Istanbul - Volume 3 (the last of Turkey)

I just want to tell you all the last bit about my last two days in Turkey the weekend before last so that its all clear, then I can get back to telling you all about what is currently happening here in London.

Saturday: First we went to Topkapı Sarayı or Topkapi Palace. Translated the name means "Cannon gate Palace"... if you look closely at the front wall you can see filled in holes where the cannons used to poke out. This palace was the primary residence of Ottoman Turk Sultans from 1465 to 1853. It is described as the best example of Ottoman architecture. Construction began in 1459 because of Sultan Mehmed II (the conqueror of Byzantine Constantinople). The palace is basically constructed of four main courtyards with many separate buildings, all inside the main wall. There was an earth quake in 1509 and a fire in 1665 so some construction and refurbishing was done then. In 1853 the current sultan decided to move the court to a newer palace built in the European style along the Bosphorus Straight. And in 1921 Topkapi Palace was turned into a museum by the government. Interestingly enough the place is still guarded by Turkish soldiers with machine guns... a chilling sight (to me at least) to walk through gates guarded by armed men. It's not a common sight in America so many of us aren't used to seeing men walk around with machine guns.

While the palace itself and its many courtyards and rooms are beautiful examples of Ottoman architecture, the palace contains far more valuable things. Among its exhibits are relics of the Prophet Muhammad, a cape and a sword. There are also exhibits of clothing, jewelry and thrones belonging to Sultans and princes throughout the ages. It also has on display an 86 carat diamond that belonged to a Sultan. It is nicknamed the "Spoonmaker's diamond". The interesting story about this diamond is that a man found it in the trash on a beach. He tried to sell the diamond but the jeweler told him it was just a hunk of glass, and completely worthless. So the man traded it for it for three spoons. Eventually this gigantic diamond came to the attention of the Sultan and he had it made into a ring... why he would want to carry that much weight on his hand all day I do not know... it would've been like weight lifting! In case you are having a hard time imagining what an 86 carat diamond actually looks like let me elaborate: it would fit in my palm, but just barely. I'd day it is about the size of ... the fat end of an average light bulb. Yea about that big but flatter. And this is the size of the diamond after it has been cut, just imagine that it had been bigger!

After we left the palace (lets face it a girl can only look at so many sparklies before they all start to look the same) we took a nice long walk to the Rustem Pasa Mosque which just happens to be right between the Egyptian Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar. This mosque, while it was beautiful, and actually still in use, was the most forgettable because it seems that in the two weeks since I was there I can't seem to recall much about it. It operated under the same idea of offering sheets to cover oneself before being allowed to enter (again people in our group were in appropriately dressed and unhappy about being asked to cover themselves with sheets). Its decorations were done in much the same manor as the other two mosques, all that stunning blue tile work, mosaic gold ceilings ... the usual forgetable things you know haha. There were a few things i really remember and like about this particular mosque. The first is that while it was in the middle of a tightly squashed market with barely room to breathe, you turn up this non descript little stairway/passage (when i say little i mean i almost knocked myself out on the ceiling a few times) and then all of a sudden you are in a small courtyard facing a mosque, all a few levels above the street with walls to block out most of its noise. Secondly this mosque seemed a little more modern in a sense because there was an electronic message board out front that not only showed the service and visiting times, but it also displayed changing quotations from the Quran and Muhammad in English. I was so stunned by this at first that I didn't realize they were quotes. This surprised me because of all the things i've read and learned say that the Quran is to be read and recited in the language in which the orginial teachings were given to Muhammad - Arabic. That is why muslims all over the world, even those who don't speak Arabic, still recite their prayers and Quran recitations in Arabic. The only conclusion I could come to about this sign was that it was meant more for the tourists than the average worshiper... but then why would this be at the smallest and most secluded of the three mosques we visited? Why not at the biggest or most famous? I honestly don't know.

