It's Istanbul, not Constantinople!

This past weekend, we had a long weekend from school. Many of us took the opportunity to get as far from Dubai as we could and forget about school for awhile. A friend and I seized the chance to go to Istanbul for a few days. It's a fairly quick trip, being only five hours by plane away from Dubai.

Turkey is a Muslim country, but it has such a different feel than Dubai. Aside from the fact that it was quite chilly, requiring hat, coat, and scarf. It's more laid back, more friendly. Look at the strays in Istanbul. Everyone feeds them. They're not seen dead all over the roads as they are in Istanbul because people actually go out of their way to not hit them. That alone says a lot about the Turkish culture.



The city is full of masterpieces of architecture. We got there in the afternoon on Friday and headed over to the Basilica Cistern. There are cisterns all over the city, built by the Greeks/ Romans to supply the city with water. Most of them are about thirty feet under ground, and consist of huge cavernous spaces filled with columns lit from underneath. The one we visited was almost like being inside some kind of large tomb. It was fed from a lake 16km from the city.

It obviously still gets water, because the floors were wet and covered with sandbags and sump pumps. There is actually a small pool still down there, and it has fish in it. Well, if it's being fed from a lake, lakes have fish. There are also two column caps of Medusa. One is upside down, which is supposed to ward off evil. The other is sideways, and we're not sure what that means. We could have hung out there for quite some time just taking pictures, but there's so much in Istanbul to see!

We headed over to the Blue Mosque next. The Blue Mosque is a mere 400 years old and decorated with blue Islamic motif tiles. It's also one of the few mosques in the world with more than four minarets. It's downright awe-inspiring. As such, it's still in use as an active mosque today. Being a Friday, we had to wait until services were over, but it was well worth the wait.



After the Blue Mosque, we wandered the streets of Sultanhamet for a bit. Sultanhamet is one of the touristy areas in Istanbul because so much of the architecture and oldest history are right there. The streets are lined with small shops selling everything from silver to sweets. There are men standing outside all of the cafes and restaurants trying to tempt you in by showing the menu and pointing at the goodies in the window. There are so many such places that I can understand, the competition for customers is quite fierce. For dinner, we went to a place touting an Ottoman menu and feasted on mezze (fresh bread, hummus, labneh, and mint flavored yogurt) as well as pastry stuffed with beef, chicken, and peppers. Wonderful, hearty, and warming to the insides after being out in the cold. We also meandered into a local sweet shop for some of the fluffiest, tastiest baklava and apple tea I have ever had. All previous baklava pales in comparison. Yes, I explore with open eyes and an open stomach ;)

The next day we headed out fairly early to get to the Hagia Sophia when it opened before the huge masses of European and Asian tourists flocked in with their guides. The Hagia Sophia spans a long period of history when it began as a Greek patriarchal church, then was converted to Roman Catholic in the 1200s, and then in 1453 it became a mosque. Outside, you can actually see the original foundations with Greek columns and friezes. The outer courtyard looks like a column graveyard with pieces of columns and statues standing about like ancient relics from a time little remembered. Inside is where it all really comes together in a grand conversion of history and religion. Every surface that could be done in mosaic, gold leafing, or painted was and is. There are partial mosaics of Christian iconography that have been restored (most back in the 19th century). They were whitewashed and painted over when the cathedral was turned into a mosque. The archways, ceilings, walls, even vaulting are covered with Islamic motifs and designs. In some places, you can actually see where the Muslims tried to cover up some of the Byzantine crosses. There is even a bit of Viking graffiti on one of the banisters. Apparently the Emperor liked tough guys and hired Vikings to serve in his army. The name "Halvdan" is carved into the marble railing on the second floor. We spent a good two hours wandering taking pictures. If you've seen my Facebook, you know just how many pictures I took :)

After the Hagia Sophia, we visited the Grand Bazaar. It's a huge covered market selling anything and everything for whatever price you can manage to bargain. The place is a rabbit warren of corridors with brightly colored stalls and shops crammed in against each other. Yeah, it's a major tourist attraction but it's still worth seeing. My friend and I hadn't planned on buying much, but we got sucked into a shop selling fabrics and home decor. Here's the thing: If the shopkeeper invites you to sit down for tea, brace yourself. You're going to be in there for a time, and he will be showing you his entire shop. The Turkish theory is that if they keep showing you stuff, you will eventually buy something. And true enough, we both bought the most beautiful bedspreads I have ever seen. I've never had anything this lovely. And I so hadn't planned on buying it. Aydin, the shopkeeper, threw in some pillow covers. And just when we thought we were done, he says "Let's have one more cup of tea". Oh, boy. Then he starts showing us carpets. Now, my friend had indeed been wanting to buy a carpet. He showed her one that she fell in love with: flatwoven with knotwork and embroidery with vegetable dyes, 100% wool. He gave a magnificent presentation of that carpet, then sent his helper out to bring more. He spent a good twenty minutes just showing her carpets. The REAL selling began when my friend asked the price. They went back and forth forever with the calculator. Aydin was a funny man, and he said he'd get my friend a rich Turkish husband so he could buy her lots of carpets. Then he looked at me "For you, you can have ME." Huge smile on  his face. I told him that wouldn't work out well, because I wanted a rich husband too. He seemed to take a huge liking to me, kissing me on the cheek, hugging me as he and my friend haggled back and forth. At one point, he cries out "Oh Elena your friend she break my heart!" and he put his head in my lap. I looked at my friend and she got the hint. Time to go! Haggling aside, she wasn't willing to pay what he wanted for the carpet. And I was tired of him hanging on me, though I had let him because he was cute and the more he kissed my cheek the lower the price went ;) My friend said she should have traded me in marriage for the carpet. Oh, no! If I'm to be traded, it had better be for a Persian silk carpet ten feet long at least!

