The Traveling Scholar

It’s my last day of my Masters! Well, that’s kind of a lie. I have a class tomorrow, but it’s not part of my real schedule, so today is my last official day of class! How did this happen?! Already? To top it off, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, so I get to hang out with my Irish friend (Eimear) & Co. at the Porterhouse in Covent Garden tonight to celebrate with green beer (uggh… I think I’ll pass; I’m still traumatized from Pooj’s birthday two weeks ago).

Bonus: I managed to get to bed by 11P last night and woke up this morning at 720A! That’s a good hour before my alarm was set to go off and I managed to cuddle up with my PC and a huge mug of coffee to start the day off right. There’s something unbeatable about not being rushed in the morning. I’m gonna put some effort into going to bed early from now on — it definitely puts me in a better mood for the day! Now I’m off to my last Child Rights class of my life (sadly). Gonna hit the gym after and hopefully find motivation to get my paper started this afternoon! My to-do list is begging me to get these two papers underway… I’m gonna have to start listening soon.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from the UK!

Everyone who knows me knows that I have a minor obsession with Jason Mraz. Maybe more than minor. I think I might be in love with the man, but that’s irrelevant. I just ran into this video of Jason Mraz playing ‘Live High’ in France.

Jason Mraz + my newfound obsession with France = perfection. <3.
The sound of this song heals my soul.

Fast Tube by Casper

Live high. Live mighty. Live righteously.

xoxo,

Today is the last week of Lent Term courses and, effectively, the last week of all taught courses for the year. Although we have some revision classes next term, there’s no more new information and only a few scheduled classes. Most of the term is dedicated to giving us free time to revise for exams and prepare for our dissertations. I’m excited to be done, as I’m sure most people are, but I’m also incredibly sad to say goodbye to people! Our last seminar this morning was very bittersweet and almost surreal. I’m sure it won’t really hit me until next Monday when I go to wake up at 730A and realize that there’s no reason to have to get out of bed.

That being said, I’m amazed and quite excited that I made it through the year. I’m not sure how it managed to go by so quickly, but I can fairly confidently say that I have learned a lot. I’ve met amazing people, been to some amazing lectures and had some awesome experiences. Now that the terms coming to an end though, the work is really beginning. Despite the fact that we’ve been learning all year, our grades are made up of one or two components: the final exam (which makes up 60- 75% of my class grades, depending on the course), and a final paper that comprises the remainder. My entire grade and my results are thus based on the next couple of months of my life. All of the papers are due when we return and I have three that need to be completed by April 26th. THREE.

With my dad and sister coming to visit from March 27th – April 7th, I’ve realistically accepted the fact that there will be very little work being undertaken during that period. I’m okay with that, but I’ve put some deadlines in place: two out of three essays done by the time they arrive, with a skeleton outline (at least) in place for the third. I somehow managed to get one of the essays done last week (thank God!) so I ‘only’ have two to get done in the next couple of weeks. I think it’s relatively doable if I put my mind to it and hide out in my room. With most people going home for break, the prospect of being anti-social doesn’t seem quite so bad. Plus, the fact that the end of this hellish business marks my dad and sister’s arrival is a pretty sweet incentive! I’m getting more and more excited every day to see them and I’ve already started daydreaming about Prague, Paris & Amsterdam! I spent most of my trip back from Istanbul talking Alex’s ear off about my excitement over Paris, the Louvre and all things France!

As a warning, the next few weeks may include very few posts about social activity and quite a number about grad school and planning for my upcoming trio of adventures!

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the last week of term!

Love from London,

So, I realize that I didn’t do a very good job of keeping my blog updated whilst in Turkey. Sure, I posted, but since my mind was on Istanbul, the details were sparse and the pictures were few. Very anti-Traveling Scholar. I’m gonna Quentin Tarantino this a bit, and go back in time to Saturday, so bear with me.

I posted a re-cap of my Saturday morning wherein Alex and I took a trip to Topkapi Palace for the morning. The Palace was gorgeous and packed with some serious history, but like I mentioned on Saturday, make sure you know what you’re looking for if you visit: there’s a lot to see and we missed the mosque and Mohammed’s cloak, which was one of the main draws for Alex. On the bright side did get to see someone’s beard… Joseph’s, maybe? I know I posed this question on Saturday, but I have an honest question about this stuff– how do they know to whom beard  hair belongs? How do they know that that was Moses’ rod on display and not just some random rod that was laying around? How can they be sure it’s a certain prophet’s tooth (weird, I know)? I just don’t really get how they can be sure this stuff is legit. When stuff is ‘graded’ by it’s relic level (i.e. ‘first-grade relic’), who is doing the grading and how are they justifying this? These are all the things that go through my mind when I’m wandering through museums. Same thing happened in Malta when I saw St. Paul’s wrist bone, but I didn’t want to be a skeptic while in church. Now that I’m out of a holy perimeter, I’m honestly wondering! If anyone knows, I’d be interested to find out. For the mean time, I’m going to trust that UNESCO (or whoever grades these bad boys) is not being paid under the table to grade relics for countries looking for an influx of tourism.

