Constantinople (begrudgingly called Istanbul)

The next morning was amazing. I woke up after a great nights sleep and JP and Brendan had already left to explore so I was there with Kate and Ali. We decided to go out after they got back to explore while they went to go get our bus tickets figured out for the next. Finally it was time to head out and this we did. Immediately we felt the culture shock. It was so different than anything I’ve ever experienced. It was a hybrid between the markets and culture you see in Austria and germany and that of the the markets out of the movie Aladdin. It was suprisingly commercial and materialistic, everywhere you go. The goods are all cheap things though, nothing really expensive except rugs. We went to the Grand Bazaar after much looking for it and I was impressed at the number of people there. It was like the busiest mall you would ever see (especially since it was in a third world country, maybe 2nd.) It was fun even though I’m not the shopping type.

We went in and looked around at everything. At first all the items were novel: turkish delight, hookah pipes, arabian carpets, swords, scarves etc. By the end we realized that is all the Bazaar had, even with thousands of mini privately owned shops. Each shop was run by an overly friendly turkish man trying desperately to sell you anything. Sometimes on walking by you might even get a tug on your shirt or even arm to “come look at my wares.” I found this to be alot of fun because I learned alot about how to deal with desperate salesmen. I bought a shot glass which was supposed to be six lira and I bought it for five.

I saw an fabric icon of Christ which I really wanted so I asked him how much it cost. He said 15 YTL. I shot back, I’ll pay you 8 for it. He gave me a look like I was from Mars and said no way, how about 13. I said 9. He said 12, I said 9. He said 11, I said 9. He said fine, 10 last offer. I said 9 and turned my back to walk away to look at another shop: that is really irritating I thought to myself as my eyes caught some shiny swords. Next thing I know I was stopped in my tracks with this large turkish man holding my sleve. He said, “Theif, fine I sell you it 9.” I said ok, gave him the money and then took my icon. I felt his eyes in the back of my skull the whole time I was walking away.

The girls were doing some ridiculous scarf shopping for themselves and it seemed like every other girl they knew. After spending about an hour and a half there we decided we should get going back to the hostel to meet JP and Brendan. There had been little tea cups and tea sets everywhere in the bazaar and lots of random shop ownder and customers drinking them, and I was determined to find out what was going on. So I went up to a shop owner and asked how much for the tea. He said 1 lira or you can talk to me about something. Lets talk he said. What would you like to buy? Do you have a girlfriend—Nope. Oh he said well have some tea. And I asked him about his carpet and talked a bit about the culture and quite shyly about my own American heritage. After the little bit of tea we headed back to the hostel and met the others. At this point we decided to go find lunch somehwere and we we went looking. I ended up finishing off the rest of my bread and cheese. Once refueled we went to go to the main sights; first stop: the Blue Mosque. This is apparently the third biggest mosque in the world–it was beautiful even though I had reservations about going inside–especially about praying inside which was recommended to us. There is a long line in which you take your shoes off and they give you a bag to carry them with you. The inside was similar to a Church except there is no pictures anywhere, only arabic script and 4 large columns about 12 feet wide supporting it. I didn’t stay long, went outside and got a video of the clouds moving against the minorettes.

From here we chatted a while and then decided to move onto one of the most important buildings in the history of the world: Hagia Sophia. It was a short walk from the Mosque but when we saw it we were filled with excitement at beholding such a masterpiece. We had to pay 20 YTL to get inside but it was undoubtedly worth it. Outside the building I spent 20 minutes or so examining the pillars and engraving on stones and columns which were just lain out in some order on the ground. We gradually made our way in the entrance which was quite grand. The inside didn’t seem like the outside: a mosque. It didn’t seem like a Church either. It seemedike what it was-a museum without any exhibits except its own very old structure. The steps to the entrance are worn down a couple inches just because the number of people who have walked on them all this time. The main dome was huge and it seemed like the space shuttle could have fit inside if there wasn’t any scafolding at the time. I can only imagine what the place looked like when it was a Christian Church becuase the Muslims had all the mosiacs covered up because they don’t believe in having images in their building’s–only beautiful writings. There were big ‘signs’ hanging from the ceiling with writing on them. There really isn’t that much to describe, since most of the wonder of the building came from knowing the history behind it, especially since it was the largest Church in Christendom for 1000 years.

