It was weird to end the voyage and this entire experience in a new port. I was so focused on saying goodbye, packing up my stuff and thinking about home when all of a sudden it hit me…”Wait, we have one more place to explore!” My mom and I spent three days in Amsterdam before heading home. We walked all over the place – visiting churches, souvenir shopping, eating and just soaking in all the sites. It was so nice to stay in a nice hotel in a nice part of the city. It felt so luxurious.
Amsterdam is a beautiful little city. Canals and bridges everywhere. Quaint row houses, cafes and cobblestone streets at every turn. Interesting feel and character to the city - a mix of old, elegant Europe and the free, open attitude of sex, drugs and everything goes. I found it quite hilarious when we went to visit the Old Church that is located in the Red Light district. Here is this grand old church surrounded by sex shops, marijuana shops and prostitutes hanging out in windows offering their wares. Quite a contrast.
I think my mom enjoyed her first experience abroad. I’m glad that I could be there to show her around and explore a new country with her. The only down side was how expensive it was. Amsterdam is EXPENSIVE! It was, by far, the most expensive port we visited in eight months. It even beat Barcelona which was pretty darn expensive. $5 for a small bottle of Coke, $35-55 cab rides, $16 for two days of tram rides, $35-50 a piece for every meal. It killed me how expensive it was at every turn – and they got you at every turn. We paid $20 to visit the Keukenhoff Flower Gardens (they were beautiful) and then they charged 40 cents to use the bathroom and $4.50 for a map! Ridiculous.
All in all though it was a nice place to end the voyage. It was fun to run into students all over the city but kind of sad too because we knew we couldn’t say, “see you back at the ship”. Hmmm…still feels weird that it is over.
More on my return home to come...
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The Last Legs
Our leg from Istanbul to Lisbon was a time for wrap up and closing of all things work related for me. I sorted and burned files to disks, passed final documents onto my boss, and sat in meetings to offer my advice and suggestions for future voyages. It felt very weird to not be super busy or have a next port to prepare for or worry about. The shipboard community was in full swing with final activities as well. We had our Masquerade Ball, an original musical was performed, final exams finished and grades were submitted.
Our day in Lisbon was quite nice. For those of us who had sailed both voyages it felt like the circle was complete – coming back to our first port of call from September. I think I’ll actually remember more from our one day in Lisbon than I do of our entire seven day stop there in September. I found that what was more important than seeing the city on that day was spending time with friends from the ship. Many of us spent time reminiscing and bringing up all kinds of memories from not just Portugal but all of our ports. In the afternoon the alumni association hosted a happy hour at an Irish pub just down the street from the ship and boy did everyone take advantage of that! There were more than a few folks who stumbled back to the ship just before On ship time.
The last three days to Amsterdam literally flew by. They flew by so quickly that I can’t even remember everything that happened. Grade appeals, Intercultural Show, Graduation, Closing ceremonies and, of course, packing, packing, packing. Not only did we have to pack up our personal belongings and get ready to debark, but we also had to pack up the entire ship. TSS leases the ship so everything had to be broken down and packed up…classrooms, library, computers, copiers, offices, gym equipment, etc. We had to pack up everything related to TSS – no small task.
But we did it and we packed our own stuff as well. And all of a sudden we were in Amsterdam. The day we arrived and all said goodbye was beyond bittersweet and one of the most exhausting days I can remember. I was exhausted from staying up late the night before but I think it was the emotion of the day that drained me the most. How do you say goodbye to people that you have lived and worked with in such an intense environment for almost a year? I just couldn’t quite wrap my brain around the fact that I won’t see any of these folks on a daily basis anymore. We won’t eat meals together, travel together, support each other through the frustrations and tough spots, laugh and celebrate with each other, or just hangout together in this same way ever again. I will hopefully stay in touch with many of them but we will never live in such a close, tight-knit community all together again. Whoa – it makes me tear up to even write this. I’m working on another blog posting to share the uniqueness of the shipboard community and what it has meant to me…so stay tuned for that one.
The day we arrived in Amsterdam was particularly tricky for me because not only was I trying to say goodbye and manage the emotions of leaving but my mom came to the ship to meet me so I also had to manage the hellos and the thoughts of home and the future that came along with seeing her. It really was like two worlds colliding – how do I wrap up things in this world while at the same time taking my first step into whatever world is next? It wasn’t easy. I was very glad that my mom came to see the ship, meet some of my friends and spend time in Amsterdam it just felt weird to be making introductions and then turning right back around to say goodbyes.
