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.