Istanbul
Trip Start
Jan 03, 2008
1
17
38
Trip End
Apr ????
Istanbul,
Turkey
Friday, February 8, 2008
Slowly coasting into Istanbul, the lights glimmer like Christmas in Minnesota, seems as though were peering out of the train's windows for an hour marveling in the cities magnificence - wait, we were
Catching some winks on the train
. Istanbul is a very large city, and surprisingly very Westernized. Many had worried and imagined (as I once did) of this under developed Muslim community, stricken with not such an animosity but rather an undertone of antagonism toward Western culture.... So, I was an ignorant traveling American. Later I am to meet Turks from all over the country, those of which I will refer to as friends. Go and I late in the night, about midnight were in search for a hostel, about every civilian walking and working were willing and suggestive to assist us in finding accommodations. We found the best located and affordable accommodation which lead us right between the two main Mosques in the city - Aya Sophia & Blue Mosque. After getting settled in, we wandered the streets to find a meal and a beer. The next morning Go rose out of bed and wandered out to find cash to pay for the hostel and hit up the breakfast, as Go was leaving that very night. At this time I slowly awakened and found my other roommates (one American and one Eastern Turk) rushing out the door for a Turkish bath, those two and 8 others from the hostel were going to see what all the talk was about with the Turkish baths - as they were out the door, they noticed I had just awoken and asked if I wanted to come - I sprung out of bed threw the nearest cloths I had on and ran out the door looking for Go to say goodbye, but everyone was already down the block at this point - sometimes the best goodbyes is never saying goodbye
Catching some winks on the train
. The Turkish bath was weird at first, none of us besides Okran, the Turk, knew what to expect, he was our guide the whole trip - Okran works for an audit commission in the government of his country and wanted to get away from the corporate jargon while on business in Istanbul and wanted to meet friends and site see instead, very respectable feat. The women had their own Turkish baths as men and woman cannot be cleansed together. They guys all got in out own cabin rooms to change into these checkered loin cloths and filed into a much larger room made of all marble, a single slab in the middle of the room where men are getting scrubbed, soaked, messaged and beaten. Water spickets of hot and cold water are coming out of the surrounding walls into integrated marble sinks, used to cleanse. First we were to bake in a sauna until we were all completely soaked in our own sweat. I was the very last person so precipitate a drop of sweat, could be due to my body fat (or lack there of) or being very dehydrate. Either way I was the last to leave the sauna because of this, I was suffocating in there as there were catering us out in pairs. As you exit the sauna back into the large marble room, Giant old men with horrible dental hygiene, each with a missing tooth, a great big mustache and identical loin clothes scrub you down. These men have no respect for personal space, in fact, that barrier is broken right away - very forceful men, you just have to relax. While sitting along the wall on the floor under one of these integrated hot/cold faucets, the men scrub the dead skin off your body and face and wash your hair
Asia side of Turkey
. Next to the central marble slab for the bath, it is here where the men wash you (the entire time still wrapped in loin) and give VERY deep messages - in fact they were painful. During the message they induce so much pain that they start slapping and hitting you in the appendix, thighs, chest while making creepy faces and noises right in your face (the noises didn't come until after I had mentioned my nationality) I swear he started hitting harder. After this it is back to the faucet for another rinse, where all the guys are having water fights with the varying degrees of water and playing like children again - the messages really had put everyone's proverbial shield down, over on the other side of the room, the now jolly old men are showing some of the other men how to dance in old Turkish folk fashion - we were merely enjoying our time together in seclusion as inner children before we go out into the world as men again. As we changed into our towels and head garments, all the guys sit around a fountain sipping bottomless tea and sharing stories around a furnace until we were ready to leave. Following the bath all the guys and I met more of their Turkish friends who traveled to Istanbul from their cities to spend the day with them (they had all met through Erasmus exchange program while studying in Poland). After this we all took a ferry across to the Asia side of the city to attend a football game (soccer). Before the game we walked the streets, got fresh fish kebabs at the port, and went out to a bar for some pre-game..
