Turkey

I fell asleep on my flight from London and woke up 4 hours later outside Istanbul in Turkey.


Old walls of Constantinople


Taksim Square outside Marina's hotel window


Taksim Square


Asia's just across the Bosphorus Strait


old Constantinople across the Golden Horn






Yeni Mosque


Outside the Yeni Mosque

Turkey was cool. The border between Asia and Europe. Where East literally meets West. A country where 98% of the population is Muslim but is secular anyway. Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire and the capital of the Eastern Roman/Byzantium Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church when it was known as Constantinople. Istanbul takes its identity from both European and Middle Eastern influences. Turks dressed in typical Western summer clothes and drank beer at sidewalk cafes under the blaring muezzins' call to prayer at the local mosques. Istanbul's the city of a thousand minarets. Mosques are just as ubiquitous in Istanbul as they are in Cairo. But bars and nightclubs are just as ubiquitous in Istanbul as any other European city. Like other Muslim countries in the Middle East, Turkey is a place where tradition and modernization seem inevitably forced into a conflict. I never saw a single person wearing a dishdasha or an abayya the whole time. Maybe they're probably just trying to impress the EU officials.


Galata Tower


Old City of Constantinople/Sultanahmet across the Golden Horn...Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque off in the distance




The Sultan's Palace


Sea of Marmara




Across the Golden Horn

I was in Taksim Square when Turkey scored a goal with 0 seconds left to tie Croatia (1-1) and then subsequently beat them in penalty kicks (3-1). That was my last night in Turkey and the place pretty much rioted. The main street in Galata was deserted during the game but once Turkey pulled off another Euro 08 miracle that night, the place was packed and going nuts. Turks are just obsessed with football. Crazy fun.


Istiklal Caddesi


Taksim Square during the Euro Cup 08 match against Croatia

Earlier that day I took a ferry up the Bosphorus Strait, which divides Europe and Asia. Istanbul is on the European side (Thrace) and the ferry went up the Strait into the Black Sea and I got off on the Asian side (Anatolia/Asia Minor). There were tons of oil tankers (probably mostly Russian) going in and out of the Black Sea. I wandered around this village a bit and found this old castle at the top of a hill.


Ferry up the Bosphrous Strait into the Black Sea... getting off in Asia Minor/Anatolia




the Bosphrous Strait and the Black Sea


the Bosphorus Strait that divides Asia and Europe


the Black Sea...Europe's on the other side


old Ottoman castle


Dolmabahce Palace...where Ataturk also died




Besides that, I did the usual tourist stuff in Istanbul. Topkapi Palace, the Ottoman Sultan's residence, was expensive but worth it, though it felt nearly overrun by Japanese tourists. I visited the Hagia Sophia (St. Sophia, built in 532AD by Emperor Justinian of the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire) that was once the most prestigious church in Christianity. It was the largest cathedral ever built in the world for nearly a thousand years. That is, until Muhammad the Conquerer and the Muslims captured Constantinople in 1453 (renaming it Istanbul) to establish the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Then they converted Christianity's #1 church into a mosque and removed all the symbols of Christianity. The altar was replaced with a Qibla and the mosaics were plastered over. They even built the huge Sultanahmet mosque directly across the street in front of the Hagia Sophia. Of all the Muslim lands I have ever traveled to, Istanbul had the most beautiful mosques. I'm bumping Iran's mosques down to #2...kind of ironic since Turkey actively encourages secularism and Iran is an Islamic Republic.


Entrance to Topkapi Palace


Turkish Kids in the national dress


Inside the Palace of the Sultan


Inside the Hagia Sophia...Allah and Muhammad


The Qibla that replaced the altar




One of the mosaics that was plastered over


Sultanahmet/Blue Mosque






Sultanahmet Mosque






at the Hippodrome: Egyptian Obelisk from Temple of Karnak and Constantine's Column - stripped of its gold


Hagia Sophia


inside the Sultanahmet Mosque


Basilica Cistern, used to store water during sieges


Grand Bazaar




looking down at the Old City of Constantinople/Sultanahmet

After meeting up with Marına (ND Army ROTC/Farley frıend) on her last nıght/my fırst nıght ın Istanbul and going around Turkey and the Black Sea for a week, I flew to Beirut, Lebanon to start my intensive Arabic classes this summer. I'll be in Lebanon from June 21 to August 2. Beirut is best known as the party capital of the Middle East. Too bad it's also known as a war zone. Update on Beirut coming soon too.

