Fun in Turkey

Victor and I went to Turkey March 15-19. Overall, I would say that it was a very positive experience.

Saturday, March 15

Today we are leaving for Turkey. Woo-hoo! Victor and I have been so busy with work that our trip sort of snuck up on us, but now that the day is here we are excited! This is also a special day because March 15 marks our 7-year anniversary of when we first met each other.

Anyway, off to Heathrow Airport we go! Luckily, our train station has a bus shuttle that will take us straight to Heathrow in 30 minutes, so that is nice. We get to the airport at around 7:30 AM because our flight leaves at 9:30. Heathrow is a zoo and quite disorganized, but we made it through check-in and security will minimal issues. The flight to Istanbul is 3.5 hours, and since we got up pretty early we sleep through most of the flight.

When we arrive in Istanbul, we go to the Tourism Department to find a hotel. While we are being helped, Victor goes to make a phone call and I am left alone in the reception area with these Turkish men. Then they start talking to each other in Turkish and I know they are talking about me because they are standing right in front of me and staring and pointing, then talking some more and pointing to Victor and then staring back at me again. Then one of them says, "Can we see your teeth?" What? Okay...so I smiled at them and then they say, "Oh, you have wonderful teeth! Your teeth are not yellow like ours! Do you smoke?" And I was like, "No". Then they asked, "Do you drink alot of milk?" and I said, "Not really, but I do brush my teeth everyday." Then they left me alone after that. Anyway, we book our hotel and then head out.

Whenever I visit somewhere new, I always enjoy the trip from the airport to the hotel because it gives me a chance to see the city. In Istanbul, we noticed that there were lots of car dealerships and alot of people driving really nice cars. The landscaping in general was also really nice, with lots and lots of flowers. We make it to our hotel and take a load off for a little while, then we decide to walk around for a little bit and get something to eat.

We made some interesting observations about the Turkish while were walking around:

• There are ALOT of men. We hardly saw any women out and about. We also noticed that alot of men were walking arm in arm. We were thinking that maybe this was just the custom there, but in some instances it was obvious that it was not just a friendly thing...so we got to thinking, Is there a large homosexual population in Istanbul? Seems unlikely since Turkey is a muslim country, but when we got back home I did a little research and it turns out that Istanbul has a very open gay scene with over 20 bars and clubs catered toward homosexuals. Very interesting.
• The air was surprisingly clean! Alot of times in the big cities the air is full of exhaust and you always get unpleasant whiffs of rotten garbage while walking down the street, but Istanbul's air was nice and refreshing.
• The Turkish are pretty nice dressers. It was Saturday when we arrived to Istanbul, but alot of the men walking in the streets were nicely dressed with suit jackets and ties, and it was like this the whole time we were there. Some of the women wore the hair coverings and long skirts, but most of them dressed regularly in jeans, etc.
• Turkey is not a poor country. We saw very few beggars in the streets and as I stated earlier most people were nicely dressed and there were lots and lots of nice cars on the road. Also, the Turkish like to eat out for most meals, and let me tell you that it is not cheap! Their currency is the Yeni Turkish Lira (YTL) and it is equivalent to the US Dollar. I'd say we spent about 40-50 YTL on food everyday, not including breakfast.
• Istanbul is a nice mixture of old and modern. Istanbul is divided into Old Istanbul and New Istanbul. Old Istanbul is where the mosques, hippodrome and museums are located. New Istanbul has skyscrapers and office buildings.
• There are SO MANY cats in Istanbul!! It's crazy! They are everywhere. I am terrbily allergic to cats and anytime there was one around I would itch. And alot of times you would see 4 or 5 of them at a time, which grossed me out for some reason. Large numbers of cats or pigeons together really freaks me out and I felt like screaming everytime I would see a group of them.

Sunday, March 16

Today we visit the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, located in the historic heart of Old Istanbul. Here, we visited the Blue Mosque. I might be wrong, but I think the Blue Mosque is supposed to be the second largest mosque in the world. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, the Blue Mosque is named as such because of the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior. It was built between 1609 and 1616 during the rule of Ahmed I. Like many other mosques, it also comprises a tomb of the founder, a school and a hospice. We got to go inside of the mosque and it was quite nice. Everyone had to take off their shoes and the women had to cover their heads, so they were giving out pieces of cloth for women to cover up with. We have a few pictures of us in the mosque.

