12/24-25/11
A fellow Peace Corps volunteer, Tricia, and I left Veliko Tarnovo on a bus at 8:30
p.m. Christmas Eve for an adventure to Istanbul. I loved having the whole day to
prepare – pack, clean, organize. It was
a busy week prior to departure with village holiday events and activities.
We arrived in Istanbul at 5:30 a.m. Christmas morning. It took about 2 hours to get through both
borders and make a stop for the drivers to eat. Turkish kindness began right
away. A bus driver at the huge bus terminal took us to where we
could catch the right bus to the part of town where we were staying.
We found our way by bus to Taksim Square and had breakfast
at a pastry cafeteria. Then we took the
historical trolley to the end of Iskitlal Street and walked downhill to the
Galata Tower and the apartment that would be our home for the next week. Being in a new environment and a new culture
is once again a bit intimidating – not knowing the language or the
transportation systems. I was happy to
be with Tricia who has had quite a bit of experience traveling in the past 3
years. Still – for peace of mind it’s
good to know that there will be delays, wrong turns and miscommunications when
looking for directions and information.
As we got closer and were standing looking at our map figuring out which
street the apartment was on, a taxi driver came up and asked if he could help –
in Turkish. We said no taxi, but he just
wanted to help us. He didn’t know the
street we were looking for so he shouted to a vendor and asked. The vendor pointed us in the right direction.
Once in our apartment, we had some quiet time and then
headed to Ara Café to meet a Turkish woman who hosts “out-of-towners.” We had
difficulty finding the café – wandering this way and that, but finally we went
to an Internet café to contact the woman.
But the young man who worked there knew the café, and showed us where it
is. Yeah! Fulya meets people through CouchSurfing.net
and has gatherings twice a week. There
also was a couple there from Singapore.
After a leisurely conversation we headed to a different part
of town. We walked along the banks of
the Boshporus River and had lunch at a different café. It was interesting to see what everyone got –
Turkish pizza, chicken with rice and potatoes.
Fulya also helped Tricia get a Turkish phone card to use during our
visit. Then in the late afternoon we
boarded a Bosphorus tour boat. It was a
one hour cruise – 30 min. north and then south again. It was only 10 Turkish lira which is about US
$5.30 – it was one of the best “deals” of our trip. As night arrived we watched the city lights come on including
the bridges spanning the river and mansions, palaces, hotels and business along
both sides of the river. Not only does
the Bosphorus Strait divide Istanbul into the European side and the Asian side it
also connects the Marmara Sea with the Black Sea and the currents are
treacherous. Swimming is prohibited and
large boats and tankers are required to use local pilots to navigate the
waters.
After the cruise, we wandered past more street vendors on
our way back to the buses. Fulya told us
that there are a lot of misconceptions of Turkish culture and much confusion
with traditions that are more Arabic than Turkish. For instance, the hookah (water pipe), “Turkish
bath”, and fez are all not traditionally Turkish.
Monday 26 December 2011
Had a good nights sleep.
The apartment is quiet and the heaters kept us warm – too warm. Eventually we realized we could turn them
down to a more comfortable level, even though there were no settings. We had a slow morning after yesterday’s long
travel day and sightseeing day. (Why is it sightseeing we go to visit sites?) We found an underground metro station near
our apartment. Our location reminds me
of San Francisco. We are located about
halfway up a steep hill – down goes to the water and buses. Up goes to the metro, trolley and Taksim
Square. The only place it’s really flat
for any distance is along the shore of the Bosphorus.
On foot we wandered looking for a yoga studio Tricia wanted
to visit. After looking and not finding,
we decided it was time for a Starbucks.
It’s the first time I have visited a Starbucks since leaving
the US in the end of March. What
fun. It felt familiar and friendly. They have Turkish pastries but the same
coffees. It’s amazing – in this “Turkish
coffee” culture, Starbucks appears to be thriving with American style brew as
well as Lattes, Cappucinos and hot chocolate. The Turkish (and Bulgarian) word for tea is “chai”.
Next we found the metro and headed to an area called
Levent. Again emerging from the metro we
were confused – trying to match the street we were looking for with the map and
what we could see in person. We
eventually found it. This area is a
business district but for lunch we found a café on a square of small shops and
businesses. It reminds me of Sonoma,
California. We found a window table and
watched the world go by as we ate another Turkish meal – including a fresh
salad bar – yeah! Since we got a later
start this morning it was late afternoon when we finished lunch. We had thought about finding Belgrade Forest,
but decided it was too late in the day for that particular adventure. On our way back to the metro, we stopped in a
high rise building with a shopping mall on the lower levels. After going through the security check point
(I beeped going through the monitor, but the beep was ignored) we stepped right
into downtown LA or San Francisco – lots of glitz, high-end retailers and
holiday decorations and lights.
An aside….while Turkey is a Muslim country there are
Christian churches and some people (and apparently many retail businesses) who celebrate
Christmas. There are some Christmas
trees and there are a lot of Santa Claus’ (called Noel Baba here) – but one
thing is very different. Santa makes his
rounds on New Years Eve instead of Christmas Eve. He’s part of the New Years celebration.
So in this mall there was Santa and his sleigh in lights in
the middle of the atrium spanning 2 floors.
This was something I did not expect in Istanbul! And St. Nicolaus’ original home town is said
to be Demre, Turkey. As we wandered around a little we found an elevator to the
roof-top 55 stories up. This building is
quite new – built in 2007. We decided we
wouldn’t get any better views than from the top of the building and up we
went. It was a very smooth elevator ride
– my stomach did not end up in my mouth!
And yes, the view was spectacular – from all sides.
Istanbul is huge – over 15 million people…which is
approximately 4 times the size of LA and over twice the size of the entire San
Francisco Bay Area. I couldn’t see the
end of it in any direction – except the black area which was Belgrade Forest in
the distance. This was one of those neat
unplanned activities. There was another
option on the 55th floor but we passed on it – taking a virtual
helicopter ride over Istanbul (complete with skydiving).
We headed back towards Iskitlal Street and thought about
going to an American movie with Turkish subtitles. I haven’t been in a movie theater since leaving
the US. We found one with American
actors and went in. The theater was
unusual – the seats at the front of the theater were on a higher slope than the
seats in the middle of the theater. So
the rows in front of us went up slightly.
The seats were staggered so no one would be directly in front, but off
to either side. The screen was higher than I'm used to, and actually this configuration seemed more comfortable for my neck. There were very few
people in the theatre so it wasn’t a problem anyway. Note to self – before going to a movie, get
the Turkish name translated into English and look on imdb.com before sitting
down to watch it. If I had known the
name I would not have bought a ticket.
As it turned out, yes – there are actors I like in this movie, but I
only stayed for the first 20 minutes or so before walking out. What’s the name you say? Carnage - with Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly.
It’s nice to have a “home” to return to in the apartment we
are staying in. And it was cozy and
comfy. And the book I'm reading on my Kindle is much preferred to the movie I didn't stay for!
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