Mutlu yıllar!

Happy twenty-ten everyone!  We're back in Istanbul - well, I'm here for another few hours :(  My flight leaves tomorrow at 6:35am.  Oy.  And last night I (along with everyone else in the family) got very little sleep.  The "no special" celebration turned out to entail raucous street parties, loud Arabic music, squealing tires, drunken college students, etc., until 4am-ish.  And we had to keep the windows open to counteract the heater, which tho set at 'low' still seemed to want to keep the room at a healthy 90° or so.

We caught the 9am bus out of Edirne ;)  So the city wasn't great, but we got a good two days' worth of entertainment out of it, and it was WAY different from Istanbul.  I feel like we definitely have a more complete (though by no means actually complete) view of Turkey because of it.  Plus, I need to say that, just like in Istanbul, everyone was extremely nice.  Plus, unlike Istanbul, very few people spoke English, and those who did, didn't well; nonetheless they went far out of their way to help us tourists.

After getting into Istanbul, we took a crazy shuttle through town, which bounced and swerved so much that it almost made Mom throw up.  Then we ate at a really nice little restaurant a few blocks away from our hotel.  As we walked there, we were greeted by a bunch of shop and restaurant owners asking us questions like "Where'd you go?"  and "How was Edirne?"  I felt a bit like a celebrity.  The food was really good, and we got to sit outside (on January 1st!) because it was 64° today and not a cloud in the sky.  Then we went back to the hotel, unpacked (and I repacked) and chatted with Fatih. 

From there we walked to the bazaar for Annaliese to buy some more scarves and for me to get a good Turkish dictionary (the only one I had before was not thorough enough).  On the way, Annaliese realized she'd left her expensive camera sitting on her chair outside of the restaurant we'd had lunch at.  She jogged back and found it right where she'd left it.  The owner apologized numerous times for not having noticed, and several people murmured in astonishment "Just look how safe it is here!"

Well, we're off to Turquoise again for my last meal in Turkey :(  This was an absolutely wonderful trip.  Annaliese has said several times this is the second country (not counting the US) in which she could see herself living.  Thank you, Mom, Dad, Anna, Fatih, Rolf, Hermann, Anita, Volker, for making this one of the best vacations of my life! 

Love, peace and good fortune in the New Year!
Colin

PS - My parents have promised to post one more entry to this blog tomorrow evening, their last day in Turkey.

failblog

Well, today wasn't the greatest of the days of this vacation…  I'm writing this entry while the family is sitting in the kids' room watching the most boring introduction to a movie in the world:  Free Zone.  Natalie Portman cries for at least the first five minutes.  The next ten or so minutes are seen through the rearview mirror.  That will count as the first fail, though anachronistically.

We began the day by going to the Selimiye Mosque.  Outside of the mosque is a little bazaar.  Edirne is known for its soaps-shaped-like-fruits.  They're actually pretty cool.  Mom bought a bunch for like 10 lira or something.  Edirne is very much cheaper than Istanbul.

The mosque is another one by Sinan, and it's considered his finest.  It is really beautiful.  I think I still like the Sokollu the best, though.

 

Outside the mosque again, we ran into our first Turkish gypsies (or Roma, I guess).  They basically attacked us with little cups full of bird seed for the pigeons.  I asked in Turkish how much they wanted for the little cups, and the mother signed "nothing", while the little girl told me one lira.  Anna took a cup and started feeding the birds.  I said "no thanks" many times, but the little skankbomb then shoved a cup in my hand.  I figured whatever if it's only one lira.  While we were leaving, the father kept asking for five lira from Dad, even though Dad had already paid the girl.  The gypsies ended up getting two lira from us.  Ugh, fail number two.

After that we went to "Hello Pizza" for lunch.  For five lira I got a large-ish meal of "şnitzel", noodles with yogurt sauce (I thought it was cheese sauce), some kind of spicy couscous and French fries (pomfrit, from French pommes frites 'fried apples [of the earth]).  For dessert we went next door to "Dondurmaci" (which means "ice cream maker").  Mom and Anna got baklava (well, Anna first got some profiteroles, but didn't like it).  Dad got this strange drink that is called something like balaban, which tasted like lemon pudding.  I asked for ice cream (as in, what the shop was named after), but they said they were out (Dondurma yok).  Fail.  We all kind of shared.  I liked none of them.  Another fail.

mullets!  There are more mullets here than in Istanbul.  Generally, this city is fairly provincial, very few people speak any English, there's a bunch of graffitied walls, everything is a lot cheaper, etc.