This posting feels like it is pretty disjointed and all over the place but I think that might be appropriate because that is exactly how my last days on the ship felt. One moment I was excited about coming home and thinking about what is in store for me next and the very next minute I was sad about leaving my friends and this crazy, intense, unique world on the ship that I called home these last 8 months. I wanted it to end….I didn’t want it to end. We couldn’t get to Amsterdam fast enough….I didn’t want our time on the ship to ever end. I was glad to see my mom and get my stuff off the ship….I wanted her to not be there so I could spend every last minute with friends from the ship and not thinking about wheeling my last bag out of my cabin for the last time.
This entire eight months has been a roller coaster and, in true form, it came through with some extra intense twists and turns right up until the end. I’m sorry I’ve been behind in getting this posted. I have a few more posts that I want to write to catch you up on all the flurry of Amsterdam and coming home – so, again, stay tuned and I’ll try and write and post them in the next couple of days.
Our day in Lisbon was quite nice. For those of us who had sailed both voyages it felt like the circle was complete – coming back to our first port of call from September. I think I’ll actually remember more from our one day in Lisbon than I do of our entire seven day stop there in September. I found that what was more important than seeing the city on that day was spending time with friends from the ship. Many of us spent time reminiscing and bringing up all kinds of memories from not just Portugal but all of our ports. In the afternoon the alumni association hosted a happy hour at an Irish pub just down the street from the ship and boy did everyone take advantage of that! There were more than a few folks who stumbled back to the ship just before On ship time.
The last three days to Amsterdam literally flew by. They flew by so quickly that I can’t even remember everything that happened. Grade appeals, Intercultural Show, Graduation, Closing ceremonies and, of course, packing, packing, packing. Not only did we have to pack up our personal belongings and get ready to debark, but we also had to pack up the entire ship. TSS leases the ship so everything had to be broken down and packed up…classrooms, library, computers, copiers, offices, gym equipment, etc. We had to pack up everything related to TSS – no small task.
But we did it and we packed our own stuff as well. And all of a sudden we were in Amsterdam. The day we arrived and all said goodbye was beyond bittersweet and one of the most exhausting days I can remember. I was exhausted from staying up late the night before but I think it was the emotion of the day that drained me the most. How do you say goodbye to people that you have lived and worked with in such an intense environment for almost a year? I just couldn’t quite wrap my brain around the fact that I won’t see any of these folks on a daily basis anymore. We won’t eat meals together, travel together, support each other through the frustrations and tough spots, laugh and celebrate with each other, or just hangout together in this same way ever again. I will hopefully stay in touch with many of them but we will never live in such a close, tight-knit community all together again. Whoa – it makes me tear up to even write this. I’m working on another blog posting to share the uniqueness of the shipboard community and what it has meant to me…so stay tuned for that one.
The day we arrived in Amsterdam was particularly tricky for me because not only was I trying to say goodbye and manage the emotions of leaving but my mom came to the ship to meet me so I also had to manage the hellos and the thoughts of home and the future that came along with seeing her. It really was like two worlds colliding – how do I wrap up things in this world while at the same time taking my first step into whatever world is next? It wasn’t easy. I was very glad that my mom came to see the ship, meet some of my friends and spend time in Amsterdam it just felt weird to be making introductions and then turning right back around to say goodbyes.
This posting feels like it is pretty disjointed and all over the place but I think that might be appropriate because that is exactly how my last days on the ship felt. One moment I was excited about coming home and thinking about what is in store for me next and the very next minute I was sad about leaving my friends and this crazy, intense, unique world on the ship that I called home these last 8 months. I wanted it to end….I didn’t want it to end. We couldn’t get to Amsterdam fast enough….I didn’t want our time on the ship to ever end. I was glad to see my mom and get my stuff off the ship….I wanted her to not be there so I could spend every last minute with friends from the ship and not thinking about wheeling my last bag out of my cabin for the last time.
This entire eight months has been a roller coaster and, in true form, it came through with some extra intense twists and turns right up until the end. I’m sorry I’ve been behind in getting this posted. I have a few more posts that I want to write to catch you up on all the flurry of Amsterdam and coming home – so, again, stay tuned and I’ll try and write and post them in the next couple of days.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Life in Port
So I promised long ago that I would write about what life is like in port and even though we are essentially done with our time in port (only one day in Lisbon left and that’s it) I want to hold true to my promise.
