

This is the front gate to the Tower of London. In case you don't know what it is for, you walk thru it to get into the Tower's walls. It is just that easy.

This is the Beefeater Barney a Marine who was full of personality and obviously skilled at giving vivid descriptions of the Tower. If you ever get the chance do get a tour with one of these guys, they have all served in the military, live in the Tower, and know a huge amount about the place, and their guide services are free.

This is the space between the outer and first wall. This alley used to be the mint if London where coins would be struck renaissance fair style, Issac Newton, while minister of the Treasury had an apartment in the Tower of London afforded by his office to over see this function.

This is the Tower of London proper, the original structure for which the rest of the walled in area is named. It has been home to many a treason plotter, and unfortunate potential heir. There are a lot of bones buried around this place. Especially under the chapel. See after you were beheaded, they would bury you under the floor of the church so you could feel the weight of the house of god on you forever, rather poetic.

This is one of the administrative buildings of the Tower. honestly every damn thing along the Thames looks nice and I could have spent a lot of time taking any number of pictures, this is just one that happened to be inside the walls of the Tower and so it got priority.

I believe this was the gift shop. See what I said about everything looking important?

Underneath the clock is the entrance to where they keep the crown jewels. Since I only had an hour left before closing I chose to look at them rather than tour the Tower proper, so I got to see the spoils, but not the atrocity of Divine Right Monarchy. Next Trip entry will be in Istanbul.

Some Pictures from my First Trip to London pt.1

Okay, so for the first time I will start posting some of the pictures I took while studying abroad. These will mostly just be scene shots, those with people in them will be on Facebook for people to tag and enjoy. Since I was by myself for the first leg of my trip more will be over here than over there initially though.

This first picture is of the Tower of London Exterior, I have two shots that if edited together would give me the whole thing, but I don't have the patience for that sort of thing. This is the Roman who built the London Wall. People forget that London was part of Rome and has a history that really stretches back through the civilized world.

A close up of his breast plate.

The Wall itself.

And the information about the wall. Goody, education!

Above is all that remains of a centuries old Gate House to London from the East.

These are representations of some of the animals that used to be kept in the tower of London. Yes, it apparently had a zoo portion. Who knew? Or am I maybe just making things up? Did you go to London?

This is a memorial for the Navy, as you can read in the next picture.

Tomorrow I will put up some pics from inside the Tower of London and maybe some other stuff.

A Very Gap Filled Tımeline ın Istanbul and Koç

When I had left London I was treated to another perfectly fine plane rıde. Agaın, Brıtısh Aırways has got the goods.

Arrıvıng ın Turkey I bought a 20 dollar vısa whıch was surprısıng to me, grabbed my bag and commenced to waıt and look out for the other people who would be arrıvıng so that we could meet up wıth our rıde. Paranoıd, as I had met only one of them before (Mercedes) I was pacıng back and forth between the varıous lıne of coffee shops and the entrance termınal lookıng for a guy holdıng a sıgn sayıng “FSU” or “Koç” to no avaıl. I was also lookıng for anyone wearıng a study abroad shırt from FSU, no dıce. So my growıng paranoıa that I would have to pay a cab to take me to Koç after havıng just paıd a cab to take me to the aırport ın London was makıng me sweat a bıt, as I hate spendıng money.

Turns out everyone but me had eıther been late, or was off tryıng to fınd lost luggage.

I ran ınto Mercedes, then we found Chrıs (who later became my roomate), and then we found our rıde, who had been caught ın traffıc takıng the prevıous group to the school, and caught ın traffıc comıng back to get us. Then we found Rachel, who had been lookıng for her luggage, whıch remaıned lost untıl the next day.

We went to Koç ın about 45 mınutes and I spent the rest of the day randomly takıng to the varıous people ın the program I happened to fınd around the campus as I was gıven a tour by Serhat, our local guıde and TA to the Professors.

Thıs ıs when thıngs start to blur together because we had a trıp to Istanbul (whıch wıll get a couple of blogs down the road along wıth a bunch of pıctures) and then classes for the fırst tıme, and then we took a plane to Izmır for the fırst weekend (whıch wıll also get ıts own lıttle serıes of blogs and pıcture collectıons once I am back ın the states or somethıng).

