Today, Ozayr, his students, his TA's, and I all trekked to Erginoglu and Calislar Architects (who produce beautiful work and will be lecturing at the University of Minnesota on October 14th, 2011). The students laid out the pencil drawing they've been producing for the past three weeks in the office's courtyard and then we had a final discussion of the work. It was a great event, followed by a Turkish barbecue of Durums (which are made of lamb, lettuce, and onion in a wrap) and beer. The work looked beautiful and it was a really nice conclusion to the students' time here.

Last night, we went to dinner with all of the students at an amazing restaurant. You can see that we ordered a one meter long shish kebab and had this lamb that was cooked under a pile of salt that they ignite at your table. Once the flame goes out, they crack open the salt with a mallet and chisel. Delicious!

Today we got inside a small mosque designed by one of Turkey's most famous and revered architects, Sinan, who produced somewhere between 400 and 500 buildings in lifetime. Really stunning. In the lower left are Josh and Kirk, TA's for Ozayr's class. They're great tour guides.

Here are a few shots looking up at Galata Tower from it's base.

Yesterday, I hiked the length of the students' site in Istanbul. It covers about 5 miles along a main artery in the city, covering shopping districts, housing, the hippodrome near the Hagia Sophia, and crossing the Bosphorous River. We started at the far end of the site, which we reached via two ferry boat rides and an underground fundicular. As we got closer to the hotel, we stopped to climb the Galata Tower, which gave us an amazing view of the Bosphorous River and Golden Horn Bay.

So I finally arrived in Istanbul at around 10:30 Sunday morning, local time. It was about a ten hour flight. My hotel is a stone's throw from the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque. I haven't gone inside yet, but plan to do that later in the week. Got to hear a "call to prayer" while I was walking around. Amazing the first time you experience it. I'll try to upload the video I took. The panorama shot is from a cafe I sat in for about an hour to escape the heat. I'm very tired, but trying to tough it out until tonight so I get acclimated.