From here we decided that we would walk all the way to Asia, since it was so close and on the way look for some place to eat. We looked for about and hour or maybe two for this great out of the way perfect restuarant John Paul (he’s a cook) was in search of. We didn’t find it to his satisfaction so but since Kate complained for the whole time that she was hungry, and it was getting dark and we were in a really, really bad section of Istanbul…we ended up in an empty restaurant at the top of a long flight of concrete stairs on a narrow road called the _______. We sat down and the waiter was very excited to see us accept his business. Two things were on the menu and I chose the lamb, with water to drink. We got an appetizer in the meantime which was hummice of some sort. The food came out and it was very very good lamb. I loved it at least since it was probably the best meal I had on Ten Day break and it only cost about 14 lira or 10 dollars. After the meal we were having a very enjoyable conversation and ordered Turkish coffee. It was like drinking coffee out of a shot glass, with a nice present of coffee grounds in the bottom. We payed out bills and walked out onto “Happy street” once again to experience the night in Istanbul–taking into account our company. After making a plan, we meandered slowly the way we came, back towards the bridge, on which eariler we had been repeatedly stopped by desperate restaurant owners hungry for tourists. I was suggesting we look for a Church for Mass before we head back because looking for one in the morning would be risky…but no, no one listens to Jon….hah.

On the way back at the base of the bridge we saw the end of the sun set over Istanbul, with the minnerets piercing the sky. We stopped and took a few pictures and watched a cruise ship dock and then embark. Kate and I got the idea of finding a hookah bar since hookah originated in Turkey. Brendan said he would join, but John Paul and Ali said they would head back to the hostel. We continued walking and, once on the bridge taking another stop looking over the strait, we encountered a man who had a nice little footrest sitting on the ground. He promptly grabbed Brendans leg and put it on the rest and began polishing his shoes. Before I knew it others ran over and the same thing was happening to me. When he was done he promply asked for 5 lira and I promptly said no but teşekkürler. I turned around and every one of the other Comrads were having their shoes polished. We kept walking and got away from them, reached the enterance to the tunnel which takes you out in front of the grand bazzar. We ended up in another bad, industrial looking section but finally made it back to the hostel (_____), where we dropped those two off and got a few things to go out.

We headed out and after a bit of asking around we found a nice looking place, which was very crowded but we were escorted to a sort of back room where there were only five or six other people. Bongs were every where with three to four people sitting around each, and the tea which we had had at the grand bazaar was being served everywhere in all different flavors. It is turkish custom. Kate picked apple flavor hookah for us since, being from California, she was a professional in this trade. I got some tea for one lira. The hookah finally came and we started smoking it, which tasted and smelled really good. After about a half hour I was starting to feel rexlaxed and quite comfortable and we were having a conversation about our past drug experiences….to which I and Brendan had only extrapersonal stories to contibute unlike Kate. After about an hour the tobacco was not dying down at all, which apparently it would have if we had been in California. Kate said this was the strongest stuff she had ever had and she was teaching me how to blow smoke rings. After many tries and laughs at me, I was able to consistently produce a round ‘thing’. I was really starting to feel relaxed, I mean really really relaxed. After about an hour and a half I was quite dizzy and feeling pretty sick even though I had quit smoking–the others were still going. When we finished I wanted to get back and get to bed hoping that I would feel better later, which I didn’t really, but I fell asleep nevertheless after talking to JP and Brendan for a bit.

Sunday started around 8:30 with a few people going to look for Mass while the rest went to figure out bus tickets to somehow get to Selcuk. Before we left I looked in your local friendly turkish grocery store, which reminded me of an Aldi’s back in the U.S. After buying nothing we went to go look for a Church along with the others since they had not found one. We took the tram to the other side of the river where we had eaten dinner the night before because we were given hints by a map that there were ‘Christian’ churches over there. Brendan I and Kate were looking for Ali and John Paul but our cell phones were all dead. I was really frusterated at this point because I had been saying the whole time that we needed to find a Church for Sunday but I was blown off. At this point it was 11:00am on sunday and we were scouring the area around which a cross icon was printed on our map. We finally found the church after circling it three or four times. The doors werel locked and the windows bricked up. We decided to give up and that God would forgive us so we hopped on the tram to go back. Right at the last stop before crossing the bridge we spotted John Paul and Ali walking along, we got off the train and apparently they had found a Mass in Italian at 12:30. All five of us sprinted because it was at that point 12:35.

Mass was beautiful in a Church which none of us would have ever found if it weren’t for God. A man had shown there were it was and it happened to have a Mass going on. After Mass I got up and looked around the Church a bit and as we were about to leave, on the outside of the Church there was a small group of people talking to the priest as he was serving them shots of Bailey’s as sort of a sunday fellowship deal. We joined and told him and the others our story, as we have done other times before. There were two other Americans there also and a girl from Chile. Then we headed out again.