After we left the mosque, we were headed to the next destination but we were sidetracked by a man that wanted to show us his leather shop. He was quite crafty and we were duped into following him to his shop. He was actually very nice and gave us tea and talked to us first before trying to sell his goods. The Turkish mainly drink Turkish tea and Apple tea. The Turkish tea is quite strong, and after Victor and I had a cup we felt a little sick. Anyway, the man showed us his leather goods and we tried on a few jackets to be friendly, but then he wanted to show us his carpet shop and his jewelry shop. We said we did not want to see the carpets but agreed to go to his jewelry shop. Here, he tried to offer us more tea but we politely declined. The jewelry was okay, but we did not buy anything. We left there and then the man led us to his carpet shop, which was on the way back to Sultanahmet. So now we are at the carpet shop and he offers us more tea and we said no but he brought it anyway. We looked at a few carpets and then we left (without drinking the tea). So now that was an hour out of our day and by the time we make it back to Sultanahmet it is crowded with tourists and locals with their children. Victor bought me some ice cream to make up for it, so it was okay. :)

So now we go to Haya Sofia, which is right across from the Blue Mosque. Haya Sofia is a former patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum. There was an interesting attraction in the Haya Sofia called "The Weeping Column". The Weeping Column is a pillar with a worn copper facing pierced by a hole. Legend has it that the pillar is that of St. Gregory the Miracle Worker and that putting one's finger in the hole can lead to ailments being healed if the finger comes out moist. Most people know that curiousity is the essence of my being, so of course I stuck my thumb in the hole to see what would happen. It didn't come out moist (which I was sort of relieved about because who wants mysterious moistness on their finger?), so I guess I wasn't healed from anything that day. Victor did not try it and he got mad at me when I tried to wipe my thumb on his jacket. Hee hee. There is a picture in the album with my finger in the hole.

Next we had lunch and then we walked to a nice park that was by the water. According to our map, we were by the Marmara Sea. The park was very nice with wonderful landscaping. The weather was clear and sunny and about 60 degrees, so lots of people were out with their families and children barbequing and having picnics and playing soccer. Of course we also saw large groups of men having picnics together cuddled up on blankets. The Marmara Sea was pretty. The water was really dark and if you get close enough to the edge you can see all these jellyfish-looking creatures floating in the water. We have a few pictures of them. We also saw a man standing on the end of the pier and going to the bathroom into the water. We have a picture of this as well. Please note that Victor took this picture and not me. :)

Monday, March 17

Today we visited Topkapı Palace, or what Victor liked to call Topeka Palace. Topkapı Palace was the official and primary residence in the city of the Ottoman Sultans from 1465 to 1853. The palace was a setting for state occasions and royal entertainment. The palace and its grounds were beautiful with wonderful landscaping. It was a huge compound and we didn't get to see everything in it, but the parts that we did see were very nice.

Part of Istanbul is in Europe and part is in Asia, so we took a ferry to the Asia side of Istanbul. This was exciting because neither of us had been to Asia before.

Tuesday, March 18

Today is our last full day in Istanbul, and we visit the Istanbul Archaelogical Museum. It was interesting and Victor took lots of pictures.

We also visited the Egyptian Spice Bazaar. This bazaar is one of the oldest bazaars in the city and is also the second largest covered shopping complex after the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. The bazaar was full of shops selling herbs, spices, herbal remedies, jewelry, ceramics, candy, and Turkish Delights. I was excited to see the Turkish Delights because I always wanted to taste one ever since I saw that little wayward boy in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe eat them with the Ice Queen. Turkish Delights are soft, sugary, jelly-like candies mixed with nuts and rolled in powdered sugar. They were pretty to look at but when Victor and I tasted one they didn't taste that good. They actually probably weren't that bad but they were really sweet and I'm not a huge fan of really sweet stuff. They sort of tasted like marshmallow with nuts in them. They also sold Turkish Viagra at the bazaar, which looked to be some type of root or something. I would not feel safe taking that!

After we left the Bazaar we were going to take a ferry to New Istanbul, but the ferry didn't take us that way so we just rode the ferry for a while and took pictures. It was nice.

Wednesday, March 19

This morning we get up and leave for Athens, Greece. Istanbul was a very nice city, the food was good, and the people were extremely friendly . They would always refer to us as "brother" and "sister", which was nice.

There were only a few things that I did not care for in Istanbul:

• Everyone smokes heavily. You can't get away from it. Since the UK is smoke-free now like most of the US, Victor and I had gotten used to not being around cigarette smoke, so the high concentration of smoke in Istanbul often gave us headaches or made us feel sick.
• The men stared at me alot. I don't know if it was because I looked different or they just weren't used to seeing women (remember I said that there were mostly men out and about), but they stared alot and didn't even try to hide it. It made me uncomfortable but Victor was there so I felt protected. :)
• Food was really expensive, even outside of the tourist areas. There was a Burger King at the airport and a Whopper Value Meal was 19.75 YTL!! Granted, it was for a Triple Whopper but still! And a regular sandwich was 10.00 YTL.

Other than that, Istanbul gets an A in my book! Now, off to Greece!