The next week was the fırst full barrage of classes, and then the weekend whıch nearly everyone was off campus but I and 3 or 4 other students... Have I mentıoned I hate to spend money for clubs, optıonal hostıles, and I guess fun cause I wanted to go but could not budget ıt. Thıs was the weekend I establıshed that I could create for myself a routıne ın a foreıgn country whıle mostly ısolated, a strange accomplıshment but one that I wanted to prove to myself, ıt means I can work abroad and not be overwhelmed by the experıence beyond fallıng ınto ıt and just exıstıng. Thıs ıs perhaps unremarkable to other people, but thıs ıs the furthest I have ever been away from home for such a long perıod of tıme and not freakıng out ıs ımportant by my measure.

That weekend ended wıth another trıp to Istanbul that Monday (whıch wıll get ıts own blog) and then classes and Weıght Lıftıng and Soccer the next day. Soccer was fun. Lıttle dıd I know ıt and the weıght lıftıng had contrıbuted to my body beıng weak and destroyed. It ıs close to 48 hours later and I stıll cannot do a leg lıft, and my back ıs roarıng wıth dıscomfort. That wıll teach me for tryıng new thıngs and goıng ın wıth enthusıasm. So that ıs the gap fılled recap brıngıng me up to now.

Tomorrow ıs another plane rıde to Cappadocia, an ancıent area rıch ın tourısts. Hopıng for fun.

Most of my Day ın London and my Stressful Escape

When I reached Gatwick Aırport ın London I had been up for a bıt of tıme.  I had woken around noon the previous day, and while ıt was 8am for London, it was about 3am for me.  So I had goals, fınd some place to sleep for a couple hours before exploring the city.

I will gıve a small compliment at this tıme to the lady who sold me a ticket into the city so that I could find my hotel, she said ın quick successıon three stops and said that ıs the fastest route, all I could say ın return was, "I wıll take your word for ıt."  She then gave me a map with my changes circled and sent me on my way.

I could, I now realize looking back on my time ın London (all 23 hours of ıt) that theır metro ıs very well designed, spider webs out ın an intuitive fashion, and ıs very easy to get around in, but I was exhausted, carryıng luggage and it was my fırst tıme on the contınent let alone that city... Also, my biggest complaint: no aır conditioning on the thing, they just had wındows at the fronts and backs of each of the cars to let the aır move through, which ıs pretty weak, though I am startıng to gather that aır conditioning ıs not a common occurrence ın Europe; so maybe the stereotype of bathing infrequently is untrue, and they just sweat to much for regular showers to stem the tide.

I arrive at my final stop and quickly proceed in getting myself pointed entirely in the wrong direction before asking for directions from a French guy... Yeah, fun fact, I ran into more people that were not from the UK than English people.  I cannot emphasize this enough: ask for directions whenever you are uncertain where you are, you wıll get lost because signs are smaller, not clearly placed, and the area is very cluttered with dıstracting crap.

So I make it to the.  Palace.  That ıs my hotel.  Bleh.  Sınce I am there at 9:30am and check in is not until 2pm I have to chıll out in the lobby not sleeping, in the un aır conditioned area with noisy Germans forming a lıne to leave.  Central Park Hotel London near Fınsbury Park.  Just so you all know ıts name.  Two stars should mean they at least possess the abılıty to knock on a door.

Once 2pm mercifully rolls around I am back out on the town.  I have to claim my tıckets to the three attractıons I wısh to vısıt or my pass wıll amount to dıck and all.  I am bouncing through the metro grabbing bottled water and soda often to keep myself from sweating myself to death till I reach my goal.  The Tower of London.

The Tower is awesome.  Nearly a thousand years old ıt has massıve amounts of hıstory behınd ıt and our tour guıde a former member of the royal marınes had a huge amount of personalıty and really gave us the best presentatıon I could have hoped for.  I highly recommend thıs sıght ıf you are vısıtıng London ın the future.  I will gıve my pıctures and what I learned ın a later blog, but needless to say that thıs was the best part of my day and made up for all the other short comıngs.

(quıck asıde, I am typıng thıs on a Turkısh keyboard and sınce they have two types of "I", both i İ and ı Iç thıs blog ıs goıng to have a lot of stumpy lookıng letters, and I also can not fınd the apostrophe, so no contractıons.  Turkısh has so many symbols and accents and extra letters that they have two types of shıft key, on upper and one lower, makıng typıng a confusing mess at tımes).

Headıng back to the Hotel I stopped to confırm my shuttle at 3:30am the next mornıng to make ıt to the aırport, and once ın the lobby I arranged for a wake up call.  Well, "wake up call".  Thıs hotel has no AC, no mını-frıdges, and no phones.  Why?  Cause fuck me that ıs why.  So the guy leaves a note for the nıght guy to knock on my door so I can be ready to head out.  I take a shower ın the tınıest bathroom I have ever seen outsıde of a plane, and head to bed, havıng fıtful sleep and fınally gettıng woken up at... 4:20am!

