LAST DAY!!
I still can not believe how fast days passed! It's our last day in lovely Berlin and the last day of our workshop.

we woke up around 09:30, me, Mariam and Serena had sight seeing and a morning walk for our last day together (me and Mariam stayed at Serena's place during the workshop). We had breakfast left for the museums island and Berliner Dom.

The weather was amazing. It was the first sunny day since we arrived to Berlin and I couldn't decide if we were lucky or unlucky for that! I think everyone in Berlin decided to go out and enjoy the sun, everywhere was full, so the parks around the Dom were.

As we entered we were fascinated by the great architecture of the place, spent some time before going to the top of the Dom together.

It was really tiring going all the way up using stairs (more than 150 steps) but we made it and reached the Dom walkway.
the view was incredible, in a city like Berlin that doesn't like super hight unnecessary buildings you could see most of the city from the top, we spent some time talking and watching the city and we noticed that there's no much time left to Mariam's train so we ended our Dom visit, said goodbye to Mariam.
Me and Serena had our lunch on the riverside, then it was the time for me to go get my bag and head to the airport, we said goodbye (I hate goodbyes as most of the people) and I left.

The view from top of the Dom

Mariam, Serena and Me.

I went, got my bag and headed to the airport where I met haya, bought some more presents and catched our flight.

Me and Haya.

Almost there

The plane was half empty so we hade a comfortable flight, arrived to Istanbul Airport around 23:30-00:00. The airport was really wonderful and facinating, it wasn't that hard to find our way as people told us before.

Istanbul Airport.

I think it was a great last day at Berlin.
Wishing to meet all our Berliner friends soon.

Raghad Awad

Berlin 4th day!

Here we are! our fourth day of workshop and in Berlin. :)

 

                                                      

Just on time! German style! With the help of our lovely, hosting friend Serena, we  (raghad and me) could make it for Humbolt university without getting lost again in the metro network. After having amazing presentations from Shad Wari and Anna Steigemann, about their researches on sonnanallee, we ended up with a very nice discussion.
                                                     
 
                                            
                                                                      


Before moving to the field of work, Anna wanted to meet each group individually. so that to discuss the progress of each and decide on the next steps.
In our group , which is the similarities group, as we had decided on the different tasks the day before. Just right after our meeting, we directly went the field to start. Me and buse had conducted some interviews with arabic speakers.
                                                                             
In the beginning, it was a bit hard to find someone to interview, people weren't really open about it compared to Istanbul.  But at the end we could end up with interviews with different arab interviewee, which gave us really nice and interesting stories that we hope we would be able share some if not all on Friday in our final outcome.

                                                                                                 
And of course, since we are in Berlin! Raghad, Haya and me, couldn't miss watching a part of the sunset from the dome of the Reichstag Building. A really nice and amazing experience and of course with a wonderful view of the city.

                                          

After that we ended up our day with a delicious and nice Iftar at a sushi restaurant, where we met our friend buse by coincidence. And  had a limitless amount of sushi with only 15 euros. After that we all came back to our warm places. Buse to Vera's house and Raghad and me to Serena's house. <3 >3 Thank you again girls for your warm hosting!

Helllooo! Here we are! (First Day in Berlin) -10.05.2019-

Hello! We are all a little excited  because this is the first Germany experience of many of us and also most of us fly at the same time.

We(Sinem and I) came the first in airport, about 5 hours before flight time and still I get angry at her :) Then we met the others. We have safely arrived in Berlin and we arrived in Neukölln by bus.

Mine is green ;))))))

Sleepy eyes!

We're trying to find our way.

Ragad came with 7 suitcases! WOW!

After leaving our luggage in Neukölln, we went on a tour. We went to Brandenburger Tor and visited that area. After a little sighseeing, we went back to Neukölln and met the others at Sonneallee.

 

Our first German subway experience

Brandenburger Tor

Windy Berlin!

We're talking about what we're gonna do.

German beer tasting.

Happy Moments! :)

Marleen and I, we both love taking pictures. And She asked me ''Should we shoot our first selfie in Berlin?'' :)

Our views in home.

