Last week Caleb had the opportunity to attend space camp with his school for 3 days in Izmir, which is on the west coast of Turkey. Space Camp Turkey is the only licensed space camp in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia and is one of two globally. The trip was open to 5th and 6th graders at Caleb’s school, and during their time away, they learned many things about space ranging from the moon, planets, how to grow plants in those habitats, constellations, principles of physics and chemistry used in space exploration, foundations of rocketry, experiencing astronaut simulators giving them the feeling of living and working in space (the highlight), and feeling what it’s like to walk on the moon using virtual reality. He had a great week learning and having fun, and today Caleb is featured as the guest blogger to tell you about his trip!
Me and my friend Zach are heading to the airport in a van with my mom and dad.
Samuel, me, and Zach are waiting to get on our flight.
Me and my class are heading to the airplane.
I took a quick selfie with a cardboard astronaut once I got there.
This is my room where I stayed.
There’s the lobby
This is the stomp rocket room where we made rockets on the first day.
This is us launching the stomp rockets. It was fun.
This is a lesson on physics we learned before we built the rockets,
This is me is the rockets room.
This is me in a space suit.
There’s a little robot I saw.
Look at that space lab.
There’s a little astronaut.
There’s a little space van.
This is a Mars habitat.
There’s a lab on mars
This is how they grow plants in space, it’s called hydroponics.
I saw a little Mars rover on the way to the rooms
This is the space station.
That’s a simulation that shows what it feels like to work inside space.
Me and my friend Kentaro and teacher Ms. Jones at the theater.
Learning about all the zodiac signs.
There’s me in a simulation about what it feels like to fall from space to earth. This was my favorite simulation!
This is Mission Control. We read scripts and all had different jobs to manage the space mission.
There’s me and my group on the space mission. My job was Capcom and I talked to the people in the ship to tell them what to do.
There’s a video about rockets
There’s a space suit.
Thats a model of spaceship Discovery.
That’s a life sized model of the Discovery.
Thats me on an astronaut exercise machine. It is how astronauts exercise in space and looked like a big hamster wheel.
Thats my friend on a zero gravity wall, learning what it is like to work in space.
Me volunteering for a demo about what it feels like to have a leak in a spaceship.
Thats me a graduation, look all the way to the left. They had a ceremony and gave us certificates.
This is everybody who came from my school. I am in the second row all the way to the left.
After the last day of space camp, we went to the mall for lunch and to watch a movie before flying back to Ankara. It was a very fun trip!
Nathan and I took a quick trip to Istanbul for a couple of nights, while Caleb was away at space camp (next post), and Benjamin and Eliza stayed with Kadem. We have both been to Istanbul several times, and were excited to have an opportunity to go by ourselves. Our flight left right after Caleb’s so after seeing him off to Izmir, we boarded our plane to Istanbul. The first day was rainy, but perfect for walking around without the large crowds. Our hotel was about 200m from the Grand Bazaar, which was an ideal location to walk all over the city. We checked in early afternoon and went to the Grand Bazaar.
The Grand Bazaar is always packed with people. This is the main drag when you walk in, then it branches off to many smaller alleys - in total there are 66 streets in the bazaar!
We have been looking at Turkish lamps since we arrived in Turkey and wanted to order some before we left. We met a vendor a couple years ago at the Bazaar who we have kept in touch with and we went to see him that afternoon. Nathan thankfully has a great sense of direction and remembered where the shop was..
Inside the shop, such a beautiful place!
We got a floor lamp like this and two smaller floor lamps.
And one lamp like this, but with different color tiles.
We got the lamp with these tiles and can’t wait to see how they come out. The great thing about Turkey is shipping within the country is very easy and fast.
Leaving the bazaar, from one of the many other exits.
Next we walked down to the Sultan Ahmet area and saw the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia. We have both been inside the Blue Mosque several times, but never inside the Hagia Sofia because the line was always too long. The rain kept the crowds away and we were able to walk right inside!
The Hagia Sofia was build by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, and was originally built as an Eastern Orthodox Church. It was used as a church from 360 until the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453. It then served as a mosque until 1935, then became a museum. In 2020, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan converted it back into a mosque. The structure is massive and stunning from the outside and beautifully decorated on the inside.
We arrived right before evening prayers started and had the honor of being able to be inside during the prayer time. The beauty and magnificence of the inside of the building is hard to describe. It had large domes covered with mosaics, beautiful marble walls and columns, and ornate Arabic calligraphy.
Women hav to cover their head before entering the mosque. I usually would have worn a scarf, but with all the rain I already had my hood on.
Ceiling of the main dome. This structure endured multiple fires and earthquakes and you could see the fading from the destruction, despite major restorations over the years.
The original floor. The carpet was laid throughout the building before it was reconverted to a mosque.
The marble walls were stunning, with so many different patterns.
Supposedly when it was converted to a mosque they removed all the signs of Christianity, however we saw a cross that was build into the wall as you exited.
Walking along the courtyard with amazing views of the Blue Mosque and the tulips that were in bloom.
We enjoyed dinner out at a small place near our hotel and called it a night. The next day was a full day. We started at Taksim Square and Gezi Park, in the heart of Istanbul. Taksim means distribution in Arabic and Turkish, and in the late 1800’s it was the distribution point for the city’s water. In the square is the Independence Monument, which was built in 1928 and dedicated to Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, 5 years after the country gained it’s independence in 1923 after defeating the Ottomans.