Living and traveling on a ship makes our time in each country very different than it would be if we traveled there by other means. Two things make that the case: 1) we are traveling the world with over 200 potential travel companions and 2) none of us have cell phones.
Normally when I travel to a country I do lots of research about what I want to do, where I want to go and how to do everything while I’m there. And of course I always know who I am traveling with. All that goes out the window on the ship. Often times I’m too busy to do any serious research about where we are going or what there is to do there. And, because I usually can’t travel too far from the ship I find that NOT making plans that are too concrete actually works to my benefit. Leaving my plans open gives me the opportunity to join up with people at the last minute and usually have better, fuller days than if I had planned it all out.
Let me use Turkey as an example. I arrived in Turkey not knowing anything about Istanbul or what there was to do there. The most I did was browse through the Lonely Planet on the first day and jot down things I might like to do. The last few days before we arrive in a port are inevitably spent chatting about people’s plans and what they would like to do – it gives you the chance to scope out who might have similar interests and who is staying close to the ship and who plans to travel. Often times I will tentatively plan to do certain things with certain people but we always know that it is subject to change at any time if other plans come up. In Turkey I didn’t even make any tentative plans with anyone. I arrived totally blind with absolutely nothing planned. No problem there.
Each day I woke up with a couple ideas of what I might like to do – I thought if I found someone to do them with great – if I didn’t find anyone that’s fine too. Turns out that I didn’t follow up on most of my plans because better opportunities came up. At breakfast people will chat about what they are doing or what they might like to do and simply just invite each other to come along or decide together on a whim what to do together. On day 2 in Turkey just after I finished the AFP departures there were four staff members meeting on the gangway and they invited me to go along for the ferry trip down the Bosphorous – bingo – had something to do with my day. That trip then progressed into a trip to the Turkish bath, a great dinner and some time watching the Turkish team play soccer on TV…couldn’t have planned a better day. Another day I was feeling a bit tired so I laid down after breakfast and a friend knocked on my door to return something – we chatted about plans for the day and the next thing I know we are off for a day of shopping and exploring the old city. Some of the best and most memorable days in port have been days when I had no plans to begin with and I just “went with the flow” allowing things to evolve spontaneously and organically.
This method of “planning” not only allows me to squeeze in most of things I want to do in a port but it also allows me to spend time with lots of different people. One day with this person, another day with that person – we never get sick of each other or feel tied to traveling with just one or two people. This not only happens with whole days but in small pieces throughout the day sometimes as well. There might be three of us visiting one site and we run into a few others at that site – chat about the rest of our day commences and the next thing you know two folks from our group join up with their group and a couple of them join our group because we all want to do different things with our afternoon. Voila! Everyone gets to do what they want. The freedom and flexibility are great.
Some of this spontaneity comes from having so many potential people to travel with every single day but also because of our lack of cell phones. You chat with someone and realize you want to do what they are doing – you just have to go. There is no catching up or connecting later. Run into people in port and want to do the same thing with your afternoon? Join up now. Know that you are not going to be able to get of the ship until noon because of work and you run into one other person who won’t be heading off the ship until later? Join forces now and set a time to meet up and see how your day might develop.
Traveling on a ship, to me, is a very unique way to explore a country. I’ve never operated from such an extreme “go with the flow” attitude and had it work out so well so often. It’s been a good lesson to me to remember that planning, planning, planning doesn’t always create the best adventures or experiences. When this is over I’m going to miss being able to travel with so many different people throughout a single week and I’m going to miss the spontaneity of letting things unfold so organically.
Living and traveling on a ship makes our time in each country very different than it would be if we traveled there by other means. Two things make that the case: 1) we are traveling the world with over 200 potential travel companions and 2) none of us have cell phones.
Normally when I travel to a country I do lots of research about what I want to do, where I want to go and how to do everything while I’m there. And of course I always know who I am traveling with. All that goes out the window on the ship. Often times I’m too busy to do any serious research about where we are going or what there is to do there. And, because I usually can’t travel too far from the ship I find that NOT making plans that are too concrete actually works to my benefit. Leaving my plans open gives me the opportunity to join up with people at the last minute and usually have better, fuller days than if I had planned it all out.
