Istanbul Day 2

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We woke up at 6 am Istanbul time, 11 pm back home, feeling quite normal, which we can credit to melatonin, perhaps? Our hotel includes a buffet breakfast, and we weren't sure what to expect, but it was pretty spectacular. Among the unusual items were figs, hazelnuts, and a big sheet of real honeycomb. I also love the practice of almost every country other than the US of offering hot milk beside the coffee dispenser. Missing, however, were any pancakes, waffles, or other syrup-topped items, but we certainly found enough to sustain us, almost for the whole day, as it turned out.

We had booked a half-day old city highlights tour that began at 8. Our first stop was the Blue Mosque, a giant building with "elephant leg" columns (so named) and stunning domes. Before entering, we had to take off our shoes, and we women had to cover our heads and arms. Fortunately I had brought along a scarf and sweater, but there is a supply of drapes and robes for borrowing. As a result, about half the women there looked like they were about to perform in one of our Bible-time musicals, and they were pretty amused about it, too.

The mosque feels about as large as a football field inside, all carpeted and hushed. Of course, we visited with hundreds of tourists, so it was not completely hushed. It's hard to believe the building dates back to 1616.

The Blue Mosque was but a youngster compared our next stop, though, the Hagia Sophia, which was an ancient church from the time of Constantine (330 AD), later a mosque, and now a museum shared by both faiths. It has had its ups and downs, including being completely razed by rioters upset by the loss of their team in chariot races at the neighboring Hippodrome, in about 590 AD. And we think sports fans today are out of hand.

Passing through the Hippodrome itself, which doesn't look much like a racetrack today but rather a large plaza with lots of folding tables and chairs being set up for the first night of Ramadan celebration, we ended our tour at the Grand Bazaar. But wait! Before being released, our tour group was "invited" to a demonstration, i.e., sales pitch, of Turkish carpets, which are, of course, the best in the world. Wait, didn't we hear that Chinese carpets are the best in the world? Hmmm. This was not so bad, as we got to sit on comfy couches and drink "Apple tea," (hot apple juice?) and see some genuinely beautiful rugs. Of course, after the sales pitch the truly hard sell begins, and one salesman who spent a couple of years in Massachusetts naturally latched onto us and told us again and again how great it would be to protect our "valuable" (25-year-old) carpets at home from the winter slush by covering them with some nice thousand-dollar Turkish rugs.

Whew! We finally escaped his clutches and hurried into the Grand Bazaar, which is an enormous covered marketplace with something like 1400 shops, most of which sell jewelry, leather, Pashmina scarves, T-shirts, or trinkets. If we thought we had gotten away from the hard-sell, we were sadly mistaken. Here we felt we couldn't even look at anything for fear of picking up a vendor on a mission. One can even be accused of being rude for refusing to come into a shop to inspect the wares. It's pretty sad. I would have liked to browse for some small gifts, but, not having any idea what I was looking for, I didn't feel free to get ideas, check prices, etc., because it would have been too much of a hassle.

Adding to this discomfort we were feeling with the culture, we fell victims to a clever scam. A young man walking past us with shoe-polishing gear dropped a brush, and when we pointed it out, he acted very grateful and started polishing Wayne's shoes, as if in a gesture of thanks. He was also very friendly and chatty, and soon was joined by a partner who polished my sandals (what there was of them to polish). Of course, when they were done, we felt we had to offer them some money for their kindness (and the baby on the way, the whole life story, true or false, having been told). Unfortunately, Wayne's smallest bill was 50 lira, about $25, and when he handed it over and asked for change, it found its way into a pocket and magically became a 5 lira note. Also, English suddenly became much harder to speak, so it couldn't be understood that we wanted something like $15 back. We did end up getting about $8 back, but felt pretty disgusted by the whole thing. On the positive side, it did crystallize the discomfort and vulnerability I've felt here and gave me a way of portraying that in my blog!

Here's another thing that made me say, "Yuck!" We were so full from breakfast and were expecting such a lavish spread of hors d'oeuvres at the conference reception tonight that we picked up just a couple light snacks mid-day. One was a peach from a local market, which I dutifully washed back at our room. It was ripe and delicious, and I was thoroughly enjoying it until I saw an earwig come crawling out of the pit. Gross!! Not sure I'll be able to eat a peach again without reliving that moment.

I'm sure I didn't do justice to the Archeological Museum that afternoon, due to being a little too tired of standing and perhaps some Peach PTSD, but I think Wayne enjoyed it quite a bit. Really a remarkable collection of artifacts dating back to 50,000 BC: axe-heads and flint, mummies, the world's oldest peace treaty (Kadesh), mosaics, pottery, etc.

Looking forward to the reception, we took a 5-mile cab ride to cover about a quarter-mile walking distance. Not a scam this time. Our driver kept being stymied by trucks parked in the road, one-way streets, etc. At last we arrived at the conference center. Alas, we had the time of the reception wrong and instead of arriving an hour into it, we had another 45 minutes to wait. Oh well, the rooftop site did have a beautiful view out over the Bosphorus, and the weather was great, in the 70s, in contrast to what one might expect from summer in the Middle East. We also didn't see anyone we knew right away, so we kind of frittered away our time until the food arrived. Well, it was not exactly worth waiting for: a veggie-cheese platter, a bowl of nuts, and some Doritos. Fortunately we have our breakfast to look forward to. We did enjoy a long conversation with Michael from Winnipeg whom we had met at the airport. It's always nice to hear from someone who has far worse winters than you do. This year Winnipeg had 70 days in a row when the wind chill hit -35 degrees. Cheer up, New England!

On our way out we ran into Matthew Kahn who had interviewed Ron for UCLA grad school and who knew Wayne from way back in Cambridge. He kept repeating how impressed he had been by Ron's maturity. No, seriously! (Sorry, Ron). We were bemused.

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