Day 2 - Istanbul
Trip Start
Jun 28, 2009
1
3
16
Trip End
Jul 11, 2009
Istanbul,
Turkey
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Oy. Well, as I've probably made clear, internet access has been inconsistent and up to this point, I've been either too tired or too busy to write. So today is technically, Day 4.
On actual Day 2, the first thing we did was go to the Underground Cistern. This is like a large underground cavern/room filled with water. It was created as an emergency water supply in case the city of Byzantium (Istanbul) was under attack. There were 1200 cisterns in ancient Byzantium, and modern archaeologists have only found half of them.
The cistern was my first big surprise. First of all, it's pretty hot out (80s and sunny), so going down stone stairs into this wet cavern with gorgeous columns was a very comfortable way to spend the first half of the morning. The water had many fish swimming around in it, mostly carp, and that was unexpected as well. Our guide didn't point out the fish right away, so when I first saw a foot-long, fat, gray carp in the water, it was a little startling. The silliest thing was the muzak that was playing on hidden speakers: a Turkish instrumental version of Barry Manilow's "I Write the Songs." I guess this is their idea of what kind of music American tourists would like to hear. I was the only one in the group to pick up on it, which says something about this group.
So let's talk about that: the group. They are a very different group from the people I traveled to Rome with 4 years ago, more cerebral and certainly less humorous. This doesn't make it a bad group, just different. Among us, there are 5 high school teachers (mostly science), me, the guidance counselor, a retired elementary school teacher and his wife, who is an elementary school psychologist (and who felt it should be ILLEGAL that BHS counselors ever did intelligence testing - just had to throw that in there if any of my colleagues are reading) and two administrators from the University of Texas at San Antonio. It's a pretty intellectual bunch.
There are only 8 of us, including our guide, who are in the 30-40 range. Everyone else is absolutely in their 50s and one couple is traveling with their teenage daughter. Two couples, the women of which are sisters, are from Ottowa. There are two older women, Darlene, a ranch owner from Montana, and Jan, who are complete and total hot tickets. Jan made me laugh last night, when she said, totally deadpan, "Oh, look. Another minaret."
BTW, viewing mosques and minarets in Istanbul is like viewing churches in Rome. There definitely is a "seen one, seen'em all" quality to it.
After the Underground Cistern, we went to Hagia Sofia (pronounced "highah" like higher but with a Boston accent.) Later on that afternoon, we went to Chora Church, which was lovely. There is a series of murals in this church that tells the story of Mary from when she was a little girl until her death. It was interesting to see her portrayed in art this way. Clearly, Istanbul, and I'm sure other regions of Turkey, is where all the religions merge, maybe even crash into each other. Paganism/Greek, Islam, Christianity and Judaism all meet in this city, and they seem to respect each other very well.
At the end of day 2, we went to The Grand Bazaar. I would label this as a "must-miss." It is awful: hot, crowded with thousands of stalls all pretty much selling the same mass-produced merchandised. It's like Turkey's version of Times Square, only indoors and hot, and the harassment is of a pushy sellers' nature and not necessarily of a sexual one. The rugs, bags, bookmarks, evil-eye key chains, cheap beaded bracelets and boxed teas are the same at every stall. Do NOT pay any attention to the vendors. If you even acknowledge them by saying, "No thank you," they still don't back off. One vendor told one of the women in our group that her purse was ugly and she should buy a new one. If you're a remotely young and attractive-looking woman, they will also make kissy noises at you. (Is it anti-feminist of me to be relieved I still got the kissy noises?)