Let me use Turkey as an example. I arrived in Turkey not knowing anything about Istanbul or what there was to do there. The most I did was browse through the Lonely Planet on the first day and jot down things I might like to do. The last few days before we arrive in a port are inevitably spent chatting about people’s plans and what they would like to do – it gives you the chance to scope out who might have similar interests and who is staying close to the ship and who plans to travel. Often times I will tentatively plan to do certain things with certain people but we always know that it is subject to change at any time if other plans come up. In Turkey I didn’t even make any tentative plans with anyone. I arrived totally blind with absolutely nothing planned. No problem there.
Each day I woke up with a couple ideas of what I might like to do – I thought if I found someone to do them with great – if I didn’t find anyone that’s fine too. Turns out that I didn’t follow up on most of my plans because better opportunities came up. At breakfast people will chat about what they are doing or what they might like to do and simply just invite each other to come along or decide together on a whim what to do together. On day 2 in Turkey just after I finished the AFP departures there were four staff members meeting on the gangway and they invited me to go along for the ferry trip down the Bosphorous – bingo – had something to do with my day. That trip then progressed into a trip to the Turkish bath, a great dinner and some time watching the Turkish team play soccer on TV…couldn’t have planned a better day. Another day I was feeling a bit tired so I laid down after breakfast and a friend knocked on my door to return something – we chatted about plans for the day and the next thing I know we are off for a day of shopping and exploring the old city. Some of the best and most memorable days in port have been days when I had no plans to begin with and I just “went with the flow” allowing things to evolve spontaneously and organically.
This method of “planning” not only allows me to squeeze in most of things I want to do in a port but it also allows me to spend time with lots of different people. One day with this person, another day with that person – we never get sick of each other or feel tied to traveling with just one or two people. This not only happens with whole days but in small pieces throughout the day sometimes as well. There might be three of us visiting one site and we run into a few others at that site – chat about the rest of our day commences and the next thing you know two folks from our group join up with their group and a couple of them join our group because we all want to do different things with our afternoon. Voila! Everyone gets to do what they want. The freedom and flexibility are great.
Some of this spontaneity comes from having so many potential people to travel with every single day but also because of our lack of cell phones. You chat with someone and realize you want to do what they are doing – you just have to go. There is no catching up or connecting later. Run into people in port and want to do the same thing with your afternoon? Join up now. Know that you are not going to be able to get of the ship until noon because of work and you run into one other person who won’t be heading off the ship until later? Join forces now and set a time to meet up and see how your day might develop.
Traveling on a ship, to me, is a very unique way to explore a country. I’ve never operated from such an extreme “go with the flow” attitude and had it work out so well so often. It’s been a good lesson to me to remember that planning, planning, planning doesn’t always create the best adventures or experiences. When this is over I’m going to miss being able to travel with so many different people throughout a single week and I’m going to miss the spontaneity of letting things unfold so organically.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Turkey
Turkey was such an interesting country and a really fabulous last port on this journey. Turkey really is a total mix of East and West. In many ways it felt very European but in equally as many ways it felt Middle Eastern, Asian and Indian. It was great to end with this port because it does truly feel like we have come full circle. We began this journey in Europe back in August and since then have circumnavigated the globe -- those of us on both voyages celebrated this landmark when we passed Athens a couple days before our arrival in Istanbul. During our voyages we spent a large chunk of our time (almost 3 months to be exact) in Asia. We are now back to Europe and Turkey felt like a great way to tie the two parts of the world together.
I really enjoyed Turkey. Unfortunately I didn’t get to travel too far outside Istanbul (alas work did not permit) but the city had plenty to keep me busy throughout the week. Turkey was the first Islamic country that I had been too so I loved visiting the mosques and hearing the call to prayer every couple of hours. I hit all the big sites: The Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya, the Hippodrome, the Basilica Cistern, Topkapi Palace, Dolmabahce Palace, the Spice Bazaar, the Grand Bazaar, a ferry trip to a small fishing village on the Black Sea, ferry trip to the Asian side of Istanbul, etc.
It’s interesting because Islam is a religion that shares a lot of the same beliefs as Christianity and Judaism and Istanbul is a city where all of those religions have crossed each other’s paths again and again throughout their histories. Take the Aya Sofya for example – it was originally built as a church. People in Turkey claim that it was the first really grand, large church in the world. Many of the Apostles came through that church while spreading the word of Jesus. It was a church for 900 years then it was turned into a mosque for the next 500 years (humbles me to think about how short US history is). When it was converted to a mosque they covered up all the walls with plaster (because the Islamic faith does not allow depictions of people to be used as decoration). Since the mid-1900s the Aye Sophia has been a museum and they have been trying all this time to uncover the Christian paintings beneath the plaster. Plaster is a tricky thing though – hard to destroy without destroying everything underneath it. They just recently found a compound that can dissolve the plaster without ruining the paintings beneath. So when I visited you can see all of the Islamic art and tile work (beautiful) and now you can faintly see the beginnings of the Christian artwork being revealed as the plaster is dissolved. Very cool.
