Filling out a health certificate on the plane from London, I realized that I have been to 5 countries in the last two weeks. Kosovo, Serbia, Croatia, Austria, Britain. Now, Turkey.
We had our going-away dinner with our host families and professors on Sunday night in Zagreb and I flew to Vienna early on Monday morning. Most of the group continued on to JFK, but me, Fiona & Emily met up with Rachel (who took a train from Zagreb) in Vienna for the night. Vienna, at face value, is one of the most beautiful cities I have been in. It was a bit of culture shock, seeing my first Starbucks after 3.5 months, no graffiti for blocks, and being able to overhear conversations in a language I could understand. We went the Hofburg Palace complex, which is great. I saw various churches, the government buildings, national theater, university, etc. I also saw the Spanish Riding School & the Lippizaner stables.
Tuesday morning I went to the Belvedere palace (now an art museum), where I saw my most favorite painting in the whole wide world = Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss" as well as some of his other works. From there, we headed to the airport and boarded our 3pm flight to London!
Got to Gatwick with no problem and took a transfer to the city. I was mesmerized by the traffic oncoming from the opposite side!! We hit the ground running, taking the Underground (mind the gap!!) to Westminster - saw the River Thames, the Eye, Parliament, Westminster Abbey & Big Ben. Westminster Abbey is SO cool. We walked to Trafalgar Square and then took the U to the Tower of London (which actually isn't a tower, its a fortress... silly me). Then on to Buckingham Palace around nightfall, where we met Rachel's friend Joy - we crashed in her LSE dorm for the night. I would like to note that we ran around with giant backpacks all day... my shoulders are never going to forgive me.
Yesterday was an intense travel day. We took a bus to London-Luton airport and flew to Sabiha Gocken, on the east side of Istanbul, on the Asian continent. Met by Turkish health officials wearing masks as we were getting off the plane - they take this swine flu thing very seriously. We had quite the run-around when trying to buy our visas into Turkey, but now I have a cool sticker and stamp in my passport! Using public transportation from the airport, it took us 3 buses, a tram, a whole lotta walking and about 3 hours to get to our hostel, located in the heart of the Old City - luckily, we are flying out of the more convienent airport next week!!
We were dead tired last night and collapsed around 10pm, even with the 2 hour time difference from London. I was awoken by the call of prayer at 5am from the mosque next door - but slept in until after 8! We went to the Topkapi Palace this morning and then headed up to the Spice Market & Grand Bazaar this afternoon. It's cooler today (in the 70s), but supposed to be in the 90s over the weekend. Many locals are still wearing overcoats and of course, many women are covered from head to toe. I barely made it in jeans & a t-shirt today! We're planning a cruise on the Bosphorus or a trip up to the beaches on the Black Sea tomorrow... will update again soon!
Reporting live from Istanbul,
Liz
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