There's neither much to do nor to see here, so we decided to go to another movie.  I checked online and found out that 2012 was playing nearby and it was "with Turkish subtitles".  We went in and I purchased our tickets using my vast knowledge of Turkish numbers.  We went in, sat down, and five minutes into the movie realized it was dubbed into Turkish.  We left.  Yet another fail.

Santa Claus, Christmas trees, and Christmas music have all been re-appropriated in Turkey as symbols of the New Year.  In Istanbul, the New Year (Yeni Yıl) is a big deal.  When we asked a young man at our hotel yesterday whether anything special happens here in Edirne, he responded without a second's hesitation:  "No."  Oh boy, I'm excited now for tomorrow!

Oh, and I almost forgot:  upon entering the mosque, two Roma women came up to us, forcing bags on us.  You have to take off your shoes before entering mosques, and the bags are to keep your shoes in while walking through the building.  None of the Roma respond to my question kaç para? ("how much?"), but eventually they said 1 lira a piece.  Dad only had a 10 lira note and asked for change.  The woman tried to run off with it, when a man who works in the mosque came up and started yelling at the women.  They eventually returned all ten lira.  I carried my shoes in the ratty, crusty old bag, but everyone else threw theirs away.  That's the failure I'll leave you with for the day.

Dervişler

Today we went back to the market.  Cody, I found you a patch!  It took a lot of hassling, but I got it down from 45 Turkish lira to just 15.  Annaliese bought even more scarves.  I think she has plenty now. While trying one on, the young man waiting on her told her she looked like "Shakira, Lady Gaga".

Shakira/Gaga

palm trees, sunny skies and 62° !!!

As we were walking, we came past the sign "DİKKAT, KÖPEK VAR" ('Beware of dog').  I knew dikkat and var, but I didn't know the word for dog, and so I leaned in to read it.  Then, charging from the bowels of hell comes growling and lunging this nasty beast.  Anna and I literally had to run out of the way!  In Turkey, they really mean it when they say "beware"!

Then we went to the Süleymaniye Mosque.  It's another one by Sinan, and even though the interior is closed for renovation, it was very obvious that it is gorgeous.  It is also considered the most important mosque in Istanbul.

We wandered around the grounds of the Süleymaniye.  This is the graveyard.  This mosque is also in the area around the University of Istanbul.  It was cool to see where the largest student body in Turkey lives.

Anachronistic anecdote related to mosques:  When we went into the Hagia Sophia, they had a security check with metal detectors and guards.  I started taking out of my pockets my camera, cell phone, iPod, belt, etc., but the guard sort of waved me through.  I gave him a quizzical look, but he smiled and nodded.  I walked through and the alarm, naturally, went off.  I was ready to go back out when the guard laughs, asking "Where's the bomb-a?"  Hmm, what's the point of a metal detector and security guard when the response to an alarm is laughter and disconcern?  Haha, it's a different world here :)

After the mosque, we went to a restaurant called Dârüzziyafe.  At the time it was built, under the rule of Süleyman, it functioned as the mosque's soup kitchen for the poor.  Rick Steves' book on Istanbul said that if we showed the book at this restaurant, we'd get 10% off.  Mom mentioned this to our waiter, who responded "No, no … no".  Rick Steves also recommended the "sherbet drink", which truthfully is why we went there.  Looking at the menu, however, I couldn't find it.  I asked the waiter whether they did, in fact, have a sherbet drink.  This question resulted in all four of us (without further ado) getting "rosehip syrup", which turned out to be said sherbet drink.  It was disgusting, kind of like drinking a glass of Tang, but instead of hydrating it with water, you used honey.  The meal itself, however, was really, really good.

Side note:  The word sherbet comes from the Arabic word شرب (shariba), which means 'to drink' (well, technically 'he drank').  This word is also where we got the word "syrup" and the Turks got the word şarap 'wine'.

From there, we walked back to our hotel for some quick R&R.  On the way, we saw several young men selling spirographs.  Remember, those bright plastic things from the early 90s for making loopy designs…  And they're all over here!

And then this evening we went to see whirling dervishes.  Whirling dervishes are practitioners of Sufi Islam who enter mystical trances while spinning in circles.  It is supposed to be a religious experience in which the dervish becomes aware of the unseen world.  So yes, the purpose of this touristy excursion was to watch five people in deep, contemplative, slowly rotating prayer.  It was about as entertaining as watching a group of people go through the Hail Mary for two hours with the soundtrack to Borat playing in the background.  Dad fell asleep almost instantly.  During the spinning, they raise and lower their arms in a manner reminiscent of the YMCA dance.

This isn't my photo, since photography wasn't allowed.  But check out the awesome hats they wear.  It's like a cat's scratching post on his head.