I learned a lot about Islam and I also learned a lot about the Ottoman Empire – pretty powerful (and gigantic) in it’s day. Topkapi Palace and Dolmabahce Palace were both palaces built for the Sultans during the Ottoman Empire – Topkapi was built in the 1200’s and Dolmabahce was built in the 1800’s. Topkapi palace was particularly interesting because of it’s age and because of the ancient artifacts housed there. They had traditional outfits worn by the Sultans, swords and military gear, gorgeous thrones, horse-drawn carriages, and jewelry all on display. The jewelry was the most extravagant I had ever seen. Emeralds and rubies the size of golf balls and an 86 carat brilliant diamond – unbelievable.
The most interesting exhibit was what they call the sacred artifacts exhibit. This is what it included: Moses’ staff, David’s sword (as in David and Goliath), a bowl used by Abraham, Joseph’s turban (as in the coat of many colors) and Mohammed’s footprint. The most interesting relic was a gold hand and arm that held the remains of an actual hand in it. There was also a gold piece that covered a piece of skull. Both the skull and the hand are said to be John the Baptist’s. Don’t know if I believe all of them but it was a strong reminder of just how ancient that part of the world is.
Turkey was also our last place to bargain while shopping (thank goodness). Probably about half of the countries we visited were places where you had to play the bargaining game. Thank goodness Turkey was the last and not the first place to bargain because it was tough. The men selling were aggressive and often times not very nice. I was so drained and turned off by their tactics that I didn’t buy much. It was amazing to walk through the Grand Bazaar though. The Grand Bazaar is a GIGANTIC covered market – over 4,000 shops. You just had to wonder aimlessly and forget trying to get to a particular place or out a certain exit. It was an amazing and overwhelming place.
I do believe my highlight of the week was my second day in port. My day started off with a ferry ride down the Bosphorus with four friends from the ship. The ride took about two hours and at the end we arrived at a small fishing village at the mouth of the Black Sea. We climbed up a very large steep hill to be greeted by the remains of an ancient castle and a beautiful view of the Black Sea. We enjoyed the views for awhile and then trekked down to have a yummy seafood lunch. Two hours more on the ferry and we were back in Istanbul. We wandered the streets listening as the 5pm call to prayer began and then we wandered into a bakery where we each bought some Turkish delight and/or baklava to nibble on and some of us got some Turkish tea to sip (everybody drinks Turkish tea here – A LOT).
Two of our group left to catch a train for an overnight trip so the three of us who were left decided that we wanted to go to a Turkish bath. Turkish baths (or hamams) started back in the day when people did not have washing facilities in their homes. Literally people went there to get bathed. They have since evolved and now include other services – massages, facials, etc. but the basics are still the same.
We chose to go to one of the hamams that was recommended in the Lonely Planet. It is super old and beautiful. When you go to a hamam the men and women are separated. We noticed that the men’s side had a lot of local Turkish men but the women’s side had more tourists (I don’t think it’s very common for Turkish women to go to the baths). I’ve heard that on the men’s side the masseurs can be quite rough and they scrub your body with very rough cloths. The women’s side was a bit gentler.
We changed out of our clothes – some women wear bathing suit bottoms in the bath but traditionally you would be naked. Since we did not start our day planning to go to the bath we went the “traditional” way. Probably about 80% of the women in the bath when we were there were naked so it didn’t feel too weird. You get a little cloth wrap and wooden sandals to walk into the bath but once you get inside you drop the wrap. They give you the wooden shoes so that you don’t slip on the marble. It was quite a funny site watching us shuffle around the room with nothing on but these clunky wooden flip flops. Because they were huge sandals that didn’t stay on your feet we simply had to shuffle, shuffle, shuffle everywhere we went. The bath is a gigantic marble room with a beautiful dome ceiling that has tiny windows in it. The entire room is marble – the ceilings, floors, walls, sinks, etc.
