Last Thursday, Margot, Greg, Mary and I took the night ferry to Istanbul to catch jazz performance at what turned out to be a really great, intimate, shwanky jazz bar near Galata Tower. Friday was pretty low-key. I did a little yoga, made a trip to Sultanahmet, and then tried out a few restaurants and watering holes off Istiklal. (Ironically, this picture is actually of the watering hole we frequent most regularly...For the first time, though, we were seated upstairs, where we got to enjoy live traditional Turkish music, and the audience participation of everybody else.) Meanwhile, more Fulbrighters bussed and flew in from such far-flung destinations as Erzurum, Trabzon, Gazi Antep, Mugla and Canakkale. By Saturday, there were nearly 40 of us scattered across Beyoglu, Sultanahmet, Pera and up and down Istiklal.
Seven of those 40 Fubrighters were staying with me at the Liberta Hostel. (Above.) Margot, Clayton and I rented out a full dormitory room and we had a summer-camp-style slumber party on New Years. It was awesome. From the rainy afternoon shopping, to the hot Pizza Hut we got delivered, to the 30-cent party masks for our masquerade Bosphorus tour, to the discovery that cherry juice mixes extremely well with vodka, to singing "No Scrubs" at the top of my lungs somewhere between Asia and Europe, sometime around 2 am, everything was awesome. I really think this video made by my friend Deven (as in Christmas-party-throwing Deven) sums it all up. Enjoy! (I know I do every time I watch it!)
Happy 2012! May your new year be a memorable, fun and utterly awesome adventure!
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