Lady! LADY!! Apple Tea?

I’m not sure where to begin… this weekend was incredible and definitely my favorite so far. About half of the study abroad kids went to Istanbul, Turkey, on the overnight bus and we stayed at hostels around the city. My friends Andrea, Hannah, Jaime, Nick, and I left Thursday night at ten and arrived exhausted, but ready to explore the city at eight Friday morning after a ten hour bus ride. Apart from all the standing in the cold at three in the morning at the Greece-Turkey border and being shepherded around to get visas and passports stamped, the bus ride wasn’t completely terrible.

The first thing we did was head to the Sultanahmet area of the city where the famous Blue Mosque and Ayasofya are located. They are both incredible, inside and out.

Blue Mosque 

Ayasofya 

Besides those two rather impressive buildings, the first thing I noticed was the abundance of cats (Emma would love this. I tried to find a Turkish Van since I was in Turkey and it’s her favorite type, but I’m not sure what it looks like). Apparently there is a Muslim saying that says, “If you’ve killed a cat, you need to build a mosque to be forgiven by God.” At one point I was sitting in a café and was able to see nine different cats without turning my head. They are all well-cared for and not considered a nuisance at all. They come right up to you if you are sitting outside, they wander through the Ayasofya, and one even came inside the restaurant we were eating at and curled up on my coat. Kinda gross...

Turkish Kitten at lunch. Is it the water loving Turkish Van??

Apart from the abundance of cats, there is also an overall attitude of hospitality bordering on being almost overbearing that is present throughout the entire city. Within minutes of being in the area we were approached with dinner discounts from waiters trying to get us into their restaurants. I got a free toy and a picture with a boy selling them, not to mention about 50 different business cards from shops owners. Everyone in Istanbul has business cards. I’m thinking of making my own and handing them out to everyone I meet like they do. We were also inundated with apple tea, a very sweet drink symbolizing 40 years of friendship when you are given it. I swear I had at least 25 cups in the short time I was there. So hospitality is an integral part of the culture, but it got to the point where making eye contact wasn’t possible if you wanted to make it up the street. At one point we were in a jewelry/glassware shop because I made the mistake of talking to the owner, then he passed us along to his leather maker friend’s shop (where we had a fashion show, but were too poor to buy anything, although without trying very hard we got the price down from 950 TL to 400 TL for a jacket). Finally we were handed off to this second guy's restaurant friend. And each one made sure we had plenty of apple tea while we were there. It was definitely an experience, but also got old pretty quickly (at least by the Sunday).

                                       

                                    Boy who gave me the yo-yo toy! He wanted us to take a picture together

First of many glasses of apple tea with the jewelry man!

Leather jackets and apple tea

Here are some picture from the Blue Mosque and The Tomb of Sultan Ahmed, which we saw on the first day we were in Istanbul. The photos don’t do the Blue Mosque justice at all, but that’s what you get with a cheap camera, or really any camera. When you enter the Mosque you must remove your shoes and women have to cover their arms and usually their hair, but the man at the gate let us through without a scarf over our heads. Throughout the day, starting very early in the morning (it woke me up on Saturday) there are five prayer calls. They were slightly startling at first and can be heard throughout the city coming from the Blue Mosque, but I soon became accustomed to them—check out the video below of the first one we heard. The boy at the end was the one who gave me that toy. I guess I won his heart…

Prayer call

                                  
                                                 

                                                            The Tombs

Blue Mosque again

Inside the Blue Mosque 

The Ayasofya and the Blue Mosque, which were built to compete with each other (spoiler alert: the Ayasofya is way better), are separated only by an open square and fountain; they two landmarks across from each other are an impressive site. Their grandeur can be partly contributed to the rivalry between Christians and Muslims. 

Two other attractions in the city are the Grand Bazaar and the Egyptian Spice markets. The Grand Bazaar has over 4,000 shops and covers 64 streets, making it one of the largest covered markets in the world, as well as one of the biggest tourist traps. The first thing to know upon entering is to keep your purse close to you—pickpockets are abundant. I wasn’t that impressed with the Bazaar, apart from its sheer size. The Spice Markets were much more authentic and more locals tend to shop there. This is where I bought my own supply of apple tea, and made many more friends with the local shop-keepers. I got roses from rose tea given to me, a free “evil eye” hemp keychain (to ward off evil following me), and a couple of souvenirs as well.

