Istanbul!

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I accidentally chewed out (kind of) the visa guy for a bad rate when I just did my math wrong lol. Um yeah, it's a long way to the hostel but it should be awesome I go right past the blue mosque and Hagia Sofia. Umm observations so far. Pay $1 for metro and then u get a token to get thru machine. Then you are in. No bothering with tickets on trains is nice. Mmk also I'm the obvious minority for the first time. It's not too weird, kind of cool actually (can I play the race card now?). I'm already used to being around people I don't know and who don't speak my language, but now they actually look noticeably different too, like enough where I stand out. In mainland Europe people would come up to me and speak the native language because I kind of blended in, I doubt that will happen here.

I feel bad keeping the people at the hostel up if the reception isn't 24-7 (it's almost midnight) but I do like seeing a city for the first time at night. That's how I saw Prague and it was really spectacular because all the famous buildings are lit up and look amazing so I'm really excited to see Sultanahmet(the old town district). Everything is nice enough and plenty of English, but it was the airport. The metro is tiled with smooth blue and white and some mosaics at the stations. I like the vibe so far.

Had to take a taxi because tram closed at midnight (35 Lira rip-off but I was tired and out of options). Next morning I woke up to breakfast at the hostel. It's pretty nice: including a hardboiled egg, feta cheese, olives, baby cucumber, tomato, and unlimited coffee and good bread. And it is in the rooftop restaurant of the hostel, which has an amazing view of the city and Bosporus. After breakfast I went to wait in the main square between Hagia Sophia and the blue mosque for a free walking tour. While I was waiting I met two other Americans named Anna and Jess who were also waiting for the tour. We waited for quite a while and no one ever showed up, so we decided to follow Anna's guidebook and just make our own tour. We started at the blue mosque, which was free to enter. Girls had to cover up, shalls and no ankles showing. Everyone had to take off their shoes and put them into little plastic baggies. Mine wouldn’t both fit into one bag so I had to use separate ones. Ok so observations about the mosque: Very cool architecture, domes built on domes, created a lot of open space. I think that was the idea; space, especially since they don’t have pews or chairs either it is just a big peaceful open area, which is kind of cool. Also, they don’t have statues or paintings of people anywhere in mosques (I like the idea, focus should be on God not man. I think lots of European churches/cathedrals get that wrong). The decorations on the wall are just geometric or nature mosaics and Arabic script (usually representing the name of Allah I’m told). There doesn’t seem to be much depth however, so it’s not quite as exciting as a lot of old cathedrals, just flat, if beautifully decorated, walls. As a side note, I wondered if they would be offended that I brought my Bible into the mosque (I just always keep it in my bag). But Turkey is a constitutionally secular country so I don’t think there would have been a big fuss (which makes it one of the easiest Islamic cultures to visit, because even though it is secular, the population is like 90% Muslim).

Next we visited the remains of the Hippodrome, which was the site of the Eastern Roman Empire’s horse races (insert Ben Hur reference here). The only remains are actually two giant, stone Obelisks, and a smaller, broken brass column, which looked like one of those spiral lollipops, that used to stand in the center of the track.

Then we proceeded on to the famous Grand Bazaar. Just outside we stopped for lunch where we had fast food burgers – Turkish style. They were kind of like dollar menu burgers at McDonalds, except they had fries inside and were dipped bun and all into some sort of red grease that tasted delicious =) Not a bad deal, with a burger and a can of soda (btw you get a straw with a can of soda in Turkey) for only around $2, especially since food seemed to be more expensive in Turkey.

Then we actually went into the Bazaar where an already present annoyance intensified. Apparently in conservative, Islamic, male-dominated cultures, it’s ok to… “be incredibly forward” with western women. I’ve heard this is because of rumors that western women are easy, but it is totally unjustified. Every single guy we passed stared at the girls, and there were apparently a lot of hands in places they shouldn’t be in the big crowds. It seemed to get better when I was paying attention and staying close, so I felt good playing protector for a few days. Sometimes, well most times it was just playful and funny, like with all the salesmen (I’m pretty sure every Turk in Turkey is selling something though) and their sales pitches. “Would you angels care to buy some jewelry? Or “Sir, come in here and buy something nice for your wives.” I think that’s the second time already this year someone has assumed I’m a Mormon, and it’s only April! (How’s that for a pathetic attempt at sarcasm?).

