Ramazan in Troy

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When the ferry landed in Marmaris, Turkey I still hadn’t figured out where I was going. I didn’t have a map of Marmaris, so I had no idea where Marmaris’ ottogar was. I was not really in the mood to go into town and get a map, so I picked a main road, hoisted my bag and started walking. It was about an hour later when I spotted a bus pulling into a parking area in front of me. During my walk I had narrowed my possible destinations down to three, but I still wasn’t sure which I wanted to see the most. Luckily, none of the busses in Marmaris were going to any of my three chosen destinations. I settled on one bound for Izmir, on Turkey’s West Coast. From there I would be able to get to any of the three. I grabbed a kebab and a few snacks for the ride and then I boarded the bus.

As the scrubby-green countryside passed by my window I got to take a trip down memory lane. First came the road sign for Bodrum, the last place in Turkey I had slept. Next came the roads that led to Aphrodisias and Pamukkale and then Selçuk and Ephesus. After that it was all new road into Izmir. In Izmir I had to make a decision. I really wanted to see Pergamum, but I wanted to see Troy more and I didn’t have enough time to see both and still see everything in Greece that I wanted to see. In the end, it was the bus schedule that made the decision for me - There were no buses to the town near Pergamum until late. I purchased a ticket to Çanakkale and put Pergamum on my ‘someday’ list. I couldn’t help but feel a little sad, though, as we passed the turn that would have taken me to the famed ruins of Pergamum, but I know I will be back. I set my sights on the fabled Homeric city of Troy and the excitement of treading the same ground as Achilles and Hector.

I arrived in Çanakkale just after dark and I found a room in the Yellow Rose hostel. The streets in the town were alive and people were celebrating - I knew I was missing something, but I didn’t know what. I had been out of Turkey for less than a week, yet everything seemed different. Many of the snack stalls were closed during the day and many of the Turks were a bit more quiet and reserved. It wasn’t until the following morning as I tried to find a dolmush to Troy that I realized what was going on - It was the beginning of Ramazan, the Muslim holy month! I felt pretty foolish. I thought back over the previous day and realized that I had been openly snacking and drinking on the bus, which was fairly inconsiderate. Everything had slowed down. I was told by one of the men at the dolmush terminal that they were running every two hours instead of every hour, so I had a long time to wait. Eventually the small bus filled up and we were on our way to Troy.

The driver came to a stop at a small intersection on the country road we had been traveling on and looked at me, pointed down the side street and said, “Truva.” I was a little surprised to be the only person getting off of the bus at Troy, but I suppose I was the only tourist on board. The ruin had a reputation for being extremely crowded, yet I was the only person in sight. I walked a short distance to a giant Trojan horse that had been built as a sort of playground for kids (and adults who refuse to grow up) and I excitedly climbed up into its belly and took a look around. The surrounding landscape was mostly flat, except for the hill that the ancient town had been built on, and very green - To say it was beautiful would be an understatement. I stayed up in the horse for a while, but nobody came to wheel me into the city - I guess the Trojan horse ruse only works the first time. Instead, I had to go to a ticket booth and pay them to let me in - I suppose the Iliad would have been fairly boring if the Achaeans had used the same means to enter the city, but it worked just fine for me.

I had heard several things about the ruins of Troy. Most of them were negative, like, “The ruins are boring and not worth seeing.” or, “The excavations have ruined the ruins.” I had heard the same thing about many of the other ancient sites I had visited throughout the world and, without exception, I always came away surprised that people didn’t like them. Troy was no exception. Just the idea that I was visiting a place of legend was enough to make me love the place. Strolling the same paths as the Trojan hero Hector and the Achaean hero Achilles was powerful for me. I am not the only person who has felt that way. In 480 BC Xerxes, the Persian King, visited Troy during his military march to Greece to pay homage to the great warriors from the Trojan War. A century and a half later, in 334 BC, Alexander the Great stopped in to give his respects at the tomb of Achilles and other great Greek warriors. Later Troy, renamed Ilium, was a favorite pilgrimage-like retreat for Roman Emperors from Constantinople. That being said, the ruins were definitely not as picturesque as the heavily restored and ornamented sites like Ephesus, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The beautiful landscape and massive stonewalls were still impressive sights to see and there was ample ornamentation remaining from the city’s Roman era. The way excavations were carried out at Troy, while destructive, have allowed a greater understanding of the history of the city. It is possible to see portions of many of the nine different construction phases of the once important city. The most famous form of Troy, Troy VII, which is generally accepted as Homer’s Troy, would have been completely concealed under the later constructions had the excavations not been done.

