Istanbul

Istanbul, or to me, the City of Roses or the City of Color.

Roses in front of the Hagia Sophia

more roses in the courtyard

One of the first things I became aware of was the language.  Riding the coach bus from the Ataturk airport to Taksim (one of the urban neighborhoods) I realized I couldn't read any of the signs, billboards, even storefronts.  It was actually disconcerting right away.  I thought "yikes!  I'm not ready for this!  How did I forget that in addition to not being able to speak the language that I was going to also struggle to get by on my own even with a map?!"  (Menus were tough to read too because do you really trust a place that shows its dishes in pictures?)

But I got over those nerves very quickly and was on to the next challenge of finding my host's house.  Thank goodness for google maps and my iPad again because Adem made me a map of how to walk to his place (he offered to pick me up from the bus stop and told me to call, but without a SIM card, I was ready to find his place on my own! ) Funny thing though, in Istanbul, a street on a map might actually just be a staircase!  You can be walking down a road and it could just all of a sudden turn into a staircaseare... They are very picturesque - quite quiet and residential.  I'm not sure how your GPS would know the difference when driving, but my host said that GPSes aren't something Turks have really adopted.   So I have to admit I went around in circles on his block full of steep hills and these staircases for about 20 minutes with heavy luggage in tow in hot, hot heat!  Not how I wanted to start my stay, but Adem rescued me finally!

The staircase that caused me too much confusion searching for my host's place

One of hundreds (?) of staircases in Istanbul...they each have their own street name

Adem had some plans that afternoon already and I needed a nap (see last post about me not getting any sleep en route!!), but he first set me up with a map and ideas of what I could easily see on my own when I woke up.  So that's what I did.  I took the short tram ride to the historic district, Sultanahmet, and saw the Blue Mosque (still an active place of worship, but I got lucky and it was between prayer times so I could go in), Sultanahmet Square (ruins of an old chariot racing stadium), the Hagia Sophia (church turned mosque turned museum), Kapali Carsi (the Grand Bazaar shopping area that consists of 66 covered streets and hundreds or likely thousands of shopping stalls), and walked home via the Galata Bridge to avoid a repeat of my tram ride to Sultanahmet.  The trams, though very new looking and modern, were insanely crowded on a Saturday.  I got on at the tram's only second stop near Taksim and it was already completely full.  Istanbul, and especially Sultanahmet, is very popular with tourists and apparently super popular among other Turks from around the entire country.  Like sooooo touristy.  Hagia Sophia had about 50 times more tourists than the most crowded site I saw in Australia, the Sydney Opera House.  I thought, "Hello, Europe!  So this is how it's going to be all summer long!"  But I was laughed at later by another CSer for going to Sultanahmet on a Saturday.  So maybe it was just Istanbul.  Live and learn.

The Blue Mosque

The Istanbul tram

Inside the Hagia Sophia

The dark and narrow ramps you must take to get to the galleries upstairs in the Hagia Sophia

View from upstairs

The Virgin Mary

Inside the Blue Mosque (still in use)

Blue Mosque

in the courtyard

dozens of baklava shops in Sultanahmet (one of many foods that the Greeks stole from the Turks... dolma (stuffed wine leaves) too!)

cafes in the streets in Sultanahmet

Grand Bazaar

Inside the bazaar..... it's just a maze of streets and thousands of vendors... tea, luggage, scarves, jewelry, coats, sweets, watches, clothes, you name it

like I said, the City of Color

Crossing the Galata Bridge... ferries all around

Squeezing in for a picture in between the hundreds of fisherman perched on the bridge