Aside from that nonsense it was actually really cool. Like I said before everyone is selling something, and they will all become your best friend to sell it. They know westerners are usually too polite to just walk away from a conversation, so they do their best to start one in anyway possible and take advantage. Most commonly; “Excuse me, my friend, where are you from?” but also funnier examples such as “How can I help you spend your money?”, “Can I sell you something you don’t need?”, and “Can I help you? No, I’m just looking. “I’m just selling.” The Grand Bazaar itself is located inside a maze of narrow streets, it a basically just a covered and walled continuation of those streets. The Grand Bazaar specializes in tourist items such as: scarves, soccer stuff, leather jackets, carpets, gold and silver jewelry, musical instruments, hookahs, and more. Outside the Grand Bazaar, the labyrinth of narrow streets continues with more shops and salesmen pressing in on all sides. But pushing through the maze to the north we reached another covered market known as the Spice Bazaar. As its name entails, the Spice Bazaar sells tons of spices; imagine rainbow colored, Scar Face size piles of powder everywhere. A strong wind must create total havoc here, but it smelled amazing. Alongside all the spice stalls there were other stalls selling fresh cut Turkish Delight and Tea. There was so much color in this place! Turkish Delight is kind of like gummy jelly consistency, often stuffed with pistachios, and it comes in square tube form with is then cut into little cubes which are then sold by weight. The tea is natural loose style, not in the little baggies, and also comes in about a million different varieties.

So we didn’t get to do a tour that day, but we still saw some great things and got a lot of souvenir shopping done. We had afternoon tea in the gardens of Topkapi palace, which were actually beautifully covered in tulips for the tulip festival. After that the girls wanted to head back to their end of town (across the Golden Horn), and I decided to try to wait for the tour again which supposed to go for a second time at 6PM. So we said our good byes and I went off and sat on a bench near the meeting point again. While I was waiting an interesting thing happened. At first it seemed kind of harmless, a Turkish girl appeared to be helping translate for a family that didn’t speak English and she came and asked me if I had a pen they could borrow. I checked, and I didn’t so I said sorry and she moved on and found one. Later, she came back and sat next to me and was trying to start conversation. Asking where I was from, if I was a student etc. I tried to be nondescript, having already learned that seemingly every Turk is trying to sell you something, and politely tried to ignore her. She persisted, and asked me to come get something to drink or eat before my tour started. I made an excuse that I needed to be there the whole time to make sure the tour didn’t leave early (which was true, because I wasn’t sure if I had missed the tour in the morning because it left early). She still wouldn’t give up and asked how long I was in Turkey, I again played it off, saying I was in Istanbul for at least tomorrow, but I had plans with friends the whole day (also not really a lie). Then she asked for my email and I said no… then she offered to give me hers and I was like “I’d rather not, you see I’ve heard of this scam where some girl asks a lone travelling guy to a bar for drinks, and then the guy gets overcharged by hundreds of dollars for the drinks and there are bouncers to make him pay kind of thing.” She gave up and was like ok see you later, maybe we’ll meet some other day and walked off right after that so it makes me kind of suspicious.

After that little incident the tour guide did eventually show up. It was kind of unusual though, because he just sort of stood there by himself. Usually there is like one or two guides and they have signs and big groups of people gathering. I went and talked to him only after I noticed some others (who had been on a tour with him earlier) talking about tour stuff. I hadn’t really realized he was a guide until then. But then no one else showed up for the tour, so I decided not to go, saying maybe tomorrow, but then that never happened either … so yeah I didn’t take a tour at all in Istanbul. After that I was pretty tired so I went back to the hostel to enjoy dinner at their rooftop restaurant. Food was pretty expensive (other than Doner Kebabs), so I actually ate at the hostel a lot because we got a discount and it has an amazing view of the city and Bosporus. That first night I had a chicken casserole type dish, with salad, bread, a soda, and Baklava for dessert. I think Baklava is my new favorite dessert, its soooo good! If you don’t know its like thousands (not literally) of layers of thin pastry dough soaked in natural honey, usually with one layer of pistachios or chocolate or something. And it was only like nine dollars including a tip.