One interesting thing to come out of the "cultural experience" (I use quotations here, because these people charge about $30/seat for foreigners to gawk at them while they feign ancient tradition) was the ridiculous tourist next to us.  She was this elderly woman, who almost as soon as she sat down was up again, then down, then up.  She kept popping up and down like a Whack-a-Mole.  At one point, she turned to Dad and asked him whether he could see when she was standing.  She wasn't blocking his view, seeing as she was to his right, and even if she'd been directly in front of him, it probably wouldn't have mattered, because she was about 5'2".  Then during the performance, she climbed onto her seat and tried to balance herself on the back of the chair.  Failing at that, she simply resigned herself to standing upright on it.  For the entire program!  Best part, though:  NOT American!  The French get to claim that nut job as one of their own.  So no, I did not like the dervishes too much (better than in Cairo, tho).  Mom and Anna, however, thought they were interesting.

Tomorrow we're going to the Archaeology Museum, which I'm really excited for!

İki Pazar

Today we toured the city.  Mom's old professor and friend, Walter Denny, suggested a friend of his to be our guide.  Our guide and his wife led us around the city, showing us several beautiful mosques, the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, and two bazaars.  It was a full day!

We began the tour just past the Blue Mosque next to a giant obelisk with hieroglyphs from Luxor.  I saw similar things at the Temple of Karnak, as you may recall.  The obelisk was brought to the city by a Roman emperor.  A similar obelisk can be seen in Paris on the Place de la Concorde.  The obelisk marks one of the edges of the giant Hippodrome, an ancient (now mostly buried) Greek stadium for horse-racing.

After the obelisk we walked to a mosque called Sokullu (after the grand vizier who commissioned it).  Along the way, we came across this very bizarre graffito.  "I carry books since years but could not stop to be a donkey!"  I have absolutely no idea what it means.  As to the Turkish below:  I know it means something along the lines of "a man is a man [something], a donkey is a donkey [something]".  You're welcome for that brilliant translation.  Any better/fuller translation would be much appreciated…

The Sokullu mosque was spectacular.  Unfortunately you're not allowed to take photos inside, so I have none to post here.  It was designed by Mimar Sinan, who also designed over 300 buildings.  He now ranks alongside Snøhetta (the firm that designed the Oslo opera house and the new Library of Alexandria) as one of my favorite architects of all time.

Next, we went to another mosque, the Küçük Ayasofya ('Little Hagia Sophia').  This is a pretty, but small, mosque that used to be a church.  From here we went to the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts.

The above image of the Blue Mosque and the obelisk was taken from the Museum.  It is a gorgeous collection of calligraphic works, enormous kilims and other rugs, large metal candle holders and other pieces of Middle Eastern art.  Below the art museum is the Etnography [sic] Museum, which houses costumes and scenes from Turkish/Turkic peoples around the globe.  Based on the extremely musky scent of the place, my dad guessed they use a lot of mothballs to preserve the artifacts.  One of my current dreams is to do research on the effects of Soviet policies of language standardization on cultural identity among the Turkic peoples of southern Siberia, so this part of the museum was especially interesting to me.

After that we went to the Grand Bazar.  It is enormous!  Extremely common were shops with rugs, hookahs (or narghiles as they're still called here), and fake D&G, Chanel and Abercrombie t-shirts.  People were constantly calling out to passersby, hoping to attract people to their shops:  "Let me help you spend your money!"  "I can help you change your life maybe!"  "Stop your horses!"  Annaliese bought an evil-eye talisman and a scarf.  I bought shot glasses.  And yes, to aid in your judging me, they do have the Turkish flag and a nazar on them.  Colin:  typical, trashy tourist.  We also stopped here to eat.  I had some sort of lamb and vegetables dish (tasty), and rice pudding again for dessert.  (It was caramelized on the top - I love it!)

Next we went to the Spice Bazaar (Mısır Çarısı in Turkish, or 'Egyptian Bazaar').  They were selling all kinds of spices, herbs and pastries.  Alongside the baklava and Turkish delights was a strange, nut-filled dessert called "Turkish viagra".  No, I do not know what that heck it is.

Both bazaars were jam-packed and loud.  We could hardly wind our way through the enormous crowds.  Shopkeepers were constantly shouting at us.  Our tour guide and his wife, both of whom are Turkish "born and bred" as they said, have lighter skin and therefore also couldn't escape English-language entreaties.  The woman, Şayeste, told us when she was younger she had blond hair (now it's black), so throughout her childhood she was constantly mistaken for a tourist and therefore hounded by shopkeepers and salesmen.

In closing, I leave you with a photo of the last mosque we visited (I don't remember what it's called) and a wish for everyone to have a very merry Christmas (even those of you who aren't Christians).