08.04. Even though Mazdak left us a night earlier his presence was still recognizable. He left us a note made out of Estonian workshop's tasks. But now, when I think about that, maybe it wasn't Mazdak who made a collage. But anyway, it was time for Hungarians workshop on that day. They let us play some violent games and also super funny lip sync game. Or I don't know how to call it, youtubers usually play that game 😛 If you have loud music playing on your headphones, then it is not so easy to understand what the other person is saying to you. Hungarians sent us to the streets to discover local culture more deeply. For example, we had to take a picture with the oldest person we can find on the streets, learn how to make kebab and learn Turkish gestures. Istanbul Express task was successful, we got out of the seminar room and needed to do something physical. It was a pity that technology dysfunctioned and we couldn't watch the recorded videos all together. On the same day was Hungarian parlamentary elections. So, after lunch some of them went to the embassy for voting. With some Estonians we went to a Sunday market that was held on a parking house nearby. They sold super cheap stuff there, so I finally bought myself a cap. So did Karolina. I was looking for a right one almost for a year and I finally got it for 2 euros. Insane! We also discovered local shopping streets. You know, last days and you need to buy as much souvenirs as possible. I loved our neighbourhood you could find all essential services from there and still it was so homey. After free time we had Lithuanians workshop. They made us dancing "tibutants" 🐤 And then we had a serious Oxford debate about homosexuals rights and abortion. It was harsh because for and against topics made participants vulnerable and offensive. Somehow we managed to express our arguments even though the implementation wasn't the best. Kristen's Mexican friend joined us during the session and shared his ideas. In the evening we had our last cultural night. Turks filled in the whole night. Firstly, they showed great videos about their culture and land. To move on they had invited local musicians to perform folk songs. Their performance was great and enthusiastic because soon we were all on the dance floor. There we felt free dancing like mads. I love that Tarkan is an inseparable companion of everything that is related to Turkey. Singing along with songs that are as old as myself is not a problem at all. Talking about food . . . it is never too much delights. By the way, I bet Norwegians punishment baklava was also tasteful because it vanished on such a speed that slowly Estonians couldn't even react. Locals offered us bizarre tasting drink, it is probably the oddest thing I have ever drunk. To put a dot to the Turkish night we went to a shisha bar. Somehow we started playing strategic games. I am pretty sure that the group started hating camels. Actually it was such a relief seeing how Alexander solved the puzzle. It was a pure happiness that flood out of him afterwards. 09.04. On our last day we had an easygoing schedule. First of all we had a group work about Youthpass 8 key competences. I remember that during my EVS on-arrival training Görkem said that he has many of them already and they are kind of pointless. I didn't understand him on that point but now, 6 projects later, it makes totally sense. We moved on with Erasmus topic in general. We were divided into groups according to our Erasmus experience. The most experienced person from the group had to share his/her knowledge with others. After discussion we had a quiz. After lunch we were free to discover around once again. This time I decided to study. I had pushed all my responsibilities to the future all week long and now I had a critical situation with my university tasks. But I took maximum of my situation. Even though I couldn't visit Asian side of Istanbul I sunbathed on the rooftop. In the evening session we revealed our secret friends and received youth passes. Some Estonians already knew my secret friend because someone mentioned me something about him. After youth pass ceremony it was time to write down the most important adjectives about the people who we had met. To be honest, I didn't write to everyone's paper because I didn't get to know all the 60 participants and didn't learn all their names. In the future I prefer smaller projects. But it was sweet reading what others wrote to me. Mainly my lovely Estonian participants filled in the paper. Last day, last photos, last dances together with legendary Norwegian song and last crazy games. I am not playing this kind of bacterial sharing game again. I was suffering under illness almost 2 weeks after Istanbul 😷 On the other hand, it was fun but I guess guys took the game too seriously. I just imagine what people who had access to the cameras though about our bottle game 🤭 This "trumpas pimpalas" farewell party was something totally different the ones I usually have. Norwegians went to the airport around 5 o'clock and we went to sleep. Good thing about being awake so long was the fact that we finally heard the morning prayer call with Karolina. 