The very, very busy Bosphorus Strait/Sea of Marmara

That night Adem and I went out in Taksim, the nightlife filled neighborhood, and met up with Orkun, another CSer who had offered to host me.  I think Turkish people must like to associate with US culture.  Adem picked a place for dinner (which by the way it was 10pm already) that had Lady Gaga playing, had at least a half dozen flat screen TVs, sold Miller Lite beer, and had a menu consisting of pizza, nachos, onion rings, and chicken fingers among other dishes.  I asked if they picked this one because of me and they said no, they both like to come there occasionally.  Each one of us had forgotten that the Eurovision Song contest finale was that night (I had heard about it twice that day), but the bar/restaurant we were at was showing it on all screens so we had a fun time cheering for Turkey and watching the results come in.  Citizens of one country cannot vote for their own country's performance so it instead becomes a contest of how many neighbors or allies you have!  Orkun and Adem impressed me by almost nailing the votes before they were announced for each country.  They knew which countries were going to give their votes to Turkey and all other countries.  This was obvious when certain horrible performances received votes, but at least countries gave credit where credit was still due, and Sweden won.  That took us until about 1am and the night was young so we hit up three or four more bars for drinks and dancing.  The majority of the streets in Taksim might best be described as alleys where cars aren't allowed and so it's pedestrians only.  And while it's not super brightly lit, the streets are full of people still and nothing feels seedy at all.  There were hundreds of places to choose from, but to please budget-conscious me, we only went to places that weren't charging a $30 USD or 60 TL cover charge, which didn't seem to limit our options at all!  We actually were some of the ones calling it a night early when we decided it was time to leave and I found myself going to bed as it started to get light outside at 5am...eeeek!

Taksim

Turkish beer.. it gets my approval

Cheering for Turkey's song on TV at the bar

The very-American looking bar menu

The next morning, I was up at 8:30 to get to the Asian side of the city (once you cross the Bophorus Strait) to go on a bike ride along the Sea of Marmara shoreline.  Maybe think Bayshore Blvd times 100 with 1,000 more things to do and about a four or five times wider sidewalk.  There was some sort of film or TV set going on with horses, dozens of jungle gyms and parks, hundreds of benches, thousands of flowers, plenty of people flying kites, and walkers bikers, and roller bladers galore.  I had been thinking of canceling due to my lack of sleep and I was so, so, so happy I didn't.  This became one of my favorite days!  To not slow us down with all the pictures I wanted to take I rode for quite awhile with one hand steering and just snapping photos with the other hand.  It was one of the most gorgeous days!

Bike ride along the Sea of Marmara

Erol and I

I got the biggest kick out of these "gyms" - there groupings of exercise equipment like these everywhere in Istanbul - natural step machines, aparatuses to strengthen every part of your legs, your core, etc.  I loved them!

That morning they had just cut the grass and it seemed they hadn't done it all winter long.  This was one of 100 GIANT piles of grass clippings they were going around and picking up!  And they cut the grass just in time.  Families were having picnics everywhere on this Sunday!

I loved the kites!

more roses...they were everywhere!

And super duper crazy story about the CSer, Erol,  who I went biking with!  It turns out he did one semester of the MBA program at University of Tampa back in the spring of 2008 and when he tried to remember the name of the street in Hyde Park that he lived on we played a guessing game where I kept guessing every street name in my neighborhood that I could think of except for my own.  Finally he said he thought it began with an H and I blurted out "Horatio??!?"  He lived literally next door to me on the corner (blue house with big porch)!!  So we talked all about the city, Gasparilla festival, Bayshore, the parks, etc.  It is such a small world!

Goodbye "toilets", hello "waterclosets"!

Ozgurluk Park...biking lanes AND walking lanes

The Freedom Statue in Ozgurluk Park

elephants in the water :)

my kind of park, if it weren't so crowded I would have tried to jump on!

I had hoped to take the ferry to Princes' Islands that afternoon, but I was enjoying Erol's company so much (and we also added on Özgürlük Park to our bike ride, which was amazing!) that I missed the ferry time I had hoped for and the ones later in the day meant I wouldn't get back to the cry until dark.That afternoon I met another CSer and we explored Kodiköy on the Asian side of the city.  It was a Sunday afternoon/evening and I was amazed at how many people were out and about!  The main road and sidewalks were FULL of people and all of the bars, cafes, restaurants had outdoor seating that filled the streets too.  It was such a lively atmosphere on a beautiful afternoon!  Street vendors compete for your business here (like they do in every neighborhood in Istanbul!) and we got suckered into buying some Turkish ice cream which isn't really very good ice cream in my opinion.  You could say it leaves something to be desired.