We tried another restaurant for dinner, a kebab place near our hotel. The food was excellent, all kinds of mixed grill with fresh bread. However, we got a major surprise when the bill came and an extra 20 lira was added to our bill for "bread, tax, and service". We hadn't even ordered the bread! Ah, well, some places in Europe do that as well. Live and learn. Schmuck. After dinner, we took a taxi down to the waterfront to the Dede Efendi house, home to some of the Whirling Dervishes. Whirling Dervishes are the closest thing Islam has to monks. They spin around and around in place to music, trying to reach out to God. The house was old and small. A famous Whirling Dervish had lived there, composing music and teaching other Dervishes. What we actually witnessed was a religious ceremony. The audience was told to make absolutely no sound and to not clap until the very end when the ceremony was over. The Dervishes' expressions were almost beatific. I felt like we were spying, peeping even, on something sacred and private.

The next day was museum day. We started with the Ottoman stronghold, the Topkapi Palace. I never imagined how big it was until we passed through the first outer wall which butts right up against the modern neighborhood outside. Literally, the modern and Ottoman walls are right up against each other. We walked through a large courtyard and passed some outer buildings and then through a second outer wall into the main palace. One side faces Istanbul, the other side is on a cliff that faces the Bosphorus river. We paid the extra to enter the Harem, which was the personal quarters for the Emperor, his family, and his extensive collection of concubines. I fell in love with the tilework. Lovely blues, greens, and yellows in floral designs or Islamic motifs. Huge ceilings completely painted, tiled, mosaic'd, really there was very little surface without some kind of ornamentation. The huge Ottoman stoves were rather impressive, with their conical shaped chimney reaching all the way to the ceiling. Wow, it must have been hard to heat that place! We gawked at the jewel collection. There were emeralds the size of large eggs and cut diamonds bigger than a Texan belt buckle. Even Britain's crown jewels weren't that big!

After ooh'ing and ahh'ing at the riches of the Ottomans, we plodded down to the Archaeological Museum. They have a huge collection of Greek sarcophagi, as well as some Egyptian and early Christian. There was an Early Christian (Byzantine?) sarcophagus made out of lead. I have never seen any burial chamber made of lead in any culture. There was a huge collection of funerary epitaphs from the Greeks and early Christians, including a very touching one from a Greek soldier to his dog telling how the dog was loving, amusing, and was his most loyal friend. What I really wanted to see were the artifacts from Troy, on the western coast of Turkey. Nothing like seeing the Iliad come to life. Granted, I'm sure not too many people get excited about pottery and spindle whorls, but I think it's like a doorway to a past that I've only read about. There were little statuettes from household altars, tools, and a rather large bust of Zeus that I had an urge to put my arm around and tell my friend to take a picture. I can't help it, I'm rather infantile at times :) After so much walking, we had an early dinner of roasted stuffed peppers, spinach, and fresh bread. I ate more bread in Istanbul than I had in months, it was so fresh and delicious. We finished the evening off with some kind of strawberry tart and baklava with a final wandering of the back streets of Sultanahmet.

The next morning, we were leaving on an afternoon flight but we still had one more experience to go. We headed to Cemberlitas, an old Turkish bath (or hamam) which was just a quick walk from our hotel. The reception and spa areas were all of white walls and rich honey colored wood paneling. We were led upstairs to change into disposable briefs and emerged wrapped in thin red striped cotton hamam towels. A rather bubbly lady led us downstairs to a huge old wooden door. We walked inside to a huge round room made of stone and marble topped with a large dome. The dome had dozens of tiny windows filled with leaded glass providing the only light in the room. Before I knew it, Miss Bubbly had whipped off my towel and laid it on the large fifteen foot wide circular stone in the middle of the room. With a huge smile, she told me to lay down. The purpose of this sauna like experience lying on the stone is to sweat out any toxins or dirt. I lay on the stone, just looking around at the little marble alcoves with basins and faucets for washing. I was just getting into the zen of it when a joyful voice jolted me back to reality. I turned, and it was Miss Bubbly, wearing nothing but disposable briefs singing, dancing, and shaking what God gave her. I couldn't help myself, I almost fell off the stone I was laughing so hard. She got a basin of water and proceeded to scrub me in a way that I have not been scrubbed since I was one when Mom washed me in the kitchen sink. This was followed by a soap-down and bucket upon bucket of warm water dumped on my body. I can hear my friend getting the same treatment from another washer. Then Miss Bubbly says "Shampoo?" and leads me to a little marble alcove where she sits me on a stone bench. She proceeds to dump an entire bucket of warm water on my head, and pours about a half cup of some lemony shampoo on my head which she roughly rubbed in. This was followed by about two buckets more of warm water. After my drowning, she giggles and says what I think was "Pool?" Seeing that I didn't understand, she put her arm around me like a mother with a small child and walked me over to a small tiled chamber which contained a lukewarm pool and a cool down pool. She watched over me as I slid into the warm water, and continued standing there watching me soak until she was called by another attendant. Overall, the experience was only a little awkward, and I felt very refreshed after cooling down in the pool. When we went upstairs to change, I noticed that my skin was literally glowing. Would I do it again? I think I would. If you need a good bath, head to Istanbul.

I was actually a bit sad to leave. We'd fit so much into four days, and only seen part of what Turkey had to offer. The history is long and vast, the architecture stunning, and the people extremely pleasant. If I do ever take another international post, I would definitely consider Turkey as a possibility.