Turkiye Sandwich

(this is me at the Besiktas game)

Istanbul is the most amazing city I have ever been to. It visibly displays the characteristics of 2 continents, while maintaining a strong Islamic core. Its Paris, and London… and Cairo in one: its boulevards are lined with pastry shops and cafes and glorious mosques. It is the melting pot where the East met the West, where Christianity fought Islam… where Islam fought back. It has hands down been my favorite country thus far. Here is my scoop.

Day 1:

We got off the ship and immediately got in a cab. (This was the first time I realized that Turkey was freaking expensive. For a ride about 10 kilometers or so to a bus station, it cost around 20 US Dollars. Thus, I quickly learned the tram system). After buying some bus tickets, I went out to explore with the guys. The first place we went to was Taksim square. This is like the 5^th avenue of Istanbul. Trendy shops, and pizza joints, and book stores line the well walked streets and pigeons gather in full force to pester everyone around. We grabbed some food (at this café that did not have electricity during the day, so all of its food was cold, and the seating area was almost too dark to see… this was in a place that had an extremely high real estate value) and had to resort to taking another taxi. We asked the guy to go to Topkapi (lonely planet said this was the most famous palace in Istanbul, however asking for Topkapi is like asking for Herman in Houston, there were like 30 different places where he could take us) and he dropped us off in the middle of a walled village that was elevated above the city, we had some Nescafe (Turkey is famous for Coffee and we drink Nescafe... however I did have some Turkish coffee, and the stuff is chewable… literally chewable(the last third of the cup is pure grounds)) and wandered around and found our way to the palace. The place was terrific and beautiful and overlooked the Bosporus strait (where we could see Asia and Europe at once). The palace had a room of Jewels that housed an 86 carat diamond, and some beautiful tiling and so forth. Touristy stuff right… we then hit two of the most famous buildings in the world. Aya Sofia, is an old church that is massive, and beautiful. Inside there is a sports stadium style ramp that leads to the upper chamber where the huge inside area can be admired. Its difficult to describe, so… it was big, and beautiful. This old church was converted into a mosque, so even though there are crosses everywhere along the grounds, the top spire has a crescent on it. Across the hippodrome is the Blue Mosque; a building that was built only to rival the Hagia Sofia in size and beauty. It is one of the most famous buildings in the world for a very good reason. These two buildings, along with the basilica cistern, and the hippodrome make up the most concentrated area of awesome things I have ever been to. 1000 things to see before you die includes all of these on their list… and they are on the same stinking street, within minutes of each other. Anyway, we got some food back on the ship… packed up… went to a whirling dervish ceremony in a train station (on platform one)(really the ceremony is guys spinning for an hour, its pretty boring, but impressive nonetheless), and got on the overnight train to Efes (Ephesus).

Day Two:

After a night of no sleep, we got off the train early in the morning and visited the quaint little town of Selcuk. After tea and cheese pastry for breakfast we walked the 4 kilometers to the Roman ruins at Ephesus. On the way we visited the temple of Artemis (this is weird because it is an ancient wonder of the world), which today is a pile of rocks in the middle of a field. There were no merchants, or hecklers, or cars… no signs of tourism really… just rocks in a field (they reconstructed a single column that stands tall, but is obviously artificial). We proceeded down a few roads, up a few hills and to the gates of the town of Ephesus. Ephesus is a gold mine in terms of quantity and quality, there are pillars, a 20,000 person amphitheater, roads, rooms and everything in between dating back thousands of years. I will spare you the details, I would like to ell you why this place was special to me though.

- The apostle Paul was a tent maker early in his life in the town of Ephesus, and wrote a letter in the Bible to the town called the Letter to the Ephesians. The letter is about unity, and spiritual strength, and one that I deem extremely applicable to my life in the stage I am in right now. In the amphitheater we (Tim, Brandon, Ryan, Matt, and myself) read the letter out loud on the platform. This was special because this was certainly the first place the letter was read, to the people of Ephesus gathered in the seats where Japanese tourists sat now… I am not one to read the bible aloud on the streets, but the scene had a feel of necessity… a need to read and absorb the letter in the same fashion that it was originally read… and absorbed. It was a big moment for me.

- After doing the whole ruins thing we hiked up and over a mountain near the site. We hiked near Shepard’s with their sheep, and mushroom farmers gathering on the top… past ancient city walls, and caves and corroded clay pots that littered the ground in tiny pieces. We explored and climbed and came out at the grotto of the seven sleepers (which is dug out of a rock face and is a pretty amazing cultural site). We hiked through a date farm (and ate raw dates (not recommended at all)) and an Orange orchard… and a cemetery… and somehow made our way back to Selcuk.