We left after eating our sandwiches and discussion at Barretino Café and everyone went to  friend's house. Buse and I are staying at Vera's house. (Thanks again Vera! :))

-Ezgi

WORKSHOP PROGRAM - BERLIN

Friday | 10.05.2019    
    Arrival and Check-in
   18:00-20:00: Introduction to the Workshop Venue: Barrettino, Reuterstraße 59

Saturday | 11.05.2019

   09:00-09:30 Joint Breakfast Venue: HU-ISW-K12b
   09:30-11:00 Student Presentation: Group Work Berlin (4 Groups)

   11:30-13:30 Students Presentation: Present and revisit Istanbul fieldwork (5 groups)

   14:30-15:30 Group Organisaton for Neukölln Fieldwork

   15:30-18:00 First Field Trip to Sonnenallee

Sunday | 12.05.2019

   10:00-12:00 Group Feedback Venue:tba via wassap group

   10:00-18:00 Field Work Sonnenallee

   20:30 İftar/Dinner at Sonnenallee Venue: Al Andalos, Sonnenallee 40, 12045 Berlin

Monday | 13.05.2019
   09:30-12:00 Presentations and Discussions Venue: HU-ISW-Raum:001
         Shad Wari: Perceptions and use public space
         Anna Steigemann: Research project “New Diversities” and “Urban Arrival Infrastructures"
   12:00-1400 Group Feedback Venue: HU-ISW-Raum004    
   14:00-18:00  Neukölln Field Work

Tuesday | 14.05.2019

   09:00-18:00 Field Work Sonnenallee / Working in Groups 

   

Wednesday | 15.05.2019

   10:00-15:00 Field Work Sonnenalle / Working in Groups Venue: Floating University
   15:00-16:00 Meeting and preperation @ Floating Universtiy

   16:00-19:00 Interim Student Presentation 
   19:00-22:00 Collaborative Cooking & Dinner

Thursday | 16.05.2019

   09:00-17:00 Fieldwork

   17:00-18:00 Presentation: Miriam Stock: Syrian Entrepreneurship Venue: Apartment Project-Hertzbergstraße 13,

   

Friday  | 17.05.2019
    09:15 Group of students meet to check out the seminar room 122 at HGS.
   10:00-15:30 Working in Groups and Wrapping Up Venue: HU-ISW-K12b
   16:00-18:00 Student Presentations & Discussion
   19:30-21:30 Farewell Dinner. Venue: Due Forni, Schönhauser Allee 12, 10119 Berlin

Saturday  | 18.05. 2019
   Check-Out and Departure

İstanbul Day 08 - Tuesday: The Journey Back

When we wake up (as usual a little later than planned), there are already 3 empty beds in our room. Rasmus, Katharina and Marlene have already left for the airport in the middle of the night. Max, Serena and I (Vera) meet Nina and we go have a Turkish breakfast together. We forget a little bit about the time, so Max and Nina end up being quite late for their plane and have to take a taxi to the airport.
After a short working session, Serena and I plan on going sightseeing, but end up second-hand shopping instead. When we finally make it to the bus stop to go to Topkapi Palace, we realize that we forgot our newly bought clothes somewhere along the way! So we go back, find them and have lunch at an amazing vegetarian restaurant called Zencefil. Then we only have time for a quick visit to Grand Bazaar, before Serena has to leave for her ferry.
I'm starting to feel a bit lonely, but then I meet Mariame for dinner and some friends from a previous exchange for a glass of wine, after. When I get back to the hostel, I have two new roommates and it feels a bit weird not to be surrounded by now so familiar people. I guess, our workshop here is really over, now! It has been such an amazing experience - I'm already looking forward to the Berlin part of the workshop.

As my friends invited me to join them, I try to make my way to the 1. of May demonstration the next day. Sishane metro is closed, so I take the yellow minibus Dolmus and meet my friends. We do some Halay dancing, while we wait for the demonstration to start. After 3 hours of barely moving, I go back to the hostel to be on time for my train.