Turkish Delight (traditional sweet) at the Spice Market

Friday night was an interesting experience. We were told we had to try out the traditional Turkish Baths (Hamams) while in Istanbul so our hostel recommended Gedikpasa Bath and let me tell you that it was verrrrryyy traditional. I think letting the website describe the experience is best:

“Gedik Paşa Turksih Bath” is open everday from 06:00 ta 24:00 hours for male and famale costomers at the same time, in different parts. After paying the price ta the cashier section at the entrance, customers go to the changing cabins at the square section. After taking off cloths and lacking the content in the cabin customers taheir “peştemal”(a kind of long towel used in Turkish Bath) and go to “hot” (Washing Section) of the Turkish Bath. There is centre Stone (Göbek Taşı-a marbel platform) in the middle of this section and basins of the bath for washing surrounding the centre Stone and sauna at the opposite side of the centre Stone (Göbek Taşı) for a pealthy sewating. Ceiling of the bath is covered with several smal and big domes which were made in Horosan. Turksih Bath has a unuque pool for people who want to take a dip. After sweating in the sauna, our masseur comes ang gives you a message with you a message with coarsa bath glove for washing the body, on the centre Stone of the bath.After the message, you can wash yourself and take the advantage o a dip pool .After cleaning, one of the employee comes and dries your body with towels.             http://www.gedikpasahamami.com/default.asp

Obviously their English isn’t very good, but their baths were. It was very relaxing and we had a good/interesting time. When we returned to our hostel after our bath (which was later at night) we immediately passed out. The combination of the massage, lack of sleep on the bus, and the long day did us all in.

Okay this is starting to get excessively long. I’ll try and keep it brief. Saturday morning we did a boat tour of the Bosporus Strait. We got to see Istanbul from all sides, both the European and Asian parts. It was a little chilly and hazy, but still a different way to see the sites. The tour also included a cable car ride into the city from up on a hill removed from the main part of Istanbul, and then some shameless advertising—they took us to a leather shop and we watched an actual fashion show (of course we were given apple tea to sip) to try and get us to buy from this leather company. 

Fortress on the European side of Istanbul

Europe on the right and Asia to the left

This lady is from Singapore, lives in Sudan, and was traveling through Istanbul.
The Blue Mosque is in the background. 

                                    

Leather fashion show

We got dinner at a Karaoke restaurant on Saturday night. It was fun, but the guy who was running it was slightly crazy/had a flame gun that shot fire into the air whenever he felt like spicing things up or that things were getting too calm. We sang Mamma Mia and won the Karaoke contest. Not that there was a lot of competition though, just a German girl singing German songs, some girls from Colorado, and a couple Turkish guys. Easy victory. 

On Sunday I went to the Ayasofya, a cathedral converted into a museum, which was meant to rival the Blue Mosque. It was rebuilt three times, after burning down twice. Each time it was constructed to be more and more impressive and definitely beats out the Blue Mosque for the site you need to see in Istanbul. At one point the Muslims converted the cathedral into a mosque and covered all of the beautiful mosaics up. There was a restoration process that was undertaken to try and restore the church to it’s original self, but elements of the Mosque can still be seen. Once again my photos don’t do it justice, and my camera died halfway through....

Imperial Gate mosaic above the entryway reserved only for emperors. It depicts Leo VI bowing down to Christ asking for his sins to be forgiven. Mary is pictured on the left and the Archangel Gabriel is on the right. 

From the balcony looking toward the alter

Dancers outside of the Ayasofya

Night outside the cathedral with the fountain lit

The final excursion on a out trip was to ASIA. Part of Istanbul is in Europe and part is in Asia (the touristy parts are in Europe) and our goal was to have lunch in Asia (for the story of course). So we decided to take an afternoon trip to another continent. We made a lot of jokes about it… Nick, Andrea and I took a very cheap ferry (less than $1 and 15 min) to get to the Asian part of the city. Dinner here was my favorite meal by far and much more of a challenge. The restaurant we chose didn’t speak a work of English, but they were extremely friendly and with some gesturing and patience we were able to order our meal. The menus were in Turkish so we had to guess at what we were ordering. I managed to get chicken kebabs and know it was chicken by the waiter flapping his arms like wings. The other two got lamb, but if you know me at all I’m not a big meat eater and lamb was just too big of a step for me. Dessert was delicious; it’s called Künefe. It was shredded wheat in honey with a soft cheese in the middle and some form of cream and pistachio on top. Probably the best sweet I’ve had abroad and I have had a lot. It even beat out baklava.

Desert mmmm

So we left Asia and Istanbul behind. The bus ride back was pretty depressing, since it left Sunday night and we got back just in time for class on Monday morning, and of course we were leaving behind an amazing city that I feel like I barely got to see. I’m not sure I would like to study there (it’s too touristy like I’ve heard Athens is), but I would definitely like to return again and probably stock up on some more apple tea!

Here are some more photos for your viewing pleasure:

Woman selling food for the pigeons outside the spice markets

Men washing their feet outside a mosque before entering

This man carries this cat around everywhere on his head and spends his money on caring for other cats.
I saw him in the spice markets and one of the vendors told me about his love of cats.

                                        

                                                   On our hostel terrace looking out at the Blue Mosque

 Turkish toilet...aka a hole in the ground                                                                     Shalep--a delicious drink!