10.04. Our flight was in the afternoon. We woke up on a normal time and had a last plenty breakfast. We had just enough time to pack our bags and say goodbye with rest of the people. Thank God that Katja checked her flight time otherwise she would have missed her flight. Because she had it almost on the same time we went all together. Way to the metro station was shorter than ever and metro stops felt pretty familiar already. Even though Atatürk Airport is huge it is easy to orientate there like in everywhere in the city. After listening to favorite music from Turskih Airlines playlist we were back in homeland. It was a sunny afternoon, at least this white shit had been melted by that time. I also put together a video about our project. Thanks a lot to project organizers and all national groups for making your workshops and sharing your culture with all of us. Special thanks to Estonian sending organization Seiklejate Vennaskond who is giving opportunity to discover different cultures to hundred Estonian youngsters every year. I am still a bit confused who is the real organizer of the project. So, I mention both of them. (Actually I know that Norway organized it but Turkey has big part on it as well) Thank you and Diyarbakır Çevre ve Kalkınma Derneği and Aktiv Ungdom for letting us enjoy the atmosphere of Istanbul. I am grateful for people who made photos and recorded videos during the project. I take the right to use them in my blog as well 😉
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05.04. Today's topic was communication in your country. We had some ideas what we would like to present already in Estonia, now we only had to realize them. We had several plays to act that show how communication is Estonia works. You can classify the bus situation into the best example of Estonians behaviour. And we weren't the only ones, our situation was close to Norwegians one. After that we had to work out what prejudices we have about different nations. It was a good opportunity to go to the rooftop and discuss it. By the way, it was a perfect day for sunbathing. We decided with girls to make a poem out of prejudices we have. During the discussion we figured out that we don't have information about Hungarian guys. As hearing other stories, we heard that Norwegians are super kind, they were so sneaky that they almost didn't mention negative aspects of girls. In the afternoon we had short and funny game where we had to put ourselves into funny positions. After that we were divided into groups to introduce different ways of communication, especially among youngsters. One group threw us into ice cold water. One person had to close his/her eyes (close your eyes, open your mind, take off...) and try to figure out what is the emotion a word is said in other person's native language. It was not so easy as it seems. In our group Mazdak and Jeney told fascinated facts and I was totally speechless. Maybe our presentation was too focused on one person but the speech Mazdak had was amazing. In the evening the results of sunbathing were seen, at least I wasn't the only one who looked like a tomato (Viva la Estonians) We had an urgent meeting about night activity after dinner. In the evening we had an Eurovision party and we worked hard to find our songs. Until the last moments we weren't sure what to perform there. After having discussion in Janre's room we decided to perform Fix - Jaanipäev and "Seda paati pole tehtud linnuluust". I realized after that performance that I am totally bad singer. I need to start practicing more than just humming on the streets. Huuh, that public performance needed a lot of courage. Lithuanians nailed the competition with "We are the winners" and with Verka Serduchka. Turks of course performed Tarkan's "Şimarik" and engaged all the audience as well. After party we ended up on the rooftop. Eurovision party continued there. Unfortunately we were too noisy because we got complaints from neighbours. 