Philippines

My sister and I have a tradition everytime we visit the Philippines. We count how many interracial Filipino couples we see. For couples of a white male and a Filipino woman, we counted 130. For couples of a Filipino male and a whıte woman, we counted 6. Besides that, there's not much else we did asıde from shoppıng and vısıtıng famıly and even our old yaya Ellen from when I was between 2 and 9 years old. I fınally went to Club Embassy ın Manıla, the best club ın the Phılıppınes. San Mıguel Beer ıs cheaper than water...about 30 cents per bottle. For shoppıng, we went to the usual places for cheap desıgner brand stuff. We also went to the Mall of Asıa (largest mall ın Asıa and 3rd largest ın the world) but dıdn't actually buy anythıng. We also drove 14 hours north of Manila to the northern tip of the country. Very beautıful beaches. The best part of a 14 hour road trip ıs that we were the only tourısts around. But then agaın, we're Fılıpıno so we're not really tourısts. We even saw former President and Dictator Ferdinand Marcos's preserved body in his hometown.

Anyway, I'm typıng thıs from Istanbul ın Turkey so I'll post somethıng about Turkey soon. Marına (ND Army ROTC/Farley frıend) left yesterday but we dıd meet up and hang out on her last nıght/my fırst nıght ın Istanbul. Euro 2008 (futbol) ıs goıng on too and the Turks are obsessed. And ıf Turkey wıns tomorrow nıght's match agaınst Croatıa, Istanbul ıs goıng to absolutely riot. Peace.


Mall of Asıa




Club Embassy








the other KKK


peninsula hotel, last november 2007 there was a coup attempt by rogue soldiers of the Philippine Army. it ended after an APC burst through the lobby and a gunfight broke out inside the hotel


cockfıght!


Lechon Kawalı


good mornıng Phılıppıne Islands


Good ol San Mıg


The Marcos house


St Augustıne. 16th Century Spanısh

England/France/Ireland/ND

Spending 10 days in Europe was expensive. I knew I should've gone to India and Pakistan instead. But my flight from Dubai to London flew right over Baghdad...so that was probably the coolest part. I could look down and see little white cars driving around. From 28,000 feet it was hard to tell that a war was going on down there. 6 hours later my plane landed in London and it was weird getting used to seeing so much green again. I spent a few days in London wandering around, getting used to the West again, and going bankrupt. A meal at McDonald's set me back 8-10 dollars and it was the cheapest place I could find. Then I made another spontaneous decision (like I did in Egypt to go to Abu Simbel on the Sudan border) to take a bus across the English channel to visit Paris. It was only 44 quid so I thought, 'why not?' Except I spent all my money on the bus ticket and food (I ate McDonald's for every meal) so I didn't have any money for a hotel in Paris. No problem. I just stayed awake and wandered the streets all night. I met a lot of interesting people at some French bars. Like this one guy who was from Morocco. I even got to practice my Arabic with him, except he was kind of drunk. Then I watched the sunrise at the Eiffel Tower. Oh, and in France you can get a beer at McDonald's. And since they have the metric system and don't use pounds, they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese a 'Royale with Cheese'. And a Big Mac is 'Le Big Mac'. I loved Paris. It definitely beats out London and Dublin. Spontaneous decisions can pay off sometimes. Dublin was nice and cozy. Much cleaner and calmer than Paris and London. Irish accents were a bit too thick and were hard to figure out sometimes. I would make out a word here and there but the rest was all gibberish. But they did like how I was from Notre Dame. No one in the Middle East had heard of ND so it was a relief to meet people who actually knew my university. But the best part about Dublin was the Guinness Storehouse. It's my favorite beer so it felt like a pilgrimage being able to visit the place. And compared to secular London and Paris, it was nice to see a European city not in Italy that still retained its Catholic character. I flew back to the US and Notre Dame on the 16th. I left Dubai on February 7th so it was the longest time I had ever been out of the country. And now I was only back for 4 days before I would leave the country again.


Big Ben and Parliament


London Bridge


I randomly stumbled upon this in Trafalgar Sqaure


Buckingham Palace


Louvre


French McDonald's: Royale with Cheese, Beer, Potato Wedges (no French Fries?)


530am at the Eiffel Tower


7am at Le Arche d'Triomphe


Notre Dame


Notre Dame


Guinness

It was good to be back at ND though. It was still kind of cold (60 degrees) but at least it was sunny. It was -2 degrees and snowing when I left in February. It was a bit weird being at ND for graduation weekend. I couldn't stop thinking that this would be me in 2 years. Yikes. My family and I met Martin Sheen outside the bookstore. He liked how we were Filipino, since it was in the Philippines that he lived when Apocalypse Now was being filmed. I also ate Chipotle for the first time in 4 months. It was glorious.


ND Graduation: Fam port with Martin Sheen.

Anyway, I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Manila. It feels good to be back in the homeland. Again.