After the mosque they set us lose on the huge markets. We started at the bottom of the gentle slope, in the Egyptian Bazaar. Mainly the Egyptian Bazaar is full of spices and seasonings. Stall after stall with bins and piles of different colored powders and dried herbs and plants with little scoops stuck into them. There were some touristy stalls scattered here and there amongst the spices and some places selling jewelry, cushions, and a million different ways of displaying the "Evil Eye". Every where we went in Turkey there were Evil Eye bracelets, necklaces, charms, and things to hang in your house. In a few places where I bought a decent amount of stuff the sales people gave me little safety pins with a few beads and an Evil Eye on them to pin to my clothes. The evil eye beads are supposed to be protection against the evil eye, protection against bad luck. I bought myself an evil eye bracelet, and a bought a few to give to people at home. Another common luck symbol is the Hand of Fatima. Apparently this symbol isn't common enough - Julissa spent the whole time we were here looking for a bracelet with this on it for her friend. Everywhere we went we looked and found necklaces, key chains and charms but no bracelets. She didn't find one until the very last hour literally... (I will write more about evil eye symbolism and history another time I promise)

The only thing that really interested me in the Egyptian Bazaar was a place where i found belly dancing costumes for sale! I had decided before we even went to Turkey that I wanted to buy a belly dancing costume for Halloween so I was on the look out. I saw a few costumes hanging on the outside of this one stall so I went over to look at them - well we know that I stick out so horribly in Turkey so I can't just look at anything because as soon as I show an interest the salesmen are all over me. So as soon as I showed a vague interest in the costumes the man started telling me about how they were hand made and he definitely has them in my size and that he has more costumes upstairs, a lot more. I looked at him all confused... I hadn't noticed the cramped staircase at the back of the store. So Julissa and I went up the little stairs (I wasn't going alone) and I walked right into belly dancing costume heaven. He had everything from the bra and tiny skirt kind to the full dresses with cutouts. They were so beautiful that I was too stunned for a second to pick one. I tried on two of the dresses over the clothes i wore, I loved them so much but I wasn't going to spend that much money. They went from about 120 Liras up to probably 400 or so. If 100 Liras is about $65 then you can do the math from there. He was willing to negotiate but not down far enough and so I had to leave the beautiful dresses and move on. I did end up buying a costume later on - in the minor markets.

We walked straight through the Egyptian Market and out into the twisted cobble streets of smaller markets. Now I have no idea what these markets are called, they rambled between the Egyptian market and the Grand Bazaar for probably a 20 minute walk uphill - IF you stayed on the right path. Julissa and I wandered around in these smaller, more localized markets for hours where, you guessed it: I stuck out even more because we were in a less touristy area. I loved the whole experience. This area had everything from prominent jewelry stores to small stalls selling toys and people who spread blankets on the ground to sell shoes. It exposed more of an honest view of life here and it felt less contrived than some of the touristy places we had been. One result of this was that fewer people we saw and purchased things from spoke English. Increasingly my limited Turkish was helping me more and more. By the time Julissa and I stumbled across a string of fabric and trim stores I was able to say "iki metres" and "kac lira?" with some confidence. The men who worked in the stores were delighted that I knew that much, they continued to babble away while I tried to explain that I didn't know anymore... the best thing was that it didn't seem to matter. They seemed to sincerely enjoy working with my few words of Turkish and miming and pointing trying to get us to understand one another... The men in the fabric store particularly seemed to enjoy me. They all laughed and joked and continued to try to speak to me in Turkish, all because I said "kac lira?" and then understood him when he said "besh". I could tell that he was looking around for someone who could translate "besh" for me but I just said "besh" and nodded because I knew it meant 5 - 5 liras a meter. He was aboslutely thrilled. All of them, there must've been 10 men in the store, all turned and smiled and started talking about me. Apparently none of them spoke English... or they were just having a laugh at my poor language skills, either way it wasn't hostile, it was friendly and we communicated, I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty thrilled too. So I said "iki metres" and he cut my two meters of fabric and i handed him 10 liras and that was that! I also bought some trim from a trim store with a similar process. point, ask, nod to indicate that I understand because usually after I ask they look around for whomever speaks the most English.

Even though for hours we did not see another American I never felt unsafe, ever. Ok so it was a little creepy when men hit on me, and strange when everyone was staring at me, but I never felt unsafe or even particularly unwelcome. For the most part people (and by that I mean men because I never spoke to a Turkish woman) were very friendly and kind, most were even genuinely interested in knowing where I was from, why I was in Turkey and if I liked it there. It sort of bothers me now that I think about it that I never spoke to a woman. It didn't seem particularly unnatural at the time... there just happened to be a much higher percentage of men out on the streets, and then all the people working in the restaurants and stores were men and they were who I spoke to the most.