I spent several hours exploring the ruined walls and foundations of Troy. For the first hour or so I shared the legendary city with no more than four other people. I climbed up onto what is believed to be the actual gate where Achilles and Hector battled to the death. From my vantage point I could see a thin ribbon of blue that separated the current shores of the Dardanelles, the strategic body of water that made Troy so powerful. I was surprised at how far away the shore was, but I learned a bit later that the Plain of Scamander during the Trojan War would have included a large bay at the inlet of the Scamander River that would have put Troy very close to the shore. The bay is now silted in, but the river still remains. I followed a small path through the fields of golden grass to a hidden spring that used to be a sacred well. As I walked I wondered if Achilles and the other famous people from the Trojan War actually lived and died there. I contemplated where their burials would have been and why none of them have survived to this day - It is likely that the tombs of the heroes, such as Achilles and Hector, would have been grand and noticeable. Perhaps they have been looted out of existence, or washed away by the three thousand years of Mother Nature’s wrath that they have suffered. I like to think that they are still hidden beneath the farmers’ fields that surround the ancient city waiting for the right moment to reveal themselves to the world. Until then they will have to remain one of those mysteries that forces dreamers to dream. By the time I walked back into the main part of the ruins the crowds had started to grow. There were large tour groups with eloquent guides weaving the legend of Troy with the known history of the site - I was glad I wasn’t a part of those tours, but happy that I wasn’t the only one interested in exploring Troy that day. I took a seat under an ancient Trojan Oak (I don’t really know what kind of tree it was, but it was big and beautiful) and I wrote in my journal and contemplated the site.

Eventually I made my way through the more modern Roman portion of the city and then I passed the tour-bus filled parking lot and said farewell to Troy. I was hungry, but I knew that I didn’t have much hope of finding any food in the local restaurant, so I went into a little store and bought some crackers and an ice cream - The perfect meal on a hot Turkish afternoon! I spent another hour and a half sitting on the side of the road waiting (and hoping) for another bus to come by to take me back to Çanakkale. Just when I was giving up hope and wondering what the long walk back into town would be like a small dolmush rumbled to a stop and I climbed on board. That night I walked around the town taking in the festive, nighttime scene that seems to go hand in hand with Ramazan in Turkey. I found another Trojan horse on the town’s main walkway. I immediately recognized that the horse, seemingly built from weatherworn wooden boat parts, was a movie star. It had starred along side Brad Pitt in the movie ‘Troy’ and was now a popular tourist attraction.

The following morning I was on the move again. I reluctantly decided to skip the tour of the Gallipoli Peninsula, the site of one of the most gruesome battles of World War I, and the Piri Reis museum in the town of Gelibolu and I was returning to Istanbul to take in the Ramazan festivities in one of my favorite cities. I missed the bus at the station, but, luckily, it was only going to the ferry for the ride across the Dardanelles. The station attendant quickly escorted me onto the ferry and showed me to my seat there. I excitedly stood at the port side rail of the large ferry for the ride across the Dardanelles. This was a body of water that had been in my imagination since I was a young kid. I still remember the day clearly when my teacher pointed to a map and explained how one country (Turkey) could be on two different continents at the same time. As an aside, he pointed to the extremely narrow waterway that led from the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara and on to the Black Sea through the Bosphorus and said something along the lines of, “This is one of the most important and dangerous bodies of water in the world, it is called the Dardanelles.” He then went on to explain the strategic importance of controlling the only navigable means of reaching the Black Sea and much of Central Asia from the open ocean - His little five minute explanation burned the small waterway into my permanent memory forever! Troy was powerful because it controlled the Dardanelles, Xerxes took advantage of the narrow straight and marched his entire army from Asia to Europe on a bridge of boats and Alexander the Great followed his example. Later, in an attempt to gain control of the Dardanelles, the Allied forces during World War I unsuccessfully fought the Ottoman Empire at Gallipoli, retreating after both sides sustained unthinkable losses of life. Who knows what other conflicts those shores have seen in our forgotten history. We sailed passed a large, hillside monument to the battle of Gallipoli and then one of the massive Ottoman Fortresses that helped them maintain their dominance of the straight for hundreds of years and then we docked on the other side. I took my seat on the bus and about an hour later I was back in Istanbul.

