Scavenger Hunt

Feb. 8

Today was probably the most fun yet. CIEE let us loose into Istanbul, with 100 lira, to go on a scavenger hunt into different sections of Istanbul. My group went to Üsküdar, which is one of the Asian side of the city, meaning I have now been to Asia!!!

Once in Üsküdar, we had to find these two mosques and a restaurant to eat. The restaurant CIEE sent us to turned out to be pretty expensive, so we just had appetizers. Nevertheless, they were very good, with endless bread, an artichoke paste, stuffed graveleaves, and a yogurt dressing!

The second mosque we were sent to would have been impossible to find if it wasn't for the help of a very nice Turkish policeman who, after we pointed to the name of the mosque on our sheet, took us on a long, winding 5 minute walk through the backstreets of Üsküdar. Once at the mosque, we were told to find its library and to say whether or not it was "very complex." You'd think that with a question like that, the library would be very complex and elaborate, but no, it turned out that the library was a single floor with some books.

After that we stopped to have some tea or çay (pronounced chai but really just regular tea) by the water. We listened to the call to prayers from all the different mosques. I have to say, it is very beautiful. Üsküdar, and much of the rest of the Asian side, is considered to be more convervative than the European side, and you definetly notice more headscarves on women when you are in Üsküdar. However Margot, one of the CIEE students who originally was in Cairo and then had to be evacuated to Istanbul after the protests begin says she is still shocked to see Turks going about their daily business during the call to prayer; in Egypt, people would get out of their cars and all business would halt whenever it was time to pray.

One of the mosques we saw in Üsküdar

After we finished the scavenger hunt, we headed back to the European side and went to Taksim Square, which is the commercial center of Istanbul, where all the best restaurants and clubs are. We all had dinner together, and then a bunch of us went out to a bar called Ali Baba's for drinks. It was a fun time.