Topkapi Palace

Heading into the Treasury at the Palace

Cynicism aside, Saturday night involved a pretty cultural experience for our dynamic duo. We had planned on taking a boat over to Asia to have dinner, but we decided instead to catch the ceremony of the Whirling Dervishes at the Press Museum in Istanbul. I had heard of the Whirling Dervishes before heading to Turkey, but didn’t really know much about them or the religious aspects of the ceremony. Al had been wanting to check out the performance (can you call it a performance? I’m going to, but I don’t know if that’s right…) after taking an Islam class in undergrad. A professor had mentioned it was a must-see, so, taking that to heart, we caught the 730P ‘performance’ on Saturday evening.

The Whirling Dervishes

The ceremony is a religious one involving music, the chanting of poetry and the reading of the Koran, effectively putting the dervishes in a trans-like state. The entire thing including a 20 minute concert of sorts lasted about an hour… not sure how they can whirl in circles for 30 minutes, but it was definitely an interesting experience. Check out the video:

Fast Tube by Casper

After the ceremony, we grabbed coffee down the street from our hotel and chatted up locals while looking out at the Blue Mosque and the busy streets. In true Shan & Al fashion, we were back in our hotel and in bed by 11P, tired after a pretty long day of sightseeing and walking around hilly Istanbul!

It was definitely an awesome trip, but I’m happy to be back in London and back into the groove of routine. With that, I’m off to my AM seminar — the last core seminar of my Masters existence!

Catch up with you later,

I love flying. I hate airports, but I love flying.

Up, up & away!

There’s something about watching the ground disappear beneath you as you float into the air that I find exhilarating, and it never seems to get old. The clouds look like a bed of white cotton candy (especially leaving London); like if you reached out the window, you could scoop it up with your hand and eat it. Plus, there’s something satisfying about plane journeys. You hop on the plane in one place; one city, one state, one country, one continent, and you get off in a completely different place a few hours later. Pretty remarkable really. I still don’t understand how something so big, heavy and metal can soar through the air so quickly, but I’m not going to worry too much about it, I’m just going to focus on enjoying the ride.

I just left Turkey and am back in Londontown after three fun-filled days. Alex and I started our morning by heading over to Asia for a quick hello. There’s not much to do on the Asian side (at least not near the border area) so we meandered around for a short while before hopping on the ferry back to Europe. We had lunch under the Galata Bridge after haggling with the restaurateur for a stellar deal (15 YTL each for a huge lunch – about £7.50) before heading back through the Spice Bazaar. I managed to nab a 100ml bottle of Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue from a back alley Turk selling his black market products. While we waited for his partner in crime to scrounge up the goods, he was telling us stories of how people would go down to Egypt to get products and then bring them back to Turkey to sell. Though he was asking 90 YTL for the perfume, I managed to snag it for 20 lira…. Not quite sure how that happened, but I didn’t want to ask questions. Actually, I wound up with a lot of Turkish goodies this weekend: a new (amazingly phenomenal) overnight bag, souvenirs for friends and family, two amazing wallets (one for mom and one for CMac), some jewelry and boxes of Turkish delight, plus lunches, dinners and coffee; all for under 250 YTL (£125 or so). Not too shabby! After our continent-hopping morning, we settled back into our hotel shortly after 1P to get some school work done while lounging. While my attempts at productivity were rather futile, it was nice being able to relax before heading back to Ataturk International.

Though our hotel wasn’t exactly five star, the location was stellar and made the teensy rooms and shared bathroom worth it! Overall, I would definitely visit Istanbul again, and I would definitely stay in Sultanahmet. In actuality, I would head back just for the Grand Bazaar! I could easily spend three days meandering the roads of that place. Though the men were a tid on the aggressive side, the people were friendly and Al and I had many conversations over tea with locals. If you’re planning on hitting it up, take note: though three days doesn’t seem like much, it’s enough for getting in the main sights plus getting a feel for the culture. Don’t miss the Grand Bazaar or the Egyptian Spice Bazaar and don’t miss out on stepping into a mosque. Be prepared for a call to prayer at 5A to wake you out of a deep slumber and don’t forget to hit up a hookah joint to enjoy Turkish nargile in the evening (you can smoke inside, so cold weather doesn’t have to be a deterrent). If you’re going to visit Topkapi Palace (which you probably should – 20 YTL each), either snag a map or know what you want to see before-hand… it wasn’t until afterwards that we realized we had missed out on a number of rooms and a few must-see artifacts. Don’t be afraid to haggle (it’s expected and if you pay what they’re asking, you’re paying way too much!) and don’t be afraid to talk to the locals – despite some overtly aggressive sales people, there are loads of cool Turkish folks who make for great conversation and deliver good insight.