It had been about six weeks since I left Istanbul to explore Turkey. In that time things had changed drastically. The peaceful city that I had grown to love was now crowded and hectic. Several big roads in Sultanahmet were closed to vehicles and traffic was snarled. The streets and parks were packed with pilgrims from all over the Muslim world who had come to celebrate Ramazan among Istanbul’s amazing monuments to Islam. When I first saw the crowds I got a little worried that my hostel would be full. I decided to walk straight through the crowded Sultanahmet Park, which was the shortest route to the hostel. I was stopped in my tracks near the hippodrome by a giant building that was blocking my way. I was surprised, because I had walked the same path a hundred times or more and there had never been a large, seemingly permanent building there. When I walked around the log-cabin style building, complete with windows and electricity, I realized that it had been erected as a restaurant for all of the visitors. A quick glance down the road that separated the hippodrome from the Blue Mosque revealed several more similar buildings and tents all the way down the road. It was still daylight, so the restaurants were closed for the fast. I decided to come back that evening to participate in the festivities that mark the nightly breaking of the fast. I slowly made my way past men and women in their finest attire vying for a view of the lovely mosque or the bustling crowd. Eventually I made it to the Big Apple Hostel. The man at the counter said, “Welcome Back!” with a smile. I was in luck, there were a few beds left!

US media has done a great job of vilifying the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is known as Ramazan in Turkey. Our reporters are always quick to report any bad happenings, which are inevitable with such large crowds anywhere, but they never seem to mention the good - The beautiful decorations, the warm, hospitable people, the festive, lively evenings… Even my guidebook talked about the difficulty of traveling in the Middle East during Ramadan. I prepared myself for the hardship and toil that I was ‘going to’ experience, but I never found it. The supposedly grumpy fasters that I was told to expect were nowhere in sight. The usually hospitable Turks were redefining my meaning of hospitality and kindness. Ramadan is meant to be a time of religious reflection and, as a result, everyone was on his or her best behavior. As a non-Muslim, I was not expected to participate in the fast, though it was considered polite to conceal my eating and drinking as best as I could during the day. Luckily, Istanbul has a very strong tourism industry and there were several restaurants catering to non-Muslims, including my favorite kebab stand, so I had no problem finding lunch.

I spent two amazing days in Istanbul during the Ramazan festivities absorbing the exotic atmosphere and crushing my misconceptions. After sunset was the most enjoyable part for me. There were concerts and lively street vendors selling any treat you could ever hope for - I think I ate my weight in baklava on the two evenings I was there. The Iftar, or end of fast meal, always set the evening festivities off with joyous celebrations and large communal meals where everyone sat down together. There were not many foreign tourists in the city, so those of us who were there stood out a bit, which led to many great conversations. Everyone seemed genuinely interested in sharing their culture and their religion with me.

I was conflicted. I could have stayed for the entire month in Istanbul, but I had already purchased a plane ticket from Athens, Greece to Cairo. I had about two weeks before the flight and there was a lot I wanted to see on mainland Greece. I was going to be in Egypt for the end of Ramadan, so I decided to stick with my initial plans. I purchased a train ticket from Istanbul to Thessaloniki, Greece and then I enjoyed one last day in my favorite city. That evening I boarded my train and was shown to my personal sleeper cabin. I was excited about sleeping on a train - I had always seen sleeper cars in the movies, but I had always considered them to be for the rich and famous. With a whistle blast and a lurch, my journey out of Turkey began. As the train pulled out of the station I asked the attendant about the café car and communal areas on the train. He frowned and told me that there were no communal areas and that the only food service was going to be a (poorly stocked) meal cart that would pass through every few hours - It was going to be a lonely journey. I said farewell to Istanbul and Turkey and I set my sights on new adventures in Greece. I had a very boring cheese sandwich and some cookies for dinner and then I got ready for bed. I was slowly rocked to sleep by the motion of the train and the rhythmic, clackity-clack of the rails below me…

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Photos

A Movie Star!
This giant Trojan horse once stared along side Brad Pitt in the movie 'Troy'.

Beautiful Ruins
Hints at the city's greatness can be found all over the place.

Ancient Piping
At the Ruins of Troy.

In the Footsteps of Kings
I would love to know the stories these paving stones could tell.

Plastered Walls(1)
These walls are under a big permanent awning to protect them from the elements.

Plastered Walls(2)
These walls are under a big permanent awning to protect them from the elements.

Under the Awning
These walls are under a big permanent awning to protect them from the elements.