06.04. Day started with Norwegian workshop. We had to create memes which results were amusing. It was funny, relaxing and advertising task. Of course many memes about room 404 and sausage party appeared. I need to explain them a bit. 404 was Mehmet's room and it's doors were opened to everyone and after midnight only for selected ethnic group 🤣 And we called Norwegian team "Sausage Party" because of their 12 participants 11 were guys. After memes we had to prepare a public speech and perform it as first to our partner and then to the whole group. Lars gave a good example talking a dramatic story about a local guy. I guess everyone hates tennis balls by now. We also got feedback about or performance but unfortunately we ran out of time and half of the group didn't receive a feedback and they were kind of under the pressure because lack of time. After lunch we had a meeting with Estonian team once again on the rooftop. But this time it was windy outside and not so pleasant weather. We had a quick brainstorm and somehow got a last minute idea about letting teams record silent videos. Kätrin wrote down a location, object and a mood to spicy those videos. Then we were ready to start our workshop. Video task turned out greatly. We also had some energizers and then another video task. We showed a video from Estonian parody show and asked from groups their opinions what they just saw. Then we showed the video once again with subtitles. Then we showed a Latin America telenovela and Turkish soap opera. It was a mistake because we could't find the same video with English explanation. My bad, sorry. In the evening we had Norwegians and Lithuanians intercultural night. We played a popular game among Estonian parties as well (bag running? orsm) and tasted weird cheese. We got new knowledge about our lovely baltics and drank some more kvass. Some people went to a club once again. Because yesterday's angels and devils night was lit enough to visit once more Erasmus party. 07.04. It was a day I waited the most. Actually we had to have the city day on a previous day but because of the wedding in the hotel we switched days. Our first sight was Grand Bazaar. We all used the metro to reach the place. It is difficult to walk with this huge group on the street but nobody got lost. On the market we had some free time to do shopping. We walked there with Lisete and tried to buy some jewelries but seller wanted to get more money than we wanted to offer. So, we decided not to buy anything from there. Blue Mosque was our next destination but unfortunately it was closed because of restoration works. Sorry guys, it is totally my coworkers fault. Actually I am confused, usually during the restorations part of the place is always open. Then we headed to Hagia Sophia just nearby. This building is AMAZING. It is gorgeous to see two different religions mixed together. And interior with golden details is enchanting. My dream was to visit Hagia Sophia for at least 5 years already. I was always jealous on people who have been there. So, for me it was even more crazier experience. We were looking for Vikings graffiti but couldn't find it. Because half of the church was closed due restorations (sorry again) then maybe they were on that part. Randomly we found a cat inside the museum. Its behaviour was unexpected. At first the cat was lovely but in the end attacked us. Then we walked to Topkapi palace. It was a disappointment for me. It wasn't so big as I imagined. After standing for minutes totally packed between people we got to see holy relics. On a royal kitchen museum and admired precisious porcelain exhibition. Some people went to a harem as well. They spent there about 30 minutes which is insane because I though it is going to take longer time to explore all the rooms. I don't assume that all of them are opened but still, like whaat. Then we went to Eminönü and had some free time to eat and to fulfill our shopping urge. Those streets were perfect for shopaholics, cheap prices and big variety of items. We went to a fast food place but soon we faced a problem related to Lisete's diet because in Turkey everything consists meat and cheese. Then we went to a Bosporus Tour. It was amazing, even though it was cold we danced actively to get warm. And those magnificent views. It was the best experience I have ever had during the Erasmus project. Colourful sky, Istanbul panorama and lovely people around you made a perfect platform for a photoshoot. After 1,5 hours we were totally frozen but satisfied. Most of the group decided to go back to the hotel.
