I Heart Istanbul

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[youtube=xfG1C09ZDPY][youtube=S5noFmEZuLM]

Istanbul is an awesome city. Probably in my top 3 favorite cities. Maybe even eclipsing my prior favorite, Paris. It has two of my favorite features of any great city - trams and ferries. And a completely wacky mixture of East and West and rich and poor and religious and secular.

Coming to Istanbul was an enormous culture shock for me. I suppose it is all relative, but when I came from Jordan/Egypt to Istanbul, I was completely amazed at how free-flowing the alcohol is, how little clothes the women wear, and how many people eat and drink during the day during Ramadan. Traveling in Egypt/Jordan during Ramadan isn't fun due to the heat plus the inability to re-hydrate. Istanbul is a fully-modern city that still has all the trappings of a Middle Eastern city. Something to be seen and experienced.

The people here, particularly the shop keepers, are very friendly. At one point a guy walked two blocks with us to make sure we knew the way to the post office. There are innumerable touts for restaurants, but they are pretty good-natured on the whole. That said, I almost fell victim to a shoe-shining scam. The way the scam goes is a guy drops his shoe brush on the ground, and you pick it up and give it back to him, then he makes you get your shoe shined, and then I suppose pay him some money at the end. The first time I saw this, I just really didn't need my shoes shined and I gave him his brush back and brushed off his request for a brushing. I thought I had done a good thing. Then on the last day in Istanbul, I saw two guys try this within 3 meters of each other within 5 seconds of each other. My spirits sank. But I was glad I had been cynical enough to not fall for it. It would be easier if people weren't so deceptive.

Perhaps the best thing about Istanbul is that I have been reading a work of fiction (Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk) that is set in Istanbul while I have been here. Museum of Innocence is a great book about one man's passion for an impossible girl that he can't have and all the attendant problems. Seeing Kemal Bey driving through the neighborhoods that I am walking through really brings the streets into greater focus. I am headed to the East of Turkey tomorrow by train and I have another book with me set there. Should be quite a trip.

Istanbul is physically split into two by the Bosphorous between the Eastern, Asian side and the Western, European side. I suppose I have been in two continents during my time in Istanbul depending on how exactly you demarcate Asia and Europe. The tourists are almost exclusively on the European side of Istanbul. Most of the typical touristy things are in and around Sultanahmet, including the Hagia Sophia, Topkapi palace, Blue Mosque, and the Eminönü wharf.

Turkey is legendary for its food and honestly it hasn't disappointed. Though if I have to be honest, my favorite food has been the stuffed mussels. They cook a mussel, slice through the hinge on the shell, and stuff the cooked mussel with deliciously spiced rice. A squeeze of fresh lemon juice over the top completes the dish. Scrumptious. The big ones go for about a lira ($0.50 or thereabouts) since the exchange rate is about 1.8 TL to the dollar currently. I use a mental exchange rate of 2:1 which not a great way of doing the math but gets close I guess. Other foods that I have particularly liked have included the Baklava sold at the Ramazan market (like a German Weihnachtsmarkt) and the fish sandwiches ( malik ekmek in Turkish) - just watch out for the bones. For a video I took of fish sandwiches being cooked, click here. Also, they sell these things that look like bagels but taste like croissants that are 1TL and delicious. There are vendors absolutely everywhere - you can't avoid them. The Turkish Turkish food that I have had in America and Germany I would have to say was actually better in Germany - I would put Döner and Pide in this category.

I have walked a whole lot in Istanbul, partly because I am cheap, and partly because it is so much fun to walk around the city. I've been actually getting in decent walking shape which is good because I am planning on a bit of trekking in Eastern Turkey if I can convince my body to do it.

With the general impressions out of the way, I guess I'll give a bit of a blow-by-blow of my days in Istanbul.

I arrived in Istanbul on the 21st in the evening. I had previously booked 5 nights at the Sultan Hostel in Istanbul, and I was glad to have a home when I got to the city, though I did get lost in the short walk from the tram stop to my hostel. Leave it to me, I will get lost without any difficulty. It's a hostel with a restaurant/bar on the ground floor. The bed in the hostel is incredibly uncomfortable - you can feel the bed spring directly on your back. I have gotten used to it after a few days though and I mind it less now.