First you just find a place to sit on the step that circles the room. It is hot in the room – not quite as hot as a steam bath but close – very warm and humid. You just sit, breathe and relax. There are marble sinks built into the walls with small bowls that you can use to cool yourself off. After awhile a Turkish lady (usually quite a large woman) will come over, take your hand and lead you to the center of the room. There is a large octagon shaped raised piece of marble in the center of the room. She has you lie down on your back and stretch your arms above your head (no modesty here folks!). She then proceeds to scrub your body with an exfoliating cloth (not too rough like on the men’s side). She then has you go rinse off with buckets of water from the sink and then return to your spot on the marble slab. Next she massages your body with olive oil soap…it was a nice massage – not the best I ever had but relaxing. Then she takes you over to one of the sinks and dumps lots of water on you to get the soap off. She also washes your hair – I totally felt like I was three years old getting a bath in the tub. When the bathing is done you can stay in the hamam for as long as you like.
Being in the hamam really did feel like stepping back in time – sitting on the ancient marble, peering up at the tiny windows in the dome ceiling. I left the bath feeling totally relaxed but energized – my skin felt great too! After the hamam we found a place to have a nice dinner with traditional Turkish food – we even tried a very popular after dinner drink – Raki which is a very strong black licorice liquor.
On our way home we stopped into a Nargilem – there was a whole strip of them just outside the ship. A nargileh is a water pipe (hookah) – EVERYONE in Turkey smokes them. I don’t care for them but the tobacco they smoke is much more pleasant to smell then cigarette smoke. The nargilems just off the ship were relaxing and cozy – bean bag chairs everywhere – inside and out. At a nargilem all you do is smoke hookah and drink tea….lots of tea. Turkish tea is served in tiny glasses with sugar cubes. They are also big on flavored teas – really they aren’t teas but rather hot, fruity drinks. Apple tea is the most popular.
We stopped at the nargilem on the way home because there was a very big soccer game on TV. One of the Turkish teams was playing Chelsea – a British team. There was lots of excitement and yelling so we had to stop in to watch the last bit of the game. It was exciting – Turkey won 1-2 and the last goal they scored was the most amazing shot I have ever seen. There was lots of yelling, jumping, kissing and hugging when they won. What a great way to spend a day in Istanbul!
Some of the things that stood out to me while in Istanbul:
-The service in restaurants is amazing – they are super attentive and don’t mind if you sit and linger long after your meal is done.
-The fruits and vegetables were the freshest and most colorful I have ever seen. I ate salad every chance I got. Even the street vendors had super fresh vibrantly colored lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes. I also loved that every other shop had fresh squeezed orange juice for just 2 YTL (about $1).
-Men did treat women differently – I never felt unsafe (I actually felt safer than many other countries) but I definitely noticed a lot of wandering eyes and lots of comments about our looks – we got odd looks from men especially after dark if we were just a group of women alone.
-Tea – like I said already (twice) – everyone drinks it all day. One night I drank so much tea that I could still taste in my mouth the next day (and, yes, I had brushed my teeth – more than once).
-They sell handguns in every other store on the street. It was weird. I don’t know who is buying them but they are everywhere. In display cases and mounted to the walls in the shops – everywhere. You could buy your cell phone, TV, car radio and hand gun all in the same place.
-Cats – they were everywhere. A lot of dogs too but the cats were overrunning the place. Everywhere you looked there was a stray cat.
-The history of this part of the world is amazing, lengthy, complicated and really does have influences across the world over.
Turkey is a place I’d love to come back to some day and explore more. Since Croatia is on my list of places I’d like to visit coming back to Turkey may just be a possibility. I can’t believe we are done our last seven day port stay. We are crossing the Mediterranean now and we’ll have just one day in Lisbon before we head up to Amsterdam to debark. So essentially the voyage is about over. Doesn’t seem real. I’m not really sad but I’m not really happy either – honestly I don’t know how I am feeling (other than tired). I’ll have to think on this and get back to you.
I really enjoyed Turkey. Unfortunately I didn’t get to travel too far outside Istanbul (alas work did not permit) but the city had plenty to keep me busy throughout the week. Turkey was the first Islamic country that I had been too so I loved visiting the mosques and hearing the call to prayer every couple of hours. I hit all the big sites: The Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya, the Hippodrome, the Basilica Cistern, Topkapi Palace, Dolmabahce Palace, the Spice Bazaar, the Grand Bazaar, a ferry trip to a small fishing village on the Black Sea, ferry trip to the Asian side of Istanbul, etc.
