Views, Towers and Cabs

Views, Towers and Cabs

Mummy in Archeological Museum 

Today we have planned to take  a boat cruise down the Bosphorous to a fishing village.  Unfortunately we have to move out of our sweet apartment because others had rented and paid for this place months ago. Luckily John has found on the web another apartment that is only 2 blocks away so we should have time to check in and make our 1:30 boat cruise time. We are told our next apartment has a great view but we must hike up 5 floors to get there.  Sounds enticing… we pack up and despite the proximity of the new accommodations John recommends we take a cab because these brick, stone roads are deadly to pull his luggage along… seems the wheels on his suitcase swirl sideways crashing his case.  So we hail a cab .... something we should have learned by now is not wise but we seem to need many learning trials. Thirty minutes later we are still driving in circles down narrow steep roads that are usually one-way in the wrong direction. Seth is sitting up front with his phone which has a navigational map trying to tell the driver where to go.  Of course, the driver doesn’t speak English and has never heard of the street or the apartment we are going to. Of course, the navigational map is incorrect and doesn’t have all these little alleys marked nor does it have Siri speaking to you. We sit waiting behind garbage trucks and other lorries delivering grocery goods to stores.. trying to figure out where we are going. Seth keeps telling us we are going in the wrong direction. Several times the cab driver turns around taking us down one-way streets in the wrong direction.  Finally, we all agree we need to bail and start walking although we are now further away then when we started. Getting out of the cab we have a moment of relief until we try to hike up these hilly streets with backpacks and suitcases, a large backgammon board, groceries and John’s suitcase. John decides he needs a coffee...

 Seth and I leave John at a coffee shop and forge ahead in the search for our new apartment. Seth has his suitcase, backpack and the groceries. I am wearing my backpack and pulling both my suitcase (which does have good wheels and works well on stone roads) as well as John’s suitcase and my  large camera bag. Little did I realize how difficult John’s suitcase was on rough roads… I trudge along mostly dragging his suitcase, barely missing cars and imagining I am climbing a mountain and need this exercise. Seth finally suggests he leave me along with all the luggage and backpacks on the side of the road while he tries to find the apartment. He is gone for 15+ minutes and during that time several very large trucks try to turn exactly where I am standing. I eventually push the entire luggage under a parked car thinking that at least it won’t be run over while the truck narrowly makes its way around the corner.  Yikes.. is Seth lost? am I lost? Eventually he comes back to confess he has found the meeting place which is very close to where we started.  We hike onward to an apartment door, which is locked. A man comes to meet us and asks Seth if he is John. He says the person who was supposed to meet us has left because we were late. Moreover, he cannot let us in our apartment because it is being cleaned. He suggests coming back in an hour! We won’t make our boat departure.  After some negotiation he agrees we wait 30 minutes and offers to take care of our luggage ~ which is on the sidewalk. Seth is a trusting soul while I think we are about to be robbed? I take my backpack that has my computer in it, thinking if I lose everything at least I will have my computer and passport!

Back to John who has had a double espresso and I find I am in luck because they have decaffeinated cappuccino. I think the day is improving!  We return to the place where we left our luggage which is now gone and the same man turns up. Hurrah.. he takes us to another place where we hike up 79 stairs to our apartment. We open the door and WOW it has an amazing view of the Bosphorous, bridges and the mosques we have been visiting.  Our luggage has also been transported here. I should be more trusting.

After unpacking we take the tram back to the Old Market ~ I am looking for tiles and John wants to look at kilims.  As soon as we arrive the merchants seem to know John is looking for a rug. They have just the perfect rug for him, special price and have lived in America so they tell him he is part of their family.  These men are definitely the most aggressive of all merchants in this market. We are looking for a special rug store described in Rick Steve’s book as having non-aggressive merchants who will teach you about rugs. Seth and I take off leaving John with the lovely carpet merchant recommended in the book.  We wander about for half an hour and go back to pick up John who has rugs spread out on the floor. He asks if I like one of them but is uncertain about the color and size. I’m not sure I am up for this purchase as returns would be very difficult, let alone how would we take this home. We decide our bazaar energy is diminished and head back to enjoy our new apartment view.

John goes straight home while Seth and I research the boat trip possibilities and schedules for the next day. We return via the upper bridge and I watch and chat with some fishermen. They look so relaxed, unpressured by the city and tourists and at ease chatting with each other… one would say they have captured the essence of “mindfulness” or “being in the moment”. 

