Turkish Delight

ISTANBUL PHOTOS

Wow, that is tan bull, no?

Here we are in Turkey, where everyday is like Thanksgiving, except that it's a million degrees!

In Slovenia we bought a Turkey guidebook and soon decided that we will have to come back to Turkey in the future so that we can see the rest of the country. It is too full of wonders and too big to be able to experience it in one trip. So, we'll spend our seven days right here in Istanbul.

Immediately, the most striking thing about the city is the horizon line that is scattered with mosques near and far. As we rode in to the city from the airport and I caught a first glimpse of Islamic architecture, I was suprised at my own realization that, even though I majored in Religion in college, I have never travelled in a country where the main religion is not Christianity (or religion is inconsequential altogether). I kind of felt like, as my dad used to say, "Earth to Lisa!" Five times a day we hear the call to prayer, adhan, that rings out from loud speakers that are attached to the minarets. It is enchanting to hear the prayers called out in beautiful arabic.

On our first morning in Istanbul, we went to see the Blue Mosque only a stone's throw away from the Bauhaus Hostel where we're staying. Although it isn't required, I wanted to cover my head to enter the mosque and Gordon and I took off our shoes as we walked through the back entrance where a man was taking large pieces of blue cloth and draping them around tourists who were lacking the appropriate amount of clothing. The mosque is awe-inspiring with it's wide open space, high domed ceiling, elaborate arabic calligraphy, intricate tile work, and never-ending carpet with individual rectangles demarking individual prayer rugs. The absense of furniture makes it more expansive than any church or synagogue I have entered.

Here's a little tutorial on the different parts of the mosque that I learned initially from Professor Sachedina and have revisited lately:
the minbar, a staircase that leads up to a pulpit is to the right of...
the mihrab, a space in the wall kind of like a doorway which indicates...
the direction of prayer, or qibla, (always toward Mecca)

In general, Istanbul is a fairly secular city, so you will see women who are covered with only their eyes showing, or some with just a headscarf, but the majority of ladies here are not covered at all. When I do see women who are covered, I can't help but feel radically underdressed. Gordon and I try not to gawk, but just the other day we were sitting on a shady bench outside of the Grand Bazaar and, as Gordon stopped mid-sentence, I found that our eyes were following a group of 5 women dressed in black from head to toe as they passed with 5 men in tow. Gordon's thought was lost and gone forever and I had been listening, but these women capture my attention in such a way that in return, I feel I have to be very quiet until they pass.

After the Blue Mosque we went to the Museum of Islamic and Turkish Art where we saw 16th century scrolls entailing land agreements, a massive door to a mosque, various pieces of furniture inlaid with mother of pearl, lanterns, etc. My favorite part was a cooridor with several ancient prayer rugs hanging on display from the 13th-16th century. You can see the holes where the carpet was worn through by the owner, a muslim prostrated in prayer, who would touch their hands and their forehead to the floor in reverence to God five times daily.

From here, we lunched on a roof top terrace at Doy Doy restaurant. Mostly our choices here are shish OR kebab. My favorite is chicken skewers (tavuk shish) and Gordon, not suprisingly, is a more adventurous eater as long as it doesn't contain nuts. We hit the streets in the summer swelter for a tedious afternoon of wandering and wondering until we landed back at our hotel where, with the fan on high, we learned our second Italian card game, Briscola! Three hours later at 8:30 p.m., we emerged to find a cooler Istanbul.

The next morning we went to the Hagia Sofia (or Aya Sofya), a monstrous building with an interesting religious history. In the afternoon we walked down a road called Istiklal Caddesi to have lunch and scope out some movie theaters. We ended up watching "Stay" (or "Git me" in Turkish) in a movie theater where we were escorted to an open seat in a long narrow theater with only 4 other viewers. It was wonderful to be inside a dark air conditioned room in the heat of the afternoon and when we emerged from our cave it took us a few blinks to remember where on earth we were.

As we retraced our steps toward home we came across to amazing finds. One was the Tallest Tourist in Turkey, towering above a Turkish rush of busy Saturday shoppers (because Istiklal Caddessi is kind of like Madison Avenue) to take a photo. The other amazing find was a store selling Turkish Delight and you could watch them make it RIGHT THERE in the shop, not sold in pre-packaged boxes like some of the shops closer to our part of town (although they are also good). We bought two boxes, one was pistachio, because I've discovered that it is my favorite, and one was a mixed box for my non-nut-eating boyfriend (which of course had pistachio and hazelnut in addition to all of the fruit, mint, and rosewater varieties).

Our last stop as we strolled home was the Pera Palace Hotel, built in 1892 to host the passengers on the Orient Express. It is a grand place (although not quite like the canyon, Jen) and carries a great amount of history. Ataturk (founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey) always stayed here and so did Agatha Christie, who wrote most of her novel, Murder on the Orient Express, from room #411. I have to admit that I've never read any of Agatha's books myself, but my mom was an avid reader of her mysteries and is still a dedicated watcher of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

For dinner we opted for the cheap option of spaghetti on the roof of our hotel for the equivalent of $1.75/plate. I don't think you could call it a "tomato" sauce per se, but the pasta was tinted red and glistened with oil in the evening sunset. The view of the Bosphorous River is great from the Bauhaus roof and the music that the lively slick-haired Sean Penn look-alike bartender plays on his iPod ranges from Jack Johnson to R.E.M. to J.J. Cale! We ate Turkish Delight and played Briscola for a few hours until it was very dark and we were ready to drift downstairs to go to sleep.

It's been a hot and busy two days and there is still plenty to see!

ISTANBUL PHOTOS