I’ll post some more pics tomorrow & catch you up on my Saturday evening checking out the Whirling Dervishes at the Press Museum!

By the way, this video captures the song/worship that we woke up to at 5A every morning; captured some on video/audio during a mid-day trek around Istanbul Uni:

Fast Tube by Casper

Love from London,

After being woken up by the 5A call to prayer, I was up and ready to face the day by 8. The early morning singing and praying had startled me a little bit yesterday, but part of me was prepared for it today (not that it made it any easier to be woken up from a dead sleep at 5A.) We started our morning with an early breakfast and then headed out to the Topkapi Palace by 930A. The Palace was the seat of the sultans for 400 of 600 years of their reign, apparently, and the place is phenomenal! Not only is it huge, but it’s gorgeous and the views are unbeatable. They definitely had prime Turkish real estate. The entry fee was 20 lira, but they had a discount for harems: 15 lira each. Not quite sure how they check identification on that…

Front of the Topkapi Palace

Overlooking the Bosphorus from Topkapi

Looks like SF!

We were able to wander around the palace grounds for about an hour, checking out the treasury and the mini museums inside. The treasury housed some ridiculously ostentatious stuff — think lamps, jewelry and chairs made of gold and gems. The bling in this place was out of control! We also got to see Mohammed’s footprint (a cast of it), plus Moses’ rod from the 13c BC. We were trying to figure out how they ensured the legitimacy of these things… even if it was dated, how can anyone really know that that particular rod belonged to Moses? Seems like a stretch, but I’m gonna believe it for now.

Magic lamps?

After that, we headed back to the Grand Bazaar for shopping session #2! I am seriously in love with the bazaar… the shopping is so amazing and there are so many amazing things under one roof! Alex snagged her scarf and I got a few goodies for myself and for the fam, including delicious Turkish delight. I hadn’t been the biggest Turkish delight fan before my trip here, but I’m definitely loving the stuff. The pomegranate and the pistachio versions are seriously delish!

Sultan's Tomb

After, we stopped for a leisurely lunch and passed by sultan’s tombs. Now we’re getting ready for our afternoon naps and are headed to see the Whirling Dervishes tonight at 730P. We’ve decided to take a trip over to Asia tomorrow mid-morning for brunch and some sightseeing before heading back to London tomorrow night!

Check out some more of my pictures from Istanbul in my album!

Love from Turkey,

Ceramics at the Grand Bazaar

After waking up bright and early today, Alex and I started our morning with breakfast in our hotel’s breakfast nook, looking out over Sultanahmet, facing the Blue Mosque in the distance.

Our view during breakfast

After a quintessentially Turkish breakfast (olives in the AM, anyone?), we started our day by checking out the Hagia Sofia, and then traveled over to see the Blue Mosque up close.

Al & I in front of the Hagia Sofia; the original was built between 532 and 537 AD

The Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque are considered two of the most impressive architectural achievements in Istanbul, and though these pictures probably don’t do them justice, they live up to their reputation! We didn’t go in to the Hagia Sofia (we may head in tomorrow), but we did venture into the Blue Mosque to see the inside. After removing our shoes and covering our heads, we headed in to what is considered one of the most holy of places. The outside is remarkable, but the inside definitely competes — there’s something really amazing about being inside of a mosque. Where cathedrals and castles dot Western Europe, mosques are not something that I normally get to see. In fact, this was the first mosque I’d ever been inside!

Inside the Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque

After checking out the Blue Mosque, we made our way down to the Grand Bazaar, something I had been looking forward to for entirely too long! Despite all of the amazing things to see here, the bazaars were on the top of my list! Unlike the rest of Western Europe, the goodies from here are quintessentially Turkish and make for the coolest gifts ever! The Grand Bazaar was a serious sight to take in — so many vendors selling water pipes, handmade ceramics (gorgeous), candle holders and rugs on every corner! Al and I made a number of friends during our journeys and had tea with loads of locals while haggling with vendors. I ended up leaving with a load of gifts and thoughts of other things I want to invest in when we go back tomorrow! Check out this amazingness:

Magic carpets!

Pretty candle holders.

Gorgeous ceramics!

The ceramics are out-of-this world beautiful. I picked up a few goodies for momma bear today, but I may snag some cool kitchen ceramics to send home to her as well. I feel like someone needs to own one of these things!