Seth and I decide to climb the Galata Tower which is not far from our place. This tower was built in 528 during the sovereignty of the Byzantine Emperor. It is 61 meters high and according to our book has a fantastic view of the Bosphorus and roof tops from the European to Asian side.  We have to wait for 45 minutes to go up but the view is definitely as described… well maybe it is only a slightly better view than our apartment view which has the advantage of a cold drink, Turkish delight and not so many tourists pushing each other along the narrow edge and yelling at each other to stop taking so long to take a picture. We head back to try to return to the peaceful moment. 

Viagra, Spices and Water Pipes

Viagra, Spices and Water Pipes

We slept in again this morning getting a late start. It appears we are on a European schedule of late nights and late mornings. I love the idea of eating at 10 pm since Istanbul is alive with people and music at this time. The joyful noise of partying seems to abate about 3 am.  





Today we decide to walk under the Galata Bridge rather than take the tram. The day before we walked home on the upper bridge roadway where we had seen many fisherman and even little children (all males) fishing and indicating success with their buckets full of wiggling fish. 

One elderly Turk winked at me and asked me to take his picture showing me his mustache and carefully pruning it into the right position.  



I wondered if these men were fishing for fun, or some extra cash, or picking up women. This time as we walk under the bridge we see scores of fishing lines and every few moments one is pulled up with a wiggling mackerel on it. At one point I saw a pail go up that seemed to be filled with some little fish. Anchovies?  Seth wonders if they pull too hard or the winds blow if the lines will snag us.  It is a beautiful view from this level across the Bospherous with many ferries filled with tourists zigzagging to and fro (like the mackerels) with the backdrop of mosques set against the blue skyline.  

There are many restaurants on this level selling fish sandwiches that consist of fresh French bread with an entire fried fish inside.  Well maybe the head has been removed.  We stop for one of these and of course a Turkish coffee that according to John is not up to his standard.  He believes it is powdered Nescafe and therefore offers it to me.

 

Today we decide to head for the Spice market because Seth tells us we did not see the full market yesterday. Everyone is up for this but I think one of us is after some natural Viagra. Indeed we discovered we had only barely smelled the Spice market previously and what I see today exceeds anything I expected. I would actually just like to spend the entire day here taking photographs. The colors and exotic ambience is intoxicating even without the energizing Viagra. Apparently this market was built 350 years ago to promote the spice trade and it still essentially serves the same purpose, as there are lots of locals here as well as tourists. 

I first notice dozens of stores selling all varieties of Turkish delight (also labelled as viagra) and each one allows you to sample various varieties. I try a few and decide I really like the version that is made with pomegranates and pistachios. Thus I buy a pound hoping it will improve my cognitive functioning. Who’s worried about sex at this age? 

Huge slabs of turkish delight cut according to size wanted 

The fresh roasted nuts look fantastic and there is a version of every kind of dried fruit that you can possibly imagine. 

Nuts 

I decide I like this market much better than the Grand Bazaar and hope to come back with a girl friend to take a cooking course so I know what to do with the spices. I see I can spend a small fortune for the saffron but hesitate to buy it since my cooking is so simple and unadventurous.
  

Saffron

We go on to view dried vegetables, green peppers and natural sponges hanging from the walls and tables full of colored olive oil soaps designed to keep your skin from aging. 

Soaps 

I see one vendor demonstrating how to make dolma-stuffing eggplants with rice and raisins. Then there are sacks of green powder that I find out is henna traditionally used for skin care and also needed by women to stain the palms of their hands before they get married. There are multiple herbal teas, which advertize their ability to keep you calm and relaxed. It seems that for generations and regardless of culture people have been trying to stay young, relaxed and energized. 


As we leave the market we stop to satisfy John’s coffee needs because he finds a shop that has an espresso machine and he is sure he will not be getting Nescafe. He orders a triple espresso and Seth and I order Moroccan herbal tea that is delicious.  Where can I find this tea in the market?

Next Seth takes us to a very old mosque, which he had seen the previous day and thought we should also see. It is called Rustem Pasa Mosque but only gets one star in our tour book whereas Spice market got two stars. However, I think the Spice market should get three stars and I am beginning to learn not to treat the guide book as infallible. This 16^th century mosque was also designed by Sinan (who designed Suleyman Mosque my favorite one) and is located above the old market. It looks dilapidated outside but when you enter you are overwhelmed by a barrage of wall-to-wall Iznik blue tiles which are simply awesome. I take many pictures and want to return to the market to buy some tiles.