Only 5 Estonians, 1 Norwegians and 1 Turk were left. We were the tough ones. We went to Galata Tower and from there to Taksim. We visited one church, because there was a concert we stayed there for a while. Then we went to a shisha place. We got lost at first but because I had been there before during APV we were soon back on track. Then many locals enjoyed. At the same time Norwegians invited people to Orthodox church for a Ceremony. After shisha time we went to a small shop and ended up drinking on a random street. We played "Never have I ever game" Then we went directly to the club. We partied until 4 o'clock. After crazy taxi ride we arrived back to our hotel. NB! Even in Estonian highways cars don't drive so fast (and Turkish taxis don't have seat belts 😳) 02.04. Morning started with a shitty weather in Estonia. Snow decided to fall down once again and made a total chaos in the country. Traffic jams and surly people were guaranteed. So many unexpected things happened with me already on my way to Tallinn Airport. After a delay I arrived to the airport and we shared our Estonian intercultural night goods on different luggages. We had a pleasant flight, even though we had to clean our surrounding and we spent one hour just stuck in Tallinn airport. The flight was nice because it was accompanied by Turkish music and movies. The flight was full of Estonian footballers wearing national suit. By a change, Karolina had the same outfit and everyone though that she is part of the team too 😄 In Atatürk airport we already saw familiar faces. Karolina saw Norwegians and I saw Hungarians. Project with 60 participants is insane. It is hard to imagine this huge group of people. We will see how the work funcionates. After the dinner we decided to visit a local shisha bar. All Estonians joined + Marius. Later one some people more but Marius is now officially part of Estonian team 😆 or at least part of Baltic gang. It was a fancy place, we sat on a throne. I still don't know how people are facinated by my shisha skills? I am not still so advanced as my friends in Estonia. (Greeting to my shisha club in Saku) On our way back from a bar something weird happened, police appeared and asked our documents. I am not used to carry my documents with me but after that night I just in case carried documents always with me. 03.04. Project started with an introduction of yourself. You had to walk in a circle until you talked about yourself something. Then bingo where you had to get to know each other more by filling in blanks. We used a coffee break to relax on the roof terrace. It is a nice quiet place with a great view. In the afternoon we played a hugging game and shared a lot of love. By the way the loser team gave a proper massage to the winners. Pretty good award I would say. We also set common rules and started with a secret friend game. To be honest, I was confused who is my secret friend at first. After stalking I finally understood to whom I have to give notes and gifts. After lunch we visited a mosque near by with an Estonian team. And also a police shops. Thanks to Anna's Turkish skills we got even invited to a locked mosque. We found a süpermarket and everything is so cheap and I hate that! During the last activity of the day we had to solve a mission impossible. At first we had some communication problems but at the end we figured how to manage all the work we had to do. Even though we couldn't write all our travel experience on the list, we completed the task pretty nicely. Then we had a signal competition, it took so long time but good side with those games is the taste of victory, when someone do you a massage that lasts minutes. During the dinner I got a laughting overdoze. Turks made so much fun but at least we got tasted many different wines. We had a game night to work as a group better. We act a pantomime style movie titles to each other. Night ended in a glass box. On that night I understood that caramel is my new favourite flavour of shisha and Norwegians are liars 🤣 Because we were next to a playground we decided to swing with Karolina. We had so much fun feeling like a kid again. 04.04.
In the morning our first task was a speed date. After that we had a free will how to fill in our morning. We had to change the paperclip to something more valuable and had many hours to solve the task. We had Murat in our team. Every time we tried to explain our mission in English we still ended up with Murat's explications. We exchanged a paperclip to a lollipop, book, candies, hair clips, prayer beads, hair clip and a cigarette. After the lunch I decided to visit Sultan Süleymaniye mosque and Sehzade Camii because they were nearby. Annabel, Anna and Lisete joined me. We went by metro there and firstly went to the seaside. It was a mistake because there was nothing to see and we just wasted our time. But after weird stalkers we ended up like in a paradise. It was a municipality house orsm. Cherries were blooming and clear water from fountains made the atmosphere so special. We visited two mosques. They were amazing and not many people visited them, so it was pretty calm atmosphere there. I led my group thanks to my tourist map and I was