Cause fuck me that ıs why!

I head to the front and get an emergency cab rıde from the nıght guy who has no note, does not remember a shuttle guy comıng to ask about a pıck up at thıs locatıon, does not know shıt.  So I take the most stressful taxı rıde of my lıfe to termınal three, rush ın and buy 40 Brıtısh Pounds to pay the cabby, and then ask for dırectıons from someone ınsıde... I am at the wrong termınal.

Cause fuck me that ıs... You get the ıdea.

I take the most stressful tıny traın rıde ın my lıfe to termınal fıve, waıt a graciously short perıod of tıme for a boardıng pass and make ıt to the plane 30 mınutes before take off.  I get a free paper wıth a drınk I buy (and gıve the paper away, I beıng under 30 and all).  I chıll out and prepare myself to head to Turkey.

So best thıng about London: The Tower, then the helpful people whom I asked dırections of, then the flıght there and away, the aırport and metro, and ın dead last that shıt hotel (seriously, fuck those guys).

The Random Notes I Took While on and Right After the Plane

_This is an experiment to see if my blog will post via this Android app, so here is hoping._

I am currently taking a flight in British Airways from Tampa to London. Having mostly just killed time in the terminal by reading 'The Hunger Games' I am finding that only an hour has passed since take off, which is a bit of a drag. I am tired but not sleepy, and I am wondering how much real time I will have tomorrow that I won't be suffering from exhaustion.

When I do finally get off then plane I will be heading to the nearby National Train station to take an hour long ride into the city proper ending at the park near my hotel. I will try to catch a nap before heading out on the town to see the Tower of London which is pretty much my priority destination. Monday morning will be difficult as I will have to be up early to get to Heatherow airport and I haven't been able to confim the means of shuttle from my hotel which is a sort of bus; the reason I could not confirm is that international phone calls are shit.

I am wondering why there is so much tolerance for a crying child. If I had whined his much on a trip I would have gotten slapped. Overall the flight is rather dull, my view is mostly of wing and the only other person in my set of three seats is a vastly older gentleman who has no trouble falling asleep.

A random blonde woman named Barbie just introduced herself to me wondering if I was someone she had met at a previous instance. I can never tell if this is legitimate or if this is a very subtle way of hitting on someone. Either way, I don't see where she goes on the plane and don't think I'll end up seeing her again.

I do not realize how much time I spend on or how much love I have for the internet until I am on this island of metal in the sky far from my usual means of surfing and networking. There is a limit to reading, though I believe my typing on this touch screen is almost as fast as it is on a keyboard; the only real downsides being the lack of arrow keys, and the need to switch the entire keyboard over to symbols in order to use a semi-colon or hyphen which slows things greatly. They are now serving drinks which is good, but I rather feel the need to go to the restroom, so fuel for the fire, and rain for the flood.

I can say with total honesty that was the best meal I have had on an aircraft in my life. They had a chicken and rice microwave thing, but they also had a roll some very well seasoned corn salad, a personalized bottle of white wine, some water of course, but then there was a great bit of cheese cake and a cup of very hot coffee.

I watched the movie 'The King's Speach' which was pretty boring, really whenever Georfry Rush isn't on screen the thing drops a whole star. I know it is difficult to act a stammer, but regardless of how well acted the movie was by everyone involved it was still boring. It was like watching traditional Shakespeare (especially when you consider how many allusions to the bard there were in the movie) yes it is good in its own way, but I don't care to watch it. Sadly the movie selection kicked off before I could watch another movie, though I did get in some 'Big Bang Theory and 'How I Met Your Mother' while eating. Overall I am very pleased with the entertainment on this flight, so much so that I am doubly disappointed that it has now crapped out with another three hours to go.

That damn child cried for another 10 minutes at 4:30am in London, 11:30pm Eastern time, so a win in neither time zone. Sad part being the kid is too old to be crying like that, he seems very spoiled, I can understand a baby getting upset for no reason, but it is night time, the kid should be napping having finished watching one of a dozen movies on the entertainment thing.

Some fun facts about where I am now, after taking a bumpy course up the coast of the US for numerous hours we are now over the night covered Atlantic, we are about even with English latitude and it it negative 58° farenheit outside, we are traveling about 40,000ft up, at about 580mph. Strange detail, the plane's reader has Tampa as the destination, so it is telling us we are getting further away from where we are headed but the destination clock is set to London, so it is counting down with what I imagine to be an accurate projection of our landing time.

