Our morning started out pretty well. Alix and I met and took a new bus downtown. Typically, we got to the station, and didn’t know where to go from here. Again, we had wrote down where we had to go, but we were still not sure which bus to get on. Lucky for us, locals just seem to want to help out two girls who look desperately lost. No less than 5 people helped us at this stop- including flagging down a private buses (more like vans), asking the driver if the bus would take us to our location, telling the other people in the van to warn us when to get off, then actually telling us when to get off and where to walk. People are amazing.
Lost- attempting to use the guidebook
After went to the Sakıp Sabancı museum to see the Vermeer and Rembrant exhibition. I still can’t believe we got in for free.
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| By the Turkish Art Exhibit |
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| Checking out the artwork |
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| Outside the museum |
We also got to see a huge display for illuminated works and textiles (including a bunch of beautiful Qurans). The museum provided, in exchange for ID, ipads for us to go on our own digital tour. We were to hold up the ipads to these “barcodes” so we could flip through the pages of the works that were not shown. Super idea, poorly executed on our part. For the life of us, we could not get the ipads to work. We would hold them up to the “barcodes” (to the point of arm fatigue) and nothing would happen. The museum security upon seeing how frustrated we were, would laugh at us, come take the ipads, and like magic, it would work. I imagine much of their day is spent in this fashion.
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| Holding the Ipad up the barcode |
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| Not working.... |
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| Beautiful illuminated works |
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| Illumination tools |
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| Alix got her Ipad to work... I suspect sorcery |
We got through this museum a lot faster than expected and decided to explore some more. We took a bus down to the ports in Beşiktaş to see Istanbul Modern (the modern art museum). We were again admitted for free (for some odd reason, the website said only Fridays are free....still not sure why we didn’t have to pay anywhere). Unfortunately, photos were not permitted. About midway through our tour we got to the back of the museum, which was all glass and overlooked the water, and we saw these MASSIVE BLACK clouds rolling in. We rushed through the rest of our tour and hopped on another bus and went to Ortaköy. I’d actually been to this area before with my host family so it was easy getting around. We didn’t spend much time outside because by the time we got off the bus it had started to rain. While we were inside eating it began to pour, and by the time we finished, it was in full on monsoon mode.
The district of Ortaköy is downhill from the rest of Istanbul so all the water began collecting down there. We walked out of the restaurant to find the entire place under a foot of water. We were immediately soaked. While running to the bus stop we used our umbrellas as shields for the tsunamis that were caused by by the cars speeding by. After bussing to Istinya park mall, Sarah was picked up by her driver (lucky bum). This is where the adventure begins.
Alix and I were waiting for our bus in the pouring rain, with only one small umbrella. At this time it was getting extremely you-can-see-your-breathe kind of cold outside. On the electronic board you could see when the buses were going to arrive. We stood there fuming as bus after bus was delayed. I only found out later that our bus route (that took us to main terminal) was so badly flooded that the bus couldn’t arrive at our current stop. At this time, we were shaking and very much considering taking a very expensive cab. By some miracle a guy there realized we were distressed and offered his help. He didn’t speak much English, but the guy next to him spoke French and acted as translator between us.
After the bus was delayed a fourth time, Murad, our miracle man, offered to guide us to the main station. However, this wasn’t translated very well, the man who was translating just said “go, follow him”. So we went. I retrospect it was probably a pretty stupid thing to do. We were pretty sure Murad had good intentions, and we were desperate...but probably something we shouldn’t have done in a foreign country. We followed Murad about 4 blocks in the dark, talking to him in broken English, until we arrived at the metro station. This entire walk, Alix and I kept making jokes about being abducted and dying in the rain, but I know both of us were a little worried. However, Murad was a perfect gentleman. He walked on the outside so we weren’t splashed by cars, guided us around pot holes, and helped us cross the super busy intersections. When we finally got to the metro station, our metro cards HAD RUN OUT OF MONEY! What a nightmare, the whole day I was joking about them running out at the worst possible moment and this was it. However, Murad, without hesitation, scanned his card for both of us explaining that “students help students”. I can only imagine what would have happened if we had got on a bus without Murad... the public transit here doesn’t accept change, only tokens are cards. When we got the main bus terminal, we met up with Murad’s friend Halil. Murad had, unknowly to us, called him earlier to meet us at the terminal. Halil spoke more English, and Murad wanted to be sure we got on the right bus home! They made sure were we got our passes reloaded, and got on the correct route. They even walked us all the way to the doors of our bus.
I am actually so amazed by how kind, thoughtful and concerned for our safety these two students were. I can even begin to imagine how we would have got home without them! This post it decided to you guys!
*Update on this whole experience. The three of us are extremely sick after spending all that time in the cold and rain. No surprise there.
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