Before crossing into Asia for the game
. hot chocolates. The game was exciting, our rooting team won. After the game we took the chilling ferry back to the Europe side of Istanbul where I tried this amazing warming sweet drink called Salep which reminded me much of a creamy rice powdered with cinnamon my father would make while I was growing up, this would be a hit for all of our friends for the rest of the duration of Turkey. That night we walked some very popular night life streets riddled with many shops, bars, cafés and so forth, it sure was nice having Okran around as our tour guide, he was very selfless individual. We exchanged stories of each other countries, political beliefs which progressed all night to spirituality, religion and a complete metaphysical understanding of the Muslim beliefs. We took a taxi back to beeline it to our beds. The next morning, two of my friends, one from Mexico and studying in Poland and the other from Turkey who studied in Poland went out for a tour of the Mosques, it was a great opportunity to be guided by a native to the country and the religion which ultimately made our experience that much richer. The Blue Mosque is grand and beautiful inside and out, all the details in the interior were hand painted upon creation. It is said that the paint is so well preserved unlike every other historical fresco which is worn and faded away is because the artist was said to have mixed eggs in their paint. They Aya Sophia is closed on Mondays, unfortunate for us because this use to be a Church when Istanbul was Constantinople - and old Roman empire until the Byzantines took the city then the Turks who placed a round Mosque on top of the constructed grand church and repainted the interior
Asia side of Turkey
. It is said that the interior is still very much the same architecture as the old Basilica. We then walked over the Basilica Cistern, in the old Roman empire this place was used as a natural fridge for storage of foods and wines. This place is a cistern because there are many supportive pillars underneath the city ground and the floor of the place is about 2 feet deep of water with fish swimming around, yes, underground! It was here that the Romans had said Medusa lives and there is one stone that was underwater in the cistern with a depiction of Medusa on the base to guard the city - I wont take the time to explain it here but while you are boring yourself with my blog, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusa , it is all very intriguing. We headed back to the hostel to meet up with the rest of the gang who had previously seen this before our belated arrival to Istanbul. Now we were all off to the Grand Bazaar for some shopping. The Grand Bazaar is a huge market of stuff, sheltered in what appears to be like an old masque and is very easy to get lost in. What is great about the Grand Bazaar is that it is here where you can barter with every single shop keeper on their goods, it is your skills at test. One man can quote $200 because you appear to be a traveler, but what was once quoted $200 can easily be talked down to $20, it how well you are able to bargain - this was very fun for me.
The whole group minus the several of Turkish were heading out to Bulgaria with the overnight train, I was as well
Asia side of Turkey
. These group of people that were still with me by the end of Istanbul are from all over the world and were united through Erasmus in Poland. We all decided to kill some time at a sheesha bar before we headed out. The sheesha bar is a place to be comfortable in each others presence drink a lot of tea and smoke a lot of sheesha (flavored tobacco) our of a water pipe in a circle. Sheesha is a great way to kill time and relax for very cheap, it was about $8 for 2 hours of sheesha smoking, and $1 tea's. That night we all packed our houses in our backpacks and headed for the train station. The only serviceable train to Bulgaria was mandatory we have sleepers, so all the guys split up to our rooms, three beds to one room the size of a closet and we gave the ladies their own room. Before bed as we were all exchanging laughs in the halls looking out the windows, one of our friends pulled on the emergency stop lever as he mistakenly used it as a bar for pull ups as he said, "oh look, a gymnasium!" Haha, the fast train went to a screeching stop - we all rushed to our rooms as if we were oblivious as to what had just happened, here we decided we cause enough damage for one day and we were to arrive in Sophia, Bulgaria by morning. 
Comments
Greetings from Rushford
Jay: I'm intrigued, following you from place to place, while just sitting in my chair. I don't know how you manage to find the time & energy to write your narration.
Your mom is having foot surgery Monday, the 25th, so keep her in your thoughts. Mark has taken off time, and will take good care of her. I'll be checking in on her, too.
Take care, and stay healthy!
Margaret