Happy Fourth, Ya'll

My friend Rebecca and I decided to celebrate the Fourth of July by going to the Koc Museum along the Bosphorous. There is a general rule in Turkey that if you are massively rich, you must collect a large amount of objects and then put them on display in your family's old summer house. Or, in Rahmi Koc's case, an old warehouse and dockyard. Well, I guess there is always an exception to a rule. I was expecting an art museum, like those at the Sabanci and Kadir Has Universities. Apparently, Rahmi Koc, easily one of the richest men in the world, is obsessed with all things mechanical. So his museum is dedicated to science and industry. Rebecca and I found warehouses of cars, planes, trains...even a US submarine! It was a great way to celebrate America's independence. Check out what we found:

This is a display titled, "The World of iPod." It was obviously nothing less than a shameless product placement, sponsored by Apple. Here at the museum we have a display case cataloguing every single iteration of iPod ever, even from way back in the beginning in the year 2oo2! I don't think people were even alive back then! We were lucky to see such priceless artifacts. And, for the record, I own that little iPod shuffle in the third row. 

Similar to the iPod display, this was Microsoft's timeline of the computer, which is a little more legitimate, I guess. I had to take a picture with the monitor-plus-keyboard deal because I am almost positive my dad has one in our house. I used to play Frogger and Wheel of Fortune on it. Good times!

This was legitimately exciting, a Ford Model T. I mean, how often is that you see one of these things? The reason the Koc Museum was perfect for the 4th of July is because the US made a lot of technological innovations in the last 100 years, so Rebecca and I were constantly being reminded how awesome America the country really is. First mass-produced automobile, BABY! I really, really wanted to turn that crank.

Apparently something else you do if you are massively rich is to take a two-year sailing trip around the world. What we weren't expecting was that after the fact there would be an entire museum exhibition of photos, maps, and, yes, lots of tchotchkes to remember the trip. It was beyond belief. There was a whole cabinet displaying all of the tacky key chains that Mr. Koc had picked up along the way. All over the exhibition were these t-shirts hanging on coat racks. To be honest, I at first thought we had entered the museum gift shop what with all the t-shirts on hangers and the crazy stuff in cases. But I quickly realized that these were Rahmi Koc's souvenir t-shirts from his trips. I could touch the clothing of this man! How great is that? I told Jon that if he ever becomes rich and famous we can put his old t-shirts in a museum too!

There was a "touch and feel" table where you could try on crazy hats and touch some old things. I had a go at the Bobby helmet. It was a little too big for my head though!

There was a giant plane on huge black pillars, positioned as if it were taking off. They had the stairs coming down to get in and out of the plane, and Rebecca thought this would be a good photo opportunity to play some important politician/celebrity who is always mobbed the minute they get off the plane. Here I am waving to all of my adoring fans.

If this isn't American, I don't know what is. This is a WWII bomber plane that went down during the war in the ocean off the shore of Antalya, which is on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Seven of the 10 soldiers survived to tell the tale. In 1995 the last surviving crew member helped in an effort to locate and retrieve the submersed plane. They did, and it was subsequently brought to the Koc Museum. That is rock-solid America right there. Here I am, in my red, white, and blue, doing my best Rosie the Riveter pose. Happy 4th of July everyone!