At 4.30 a minibus took Ricardo Liong-A-Kong, Kor Smeenge, Luisa Monteiro, Bruno Anedda, Bassam Al Khouri, Juhee Youn, Gerco Lindeboom and Sara Pessoa from the Dutch Art Institute to Eindhoven Airport where they waited for the others: Alite Thijsen, Bouchaib Dihaj, Tom Beterams, Paul Segers, Ajla Steinvag, Sarah Erzfinke, Jan Jonker, Ruth Linnemann and Teresa Borasino.
Checking in and boarding all went well and at about 9.00 flight COR 854 left for İstanbul. We arrived at the new Sabiha Gökçen international airport, where most of us had to buy their visa. Exceptions were Juhee Youn (South Korea) and Sarah Erzfinke (Germany). Later we would noticed that visa is a quite frequent topic in Turkey for our assistant in Mardin, Demet Varli was waiting a long time for a visa to continue her study in the Netherlands.
Corendon (the travel agent) was waiting outside the airport for the DAI students and they were transferred to the Mosaic hotel in İstanbul. The hotel is situated in Laleli in the old part of İstanbul, a 15 minute walk from the Aya Sofia. The quarter is the centre of the textile trade with what we called before the states behind the Iron Curtain.
İstanbul is in many ways a cross road. For most students it was their first visit to İstanbul. Some went for a walk in the old city and tried to visit the Aya Sofia which appeared later on to be the Blue Mosque. But for everybody the first contact was overwhelming.
Blue Mosque