never too confident do we have a right sight or not. I am pleased that we found everything we wished.s I also had a change to visit Süleyman's and Hürrem's crypts. Those coffins were gorgeous. We even got educated about Islam and got a free Quran on top of that. So, guys watch out, we might change our faith soon. It is a great job that the volunteers do there, if you listen to them about 15 minutes it might be like a brainwash. Because we were getting late we tried to get a taxi, but all of them were already occupied. So, we still needed to use metro. We were about 30 minutes late and as a punishment we needed to dance in front of everyone. It was more fun that a punishment. In the evening we had to present our organization. We did a presentation about Seiklejate Vennaskond. Others made posters and showed videos. Night ended with Estonian and Hungarian intercultural night. We prepared our table full of goods and informative materials. Kätrin gave a start to our night with a soulful song. She is so talented and thanks to her skills many people had a great time on the rooftop as well. We introduced our hard language and did a Kahoot to make an interesting quiz. Then of course we danced Kaerajaan. It was complicated to do it in this big circle but we managed. Everyone had a possibility to get an Estonian flag to their cheeks to get more into the culture. Hungarians showed their singing skills and had a really interesting quiz as well. And those grazy dances, they went really quick in the end. In the middle of the night we got an idea to walk a bit on our neighbourhood. It was quiet around but we had one dreadful moment. We passed a dustpin when we heard noise from it, fortunately it was only a cat. In every project I love the private time with your compatriots, because only them can understand you deeply. The talk with Karolina was refreshing and gossip is one of the best things in life 😆 It was my first APV even though I have been a group leader before as well. Unfortunately things went bad with finding another participant to represent Estonians. It was a line of bad coincidents. At least I was presented there and I totally enjoyed the time. 22 of February I had a pleasant flight to Istanbul and after some time in subway and short walking I was in the hotel. I like that subway road is not going only underground but metro also drives like a train and you can see what surrounds you. On the way I saw an odd thing. People collect trash from the streets manually. No garbage truck, in Istanbul they have garbage carts. Probably this system works because of lack of space. 🤔 To a contrast, I was surprised how nice everything it is in our hotel. I guess it is the most luxurious accommodation place I have ever been even though I have been in 5-stars hotel as well. I had some relax time before we went outside. Because after Hungarians had arrived we went out to eat. They brought to tables a lot of appetizers: breads, salads and some spicy stuff. And then we had to choose what we want to eat for a main dish. Everything was in Turkish, so actually we based on locals recommendations in our choice. In the restaurant we had a first familiarization round. We have experienced group leaders, so participants shouldn't worry about at all. Because we were in Turkey we needed to get the real cultural experience by visiting a shisha bar. By the way, the taste of apple is so different from our ones. Turkish taste is way more better than in Estonia. When we went back to the hotel I wanted to see the terrace because participants from last years told me about that. It was lovely to see city lights and mosque lighted up. 23 of February Breakfast was in our hotel. Variety of food was good and tasty. In the morning I also met missing participants from Lithuania. They arrived really late at night and we didn't have a change to meet before. After a breakfast we had a tour in the hotel. We saw our activity room and other nice places that we are going to use during our project. Then we started to work hard and discussed through the timetable. There will be many interesting activities and I got so many ideas what I would like to do with my group as well. I believe it is going to be a really educating and interesting project for youth. After morning meeting we had some free time once again. I went to walk around the district. I wanted to enter the mosque as well but I was kind of afraid. It is really hard to adapt a new culture when you have no idea how it works. So, I'll leave this visit to April. In the evening we went by taxi to taksim square. Huuh, this taxi ride was insane. Overall, the traffic in Istanbul is grazy and tight conditions inside a car didn't make it more pleasant ride. In pedestrian point of view it is very difficult to cross the road. I just follow locals on their way crossing the street. It had been worked so far. And fortunately I have a really good Balkan school how to cross the road in difficult conditions. But back to the taxi ride, there was lack of space and too curvy roads. Somehow we managed, hopefully Jørgen enjoyed the ride as well 😄 The main street next to taksim was crowded. Locals said that it is always like that. We went to