Travel to Turkey_3

Part three: travelling to Ankara.

After crossing the Bosphorus again we arrived to the train station. There are two stations: one at the european share and one at the asian share, like is logic. I know that there is a project to create a big tunnel under the See of Marmara, but I don't know when it will be ready.

The train station of the asian part was ours. It was nice, clean and empty. It was the best example to show that the usual transport system is by road, and not by train.

The railways are more a problem. I think that the lack of puntuality is because of the bad quality of the infrastructures.We needed nein hours to arrive in Ankara!

At least the trains were also a surprise for me. German technology, Siemens. Very clean, very empty, only three seats per line...

It was very odd to find the symbol of the turkish flag in all the windows of the train. I was waiting for the symbol of the train company, but problably it is nacional, I don't know.

The landscape was rough and dry, also very strange because it was raining very much, not only that day, but during all the week.

We were nine hours in the train, so in the end we were sleeping and stop looking throw the window.

When we arrived, we only looked forward to rest and eat something good at home, a good dinner with natural orange juice and something sweet. Because of that I had not time to see too much the city, but I got my firts impression. Nice buildings for administration, with the flag and the picture of Atatürk everywhere. A lot of military areas in plane centre of the city. A strong sensation of security and control. I will talk about that longer in my next posts.

About Istanbul

Istanbul is a metropolis of 15 million people and occupies both sides of the entrance to the narrow, 32-kilometer (20-mile) long Bosphorus Strait connecting the Mediterranean and Sea of Marmara to the south and the Black Sea to the north. From its founding as Byzantium by the Greeks in 600 B.C., this strategically located city has been a focus of maritime trade and commerce as well as an outpost and threshold for cultural exchange and conflict between Europe and Asia. The modern city's layout and architecture show the influences of both the Roman-Byzantine era when it became Constantinople, the world's first Christian capital, as well as that of the conquering Ottoman Turks, from 1453, when it became the seat of the world's largest Muslim empire. Today, Istanbul is Turkey's economic capital and home to nearly half the country's wealth.

Istanbul location:

Istambul shape and structure:

Sketch of the basic structure:

Istanbul centre:

Istanbul touristic centre:

Istanbul transport system:

Travel to Turkey_2

Here I show the location of my airport. I fly always with low cost companies, so I always arrive in the secondary airports of the cities. In this case my airport was Sabiha Gökçen International Airport.




Second part: first night in Istambul.


I arrived at night in Istambul. My airport, Istambul-Sabiha, is in the asian part of the city, so I was flying over the european city, the Bosporus and the See of Marmara. My first impression was: wow! I had never been before in such a big city. Almost 15 million population concentrated in the space between two continents and sees.

I was a bit nervous. It was the first time that I crossed the borders of the European Union. I entered in an unknown land.

After paying the visa (only 10 euros, a very fast process) I crossed the doors to the arrival area where Andi was waiting for me. Then we started to be lucky.

In the airport he met a friend from the University who was waiting there for an italian friend. The italian guy came in the same plane than me. The turkish guy offered us to go with him in his car (the cheapest way to the city center). We introduced each other and went together until his flat. They were celebrating a meeting for the friends of the summer working-camp. It remembered me very much my first experiences in Germany. All of them were great people. We were taking a turkish coffee together and later we went to take the take the dinner together to the share of the Bosphorus.

Which kind of dinner did we take? A typical turkish meal, of course: KOKOREÇ. What is Kokoreç? MHHH... Maybe you don't want to know it... It is a kind of bocadillo (sandwich) made with intestins of sheep. It is very famous, because it is forbidden in the European Union. It does not meet the hygienic requirements of the European Union.

Also we were taking sunflower seeds (pipas in Spanish) and turkish beer: EFES.

They invited us to stay with them one night and join them in a trip to the islands of the Black See, but we were very tired and also Andi had left all his stuff in a hostal. The bedroom was paid, so we decided to leave and rest a bit in order to go on with our own plans.

We took a DOLMUÇ, the particular mini-buses that one can find everywhere in Turkey; we crossed one of the huge bridges over the Bosphorus, the biggest one that I have seen in my life, until the famous square of Taksim. Then we went by taxi also crossing the Galata Bridge until the core of the touristic area, just between Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

Our hostal was in a very good location. When we arrived it was almost five in the morning and we needed to rest very much, because in the morning we should wake up early to take the train to Ankara. The first night was over, but it was enough time to make me loose all my doubst about my trip.

Everything would be fine!