The next day I met with the girls at Taksim square, which is the main square of the new town, and we went to go see Dolmabahce Palace. The palace was where Ataturk (think Turkish George Washington, national hero, leader of their fight for independence) lived and died. Unfortunately, the girls didn’t have the right kind of student card so it would have been really expensive to visit, so we spent pretty much the whole morning walking again. We made our way back to the Galata bridge, where I may or may not have been hit with a fish (it’s a weird story, ask me in person). Where we waited around for a ferry cruise up the Bosporus. In the meantime we saw these fishermen who served fish sandwiches from their boats that rocked really dramatically while they cooked the fish, and we bought some fresh squeezed pomegranate juice from a street vendor. But soon our ferry arrived and we took off up the Bosporus. Along the way we saw all the major sights of Istanbul, most of which I’ve already mentioned I think, but to be sure: various mosques, Topkapi palace, Galata tower, tons of different waterfront palaces and fancy residences, two giant bridges, colorful “stacked” houses going up the hills on the side of the river, and two castles. We had a two hour layover in a small fishing village on the Asian side where we had fish and fried mussels for lunch before hiking up to a castle overlooking the Bosporus as it funnels out from the Black Sea. On the way back down to Istanbul the weather was a lot better (it was cloudy on the way up) and everything looked a lot cooler. We also saw dolphins jumping and jellyfish swimming in the bright blue water. I think that was the first time I’ve ever seen dolphins in person. The ferry landed back in the old town, near to my hostel so I went back and had dinner at the restaurant again. This time it was Turkish pizza, which is spicy sausage and cheese on a long, football shaped piece of bread. I put ketchup on it to make up for a lack of tomato sauce and it was actually pretty tasty.

The next morning we planned to go visit the old city walls of Constantinople, but then we found out from the receptionist that they are now pretty much a homeless camp… and really far from the touristy part of town where we were so we decided to splurge and go to Topkapi palace instead. I’m glad we did because the palace was marvelous. It reminded me of the Crown Jewels in England, except Turkish style. My favorite part was the armory which had all sorts of weapons (scimitars, shields, maces, bows, lances, suits of armor, etc) and they were all covered in Jewels. The famous Topkapi dagger in particular was remarkable, being covered in gold and having two egg-sized emeralds embedded in its handle. Also in the armory were three swords from Hungary that I couldn’t believe were ever used because they were so big, probably 7-8 feet long, I questioned if the average person could lift one, let alone use it as a weapon. (…I can’t remember what I did the rest of that day).

On my last day in Istanbul I slept in and then went to lay out in the sun and read in the gardens at Topkapi palace again, before walking a long ways to the military museum in the new town. I really enjoyed this museum, which explained the entire military history of the Turks from their ancestors arriving from Mongolia, to the Ottomans, to the modern Turks. It included numerous huge exhibits of guns, swords, armors, cannons, and other military memorabilia. One item that stood out was a combination sword and handgun. It was a sword with a handgun built into the handle, that shot straight out along the trough of the blade. Also at the museum I got to see the oldest military band in the world, the Mehter band, perform for free! Another interesting thing at the museum was a giant cannon out front which is also a monument to a certain solder who’s name escapes me. Anyways there is a cool story about him; this cannon is so big that it normally required a crane to load its 276 Kg (550+ pounds) artillery rounds. But one time during a battle the crane broke, and this guy carried and loaded these giant munitions all by himself to keep the cannon firing.

Hmm that sums up all the major things I did in Istanbul, that night I went to a grocery store and spent the last of my Turkish Lira on groceries for the next two days (I slept in the airport in Vienna). And now I’m at school at Tauernhof in Schladming, Austria! Hopefully pics and blog to come soon but I’m busy meeting all these new people and getting settled in.

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