New Culture, New Experiences

Above Ankara (taken in the Ankara Castle)

Hello everybody! İ am Karolina and İ am a volunteer of IYACA youth organization in Ankara. Exactly 2 weeks passed since İ arrived in the capital city of Turkey for my EVS. I come from a small country Slovakia, which has the same population as Ankara has. After a long day, which İ spent in plane or at the airport in Vienna and İstanbul, İ finally found myself in Ankara. The city welcomed me about midnight with colorful buildings and rainy weather, even though I was prepared for an extremely cold city covered by snow (guys don’t believe to gossips that Ankara is sooooo cold). After a small walk we came to our apartment and my mentor Sinan shared with me very ımportant information, that we don’t have any elevator, so he had to carry my 20+ kg heavy baggage (I am really sorry for it). During my stay in Ankara İ have learnt how to prepare a turkish “çay”, I trıed to learn a turkısh card game called “Pişti”, unfortunately, I haven’t learnt how to use turkish keyboard yet (sorry for mixing the ı/i in this blog).

We live in a very city center where almost every country has their embassies, so I expected that people will be used to foreigners. But when İ walk on the street everybody knows that I am the "yabanci", maybe it is written on my forehead. Anyway, turkısh people are known world-wide for their hospitality and warmth, so is it true? Definitely. People in shops, streets or in restaurants want to help you, even if they don’t speak english. İ try to speak turkish, the reason is that İ thınk ıt ıs nıce if people at least try and İ belıeve it’s a kind of showing respect (also people in Ankara don’t speak English) and when people hear it they are so cute and polite, asking where am İ from and so on, tıll we get to level where my turkish is over (mostly the conversation is very short :D).

A part of awesome people in gorgeous İstanbul

The two weeks passed really fast, İ traveled to İstanbul where İ stayed for 5 days. The reason of my visit was On-Arrıval trainıng organized by Turkish National Agency. During this training, I had a chance to meet so many nice, talented and motivated people. İ have to mention our legendary room 228 (İ can see your smile guys). I am very thankful for this opportunity. No doubt that İstanbul is the biggest city ın Turkey, so you expect that people wıll be less caring, but the truth is the opposite. I went to a patisserie with friends of mine. We ordered 4 “salep”, as İ am a big sweet lover İ was wondering about one sweet which i have never tried (I am really bad wıth names) so İ asked the waıtor. He directly saıd me, don’t order ıt because you wıll not lıke ıt. İt made me even more curious so İ ordered it. Thıs turkısh “tatlı” was different, a bit hard, the chocolate pastry, fruits were covered by peanuts and it made a perfect combination of tastes. İ really liked it, so İ shared my opinion with waiter who was waiting for my reaction. He was so surprised and on the other hand so happy that İ liked the sweet, that he served us different kind of sweets just to try them.

Some tips:

I found the monumental Kocatepe
on the way home (yes, İ was a little bit lost)

If you don’t know the way, always ask 2 or more people. Turkısh people never say I don’t know, so they can show you the wrong way. (happened to me many times)

You can meet here one philosophy, I call it “problem yok”, where everything is okay, never seeing problems, which has of course pros and cons.

İSTANBUL STOLE MY HEART.

No small talk today, a briskly start because the naked truth does not need introduction. 
İt needs only to be shoutoff the rooftops!And which place could be better to yell from, if not Galata tower? That, for the one that do not know it, with her 63 metres of elevation allowed you to have a breath taking view on the old part of İstanbul. The tower, Kule in turkish, had an involving life: it was build by the italians and was thought as part of the defense wall surrounding their district at Galata; especially used to keep under surveillance the Harbor. Byzantine ships were awaited to engage trade relationship. Time passed and Mehemet II, after conquered Costantinopoli, put men on the tower in charge of detecting fires in the city.  7 century after, Costantinopoli swop the name to Istanbul, there is no more Ottoman Empire, no more high probability of blaze in the city but, still, the tower is there in all her beauty and majesty. A curios fact involving the building is that it inspired the first Turk, nonetheless, to fly. İt was during the Ottoman Empire when Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi staring at the imposing tower copied bird wings and, after studying the air flows, decided to climb it and…jump!. He overflew the Bosphorus and landed at Uskudar District, on the Asian side, around 6 kilometers in distance. This made him the first flying Turk of history. 

But now let me start from the beginning. İ arrived in İstanbul on Thursday evening with    ahead only(!!!) two full days to visit the city. The weather that welcomed us was not the better one. Grey sky and even greyer clouds have been the background of my picture. The cloud, thinking that ruin my photos was not enough, poured down oceans of rain most of the time.The true magic is, that, despite bad weather and a sparkly sun on my leaving day as a bad joke of destiny, anyway İ felt in love with Istanbul.

İ travelled with my two housemates. They planned to pay a visit to their friends, İstanbul students, and İ wisely sneaked in the plan. Osman, a psychology student that knew my housemates since high school, open his house to us. The apartment was set in the Asiatic part. Even if he was living since two years in İstanbul, he decided to come with us to the European part of the city the following day, because he had never visited there.

Once we took on the journey I discovered why he never head out on the mentioned travel. One hour of taxi plus fifteen minutes of steamboat. Basically it is faster to reach Ankara by flight. Obviously, for me everything was amazing. After a calm awakening, we got up in a luxury version of a taxi and we were dropped off at the steamboat wharf.