Sobre Milán

Milán (en italiano Milano, Milan en lombardo) es la principal ciudad de la Italia septentrional, capital de la provincia de Milán y de la región Lombardía. Se encuentra ubicada en las llanuras de Lombardía, una de las regiones más desarrolladas de Italia. A fines de 2004 poseía una población de 1.308.311 habitantes, y un área metropolitana de 4.280.820, en una área urbana de unos 6.500.000. Es definida por algunos como la capital económica de Italia (o como capital del Norte del país). No en vano, Milán es la sede de la Bolsa de Italia. Además, la Feria de Milán es considerada la más importante de Italia y una de las principales de Europa.

Su provincia se encuentra al oeste de Lombardía; cubre una superficie de 1.982 km² y posee una población de 3.775.765 habitantes. La provincia consta de 188 comunas. En los diez años que van entre 1991 y 2001, la comuna de Milán perdió 113.084 habitantes (8,3%).

La ciudad es famosa por sus firmas de moda, el tradicional pastel navideño llamado panettone, y por su catedral (duomo en italiano) de estilo gótico, con fachada neogótica. Junto a la catedral se encuentran las famosas galerías de Vittorio Emmanuele, cubiertas con grandes cúpulas de vidrio en forma de cruz latina, donde se encuentran algunos de los cafés y comercios más conocidos de la ciudad. Al otro extremo de las galerías se encuentra la Piazza della Scala, donde se encuentran el Teatro alla Scala, uno de los teatros de ópera más prestigiosos del mundo, via Manzoni, via Montenapoleone y via Gesù donde se encuentra el Museo Bagatti Valsecchi- una casa-museo inspirada en los palacios señoriales del Cinquecento lombardo, decorada con objetos y muebles renacentistas italianas.

En la Iglesia de Santa María della Grazie se encuentra la famosa obra de Leonardo da Vinci "La Última Cena". La obra se puede visitar haciendo una reserva con 48 horas de antelación.

Me interesan mucho los planos de transporte urbano, especialmente los de metro. En Milán, sólo conozco la línea verde de la Estación a Cadorna y la línea roja de Cadorna a Pagano, pero ha sido suficiente para verificar que el metro de Milan es muy viejo y muy sucio.

Travel to Turkey_1

Ey, the travel to Turkey has been so good that now I have to make a big efforce to explain all my sensations in few words.

I will start from the beginning.

First part: Milano and Cri.

In order to take the plane in Madrid-Barajas on Tuesday morning I should take the bus from my city at 4 a.m., so I was sleeping a bit in the way and I arrived in the airport very early in the morning, at 7. I phoned my Wolf, my staunch friend for special moments, and he spent all the morning with me until the time to take my plane.

From the plane I could see again the wonderful aerial view of the Alps. In that moment I was remembering very much my last trip to Italy in the last March. I was very happy to see Cri again.

The pity is that Cri was very very busy, she could not take me in the station, so I went by metro until her flat. This time was very easy for me. I feel like at home in Italy. The language is not a problem and the people are more similar to the Spanish.

When I saw the square in front of Cri's flat, I realized that I was at home. The traffic, the noise, the pollution...

Milano fa veramente schifo!!!!

Cri received me at home with a big smile. We were talking very much about a bit of everything. We were taking the dinner with her flatmates: risotto for everybody.

After that, I was enjoying her flat. I like the flat and I like the atmosphere that they have created there. Students of Architecture, Town-Planning and Design living together and creating a working atmosphere that produced me a kind of envy. I live also with two students of Architecture and my flat is totally different: the living-room is a continuos mess, the bedrooms are the working spaces, without connection.

Of course, nothing is perfect. Cri had some differences with some of her flatmates because, in their opinion, she has too many visitors. So we took the mattress from the living-room and we fit it in the small Cri's bedroom.

The next morning Cri should go to the University, so I stayed a bit more at home and later I went to the Stazione Centrale.

I had enough time to walk a bit around. From the huge square located just in front of the station one can see this towers, this axis, ... Everything with a scale out of the human scale.

Also, one can see the M of Milano everywhere. It is easier to find a Mc Donald's than the entrance for the underground. Milano is the city of Mc Donald's. It is amazing.

Over the human scale we can see the Station. Typical fascist architecture, classical style but with decoration trying some kind of abstraction of the elements.


















In spite of this, I like that building very much. In fact, I don't know too much about the fascist architecture in Italy. I should. But my lessons of History of the Art were not enough to know so much. The 20th century is almost ignored in that lessons, with the excuse of that we should learn it in the rest of the subjects. In my opinion, the programme of my degree is not according with the logic.

The interior of the station is great. The building for travellers is amazing.

And the big hall for the platforms is huge and full of light. I like it more than the Hauptbahnhof in Hamburg. Of course, one cannot compair, but this hall is more alive.

The time was over and I should take the bus to the airport.

Flying to Istanbul...

Literalmente en las nubes...