After these things we went out to an aqueduct, climbed on it for a while (we just got off the freeway, hiked through some forest… and climbed up onto this ancient bridge like structure) and headed back to town for a meal. Eating as a vegetarian was weird in Turkey. The national dishes are Kebobs and this thing called Doner (which is a slab of meat that they cut slices off of and make sandwiches out of), so I resorted to tons of Cheese, bread… and weird vegetable concoctions (stews and so forth). I then boarded another overnight bus to Cappadocia. (before going any further, google image search this place to get the full effect).

Day 3:

Overnight busses are strange. I mean, they are packed… and take 30 minute breaks every 2 hours or so. They stop at these HUGE gas stations that have restaurants, and candy shops, and clothing stores attached. They wash the exterior with soap and water every 2 hours… and have a guy on board that serves no purpose other than to wake you up, and to occasionally fix the carpets at your feet.

We get off the bus at about 4 in the morning… and walk into a freaking blizzard (we didn’t go snowing because we were told it was too early in the season for snow… great call that was). The temperature was in the negatives (Celsius), and the wind was howling… it was dang cold. 4 days before this I was sweating my ass off in the deserts of Egypt… now I was participating in the first snow that Asia received all year.

Cappadocia is famous for cave dwellings, and the town of Goreme is full of Cave Pensions that house people in rooms that are built into caves. We slept in the lobby of a Pension (hostel built into a cave) for a few hours, used its facilities and bounced after the guy gave us some hot tea. We walked down to the bus station and rented a minibus for the day. After meeting up with a few more SAS kids, and munching on some French bread and goat cheese, we drove out to an underground city. This thing was ridiculous, it stretches for probably 2-3 acres and plummets 58 meters below the ground. In its day it has churches, and a winery and housed hundreds of people. Cappadocia is home to early church Christians that hid out in these dwellings because they were persecuted for their faith. The underground city was of course converted into a playground where we could scare each other, and rock climb, and goof around like the adults that we are.

After this, we drove past snow capped mountains to the Iharla valley. We hiked about 4 kilometers through the valley that is enclosed by cliffs (with dwellings built into the sides) on both sides. The cliffs are probably about 100 feet high and the valley winds with the river. Along this stretch there were about 15 churches that had been carved into the rock. The churches contained ancient frescoes and paintings that were lit only by small holes in the rock walls. Most of the dwelling were filled with trash from the local peoples habitation of them. In fact, some of them are permanently inhabited. Anyway, we skipped out here… went to a park where there were Fairy Chimneys (just google it)… watched the sunset over Pigeon Valley where the dunes and mountain ridges are interlaced with hollow spires that stretch into the sky, and went back to Goreme.

Since we were about to go on our third overnight bus in a row. We decided to treat ourselves to a Turkish bath. The bathing experience is awkward, but rewarding. First you sauna, then you steam, then you lay on a hot stone for about an hour… then this fat, hairy, middle aged, mean looking Arabic man grabs you… lays you down on a table, scrubs you, lathers you, cracks all the bones in your body, massages you… and rinses you off. Then he sends you to another room to recover and drink. The dead skin that man willed off my body was amazing, his facial expression of determination was one that I will not forget for a very long time. After dinner, it was back on the bus… and 13 hours later, we were back in Istanbul.

Day 4:

After breakfast on the ship, I went into Sultanehmet to the Grand bazaar. Wandering the covered area I was extremely disappointed by the lack of grand things. I mean, it was all manufactured, and expensive, and the same from store to store. I wish I could travel back a few hundred years to see this place in its glory, where people sold according to their family’s trade, where shopkeepers didn’t have iphones… nonetheless, the massive area and beautiful architecture of the place provided all of the flashbacks that I needed. I then hit the spice market, which was more authentic, and just as beautiful. I have been to a market in every country, and they are all pretty much the same, so I feel like I have been jaded. I mean, this would have been the most amazing place in the world for me… say, 3 months ago… now its just another place. Travel is good because of experience, but its difficult to soak in new experience because I cant help but to compare it to other things. Beauty by nature has to be more than a comparison because we assign to it a greater degree of truth than just simply preference. Beauty affects us, and when beauty is confused with comparison… it is diminished. I hope I am getting past the comparisons and actually soaking in these beautiful things I am seeing. Plato said that Beauty is good, true and real. St. Augustine says that the self revealing God is the embodiment of this description. I am discovering daily that this world I am experiencing is a reflection of the good, true, real, and beautiful source that is my creator. That is the value that I miss out on when I get into comparison, and preference… it takes away the greater degree of truth in beauty, the truth that God reveals himself in it, and has given us the amazing ability to comprehend and be affected by it (and him).