I met a German girl in the lobby on the night of my arrival and we agreed to meet for a day of traveling the following day. We went to the Topkapi palace the following day and went to the Blue Mosque since it was open but the Aya Sofia and the Architectural Museum were closed on Mondays. We also did a cruise of the Bosphorous. I was feeling not so good and headed back to the hostel and by the end of the day I was suffering from some properly liquidy poops. This was the first time that I have had any real problems like that on the trip, which was quite surprising based on my typically loose constitution. Luckily I brought anti-pooping pills with me, and even though they got up to 110F in Jordan and should by right have been useless they still worked their magic brilliantly.

The next day she wanted to meet up with me again but I wasn't feeling too hot and I hung around the hostel until I got to the point where I thought that I was feeling well enough and I headed out on an adventure up to Taksim Square and a walk back to the hostel. Along the way I picked up a copy of The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk. That evening I met two Canadian girls at the hostel that were sitting with my German friend and by the end of the night we decided to do some stuff together the following day.

The following day Arielle and Caroline and I headed out to the Prince's Islands for a bit of a wander. We got along pretty great and had a fun day on Heybeliarda, the third island that the ferry stops at when it leaves from Kabatas (which is the end of the metro line of the closest metro line to my hostel. Did I mention I love this city?) We were even able to find a place to swim, though it wasn't exactly a beach. The girls are practically fish from all their time in the water. I really need to get more comfortable in open water. It was quite cold in the evening on the islands and they gave me a fleece scarf at the restaurant, which I got endless shit from the girls about. After dinner we had Turkish ice cream which is quite different from "normal" ice cream in that it has an element of taffy consistency. The girls and I had ice cream sandwiches formed by wafer waffles. The wafer waffles had a little bit of taffy-like stuff in the wafers to hold them together as well. Mmm... Then we took the ferry back to Istanbul.

The following day I woke up late with a headache from our fun the night before and went to the Hagia Sofia, and read a book for most of the rest of the day. The Hagia Sofia is quite an impressive structure with early Christian mosaics.

The following day Arielle and Caroline and I decided that we should head over to the Asian side of Istanbul since we had not yet made the trip. We took a ferry to Kadiköy from Eminönü (I think) and wandered around a bit (and got lost). We tried these deep fried dough balls (sort of like crunchy gulab jamun) - delicious. Arielle was so cute on the way back as she falls asleep immediately upon getting into a ferry. We said our goodbyes and the Arielle and Caroline headed off for a week of sailing in the islands around the southeast of Turkey - sounds nice. I really enjoyed spending time with them a lot. Canadians are at 100% right now.

Then I went to the Basilica Cistern that one of my friends had recommended. It was used in the Bond film From Russia with Love. Following that I wandered around the Blue Mosque - Hagia Sofia area abit and took some photos.

I went to the Prince's Islands again the next day with a girl I met in the hostel. On the way there to the Büyükada island, an elderly man was carried into the cabin that we were sitting in, and people propped him up and gave him sugar. From my completely un-medical standpoint it seems like he fainted from a diabetic problem in a toilet and was found by people. I gave him my towel as a pillow and after a half an hour or so he was back to normal. A lot of people on the boat were giving him help. It made me happy to be able to be part of the solution. It was all in all quite sweet. The girl I met had biked from Amsterdam and had her bike with her. I ended up biking around the island by myself and ended up at a park on the island. It was so incredibly lovely that I have a hard time putting it into words. I stood on this promontory and felt the wind whip through my hair. I felt like I owned the world and my heart could not contain the love I was experiencing and longed desperately for someone to share the moment with. The island itself does not have any cars but lots of bikes and horse carriages. And Victorian houses. An interesting mix for sure.

On my final day in Istanbul I made some preparations for my trip to the East, including picking up a headlamp to replace the one that went missing in Jordan as well as buying a few books. In the afternoon I met with a friend of Mike Hardy and we discussed a wide ranging list of topics. We had a great time together and we agreed tentatively to meet up again on the Asian side of the city for dinner. We will have to see how plans work out.

Much love to you all. Choo Choo and I am out

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Comments

[Nate]

Wow, sounds amazing. Yes, I have found Canadians to be just about the best people in the world. Interesting to watch your writing change and loosen and become more optimistic and free.