Today was an exhausting day!
We took a ride to Bogaziçi University (After 4 days we all still mess up this word - it sounds a little like Bo-wa-za-chee) and had a little walk around. The campus is beautiful with lots of trees, and a great view of the Bosporus Strait. From the university we took a ferry filled with many other teams. We split up into groups and spent the afternoon exploring Istanbul, either in the Hagia Sofia (one of Istanbul’s most famous mosques), Topkapi Palace (a palace built in the Ottoman Empire), or the Grand Bazaar.
We had a lot of waiting and riding busy buses in the heat. We were all a little surprised by the unorganized schedule of the tournament. I think that the Europeans have a different sense of time - and live by a much more relaxed schedule. We arrive for the opening ceremonies at 5 p.m. but then had to wait until 8 p.m. for it to start. It was probably most difficult for Bonnie, who is hyper organized and always has plans for us down to the exact minute.
Tonight we had the opening ceremonies. We marched around the stadium along with 900 athletes from 36 universities from Europe and North America participating in 21 different sports. Some of the sports I think are only played in Europe and I’ve never even heard of. Most of the countries were very kind to us when they found out that we were from Canada, and virtually all Europeans love soccer. The torch for the games was lighted, and we watched some Turkish and African dancing. It amazing how sports can bring countries together to participate in games like this and it was nice to see and meet people from other countries. There is a Croatian water polo team staying at the same hotel as us.
The Turkish people have an interesting way of collecting transportation fare. After waiting a while after the opening ceremonies, our tour guides somehow managed to find us a shuttle bus to take us back to the hotel. After about 10 minutes of riding the shuttle, all of sudden, a guy came running up to the bus, opens the door, jumps in and demands us to pay him for the ride. After he collected the money, he hopped off the van and proceeded to sprint down the road, dodging traffic along the way to another bus to collect fare from then. What a great job! If university doesn’t work out for me, I think I might move here and take up that occupation. You get to meet new people, explore the streets of Istanbul, make some money, and get a good workout at the same time!
Istanbul never sleeps! I was a little overwhelmed moving from London to Toronto, because of the whole big city, and dense population (which by the way is not really a problem - the university campus has a much different feel than the city itself) but Toronto is tiny compared to this city. Istanbul has a population of 12 million, compared to Toronto’s measly 2.5 million. The streets by our hotel (near Taxim square) are constantly packed with people at all times of the day and become busiest and most alive at night. All the stores are open well past 10 p.m. The main street by our hotel is electric and full of excitement, always filled with people shopping, going out to the bars or discos, drinking tea, going out to late night dessert, and the air is filled with shouts from store owners, restaurants, and ice cream vendors shouting to attract everyone to their places. It’s when I’m dead tired when the streets are just becoming alive.
I think we’re all adjusting to the Turkish culture. It is now normal for us to arrive at places an hour late and still get there before anyone else. We have started to barter for everything - Gwen (whose birthday is today... Happy Birthday Gwen!) even tried to barter with some university students that were having a bake sale, and refused to pay what they asked for. We travel to the university by the public bus, which takes about an hour. While we’re sweating bullets in our shorts and t-shirts, the locals walk around perfectly content in their business suits, long pants, and jackets. We’ve also become accustomed to constantly bumping into people, and not worried when taxis drive up 1 inch away from us.
Tomorrow is our first game! We’re not really sure what to expect, but I guess we’ll find out!
Hope everyone is safe and well in Canada!
-Jenn