The shuttle bus leaves at Sirkeci station and takes me and other (mostly foreign) travelers to Halkali station, where the night train leaves to Sofia.

I try to shoot some videos of the dessert truffles mentioned in the post of day 4 - as they are now the main focus of our group, we want to show their travel to Berlin. I feel a bit weird, traveling with mushrooms and a cactus (Abiodun is cactus taken care of by a group of friends and always taken along for traveling. @abiodunthecactus - find them on Instagram ;).
After a comfortable night of sleep (except for the border controls), I wake up to have a day of exploring in Sofia.

Sofia is a city with many different religions co-existing and a rich visible history.
I have a small crisis in the afternoon, as I have a bad cold, my bank card doesn't seem to work and I feel a bit lonely. But my roommate from the previous night train, Aksel, saves my day and invites me to her place for a shower and some tea. Then I go to the main station again (which by the way is one of the worst places I've come across during this journey). I meet a guy from Mardin, who apparently came with the same train I did, and we both take the Flixbus to Bucharest. I now also remember, why I don't like traveling by bus (as it is a very curvy road and the bus driver surely must love roller coasters). The Rumanian border police single out a guy named Muhammed Ali for further questioning, but in the end, we can all continue to Bucharest.

From there I travel on with the train to Budapest. This is where I start enjoying the journey - I actually get to see some landscape from the train (as it already leaves at 2pm). After some studying, lots of sleep and the nicest border controls I've experienced so far (maybe because we are all women in the compartment), I arrive at around 5 in Budapest. I hang around at the platform for a while to film the train leaving for our video, but when I find out, it only leaves at 5:40, my commitment starts to crumble. I find a locker for my luggage and a bakery for breakfast, where I start working on my reflection paper for the parallel course of this project.

Budapest is so rainy, that I decide to go to the mineral baths. I tell myself, that the chamomile steam sauna must indeed be very good for my cold. After trying to dry my shoes with the hair dryer, I stroll around the city for a while. Simpla (it is like a whole house full of bars, shops and cafe's - all in vintage style) feels like little hipster Berlin and I remember why Budapest is one of my favourite cities. The dessert truffles start smelling a bit weird, maybe taking them on a 4 nights journey wasn't the best idea.

I take the night train at 19:25, sharing a compartment with a Polish family. They leave at around 4 in the morning and I have the compartment all to myself. The thing they serve for breakfast - it might be a crime to call it croissant - is packaged with a lot of plastic, but it is free. At 9:16 we arrive in Berlin and I am very happy to finally be home.

Istanbul Day 07 - Monday: Last day in Istanbul

After completing our Research fieldwork days in Aksaray, on the last day of the project, we met with my group members at the Yildiz Teknik University to gather our results and to prepare our presentation.

Our topic covered the way of how people are using the street Yusufpasa in Aksaray. We also observed the interconnection between Immigrants and Locals. Regarding that, we decided to  show our research results on a map, so we worked consistently on our map. 

After working for a few hours, we teamed up with another group and had lunch at Yildiz Teknik University's restaurant. The restaurant had a beautiful view of the sea. So you could enjoy the delicious food with a beautiful view. We drank also  our tea after the meal on the terrace of the restaurant and made a pleasant conversation separately. After our break, we started working again on our map.

All the Groups worked  a few Hours and after that, we gathered in the room to present our project and topic. In front of the curious eyes of our professors, each group began to present their projects one after the other. After the presentations, it turned out that all groups have worked diligently on their projects. In Addition, all groups were very creative. There were different types of visuals such as videos, pictures etc., but also a map presentation  and a group even designed a so called “encounter game“.

The group presentations showed a successful cooperation with the students of the Yildiz Teknik University. There was harmonious staging within the collaboration and during the group discussions and as we were from different disciplines, we learned a lot from each other through the exchange of Knowledge.  All in all, despite the limited time in Istanbul, we learned a lot from our Fieldwork in Aksaray  and collected experience. Although it was sometimes exhausting, working has been a lot of fun. I look forward to starting our fieldwork in Neukölln and hear all the end results of the Projects.