Behind the square is Gezi Park, which has a bit of history. Before becoming a park in 1940, it was an Ottoman barracks. After the Turkish Republic was founded in 1923, it became the site of the first football (soccer) stadium n Turkey, then in 1940 became a public park. In 2013, the government proposed building shops on top of the park, and people opposed the removal of the trees and green space and began protesting in the park. This turned into very large protests with tens of thousands of people protesting in Taksim square, that turned into a nationwide protest against the government, and to this day some people are still facing imprisonment due to their supposed involvement with the protests.
It is a beautiful park and was perfect weather to take a stroll through this historic park.
On the other end of Taksim Square is the ending of Istiklal Avenue, which is a historic 1.4km pedestrian street and one of the most famous avenues in Istanbul. It received its name after the declaration of the Republic on 29 October 1923, commemorating Turkey’s triumph in the War of Independence. The avenue starts at the northern end of Galata Tower and runs all the way to Taksim Square. Along the avenue are many quaint boutiques, music stores, art galleries, cafes, and restaurants. Unfortunately it is also the location of a recent bombing in November 2022 that killed 6 people and injured 81 other, and the police presence was high along the avenue.
We stopped for breakfast at a rooftop restaurant, that we realized after the fact was right next to where the bombing occurred.
Despite the recent events, the streets were full of live, colors, scents, and all kinds of bustling activity.
There were many quaint side alleys lined with small hotels and cafes.
This was our favorite alley, called Cicek Pasaji, which means flower passage in Turkish. It’s a covered passage connecting Istiklal Avenue to Sahne Ave, and is lined with lots of restaurants and cafes. The restaurants were closed that morning, but we could only imagine how lively this place is in the evenings.
Famous trolley cars on Istiklal Ave.
The technical start of the avenue, at Galata Tower. The tower was built by the Genoese in the mid 14th century as part of the Galata Walls when the Galata quarter was a Genoese colony in the Byzantine era. It was used as a dungeon during the Ottoman era, then converted to a fire lookout tower. The tower suffered lots of damage from earthquakes and fires, and fell into ruins in the 1960. After years of restoration it was re-opened to visitors. The line was so long so we didn’t go in, but we enjoyed the view outside.
The next stop was back to Sultan Ahmet across the Golden Horn, to hop on a Bosporus boat tour for a couple hours. Istanbul has massive underpass systems under the very busy and large main roads, and underground is just as busy as above ground….
Getting ready to cross the Galata Bridge and get a view of the Bosporus.
It’s a very busy river with lots of boat traffic!
The bridge was lined with fishermen getting their catch for the day.
view of Galata Tower in the distance from the other side of the bridge.
Next we met up with a group and walked down to a pier to get on the boat tour. This is a Turkish Coast Guard boat.
Istanbul is so beautiful from the water. The Bosporus River divides the Europe and Asia side of the city, and it’s a great way to see so much of the city because it is truly massive and could take weeks to see it all. This is Dolmabache Palace, the main presidential palace.
Famous mosque in lots of pictures of Istanbul.
After the boat tour, we walked back up towards Galata Tower to meet our good friends Victoria and Brett, who live in Istanbul, for dinner. Every where you turn are cute side alleys and streets. This was so colorful!
Admiring all the local art.
We stumbled upon this art shop and had a really nice conversation with the owner, who used to be the manager of the Pera Palace in the 1980s. Pera Palace is a famous hotel in Istanbul where Agatha Christie wrote ‘Murder on the Orient Express.’ He shared a story with us about a time that Jacqueline Kennedy came to the hotel as a guest without his prior knowledge of her coming, and how he ended up showing her around Istanbul secretly to keep her away from the paparazzi. It was really nice conversation and we ended up getting a painting he made of some of the Istanbul cityscape as a memory.
View of the Galata Tower from the art store.
We met Bret and Victoria at a restaurant on top of the Banks Hotel that was converted from an old bank. It was a neat hotel and there was a small restaurant on top with a great view of the river.
It was so great seeing them and catching up, and we ended up having an almost 5 hour dinner with them. They are dear friends and we are glad we got the chance to see them during our trip.
The last day we had about half of the day to roam the city before heading to the airport. We walked down the Spice Bazaar by the river. It too also always so lively and full or lots of colors and smells of all the fresh spices.
The alleys are lines with spice shops.
And of course Turkish delight shops…it tastes just as good as it looks.
All over town are corn and chestnut vendors. They roast the corn and chestnuts on coals and serve it with salt. It is delicious!
Just another traffic jam. Driving is definitely not the fastest way to get around this city.
We walked by Sultan Ahmet square to get one more view of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia, and found a nice restaurant overlooking the mosque for lunch.
It was a beautiful day and the lines were long to get in…we were glad we were able to get in quickly for the rain on our first day.
We also took another stroll through the Grand Bazaar on the way back got our hotel.
The general directorate for the post office. It was a pretty building.
As we neared our hotel it was time for Friday prayers, and the last Friday of Ramadan, so all the mosques had people pouring out into the streets.
We took a few detours to get back to our hotel, the Mitra. It was a small and simple hotel on the corner of a building, right in the middle of the shoe district. It was a busy and fun local place to stay. We had such a fun and full couple of days together exploring Istanbul, and are grateful we had a chance to get away alone.
We returned to Ankara to a beautiful spring bloom, and happy kids. Benjamin and Eliza had a fun couple days together with Kadem after school, and Caleb returned around midnight that night. He had a great time at Space Camp….stay tuned for his adventures for the next post!