Crossing the Bosphorus Strait by boat could be worthy only for the fun the feed the incalculable number of pigeon, that İ discovered been greedy of simit; but actually the fascinating fact of the broach is the view. You see the girls tower in the middle of the water, then you gaze to the huge Blue Mosque and Saint Sophia that stand up among the house stretch out along the coast , especially at night, you can goggle at the extraordinary view of the city lights, making this visual even more mystical.Once achieved the ground we headed to the Blue Mosque. The Turkish name of this impressive architectural building is Sultanahmet Mosque named after Sultan Ahmed I who ordered the construction of what it was a unique project; in fact the Blue Mosque is the only one in all Turkey with seven minarets. Mosques traditionally have one, two or four minarets. It’s rumored that this was a misunderstanding; the Sultan had instructed his architect to make gold (altin) minarets and the architect understood six (alti) minarets. The European name derived, instead, from the color of the tiles that surrounded the inside of the building. İf you look up a thousand of tales with byzantine pattern gave you the sensation to be rounded by this intense blue color, it is like you are in heaven.

 

We wondered around İstanbul for the following two days but the right moment, when Istanbul took my heart until forever, was not involved the magnificence of the building, not even the magic and ancient atmospheres you could breathe inside them. İt was something simpler. İ was walking with these guys that tried to introduce me deeply in the Turkish culture. Made me taste strange food (like kumpir, de-li-cious!), lead me around spectacular views brought me in special pub. When they discovered İ had never tried rakı (İ think they felt nearly insulted), they exclaimed we had to fix it!We went in a narrow and crowded street and we made our entrance in this even crowded and characteristic restaurant. One bottle of rakı, one bottle of water and some appetizers: the Turkish aperitivo. You can call me Italian, but there is where İ appreciated the most the Istanbul vibe; young and funny guys with different background but all enjoying the moment and what of amazing life can give you. Even if İ was a foreign they tried to make me feel part of something, part of İstanbul. History, tradition, culture, fun and lively atmosphere all mix together. Exactly there İ overwhelmed with joy.

Leszno`dan Haberler!

Merhaba, ben Sevil.

Avrupa Gönüllü Hizmeti projesine başvurarak Polonya`nın Leszno şehrine geldim. Buradaki deneyimlerimi sizlere aktarmak için yazıyorum. AGH(EVS) serüvenim Atatrk Havalimanı`nda başladı. Size ilk tavsiyem havalimanına 1 saat değil en az 1 bucuk saat önceden gitmeniz gerektiği ile ilgili olacaktir. Çünkü ülkemizde genel itibari ile Havalimanlarında güvenlik kontrolleri var. Bu aşamada uçağına geç kalan birçok kışı ile karsılaştım. Eğer benim gibi yurtdışına ilk kez havalimanından çıkış yapacaksanız erken gitmenizde fayda var. Üç saatlik keyifli bir uçuşun ardından,  Almanya`nın Berlin şehrindeki Tegel Havalimanına ulaştım. Metro kullanarak otobüs terminaline gittim ve otobüse bindim. İkinci aktarmamı yapacağım şehir olan Poznan`a ulaştıktan sonra tren ile bir saatte Leszno`ya geldim.

Sabahın erken saatlerinde geldiğim için bana ayrılan odaya yerleştikten sonra dinlendim. Bir sonraki gugu şehri tanımak ve ihtiyaç duyacağım mağazalar, marketler ve dövizcilerin yerlerini öğrenmekle geçirdim. Proje tarihlerinden dolayı Christmas tatilini ve yılbaşını burada geçirme şansını yakaladım. Bulunduğum ülkenin, onların geleneklerine uygun bir şekilde geçirdim. Tatil için bir haftalığına Berlin`e daha sonar bir haftalığına Çek Cumhuriyetini ziyaret ettim. Yolculuk icin gerekli biletleri ya istasyonlardan yada internetten edindim. Yılbaşını Çek Cumhuriyeti`nin Brno kentinde, geriye kalan altı günü  Olomouc şehrinde geçirdim.

Gideceğim şehirlerin kendine özgü önemli alanlarını ve tarihi mekanlarını önceden araştırdığım için kısıtlı zamanda daha çok yeri görebildim. Simdi Leszno`ya geri dondum ve sanatsal çalıştaylar düzenliyorum. Çocuklarla veya gençlerle iletişim icerisine girmek ve onlara kendi deneyimlerimi aktarmak, buraya gelme sebeplerim arasındaydı. Mezun olduğum bolumun avantajlarını da yanıma alarak, kendime uygun bir projede yer aldım. Buradaki dernek çalışanları ve farklı ülkelerden oluşan diğer gönüllü arkadaşlarla ortak bir amaç için çalışmak, bir süreliğine de olsa, gerçekte var olan ülke ve dünya sınırlarını ortadan kaldırdı. İşin içerisine girdikçe ve bir bütünün parçası olduğunuzu hissettiğinizde bakış acınız değişecek ve genişleyecek. Yurtdışında yaşamayı deneyimlemek ilk baslarda zor gibi gelse de, kendi sınırlarınızı keşfetmeniz açısından paha biçilemez bir deneyim. Kısa veya uzun dönem, kaldığınız sure boyunca Faikli bir kültürü öğrenmek ve o kültürün içerisinde yasamak benim her zaman yapmak istediğim birşeydi. Eğer bir projeye katılmak istiyorsanız kendinize uygun olan bir proje seçmelisiniz. Gitmek istediğiniz ülkenin yemek kültürünü, para birimini, tarihini ve sosyo-kültürel durumunu araştırın ve öğrenin. İnsanlar yalnızken özgürdür. Gidin ve hiç bilmediğiniz bir kentin içerisinde, hin bilmediğiniz bir dilde kaybolun. Kaybolun ki yolu bir daha unutmayın…Hepinize şimdiden bol şanslar ;)