We then went downtown again to the same bridge area but infront of all the fishing and local plaza sort of near the Grand Bazaar’s entrance and had Kebaps. Very tasty. From here Brendan I and John Paul decided to go find a man with a big razor, who spoke none of our language to cut our beards we had been growing. We found a perfect spot right up the street near the Montana grill, by which I bought my sister some arabic earrings. The barber shop was an interesting and very satisfying experience, I felt like new man afterwards, partly because I had a fresh face, partly because I was still alive. Brendan left early, so John Paul and I went to look for everyone else who were already at the Archeological Museums. We headed in the direction we thought it was across from the Montana grill into the park at the back. So we walked all the way through the park to the other end. This is where we saw literally dozens of dozens of benches each with its own couple romancing on it. We felt slightly out of place like we were in the most romantic place in the world. There were cats walking around everywhere under the shade of the trees and we walked down this path lined with couples to the end where there was a wall. Then we got to some significant pillar, but realized that the museum was not around here. We called Ali and she said that the Museum is near the enterance to the park, where the men were roasting chestnuts; so we walked all the way back through the park and went up a lesser know path and finally found the Museum, which looked stunning.

At the entrance we had to pay another 20 lira, but this I would call the most well spent money on all of ten day. I first proceeded in the pre-historic section-Byzantiumwhich had many exhibits of the artifacts of that time. I wasn’t so much interested in this as I was in the Christian roman and Christian times. So I proceeded to the next building which was very long with two floors. Pictures are available–its a museum I can’t describe it. There were many important things in it including the sarcophogus of Alexander the Great and all of Heinrich Scheeman’s artifacts of the ancient City of Troy–all three layers. There were numberous greek and latin engravings, tombstones, shields and spears, gold cups and endless things. It impressive, but perhaps that is just because I am a classics major. I thoughrougly enjoyed it. I spent hours in there, lost track of time and realized everyone else was outside waiting for me. I went out side and they continued talking so I looked at all the engravings on the pillars and stones just casually laying around in the courtyard which were thousands of years old. I have never been in a place that had such a living history, especially one thousands of years ancient. The cats were everywhere in this area. I probably could have spent another hour but we needed to go find some dinner because we were leaving later that night.

We began walking and I stopped and got the local pastry which is sort of a greasy flaky breading with some kind of white crumbly slightly bitter cheese inside which really actually tasted good. It was enough to feed a grown man because two pounds cost only 2 lira. Thats what I got. The rest of us walked back towards the hostel hoping to find a restaurant along the way, we did—right next to our hostel. We sat inside and talked and ate again and headed back to the room to packup.

After this we booked it through Istanbul at top speed because we were a bit late for our bus. We got to the bus station where the people were suprisingly friendly and helpful and we got on our overnight bus to Selcuk, a very exciting experience. It was a fully comfortable travel bus that was nearly full. We all sat near each other and snacked on the turkish delight which we bought from the bazaar and I talked to JP a bit about the finances because I had bought everyone’s plane ticket on my credit card since my ATM card wasn’t working and everyone was to pay me back by cash. After this I listened to some music and wasn’t able to take my contacts out so I fell asleep. The bus came to a stop and I woke up in one of the most surreal experiences of my life. Everyone else on the bus remained sleeping even though we had break. So I decided to get off the bus and explore, I remember only being able to partially see anything because of my contacts which I got sick of and just threw on the ground. I was dizzy for some reason and I walked outside to find myself in the middle of what is comparable to route 66 in America. We were in the middle of the desert at a small bus rest stop station which had Turkish music blasting and lots of people talking in turkish. I stepped up on the porch and was just so disoriented by the culture shock, this being the first time that I truely experienced it. There were waitresses coming out with these really strange foods–glasses filled with what looked like milkshakes. I thought I would get one. I went up to the bar and asked what it was and the man couldn’t understand me. No one at the bar could understand english. No one anywhere in that place it seemed understood a wink of english. So it took about 20 minutes for me to find out that it was just yogurt with bubbles on top. This was really the first time I experienced Turkey because now there was no tourism here–everyone was Turkish. I decided I’de better get back on the bus before it leaves without me. So I did. Everyone woke up again later because the bus had shut its engine off and because it had pulled onto a ferry–apparently a shortcut to Selcuk across the Bosphorus. We all got off the bus and were able to hang out on this huge ferry for a couple hours while it travels on the mediterranian. There were more Turkish things to buy–delightful. I had a sandwich. Back on the bus, back to sleep.