After the markets I had lunch on the ship (free food), and went on a Bosporus fairy ride with about 8 of my friends. We spent the afternoon in Asia, had a late afternoon snack at a neat little café, and headed back to Europe in the evening. After getting poured on, I went to Taksim square with my friends Aaron and Mia to get some tattoos. Forgetting that Istanbul I expensive, we did not feel like dropping 150 duckets on some ink, so we had a meal (spinach/cheese, bread, yogurt, green beans) and headed over to a local soccer game.

Walking along the streets, we kind of got lost so we asked this group of guys where the stadium was, and being turks (some of the nicest people in the world) they wanted to be our hosts for the rest of the night. Here are some highlights from the game:

- Only one of the guys spoke English (all three were college students (20 years old) and he translated all of the chants for me. They mostly had to do with familial insults and curse words… so that’s enough about that.

- He asked me if Mia was my girlfriend and I told him no. He told me that it is not OK for me to have a girlfriend in America, and to travel with a girl in Turkey. He told me that Turkish men are very jealous, and then asked me if he could make some moves on her…

- These guys were a lot of fun; instead of standing (sitting was not an option) under the covering, they chose to stand in the sleet as close to the field as possible.

- Besiktas lost the game in the final minutes because of a red card and two late goals… and riot police came out in full force. There were about 10,000 home fans and about 500 away fans at the game. Probably 1000 policemen with shields and helmets and beating sticks lined the corridors of the stadium. With about a minute left in the game, one of my Turkish friends told me that he felt uncomfortable being there because there was going to be a fight after the game. He said it wasn’t safe (as a general rule of thumb, if a fit 20 year old tells you that he is unsafe it is wise to get the hell out of there)

- After the game while leaving we could see people fighting and yelling, and aggressively dealing with the police. It ended like any good soccer match should.

Day 5:

I woke up early and went to church with some friends. We all wore our three piece suits because we wanted to look sharp. We went to mass at the cathedral that served as the seat of the archdiocese of Constantinople. This church is where the pope says mass when he is in town, it was founded probably more than a thousand years ago… it was beautiful, and large and decorated like any brilliant cathedral should be… however it was hidden behind a wall of shops. Christianity in general hides in this country. With a population that is 99% Muslim, and a history of having at one point the largest Christian population in the world, the Christian tradition in this city is massively trumped by the present. The congregation was made up of some guys from Nigeria (really nice guys that invited us back to their house after the mass), some guy who controls Coca Cola in the middle East (that’s what he told us, he also says he flies to Iraq every few weeks), 20 or so Philippino’s (some from the ship), and us. The contemporary nature (in terms of music and style) was less traditional than any catholic church I had ever gone to. It was really neat though. After mass we had grilled cheese and pomegranate juice from a sheek little café, and wandered around town in our three piece suits for the day.

It took us two hours to find the Kyire museum (we walked the city walls (every great city has some sort of wall??)) but the place was an old church that had beautiful mosaics of Jesus’s miracles, and a few Lady Madonna and Baby Jesus ones (where Mary was in tact and Jesus was for some reason destroyed), and carvings of the saints (with their heads shopped off), and possessed thousands of years of art and wear and tear. This beautiful church is interesting because even though it has 50 paintings of Jesus, and the saints, and paul, and peter… and the whole Christian bible gang… IT IS NOT IN FACT A CHURCH. It is a mosque. What the hell right? I did not even realize this until we walked out of it and saw a crescent on top. Every sign points to church (which it was for centuries), except for its current state… every place I went plays the same story.

Anyway, to wrap this all up.

We wandered cobble stone streets for hours, dipping in bakeries, and buying prayer rugs, and doing all the local things… we visited a beautiful mosque (where prayer was going on), went into the basilica cistern, did the whole internet café thing… and unfortunately had to get back on the ship.

Here are my final thoughts.

- Turkey is a place where you could spend 6 months and barely crack the surface.

- There is a higher percentage of Muslims in Turkey than Saudi Arabia (and its pretty much Europe… go figure)

- Our 4^th day there was the 69^th anniversary of Ataturks death (a hero), so there were huge creepy photos of him everywhere… it was kind of cool

- I passed up an opportunity to drink on a Canadian Naval ship all day on our last day there. I might not ever go to another Moose Milk party, but I also may never go to Istanbul… good decision to pass that up

- Home is getting closer, and I like that

- People don’t hate Americans… they hate the American attitude (and Bush), open mindedness is respected everywhere

- The coca cola exec told us that he is a republican and will never vote for a democrat, but in the lat 9 years he has seen damage in the middle east that will take us 50 years to undo (this damage he said was created by our current administration)

I am tired, and must plan out my trip in Croatia. I love you all. Write me!! Tal