flower vendor at the Besiktas port in Kodikoy

The waterpipe/shisha/hookah bar we were at

Alpay's idea of taking a photo of the mural behind me

one of many Kodikoy side streets

I'd give the ice cream a thumbs-down actually

I found my way back home that evening by a dolmus, which is like a group taxi ride that was only 5 turkish lira ($2.50) and was much quicker than a ferry ride back.  I found that there were zillion of transport options in Istanbul... Tram, trolley, metro, ferries, buses, taxis, cars, and dolmuses... But Adem told me that public transport is pretty terrible in Istanbul.  The city's population has ballooned and it's only been in the last 10 years that many of these options became available.  Interestingly, Istanbul only has about 1 million cars, but about 15 million people.  (Note: 3 million people live on the Asian side and 12 million live on the European side.  The Asian side is much more residential and virtually everyone works on the European side.)

My next two days were filled with more sight seeing and nightlife.  Mosque of Suleiman the Great, Galata Tower, the Spice Market, Ortaköy neighborhood (where the rich and famous reside), and Topkapi Palace.  This palace was home to a number of Ottoman Emperors and today is a sprawling museum with a number of courtyards.  You can (and I did) get lost if you don't buy the guide map.  It is now really a museum full of amazing artifacts like King David's sword (from David and Goliath), portions of Muhammed's hair and beard, and soo sooo many spoils of war from the Ching and Ming dynasty's, India and African thrones, armor, weaponry, clothing, robes, you name it.  There were enormous pieces of jade from China, crowns you can't believe people actually could stand wearing they looked so heavy, jewelry, pendants, crowns, etc.  And then there these two candlesticks right near the exit of one room that were about 6 feet high each and the signs said they were solid gold.  My jaw dropped.  No pictures anywhere inside all these rooms were allowed though.  I had the realization that the Ottoman  Empire, though a distant name in my mind, was really way more recently in history than I ever gave thought too.  I think it lasted right up until World War I which is rather crazy to me since I usually associate the word empire with time periods that end with the clarifier B.C. or A.D. Because they are that old and need to be qualified.  But yea, technically it was still an empire less than 100 years ago and they have the treasures to prove it!

The Mosque of Suleiman the Magnificent

inside the mosque

some men praying in between the formal prayer times

have to point out that the females have separate areas to pray inside

The Mosque of Suleiman the Magnificent's inside courtyard

The outside courtyard

discovering that my name, Anne, means "mother" or "grandmother" in Turkish...not sure I like that :)

trying cevizli sucuk at the Spice Market, a Turkish dessert that isn't very desserty...just walnuts and dried honey

Gulhane Park outside of Topkapi Palace

the areas of Karakoy and Beyoglu (Taxim is within Beyoglu) across the Sea

overlooking the Sea of Marmara from the Palace

roses, roses everywhere within the Palace walls

within the Topkapi Palace compound

colorful cafes everywhere!

Galata Tower by Day

Galata Tower by night

Orkun and I went to a really nice wine bar beneath Galata tower and I really enjoyed the bartender's shirt :)

Trying Raki

On my last day in Istanbul, Adem took me to the sea to try this one "dish" called Kumpir which is the most giant baked potato you have ever seen times too. They take one giant baked potato's starchy filling and stuff it into another baked potato adding butter and cheese to create an ooey gooey filling before leaving you to point to the fillings you want... Peas, olives, sausage, couscous, red peppers, and I think about 10 other choices still!  I insisted we split one and it was good we did.  They are delicious enough to want to eat one all by yourself but I don't think there is physically enough room in one person's stomach for it.  There had been just one purchase I had actually hoped to make while in Istanbul before I went any further in my trip and that was a "diamond" engagement ring to wear on my ring finger the rest of the trip as, well, a deterrent of men.  I couldn't find one at the Grand Bazaar or during any of my hurried searches of tables on the streets before vendors approached me to talk, but as fate would have it there was a jewelry vendor right near where we were lunching with the perfect ring.  And mom, you can stop reading now because you won't want to know that I am now engaged :), but Adem being a protective host, as most CS hosts are, took my "jewelry need" quite seriously and insisted on buying the ring for me.  (We joke that May 29 will now be our anniversary.)  I have to admit that though I didn't think I wanted a ring on my finger, I am really liking it!  It catches on so many things and so it's hard not to pay attention to it and as it's quite sparkly I do find myself admiring it a couple times a day :)