It’s interesting because Islam is a religion that shares a lot of the same beliefs as Christianity and Judaism and Istanbul is a city where all of those religions have crossed each other’s paths again and again throughout their histories. Take the Aya Sofya for example – it was originally built as a church. People in Turkey claim that it was the first really grand, large church in the world. Many of the Apostles came through that church while spreading the word of Jesus. It was a church for 900 years then it was turned into a mosque for the next 500 years (humbles me to think about how short US history is). When it was converted to a mosque they covered up all the walls with plaster (because the Islamic faith does not allow depictions of people to be used as decoration). Since the mid-1900s the Aye Sophia has been a museum and they have been trying all this time to uncover the Christian paintings beneath the plaster. Plaster is a tricky thing though – hard to destroy without destroying everything underneath it. They just recently found a compound that can dissolve the plaster without ruining the paintings beneath. So when I visited you can see all of the Islamic art and tile work (beautiful) and now you can faintly see the beginnings of the Christian artwork being revealed as the plaster is dissolved. Very cool.
I learned a lot about Islam and I also learned a lot about the Ottoman Empire – pretty powerful (and gigantic) in it’s day. Topkapi Palace and Dolmabahce Palace were both palaces built for the Sultans during the Ottoman Empire – Topkapi was built in the 1200’s and Dolmabahce was built in the 1800’s. Topkapi palace was particularly interesting because of it’s age and because of the ancient artifacts housed there. They had traditional outfits worn by the Sultans, swords and military gear, gorgeous thrones, horse-drawn carriages, and jewelry all on display. The jewelry was the most extravagant I had ever seen. Emeralds and rubies the size of golf balls and an 86 carat brilliant diamond – unbelievable.
The most interesting exhibit was what they call the sacred artifacts exhibit. This is what it included: Moses’ staff, David’s sword (as in David and Goliath), a bowl used by Abraham, Joseph’s turban (as in the coat of many colors) and Mohammed’s footprint. The most interesting relic was a gold hand and arm that held the remains of an actual hand in it. There was also a gold piece that covered a piece of skull. Both the skull and the hand are said to be John the Baptist’s. Don’t know if I believe all of them but it was a strong reminder of just how ancient that part of the world is.
Turkey was also our last place to bargain while shopping (thank goodness). Probably about half of the countries we visited were places where you had to play the bargaining game. Thank goodness Turkey was the last and not the first place to bargain because it was tough. The men selling were aggressive and often times not very nice. I was so drained and turned off by their tactics that I didn’t buy much. It was amazing to walk through the Grand Bazaar though. The Grand Bazaar is a GIGANTIC covered market – over 4,000 shops. You just had to wonder aimlessly and forget trying to get to a particular place or out a certain exit. It was an amazing and overwhelming place.
I do believe my highlight of the week was my second day in port. My day started off with a ferry ride down the Bosphorus with four friends from the ship. The ride took about two hours and at the end we arrived at a small fishing village at the mouth of the Black Sea. We climbed up a very large steep hill to be greeted by the remains of an ancient castle and a beautiful view of the Black Sea. We enjoyed the views for awhile and then trekked down to have a yummy seafood lunch. Two hours more on the ferry and we were back in Istanbul. We wandered the streets listening as the 5pm call to prayer began and then we wandered into a bakery where we each bought some Turkish delight and/or baklava to nibble on and some of us got some Turkish tea to sip (everybody drinks Turkish tea here – A LOT).
Two of our group left to catch a train for an overnight trip so the three of us who were left decided that we wanted to go to a Turkish bath. Turkish baths (or hamams) started back in the day when people did not have washing facilities in their homes. Literally people went there to get bathed. They have since evolved and now include other services – massages, facials, etc. but the basics are still the same.
We chose to go to one of the hamams that was recommended in the Lonely Planet. It is super old and beautiful. When you go to a hamam the men and women are separated. We noticed that the men’s side had a lot of local Turkish men but the women’s side had more tourists (I don’t think it’s very common for Turkish women to go to the baths). I’ve heard that on the men’s side the masseurs can be quite rough and they scrub your body with very rough cloths. The women’s side was a bit gentler.