Saturday night Julissa and I were wandering around on the streets near our hotel trying to decide what we would do that night when I passed a familiar looking sign. We had passed this restaurant a few times, it was pretty and they had seating outside, but what my eye caught on was the belly dancing poster (and the handsome man standing in front of it). Of course as soon as they noticed I looked interested they jumped on the chance to tell me all about it - and for once I wasn't running away. Apparently they have a belly dancing show everynight at about 9:30 or 10 pm on the roof, if you pay 60 liras you get dinner (salad, appetizer, meal, desert and drinks) you get to eat on the roof, and you get to watch the belly dancing. 60 liras is a bit over $30 so we thought, hey its our last night and this is worth it. So we ran back to the hotel, got all dressed up for our night on the town, and came back. And while everyone else was going out to hooka bars Julissa and I walked up the four or five flights of stairs to the roof of the Therapy Restaurant. When we got to the roof we realized we had lucked into something amazing. The roof was empty - we were the only ones who ate on the roof that night. We chose a table by the front edge of the restaurant where we had the best view of the Blue Mosque on our right and another mosque on our left, both light by lights on the outside as darkness slowly fell. We could also look down on the street and across the rooftops to the side... much later in the evening someone set off a few fireworks that we could see across the rooftops of the building next to us. Since we had come to Turkey I had eaten mostly kebabs which apparently is a very Turkish food since they had it everywhere, especially lamb kebabs. Since we werent sure what to order we asked our waiter, a nice guy who spoke English moderately well, and he pointed us in the right direction. He told us to order (something that I don't remember the name of) and it was delicious and fun to watch him cook. Yes thats right we got to watch him cook it and open it. Our meal was chicken, lamb and beef with vegetables, peppers, mushrooms and onions (and I have no idea what else) all cooked in a terricotta pot over a fire. After we'd eatten our salad and our humus our waiter wheeled out a cart. The cart had a small flame going and our terricotta pot was sitting in the middle. He took the pot out with tongs and poured the sauce onto a plate, then he held up the pot in one hand with a towel and took out a huge knife thing and began to tap the sides of the pot, hard. He basically broke the top off the pot (all in one piece, no fragments because it is made to fracture on that line) broke the top off to pour out the food. Not only was it interesting to watch but it was absolutely delicious and more than we could even eat. While we ate our dinner the belly dancer performed.. or I should say we stopped eating to watch because she was ridiculously amazing. Julissa and I are pretty sure that the waiters must have thought we were lesbians the way we looked at that dancer and were just like WOW. I have never ever seen a person move their body like that, not in any theater, dance show, or music video. Her body was crazy and we were surprised to see when we got close to her that she wasn't actually young, probably in her 30's with the body of a young olympic athlete. She came over to us after her performance (since we were still the only ones on the roof) to talk to us briefly and let us take a picture with her.

Sunday - Our last day in Istanbul... as one of our waiters said, "how sad for Turkey" haha. On Sunday morning most of us (those of us who weren't hungover plus those who weren't badly hungover) went to Ortakoy to shop and look at the sea. This time I plopped myself down on the European side of the Bosphorus, but I wasn't sticking my feet in, I was eating lunch while looking across at the Coninent of Asia. Ortakoy was a very beautiful town, somewhat more afluent than where we were staying. All along the shore were small shops and restaurants where people ate outdoors. This is where Julissa finally found the Hand of Fatima bracelet... in fact their were quite a few of them here. I found something a little different - stalls selling books. Books from all over the world, old books, new books, books in different languages... I loved it! THey had books in Turkish, English, French and German. I actually took a picture of a display of Twighlight books in Turkish, I thought it was pretty funny. I also bought Robin a present here actually, a storybook in French that looks interesting, it's about a young boy joining a band of mongols I think ... anyway I think he's going to like it, especially since he reads this blog and will now know what his Christmas present is, you better act surprised when I give it to you!

Besides all the books there were quite a few food stalls, most of them selling either fruity things that I did not recognize (but all contained banana so no thanks) or they sold gigantic baked potatoes stuffed with all sorts of stuff. So while I was sitting on the bank of the Bosphorus starring at the continent of Asia I was digging into a baked potato bigger than of both my fists and full of corn and cheese (I only asked for the ingredients I recognized).