The ship was in Istanbul for 3 days so we were all very excited to explore this great, big city! We had been in Kusadasi, Turkey the day before and I had already experienced the pushy bargaining and a bit of overwhelming, in-your-face sort of a feel there. I was scared Istanbul may be that multiplied over and over. I just didn’t know what to expect! Istanbul is one of the only cities in the world that spans two continents. It is divided by the Bosphorous to have a European side and an Asian side.
I started out my visit by going on tour. We arrived in the afternoon and I went directly out to a bus with some passengers where we headed out into the city. Okay- I say we headed out, but the traffic here is INSANE! Really we just sort of sat for a while in our coach bus while cars were beeping and reversing and passing each other on streets so narrow they couldn’t possibly be 2-way! One of the first things our guide said was, “Be careful walking in the city. The traffic lights are only suggestions.” Ha ha! The most amazing part of all this is that they don’t have any road rage! It’s incredible; they will honk and sit for forever and have to back up over and over to move out of the way, but they are never yelling at each other or giving mean gestures. We would see people get out of cars to talk over solutions and then hug, get back in, and traffic begins to move. I was astounded already.
Our first stop on our tour was a small church-turned mosque famous for its Byzantine mosaics. Let me explain some Turkish religion for you: Turkey was a Christian nation many years ago with the seat of Constantinople in present-day Istanbul. Eventually the Ottoman empire came and the Turks invaded, etc. Islam came to the country and everything changed. Today Turkey is a secular nation, but 99.9% of the country is Muslim. This means that there are mosques everywhere, but you also find churches, synagogues, etc. and the people are able to do whatever: drink, smoke, practice different religions, etc. The church that we toured had incredible Christian mosaics everywhere, but mosques are not permitted to have any figures on the walls. Because of this, the Muslims actually came in and white-washed over all the mosaics and they were discovered many years later when this church was transformed into a museum. It was just amazing to see this many tiny, intricate mosaics and know that they had been painted right over. I can’t imagine someone standing in these rooms and deciding they could do such a thing, but they felt it necessary.
Next we headed to a practicing mosque nearby. It was small, but really beautiful and I was fascinated to learn more about the religion. We had to remove our shoes before entering, which I learned has nothing to do with any belief of the Islamic nations. They do this purely for sanitation purposes. Since they are kneeling and bowing during their prayers throughout the day, they find it more sanitary to not have people’s dirty shoes all over the floor. (Pretty practical, huh?) We were there right before midday prayers so some people began to come in and find spots to worship. Here in Turkey you can’t just leave work or anything for prayers. If it fits in during a lunch break or something then you can go pray, but otherwise you just have to do your prayers later. We also learned about the incredibly intricate tiles that cover many of the mosques and buildings in the city and how priceless they really are.
For our next stop we walked through a large square where I became fully aware that I was further from home than ever. Walking under banners of the Turkish flag towards a large mosque the call to prayer began. 5 times per day Muslim mosques have live singers give a call to pray that is projected from the minarets. When there are dozens of mosques all around it becomes a beautiful, haunting sound. More of a cacophony of chants and prayers. I literally stopped in my tracks. This may sound weird, but it was really a beautiful sound. I had never heard anything like it, but I became more aware of this culture than ever before right then.
We continued walking to the Spice Market, a large covered hall of stalls selling…you guessed it…spices (an much, much more). There was Turkish delight, lamps, nuts, berries, meat, etc. I was glad to be with my tour guide because she took us to one of her favorite stalls where they were happy for all of us to try anything and everything. I was trying different dry rubs and all sorts of baklava along with nuts and Turkish apple tea. Before leaving one of the young guys working in the stall said, “How can we help you spend your money?” I insisted I had no money to spend and was trying to leave when he handed me a bag and said, “Here you go!” I said no, that I was leaving and the guy said, “No- it’s for you. It’s a gift from us!” They had given me a huge bag of all different sorts of native nuts. I was blown away by their hospitality, but they were so proud and glad to give it to me and then laughed at how I was trying to not take it. Ha!
The tour finished up and that night a big group of us went out to celebrate Elena’s birthday! It actually wasn’t for 2 more days, but we were all able to go to a fun restaurant and enjoy, so we seized the opportunity. We found a fun spot where we sat on big pillows and for dessert we smoked hookah. (For those who don’t know, including Donna Hampton who is already terrified: Hookah is a completely harmless, flavored tobacco that has no nicotine and is completely legal all around the world, including in the States! Don’t fret!) We had strawberry and apple flavors, which I bravely tried! Ha ha!
The following day in Istanbul was just as full, but I am going to put it up in another installment. Hope you are doing great and the sun is shining bright in your part of the world.
Tripp
1 comment:
I think a hookah is actually the type of pipe. Hookah bars have become popular over here in the past few years. I don't know what they are smoking in the pipes, though.
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