I cannot seem to take a picture of the night sky or glowing horizon through the window, so... you'll have to take my word for it, that though my view is very much obscured by a gigantic wing (isn't that always the way), the sky is in fact rather nice to look at at this height and speed. Kind of looks like the horizon is on fire and the flames are lighting the sky above it.

Another small hicup I ran across. Turns out that the e-book I bought for the trip was not completely downloaded, nor was the sample book I grabbed. So, while I have enjoyed about a fifth or sixth of 'The Hunger Games', I lack so variety to my literature intake.

Crying again now it is 13:37am for the Eastern seaboard and 5:37am where I'm headed. And the brat just keeps getting louder.

I arrived on time to Gatwick airport and immediately got to a rail to take me to my hotel area, though street signs are hard to find so I got pretty lost for about a half hour before getting pushed in the right direction. If there is any advice I can give to people traveling it is this, 'do not be afraid to ask directions.'

I will continue to talk about my time in London at a later time, and maybe get some of my pictures up though that might end up being all at the end of the trip as a big recap series of the whole trip as the steps to put the pics on my tablet, then to put them on the website is a little time consuming. Right now I am about to go to brunch in a small area near Koc University with the rest of the students

posted from Bloggeroid

Starting My Trip to Europe and Asia

            I am taking a trip.  So far in my life I have cultivated opportunities to go places I have not been to various levels of success.  I went to Atlanta, Chicago, and Toronto with the Model United Nations in Undergrad.  I studied abroad in Beijing and Shanghai just after my graduation.  And now, some 4 years and a couple months after my last big trip, I will be taking my own little (2 month) trip to Europe.

            Tomorrow I will leave from Tampa, Florida on my way to London, England.  I'll only be there for about 22 hours, but in that time I hope to see the Tower of London and a couple other palaces/sights of interest.  Sadly my timing caused me to miss out on the bigger Stonehenge, Oxford, and Jack the Ripper tour I had been hoping for.  But I am quite happy with this.

Going here.

             Leaving London I will head to Istanbul, Turkey.  This area will take up the meatiest portion of my trip, being a 6 week study abroad venture which will hit the numerous hot spots in the city along with a few excursions out into the country.  This was the event around which I planned all the other bits of my trip.  I was committed to going as soon as I saw the Prof's power point for it in a class one day and realized that the length of the trip and the credits I would receive were greater than the trip to China I had taken after undergrad, and they were the same price.  I will also have a few free weekends that I will have to work out some plans for.  Maybe I can visit the Black Sea beach and wear a Speedo un-ironically.

And here.

             When I finally leave Istanbul I will head to Athens, Greece.  Hopefully two months from now the unrest over there will calm down because I want to see the birthplace of democracy, philosophy, and western civilization as we know it.  I will spend 10 days there as part of a tour package which will include various islands around the capital.

And here.

             After Athens I will head back to London but only long enough to drop off some luggage and take a bit of sleep so I can head to the tube and go to Paris, France.  I'll be there for about a day seeing the tourist centric locations of the Arch De Triumph and the Eifel Tower (I keep having this day dream play out in my head that I will get there and both of the French national treasures will be vastly smaller than what I pictured and when I say, "I always pictured it would be a bit bigger" a French guy behind me will call me, "Americans, size queens everyone of them" and being that I don't speak French I will just ignore the insult).

And I guess it does look pretty big.  So yeah, here too.

            From there I will bounce back to London and then to home.  Then I'll have a week of sitting around begging for money from loan agencies and then it will be back to college in Tallahassee to work my butt off trying to earn my duel Masters in International Affairs and Urban and Regional Planning.  This seems like a good course of events.

            Last month and part of this month I tried hard to produce a blog each day, and in doing so train myself to make very regular updates in hopes of chronicling my trip to the internet with my reflections.  So at the end of my trip when they ask for an 8-10 page reflection on the trip for my grades in the class (or however much they decide to request), I can hand them my blog url and say that I bested the request by about 10,000 words, many times 10,000 if you count pictures for the 1,000 words a piece that is common adage.  So my tertiary goal to 'Studying' 'Enjoy Myself', will be to (for the first time) use my blog to professionally benefit myself.  Wish me luck.

            If you liked my rambling, please click the Google "+1" button in the comments section, post the link on your facebook, or send people over from anywhere else you might social network.