Merhaba arkadaşlar!

It is definitely nice to be in one place for a while, and have enjoyed getting to know the city a little bit over this past week.  Even though it has only been a week, we already love it here.  The past several days have been a nice change of pace from the rush of traveling, and our schedule has been very relaxed.  It is kind of fun to not have classes until next week and be able to do some sightseeing!  

This is our dwelling place for the semester!  It's interesting :)  Our dorm-esque apartment is getting to feel more homelike now though.  There are a plethora of markets around us, including a weekly outdoor bazaar on Saturdays that we like to get fresh produce from.

Here is a lovely view of the quad of Boğaziçi's south campus.  Straight down the central path there are steps to a place called "manzara", which means "the view," due to its beautiful overlook of the Bosphorus Straight!  We'll be spending a lot more time on campus starting next week.

A couple days this week we got to go exploring some of the more historic parts of Istanbul.  It was really cool!   

This is the famous Blue Mosque, which is known for it's beautiful blue painted tiles on the interior.  Ha, there are so many cool things right around this area that we are glad we have more than just a day or two to see them all.

We also went to the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar - an adventure in itself!  We laughed at all the one-liners the vendors used to try to get us to look at their stores.  But we saw some cool stuff.

The streets are seemingly always full of people going, coming, shopping.  It was fun to see a lot more locals here than we expected though.  

Mmm, çay.  Turkish tea is aaawesome!  And it is served in fun little glasses too.  It is becoming one of our favorite little things of this culture :)

That's just a few random looks in to what we've been up to lately!  We hope you all have a splendidly grand Valentine's Day tomorrow too.

Until next time!

~Beth and Shannon

The Road to Istanbul

Well, we have enjoyed our first weekend in Istanbul settling in to our dorm and exploring our neighborhood.  

Here follows a few snapshots of our travels through Western Europe:

 Our first destination was Berlin.  While we were there we were struck by all of the history that has taken place in this city.  Here we are near Checkpoint Charlie in front of a fragment of the Berlin Wall.

We then headed to Braunschweig to visit Jacky!!  So much fun.  It was neat to see what a German student's life looks like.  She was a fabulous hostess and friend, and even sacrificed sleep and got up at 1am to drive us (partly on the Autobahn) to Hamburg for our ridiculously early flight. Ha. 

Next up: our favorite city we visited on the trip. Salzburg!  As you can see, it is stunningly beautiful!  This was a fun overlook, and we even walked from here to the fortress in the background of this picture.

What is Salzburg known for you ask?  Why, The Sound of Music of course!  And yes. We did go on the official Sound of Music tour!  It was wonderful.  One of the best parts was getting to drive out into the countryside to some cute villages and breathtaking lake and mountain views.  Breathtaking!

Ha.  We weren't the only sightseers apparently!  Here you see a traditionally dressed group posing in front of one of the fountains featured in The Sound of Music.  It was pretty great :) 

One of our favorite mornings was picking us some delicious pastries at a local bäckerei, and going to eat them by the river.  Beth especially loved all the bäckereis and cafes around the city.  Shannon got caught eating an Austrian cinnamon roll.  Mmmm.

Who would like to come sit and enjoy a lovely view of Zurich?  It was another beautiful city, and we especially enjoyed the churches and cathedrals here.  Ha, our most interesting hostel experience was definitely here.

Mmmm, macarons!  These delectable little treats were Beth's favorite by far!  So much so that after finishing the first round, we went back to get more :)

All in all, we really enjoyed our travels and adventures!  Now that we are in Istanbul though, we are really glad to be in one place for a while and are ready to jump in to life here as more than just a tourist.

This is what we get to look at as we walk from our dorm to the main campus.  The beautiful Bosphorus! It is almost hard to believe that we are finally here.

Tomorrow we start our registration and orientation processes with Bogazici University.  

Here is where the adventure really begins.

~Beth and Shannon