Now Seth and I head for the Istanbul Archaeological Museum while John goes to the Topkapi Palace because we tell him he mustn’t miss the Harem or the tulips. The sarcophagi collection carved from marble and in seemingly near perfect condition stuns Seth and me. 

Alexander Sarcophagus is the star exhibition and I believe this museum was built to house this 4^th century BC sarcophagus. The scenes of battle and hunting in marble relief are really beyond belief and you can imagine them charging into the room with you. 

I also liked the scarphagus of mourning women. These women were professional mourners who were hired to cry and wail at funerals. These women’s gestures and emotions also seemed realistic and life like.

Farewell Scene 

In addition, I was also mesmerized by the Roman portraits (330 BC-1^st century) and find I am always drawn to faces more than landscapes.  I click away taking dozens of digital pictures. 

Hermaphordite 

Ethebe Athlete

Alexandra the Great

Athenea

What is interesting about these sculptures is that they are not idealized beauties but present real looking people with real emotions. Both Seth and I really enjoyed this underrated but impressive museum. It is simple, elegant and presented in chronological order and seemed to integrate a lot of the things we had seen in Istanbul so this was the right time to see this historical syntheses on our trip.

Seth and I head to a quaint lounging type restaurant on the street nearby to wait for John and we order tea and a water pipe (aka hookah). I have never tried a water pipe and but obviously Seth has had much experience as I observe his perfectly rounded smoke holes.  

Apparently these water pipes are not filled with marijuana but with low-nicotine tobacco leaves mixed with molasses and dried fruit or herbs. Apparently this fruit-infused tobacco contains zero to very little nicotine, is not addictive and provides no buzz. The tobacco you inhale is cooled by water and filtered allowing you to breathe it deeply. There is one hose connected to a metal body and we each get our own personal, plastic mouthpiece.  Seth models the correct behavior and I take a try. I inhale and blow out smoke but nothing emerges except my choking.  I realize there is a technique to this skill. Seth explains how to curl my tongue, frame my mouth opening, use my jaw muscle and tells me to breath in deeply. I try again…and can only laugh at my ineptness. 

John arrives and takes a turn. Since he used to be a pipe smoker I expect he will be quite skilled, however he cannot produce smoke rings either.  In background of this restaurant is music by the Beattles and Elvis.. memories of the 60’s flood back and we talk of those days.  Actually after awhile I confess I do feel a bit buzzed… hmmm… what was in this tobacco?

Grand Bazaar, More Mosques & University of Koc

Day #4

Grand Bazaar, More Mosques & Universityof Koc

I’m awake at 8 am but John and Seth are not up until 11 am… therefore I blog and enjoy our lovely apartment with Nescafe… a powdered 2 for 1 coffee that includes powdered cream.  This is my 3^rd caffeinated coffee now since arriving… am I falling off the wagon?  Knowing that John hates shopping I hesitate to go to the Bazaar with him today. However, our last bazaar event in Jerusalem resulted in us buying 3 rugs… so who knows what might happen? I warn John that some women can spend 3 days in this bazaar and Seth interjects that even men like this bazaar.  It is the world’s oldest shopping mall ~ first ever built. It became the center for trade in the entire Ottoman Empire and remained Turkey’s commercial hub through the 50’s. It is an enormous labyrinth of over 4000 tiny shops originally separated into individual related complexes of related shops but eventually connected and roofed to form a single mall.

This day we travel to the market located in the same Old Town Sultanahmet area we went the first day.  However, this time instead of a taxi we take the “tunel” which is an underground funicular that goes from Istiklal Street (just near our apartment) to the bank of the Golden Horn.  It was built in 1875 and became the world’s second underground people mover around the world (after London’s Tube). 


After getting off the Tunel we join the masses of people to take the electrical tram to the Bazaar. This is Saturday after all and locals as well as tourists head for the market.  We hear the call for prayer announced by what seems to be a live singer rather than a programmed song and enter a mosque at the entrance to the bazaar.  Taking off my shoes and donning a scarf I sit to watch hundreds of people praying in this beautiful mosque. It is a moving experience but again the space for women at the back is barely bigger than a closet. How do women put up with this? Next we enter the bazaar and it doesn’t take long before we get lost despite Seth trying to follow Rick Steve’s map. I mustn’t lose Seth or John or I will definitely be here for 3 days, as I have no sense of direction even in nonchallenging settings. Despite being warned about aggressive shop merchants I don’t find this to be the case compared with the Cairo, Delhi and Jerusalem markets.   These merchants ask us “want to buy a rug” or “where are you from?” or “like some tea?” and when we say “no thanks” they don’t push harder. It is a much more relaxing, pleasant and atmospheric experience. I enjoy the people watching here.

