This morning we headed out to a nearby park to get in some practice time. Along the way we got a mixture of interesting glances from the locals. I don’t think Istanbul is used to a group of 20 girls in shorts and t-shirts walking downtown kicking soccer balls.
Almost as soon as we got our shoes on at the park, an official looking man came and kicked us out. He wouldn’t let us play on the sparing grass that was available or even on the cement. Needless to say - our first practice in Turkey lasted no more than a minute. The SportFest starts tomorrow night with the opening ceremonies and our first game is on Saturday - so I’m sure we’ll get some field time before then.
Our Turkish tour guides took us on the ferry to a small island off of Istanbul, where we took an even smaller boat to a private little beach on the other side of the island. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, exploring by the cliffs, swimming and playing soccer on the beach. The water was filled with lots of harmless white jellyfish, but while some of us were exploring we encountered a large, purple, striped jellyfish with lots of dangerous looking tentacles. Leslie reminded us that peeing on a jellyfish sting is quite effective... but we stayed away from that area from then on!
On the ferry ride home, Olenka borrowed a guitar from some Turkish people on the boat and the team impressed the locals with a sing-along to Greenday’s Time of Your Life. The guitar was returned and we then listened to some Turkish music, and enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing sunset ride back to Istanbul.
-Jenn