Fruit Market on the street

Kumpir.  Worth going back to Istanbul for :)

the ring :)

Post engagement glow :)

colorful cafe in Ortakoy (patrons playing backgammon which was common everywhere in Istanbul)

 So just a few more things....

It was actually hard being a vegetarian here.  Sunday night Adem and I went to about 10 different places in Taksim before we found one place we were both satisfied with.  I was warned about this from a Turkish guy I met in Australia who gave me tons of recommendations for Istanbul and told me it was a shame I didn't eat meat because I would be missing out.  Oh well.  It was ok with me as it let me keep the calorie count down for a few days!

What I have enjoyed though is lots of Turkish tea, their (alocoholic) drink Raki, Turkish toast (they make it with cheese!), and the most giant, richest, densest brownies ever that they refer to as 'cake' (but they are really brownies!)

So for all the attention grabbing tactics the street vendors and shopping stall owners try, they seem to really want to talk to you more than sell you anything.  They like English speaking friends and so many would ask if we could meet later in the day to just talk more.  I hate feeling like a jerk ignoring them, but that's what I discovered I had to do if I ever wanted to walk down a block in under 10 minutes.  Jerk Annie.

Flowers are everywhere, just everywhere in Istanbul.  Mostly roses, but pansies and other flowers I can't name too.  These just made the already colorful city that much more colorful!

If you didn't know I really came to love roundabouts in New Zealand and it was cool to see more of them here, but for a larger city they have had to adapt them so that many here have stop lights at them.  

So even if there was a lack of vegetarian options in restaurants (though I don't want to exaggerate that too much... There were always salads and flat spinach and cheese breads and then plenty of places catered to foreigners too with pasta, pizza, etc) there were so many street for vendors for snacking!  Roasted chestnuts, roasted corn on the cob,and my favorite - giant hunks of bright red, juicy watermelon!!!

It was pretty neat hearing the prayer 5 times a day.  It would last between 10 and 15 minutes and it sounded like crying-mourning-wailing, but it still sounded almost pretty.  Maybe a bit haunting, but also calming at the same time.  I didn't know this, but the five prayer times change every day.  They aren't set like at 6a, 9a, 12noon, 5p, 9p like I thought, but they move a bit each day (maybe with the moon or something like that)?

Bethie could never live in Istanbul.  There are stray dogs and cats on the streets everywhere. Everywhere :(  I think it was on Monday night when Adem and I were walking home really late we even encountered a three legged cat hopping around and it was so sad for me (I cried.  The non-soberness might have made the tears come more easily, but it was so sad to see her.)  I think she really just wanted to be petted.  Adem says that the animals are pretty well taken care of by the people in each neighborhood and that did seem to be the case.  Dogs were never begging for food and none looked anything close to emaciated.  One evening I saw a woman feeding like 15 cats at once and another cat two blocks away was waiting patiently by one door for his "adopted owner" perhaps to open the door to feed him at the "regular" time.

waiting for dinner?

American celebrities that likely wouldn't be caught dead doing commercials on TV in the US do them abroad.  I somehow already knew this and knew Brad Pitt had sold out for a umber of Japanese commercials years ago in really, really dorky commercials, but was reminded of it again in Turkey.  Here, Brad Pitt and Penelope Cruz have one together for a car company and Pamela Anderson is on TV selling ice cream.  Also, Krispy Kreme is here in Turkey, Toyota has sold a number of Priuses, there are lots more Starbucks than there were Down Under, and Burger King is Burger King again!