The jewelry section of the bazaar is bizarre… so many windows of gold and diamond displays and there are actually people in these shops buying! I can’t imagine wearing these Queen-like necklaces, rings or earrings. Apparently Turks love gold because they are seen as an investment. Since local currency has a tendency to be devalued, people prefer something more tangible.  A woman wearing golden bracelets is actually wearing her family’s savings. We walk down a little back alley where many men are leaning against walls or sitting on small stools talking into cell phones. Suddenly I realize they are cutting money deals. This is Wall Street! 

We enter the section of the market devoted to scarfs and backgammon boards and small trinkets.  Walking around the streets of Istanbul we have seen people playing backgammon in coffee shops everywhere ~ although I don’t recall seeing women doing this. I will look for this. Apparently the game is not played for money but they may challenge one another to pay the coffee bill or for a baklava. Playing the game online with people around the world has become a recent trend in Turkey. I am not a game player in general but remember enjoying playing this game when we were first married. I think I forget the rules.  I recall that it is not a game with great cognitive challenge or as time consuming as chess maybe I should take it up? I know that Anna loves games and has indicated interest in chess so we talk with a lovely, gentle shop keeper (our age) who has probably been here all his life. John likes him and spends the next hour in his shop… talking, haggling to get a good deal and working out how we will get this back to Seattle when we only have carryon luggage. Seth and I retreat from the deal making (which I hate) and look at scarves.  How many scarves can one woman have?

After Turkish coffee and a lunch in the market, we head for the spice market. I stop to take a picture of the exotic looking spices and herbs including the saffron, herbal teas and “Sultan’s paste” more recently dubbed Turkish Viagra ~ although we saw it named natural Viagra. I guess this is what you need when you have a harem.

  I stopped to take a picture of a stall of lentils, dried vegetables and fruits (apricots and figs), pistachios and hazelnuts and of course Turkish delight. The merchant joked about charging me for taking a picture. 

Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent 

Inside Mosque of  Suleyman

Next we head for the Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent that in my mind outdoes the Blue Mosque. It is on a hilltop overlooking the city and is beautifully renovated. In contrast to the busyness of the blue tiles in the Blue Mosque, the interior of this mosque is simple, elegant, uncluttered and sedate with tasteful stain glassed windows. The architect is “Sinan the Great” and said to be on a par with Leonardo da Vinci. He successfully created a relaxing place where the pillars that support the arches and dome are barely noticeable. He died working at age 99 and has built over 450 monuments and 20 royal mosques, the Mosque of Suleyman being his masterpiece. I was especially intrigued by Suleyman the Magnificant, the 10^th sultan of the Ottoman empire (1520-56) not only because he codified Ottoman law recognizing different regions needed different laws but because he fell in love with one of his concubines, Roxelana. She was bought at a slave market and was not the most beautiful but did manage to get Suleyman to marry her (first for a slave) and they had five children. She was the first of several Ottoman women who ruled the Ottoman Empire and Suleyman relied on her for advice. Although she seems to have orchestrated dozens of murders to secure her surviving son’s crown, she also spent her personal fortune creating charitable foundations.  

University of Koc 

Nazli gives us a tour of University of Koc

We walk back across the bridge to the Tunel and John showers to get ready to meet Nazli for a tour of the University of Koc. For this we take the metro to the end of the line and she picks us up there. This beautiful 13-year-old university for 6000 students is set on a hill overlooking the Black Sea and said to have the best psychology department. It even has recently opened a medical school. Nazli lives in university housing nearby and we stop by her house to see where she lives which also has beautiful views. Afterwards she takes us to a local restaurant where we sit outside on the deck overlooking a magnificent view of Istanbul with a full moon overhead. John pumps her for ideas of where to go in Turkey next with Seth and I ask her about finishing up the data set we originally started on. It is a lovely relaxing meal in a neighborhood area not inundated with tourists. 

John and Carolyn at University of Koc 

We get the last metro back to our apartment … and I note that the University of Koc is not in our tour book and the book says the underground metro is generally not useful for tourists. It takes 6 escalators to get down to this metro and it is incredibly clean and sedate. It is a fun and relaxing trip in itself. We are back home after midnight… where Seth and John talk about where they will go after leaving Istanbul.