a shisha bar, it was pretty hidden but popular place. My restorer eye saw that the building has nice historical value as well. Because taksim is close to Suvi's place I invited her as well. It was a great reunion, usually we have met after the "Back to Our Roots" project in Tallinn with Birgitta and Javier for several times. I was used to talk in English all those days and that's why I started to talk with her in English at first. My brain just couldn't switch the language so quickly. Suvi fit into our group easily and we had so many Estonian moments during so short time. She gave me more energy and made me happy. It is always nice to meet with your friends, moreover somewhere far away from your motherland 😊 After plentiful dinner we went to a bar. The location of the place was kind of secret. As an average tourist I would have never found that place. It is weird that clubs/bars are located upstairs of the building. On the first floor there just might be a cafe or whatever but upstairs a real life reveals. If you want to enjoy nightlife of the city it is essential to take a contact with locals. The view to the night Istanbul was amazing. Live music made the place even better. Estonian independence day arrived for me in an international group. Suddenly Croatians, Austrian, Russian and Mexican joined with us. They met in hostel but Croatians knew our Turkish friends and thats why they joined us. I talked with many people but sometimes it is better to be quiet. Somehow a fake uncle story got viral and I bet that they will make even more jokes about that on April as well 😅 Because there was a band we went to the dancefloor as well. It was hard to dance while having your coat and bag with you but for safety it was the best option. It was great night and good start for an Estonian independence day. 24 of February I spent the morning in the hotel. But after the breakfast I said goodbye to guys and left the place. I reached the right metro station independently and met Anıl there. He is living in a new flat close to our project hotel. After I had put my things away we made a plan where to go and what to do. Firstly, we went to a Grand Bazaar. I have to mention that those paintings there need to be restored 😁 Then I saw Hagia Sophia and Sultan Ahmed mosque. On our way we saw many more mosques but they were just "small" ones. Actually I was a bit disappointed in Hagia Sophia. On the photos and videos it has been more glorious. Maybe it was because of the cloudy weather. Then we went to the riverside. There were many fishers and they are not just standing there, they are really catching fishes from Bosphorus. We walked over the bridge and visited one hipster district. It was a good place to eat and drink something. From there it was easy to go to Galata tower. We went to a cafe and enjoyed the view. Weather was cold but luckily it wasn't raining. Because I had seen kind of everything in the city centre we drove to one neighbourhood which is not so touristic. It was really quiet there and I had a possibility to see real locals life. Houses were classical style and many of them were in a bad conditions. I loved tradidional wooden houses and of course restored colourful houses. In the evening we had a pretty odd taxi ride to taksim square again. It was a bigger taxi and I still really didn't get how the system works there but at least we reached our destination. We had a pleasant dinner following people on the street and then once again we went to a secret bar on the rooftop. Again, amazing night view to the city. There were only locals around me. Afterwards we went to a bar/club. It was a weird place. People were dancing around their own table and there wasn't a classic dancefloor. At first music was Turkish one, but when time passed they played more and more international songs as well. I can say that I even recognized 3 Turkish songs 😆 Ölürüm Sana was our farewell song with that place. I know exactly the meaning of the song! No need to read some hidden messages out of that. It is just a song I like. Unfortunately on my last evening in Istanbul it was raining. Then I felt fucking cold but I knew that in Estonia it is even colder. Also Anıl apartment's view was amazing. I love to watch Istanbul panorama. 25 of February
I totally needed those few hours of sleep before going to airport. The way there wasn't hard again. Even though Istanbul is a huge city its public transport works perfectly and logically. Everything is understandable for me. Plane to Tallinn departed from the farthest corner as usual 😒 I was kind of melanholic on my flight back to Estonia. It was super hard for me to leave the place behind. I am in love with Istanbul and my only relief is that I can come back on April. At least I had a nice flight while listening to Turkish music and watching Kardeşim Benim. Btw, it is a really entertaining movie. I have never seen so empty Tallinn city centre at noon than on that Sunday. People went too far with their indipendence day celebrations and wanted to recover at home I guess. PS! Important information that I received during my stay in Turkey. Tarkan becomes a father 😚 |
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