Europe has always been a dream destination for me and my family. This year, we decided to buy our ticket to Europe and make our dream come true! But before the dream vacation, we have to prepare for many things. Of course as an Indonesian, first thing first, Schengen visa.
Before I went to Turkey, I’ve heard that football league in Turkey is as good as in Europe. The quality of the football club is great with top-notch players, maybe you know Robin van Persie that played for Fenerbahce, Sneijder and Podolski for Galatasaray, or Pepe who played for Besiktas. Apparently, the famous football club in Turkey are Besiktas, Galatasaray, and Fenerbahce. By famous I mean, world famous. It’s like the big 3 that always compete to get the first rank in the table.
Okay, I am not that familiar with Turkey’s Football League or as they called it Süper Lig. When everyone here knows that I like football, they started to ask which is my favorite football team in Turkey. So I started to learn about the football situation here, starting from knowing their stadium. Because a stadium tells a thousand history, right?
All my life I believe that tulip came from The Netherlands, but that was all wrong. Tulips were imported in the 16th century from the Ottoman Empire aka Turkey into the Netherland. Turkey and tulips were like something that can’t be separated. Under the reign of Sultan Ahmed III, Turkey was known on its Tulip Era. That time, tulip was very popular, it also became a symbol of power and wealth, portraying the Ottoman Sultans.
The name tulip came from Persian word ‘Tulipan’ that means turban. It was because in those time, the sultans wore tulip on their turban, also tulip shapes quite similar with turban. Until now, tulip or known as lale in Türkçe plays an important rule to Turkish art and culture. Tulip is also the national flower of Turkey.
Been living in Istanbul for 6 months, I often mistaken the city of Edirne to Edirnekapı, a district in Istanbul. Apparently Edirne lies 224km away from Istanbul and has so many histories. It all started on 125 CE when a Roman emperor, Hadrian built the city and named it Hadrianopolis after his name. But Edirne is known as the capital city of Ottomans Empire for 90 years, before Sultan Mehmed II moved the capital to Constantinople (now Istanbul).
Since I live in Turkey, traveling to Edirne was never crossed my mind, until my friend asked me to join a one day trip managed by Masyarakat Indonesia Istanbul (Indonesian Society in Istanbul). Because of the affordable cost, I immediately said yes. We rent a private bus and the 3 hours trip wasn’t boring, because we had fun singing and get to know each other.
I notice that most people have two favorite football team that they support. The first one is the team that they support undoubtedly, watch the match every weekend, and go crazy about it. The second one is the team that they support because of certain players or just because supporting only one team is not enough. For me, the first is Arsenal and the second is FC Bayern München.
To be honest, I forgot when is exactly my support for FC Bayern grew. But I know clearly why I love this team. Because I like Germany National Football Team and most of the FC Bayern players are also play for Germany NT, so yes that was one of the reason. The other reason is because Miroslav Klose and Philipp Lahm, I love to see them played with FC Bayern. But with or without them, it is always a pleasure to watch FC Bayern plays.
Kak kok bisa kuliah di Turki? Kak kenapa pilih kuliah di Turki? Kak bagaimana caranya biar bisa dapat beasiswa? Kak tips dan triknya dong kak? Begitulah kira-kira beberapa jenis pertanyaan yang saya terima semenjak saya mendapatkan beasiswa Turkiye Burslari alias YTB. Pertanyaan-pertanyaan itu sebisa mungkin saya jawab. Tapi sekarang saya memutuskan untuk menulis pengalaman saya mengenai beasiswa YTB ini di blog, biar lebih lengkap dan lebih banyak orang yang baca. Selain itu biar traffic blog ini agak naik dikit lah 😛
Centuries ago when the Ottoman Turks successfully conquest Constantinople, Eyup was their first Turkish settlement. Located just outside the city walls and near the Golden Horn, Eyup has a perfect location, then and now. The name Eyup itself comes from Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, a friend of Prophet Muhammad SAW.
Fast forward to 21st centuries, I happened to lived in the Constantinople, which have changed the name to Istanbul. On the sunny day of my winter break, I went there and explore the area as I reminisced the history.
Winter break is coming! I got a week off from the boring routine of school and decided to visit Bursa and its famous snowy mountain, Uludağ or Great Mountain. In the ancient time, Uludağ was called Mysian Olympos. The other name of Uludağ was Keşiş Dağı means ‘Mountain of the Monks’ because the mountain served as hermitage to Christian monks.
Since I live in Istanbul, Uludağ is just a vapur (ferry) away. To get there, I need to go to Bursa first, but wait for my story about Bursa. To reach Uludağ, just take buses from city centre to Bursa Tefferüç station and take the teleferik (cable car) to Uludağ ski resort. Bursa Teleferik is 9km long and the longest cable car line in Turkey and the world world. It costs 38TL for round trip journey, but if you have Turkish student card, you could get discount to 27TL.
I like to visit museum since I was young. But not gonna lie, since the Instagram day I visit museum more often and take some photos for the sake’s of my feeds. But hey, I also take some time to appreciate the work and trying to understand it. Since my moved to Istanbul, every weekend (if I am not lazy) I Googled on what place should I visit. Google came up with so many art museum suggestion. 3 months living in the city, I’ve visited 3 different art museum.
İstanbul Modern
This is the first art museum I visited in Istanbul. I knew this place from an exhibition advertisement poster in the bus stop. It was the advertisement for The 15th Istanbul Biennial. I then Google it and registered for the exhibition. Istanbul Modern was one of the three exhibition venue for the event. I chose to visit Istanbul Modern because it was Turkey’s first museum of modern art.
I am a fan of anything related to royal things; princess, prince, and the palaces. This royal things always fascinated me. I always dream of visiting Palace of Versailles in France and Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. I get excited to know more about the story behind the palaces and imagining how it looked like when real royal family still lived there.
So as a student who live in Turkey, I have the chance to visit some of the palaces. Turkey was known of its Ottoman Empire. Two of the most famous palaces are Topkapi Palace and Dolmabahce Palace. I’ve been to Topkapi Palace when I visited Istanbul back in 2015. The Topkapi Palace is not as luxurious as other palace, but this palace gave me this emotional feelings. But this time, I am going to tell about the Dolmabahce Palace.