After spending a few hours perusing the Grand Bazaar (a must!), we made a new friend that led us down to the Egyptian Spice Market (and to yet another mosque — they’re everywhere)! The spice market was a pretty awesome experience — lots of food! Olives, nuts, Turkish delight and loose leaf tea everywhere.

Spices at the Spice Bazaar!

Mmmm.... Turkish tea!

For the record, the apple tea is ahhh-mazing! So delicious. I’m definitely snagging some tea and Turkish delight (the pomegranate-pistachio version is heaven) tomorrow to bring some Istanbul back to London with me! Mmmm!

After a long day of walking around (with a few too many hills), we ended up back in our hotel room for a power nap before a Turkish dinner and a two-hour hookah fest near our hotel. So fun and so relaxing.

On the agenda for tomorrow: Topkapi Palace, an archaeological museum, back to the Grand Bazaar for some shopping and then off on a ferry ride to the Asian side of Istanbul for a view of the Bosphorus Strait and dinner on another continent. All in a day’s work for the Traveling Scholar & Co.

See you kiddos tomorrow with some new adventures and equally amazing pictures!

For more pictures from Turkey, check out my photo album.

xoxo,

Good morning from Istanbul! After two hours in the airport, a three and a half hour plane ride, getting a visa (mandatory in Turkey) and shuttle busing it to our hotel, we’re here! It’s still early and we have a lot of sightseeing to do today (Blue Mosque, Aya Sofia, Grand Bazaar and Egyptian Spice Bazaar) but I have to give a shout out to Turkish Airlines!

I don’t know if anyone has flown with them before, but if you haven’t, it’s a must! I have never had a more comfortable flight in my life. Each seat was equipped with a video screen and headphones. There were movies (not one or two; there were around twenty new releases to pick from!), video games to play with the built in controller and email/SMS to check. On top of that, the food was actually pretty Grade A for an airline!

Our hotel room isn’t the biggest room I’ve ever seen, but we do get internet and breakfast included in the stellar deal we got so we’re not complaining! Plus, we can see the Blue Mosque from the breakfast nook. You win some, you lose some.

Off to breakfast and to do some sightseeing!

Catch up with you later,

So I ran across these kids’ facebook pages and noticed that they were ‘in a relationship,’ which I thought was cute (when  I say kids, I mean the kid of a friend of mine and his lady friend). I stopped quickly to look at their birth dates and noticed that my friend’s son was born in 1992 and his girlfriend in 1993. Ohhh, so cute, I thought to myself. They’re like 11.

Eerrr… wait. No, they’re not 11.

They’re like 17. SEVENTEEN?!

When did kids born in 1993 get to be SEVENTEEN?! Holy shit. My little sister who I still tend to think is seven is actually going to be 20!

Oh Lord… where has the time gone? When did I get old?

Ugggh.

Today’s the day! The day is finally (already?) here. I get to cross off ‘Top 3′ destination #2. I’ve been dying to see Istanbul and after so much positive feedback from friends that have visited, I’ve been getting more and more anxious! Aside from seeing the mosques and history, I’m actually getting really excited about doing some shopping. My mom’s birthday is coming up this weekend (happy birthday, mom!) so I’m planning on picking up some goodies while I’m in Turkey to ship home. At the very least, it’ll be unique!

Al & I are flying Turkish Airlines which we’re both a little too excited about. I think the thought of not flying Ryan Air/EasyJet is a novel one for us right now. Not that there’s anything wrong with Easy Jet, mind you (I’m a big fan), but it’s nice to be able to take a real suitcase and not have to worry about extra charges. Like I said, I’m excited about shopping. And buying goodies and trying to somehow stuff them in an already-too-small carry-on is not my idea of fun. My suitcase is entirely too large, but I’m okay with that.

In any case, the plan of attack for today:

It’s 930A, and I’m heading to the gym right now for a morning workout before three days of no gym access. After I get home and finish packing, I’m meeting Al at Covent Garden Station at around 130P so we can hop on the Piccadilly line and ride it straight to Heathrow! Side note: this is one of my favorite things about flying out of Heathrow — the tube goes straight there! Unlike Gatwick/Stansted/Luton where you have to find an alternate form of transportation, the tube is easy, cheap and gives us an hour to read/get some work done.

Our flight doesn’t leave until late afternoon so we won’t be getting in to Turkey until late; about 10P their time. We’ve arranged for a shuttle to come swoop us up from Ataturk Airport and take us directly to our awesome hotel! The views from this place are pretty awesome — seeing the Blue Mosque from your window is pretty authentic. We’ll probably take tonight to just relax and sort out our plans for the next three days, but this weekend is sure to be amazing!

Gotta get to the gym — catch up with you guys when I get to Istanbul!

xoxo,