We changed out of our clothes – some women wear bathing suit bottoms in the bath but traditionally you would be naked. Since we did not start our day planning to go to the bath we went the “traditional” way. Probably about 80% of the women in the bath when we were there were naked so it didn’t feel too weird. You get a little cloth wrap and wooden sandals to walk into the bath but once you get inside you drop the wrap. They give you the wooden shoes so that you don’t slip on the marble. It was quite a funny site watching us shuffle around the room with nothing on but these clunky wooden flip flops. Because they were huge sandals that didn’t stay on your feet we simply had to shuffle, shuffle, shuffle everywhere we went. The bath is a gigantic marble room with a beautiful dome ceiling that has tiny windows in it. The entire room is marble – the ceilings, floors, walls, sinks, etc.
First you just find a place to sit on the step that circles the room. It is hot in the room – not quite as hot as a steam bath but close – very warm and humid. You just sit, breathe and relax. There are marble sinks built into the walls with small bowls that you can use to cool yourself off. After awhile a Turkish lady (usually quite a large woman) will come over, take your hand and lead you to the center of the room. There is a large octagon shaped raised piece of marble in the center of the room. She has you lie down on your back and stretch your arms above your head (no modesty here folks!). She then proceeds to scrub your body with an exfoliating cloth (not too rough like on the men’s side). She then has you go rinse off with buckets of water from the sink and then return to your spot on the marble slab. Next she massages your body with olive oil soap…it was a nice massage – not the best I ever had but relaxing. Then she takes you over to one of the sinks and dumps lots of water on you to get the soap off. She also washes your hair – I totally felt like I was three years old getting a bath in the tub. When the bathing is done you can stay in the hamam for as long as you like.
Being in the hamam really did feel like stepping back in time – sitting on the ancient marble, peering up at the tiny windows in the dome ceiling. I left the bath feeling totally relaxed but energized – my skin felt great too! After the hamam we found a place to have a nice dinner with traditional Turkish food – we even tried a very popular after dinner drink – Raki which is a very strong black licorice liquor.
On our way home we stopped into a Nargilem – there was a whole strip of them just outside the ship. A nargileh is a water pipe (hookah) – EVERYONE in Turkey smokes them. I don’t care for them but the tobacco they smoke is much more pleasant to smell then cigarette smoke. The nargilems just off the ship were relaxing and cozy – bean bag chairs everywhere – inside and out. At a nargilem all you do is smoke hookah and drink tea….lots of tea. Turkish tea is served in tiny glasses with sugar cubes. They are also big on flavored teas – really they aren’t teas but rather hot, fruity drinks. Apple tea is the most popular.
We stopped at the nargilem on the way home because there was a very big soccer game on TV. One of the Turkish teams was playing Chelsea – a British team. There was lots of excitement and yelling so we had to stop in to watch the last bit of the game. It was exciting – Turkey won 1-2 and the last goal they scored was the most amazing shot I have ever seen. There was lots of yelling, jumping, kissing and hugging when they won. What a great way to spend a day in Istanbul!
Some of the things that stood out to me while in Istanbul:
-The service in restaurants is amazing – they are super attentive and don’t mind if you sit and linger long after your meal is done.
-The fruits and vegetables were the freshest and most colorful I have ever seen. I ate salad every chance I got. Even the street vendors had super fresh vibrantly colored lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes. I also loved that every other shop had fresh squeezed orange juice for just 2 YTL (about $1).
-Men did treat women differently – I never felt unsafe (I actually felt safer than many other countries) but I definitely noticed a lot of wandering eyes and lots of comments about our looks – we got odd looks from men especially after dark if we were just a group of women alone.
-Tea – like I said already (twice) – everyone drinks it all day. One night I drank so much tea that I could still taste in my mouth the next day (and, yes, I had brushed my teeth – more than once).
-They sell handguns in every other store on the street. It was weird. I don’t know who is buying them but they are everywhere. In display cases and mounted to the walls in the shops – everywhere. You could buy your cell phone, TV, car radio and hand gun all in the same place.
-Cats – they were everywhere. A lot of dogs too but the cats were overrunning the place. Everywhere you looked there was a stray cat.
-The history of this part of the world is amazing, lengthy, complicated and really does have influences across the world over.
Turkey is a place I’d love to come back to some day and explore more. Since Croatia is on my list of places I’d like to visit coming back to Turkey may just be a possibility. I can’t believe we are done our last seven day port stay. We are crossing the Mediterranean now and we’ll have just one day in Lisbon before we head up to Amsterdam to debark. So essentially the voyage is about over. Doesn’t seem real. I’m not really sad but I’m not really happy either – honestly I don’t know how I am feeling (other than tired). I’ll have to think on this and get back to you.
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