Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Blogger, Sophie Mowbray

Our day off in Bozcaada was slow and very casual. After spending the last couple of days doing some long and adventurous days in Istanbul, we were looking forward to exploring this new island paradise! My friends, Gabby, Ana, and Grace woke up late. We have picked up quite a habit of sleeping in on our days off. Our adventures taking in so many new things and new places wear us out. Nonetheless, we are always more than enthusiastic to explore a place on our own.          

I feel as though I have learned the most on this trip while helping my friends make plans and exploring what interests me intellectually. For example, I planned our whole day in Sevilla! Today, though, I was lucky to have friends who stayed up late the night before. They planned quite the day for us in Bozcaada long after I had fallen asleep. When we got up at 10:40 we started up with some breakfast. The little hotel we stayed at had a homemade breakfast every morning, with bread, pastries, and cheese! My favourite meal was bread, with this tomato spread I have not yet identified, and some olive oil. They also had super yummy scrambled eggs. I also poured myself some yummy berry juice. Spanish food was much more familiar to me. I have had an enlightening experience forcing myself to try new foods I am not used to. I tend to be rather hesitant trying new foods, and despite the Turkish food never being disappointing, it was odd to have to try to identify new foods I would like when I could only identify words like “Elma, Portakal, Nar, ve Ekmek” or “Apple, Orange Pomegranate, and Bread”. But that was a language learning challenge, and I will never say no to one of those!

Ana, Gabby, and I made our way to the market in town. We left Grace behind because she had to catch up on some serious beauty sleep. The market was full of art (and on occasion the touristy cat pillow and magnet). It was a great time to practice my Turkish! Gabby got some necklaces, Ana got a bag or two for some friends, and I got this super cute tote bag covered in tulips, which are my favourite flowers. Gabby found out that the lady we bought our jewelry from spoke a little Spanish! From that, we were able to create a Spanurkish combination to find out what the other wanted. This kind of problem-solving has helped us multiple times throughout the trip as it seems the Turkish people sometimes know more Spanish than English. Thank you to my prior Spanish education!

Then we headed straight for the beach! Kacie, Jemma, Paulina, Carson, And Sydney had spent their whole morning there, so we were just catching up. Ana and I left early to give Gabby and Grace some much-needed homework time. We got some sour apple juicewhich is my favourite Turkish drink and we set off! It was so sunny but the water was so so cold! Not what I expected from the Mediterranean Sea! The water was practically translucent, and we could see everything ( too many fish for my taste). We played lots of games like chicken jockey (where someone climbs on the other person’s shoulders and they fight). It was great bonding for the group! We all sat on this floating doc about 30 meters out. It was enlightening to learn about how everyone perceived each other and the group throughout the trip.
One of the things I feel I have taken the most for granted on this trip is the opportunity it has given me to get to know the people around me and to understand how each of them is individually affected. Soon, Sydney, Paulina, and Carson left the raft, leaving only me and my friends. We continued to lay there until a man came up to us. We decided to swim away and allow someone else the chance to use the dock.

That night we took our adventures on the rocks by the castle. We climbed as high as we could and remarked on the ruins inthe distance. Ana and I noted how likely it was that this little house we spotted in the distance may have been something of military use. I tried to find out more information about it but nothing came up! I guess that’s a mystery for another day! Every beach city we have visited has had fortifications of such incredible size, and being able to get up close and personal with this one served as a reminder of what protection meant for the medieval populations of these places. The modern ability, in a safe area like Boston, to not be wary of the sea and the enemies that may utilize it as a path into a city, is a recent privilege. The beaches we spend our days frying our skin on were once strategic military sites, or trade centers that would be targeted. And so we left the rocks, with a new understanding of the privilege it meant to be able to explore and enjoy these places and what it meant to us.

 

We grabbed an ice cream on the way back and ate a victorious dinner of cheese, beef, olive oil, and bread- The true island diet. We watched Tangled and ended our well-rested day with an upbeat evening.