When I was in Australia I noticed that the Aussie flag wasn't flown in too many places.  I had wanted a picture with it and really struggled to find it.  Well the Turkish flag flies just about everywhere.  They are a country, like the US, with a lot of National Pride.  I actually really enjoyed seeing it flown everywhere.

Now a word against Americans as now in Greece I have confirmed this to also be true, but did you know that students in Turkey (and Greece and I'm guessing now everywhere besides maybe N. America) are taught that there are only 6 continents.  North and South America are the same continent, not two separate ones.  I kind of had my own "you mean Pluto isn't a real planet anymore?!?" moment again.  I think we might just be that self-centered to make up our own distinctions to suit us, but all of America is one continent to everyone else so far.

And a word to any of you who might want to visit Istanbul one day soon...(did I convince any of you yet?)  Do not have a near panic attack like I did at the Istanbul airport when you arrive.  I had checked about needing a VISA back around February and learned US citizens don't need one and went along my merry way.  However, maybe only 10 feet after stepping through the gate upon arrival at the airport I saw a giant sign titled Countries Needing Visas with about 20-30 countries listed below and the US was one of them.  Seriously.  Imagine me.  Stomach sank faster than it had when I bungy jumped.  I went near cold.  A million thoughts ran through my head from "holy shit" to "stupid American" to "how did I miss that??!?" to "are fines or jail the consequence?" to finally coming around and listening to Pema Chödrön and coming to terms with maybe I would just have to stay in the airport for four days until my flight to Mykonos.  No biggie, and boy would it teach me a lesson. I kept following the crowd of passengers towards passport control and encountered a duplicate copy of the sign and sure enough, the US flag was still on it.  I was staring at all of the other passengers who looked "not Turkish" wondering how they all knew about this requirement.  Maybe the rules had changed since February and they were just better informed?  They all looked cool as cucumbers.  We rounded a corner and I could see the queue lines and I prepared to enter the line and plead complete ignorance and give them my biggest, bestest, most innocent smile.  And then, off to the right was an actually larger queue signed with VISA and actually had the Visa and Mastercard logo on it too! What?!  I could still get a Visa right here on the spot??  Yup.  That's exactly what it was.  They didn't even check my passport.  She put her hand out for my credit card first!  A sticker went into my passport and as far as I am concerned that was just a ploy to get money without even running a background check on me!  But it was definitely ok with me at that point, and again, I went on my merry way!

Speaking of Visa and credit cards... That was the only time I used my credit card in Istanbul.  The entire city was also cash only from the Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace museum entrance fees to bars, restaurants, tram fare machines, etc.

And lastly, just a note about the "Let's Go" travel book I'm using.  From reading, I mean flipping through, all sorts of guide books from the Tampa Library, I thought "Rough Guides" were my favorite travel guide books, but I went with this Let's Go Europe book because it was intentionally printed on newspaper print thin sheets of paper which was important to me for weight purposes. Anyways, I am really enjoying it.  Here are just a few of the lines I actually highlighted in the book because they caught me off guard and made me laugh:

1.  "Faith proper, on the other hand, is where fun goes to die." (speaking about one of the super religiously conservative neighborhoods)

2. "To the north of the Fatih Mosque is Carsamba, which makes Fatih look like a hippie commune."

3. This is one of the most conservative parts of Istanbul so you'll never see "Fener and Balat" and "nightlife" in the same sentence - except when the sentence is, "The neighborhoods of Fener and Balat have no nightlife."

So it was really hard to leave.  I had plenty of invitations to say longer and I was certainly really, really tempted.  I will definitely be back to visit hopefully sooner rather than later!  Anyone have any extra frequent flier miles laying around?!  :)

As a space planner I had to include this photo... there was virtually no seating at the Istanbul area outside of your gate (which wasn't announced until it was nearly time to board), so grown men were putting down newspaper and sitting on the ground. Note all the people standing up waiting for their gate assignments.  Tip for the future: don't go to the Ataturk airport early.

Hard to say goodbye at the airport