Friday was a glorious day. I did a lot of interesting work during the workday, and I made an interesting discovery. Online, I discovered that the French Cultural Institute of Istanbul was presenting a play that evening (about 2 hours after work, leaving me just enough time if I took the shuttle to the city center). The play was called Les Nègres(Link is the wikipedia page), and looked quite interesting. Arriving at Taksim Square 15 minutes before the play was set to begin, I briskly walked to the French Consulate, ducked inside and followed the stream of people heading towards the theatre. At first, I was a bit confused because there was no mention of ticket prices on any of the flyers I had seen for the play, so I wasn’t sure if it was ticketed or free. A few quick conversations in French and 10 lira later, I was in the theatre ready for the play to begin. I made one error in this whole situation. The whole cast was on stage, whistling and staring out at the audience as we filled in and moved down the rows. It was not until after the lights had dimmed that I realized the one detail that I had not ascertained prior…. Though it was a French play, it was in Turkish with French subtitles. An hour and a half later, I emerged, my brain fried from attempting to keep up with the rapid (sometimes seriously lagging) French subtitles while watching the bizarre events of the narrative unfold (including two rape scenes, and several members of the aristocracy acting out their own deaths in effigy with pupets dressed like them). To be entirely honest, I’m not sure how much of it I actually understood – I though I understood at least the vast majority of the French; however, with what was happening on stage, I can’t really be sure. {Note to self: find a copy of this play and figure out what it was that I saw….. no, experienced}
Saturday was my lazy day. After a full week of work, I ended up tossing my original plan to get up at 6:00am and go sight seeing out the window and, instead, joined the living sometime around noon. The was not lost however, after taking care of a few things and showering, I realized I had just enough time to poke my head in the Grand Bazaar for a bit before it closed at 7:30. I snagged a 1 lira döner which I devoured on my way to the metro bus – (I have adopted a no eating in the city center where things cost 6 times more policy, it’s serving me well – hopefully so well that I’ll be able to use the savings for a weekend in Serbia or, dare I say it, the UAE).
I was utterly unprepared for what I was going to experience in the Grand Bazaar. I was thinking something along the lines of the massive market I went to in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam where I got my custom fitted suit for $70 US complete with knock offs, cheap touristy knickknacks, cramped little pathways, little food vendors, and a pleasantly rustic and reassuring omnipresent layer of grime. What I found was the upscale king of markets - Full sized cafés, stores with glass windows, rugs, pottery, cleanliness, and a delightful number of vendors all offering so graciously to give me the “friend price.” I flirted with the price of a couple of items, and after about 20 seconds (and prices falling by about 80% to well below what I would spend in the US, and almost to China but not quite Burma worthy prices) I knew that this place and I are going to have some history. I will be going back once my Turkish improves. If China taught nothing else, I know that if you haggle down in the native language, you get the “impressive foreigner” discount, which is, of course, my ultimate goal. The vendors better watch out…. I might just pull a Burma on them and start haggling across currencies and getting bulk discounts. If all else fails, I’ll always revert to my standard “oh, I can just it cheaper in china” comment and walk away, aka my favorite way to get that them to shave off those few extra numbers keeping me away from my dream price.
I then headed over to the Blue mosque and was thoroughly amazed at how beautiful the building was on the inside. The impressiveness of the structure from the outside is absolutely nothing compared to the ornamentations on the inside. It is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful structures I have even been inside of in my life – far outdoing Sacré Coeur, Notre Dame, the National Mosque of Malaysia, and even giving the Taj Mahal a serious run for its money.
Sunday adopted a slightly relaxed version of my original plan for Saturday. I got up at 9:00, picked up some essentials in my area, and was going to grab some lunch at the place that makes the tombik that I am in love with. Sadly, they were only just beginning to open when I walked past around 11:00, so I had lunch somewhere else – I don’t even remember where I was so sad to miss out on my tombik. I’ll go ahead and interject here that all day I looked forward to dinnertime at which point I was going to get my tombik on, maybe even two of them. I was looking forward to it, that is, until I cam back and discovered them closing shop. I almost cried. Instead I had another anticlimactic meal. Don’t worry, I got one on Monday and I inhaled it and all its gloriousness. The owner now knows me and greets me with a “Merhaba!” and a handshake each time I go.
Anyway… Saturday was my day to hit up the other tourist attractions that I had missed thus far. I needed some legitimacy to be added to my experience here. I couldn’t simply keep answering “I’ve walked around stuff and grocery shopped” as my answer to “Have you done anything in Istanbul? Seen any sights?” I headed off for the Hagia Sophia which is also now hanging out with the Blue Mosque on my list of most beautiful structures ever (I’m sure that they are unfairly waited due to the chronic love I have for Islamic art that was instilled in me at the Islamic Civilizations Museum in Kuala Lumpur). The structure was exquisite, and I used my usual method for getting someone to take a picture of me – that is, look for the person who has a more expensive camera than you do, and get them to do it. After the Singaporeans with the 2,000 dollar cannon that they didn’t really know how to use gave it a go, I got a much better one taken by the German guy with the Nikon version of my camera. He clearly uses the same method as me since he was looking around and then saw my DSLR, and asked me to take a photo of him and his friends. His handy work is now being displayed proudly on my Facebook, asserting to the work my presence in Istanbul.
After the Hagia Sophia, I went to the Topkapı Palace. As I walked around and saw the treasury, a nice view of the Bosporus, and several decorated rooms and structure, I started narrating in my head the exact post that I was going to leave for you all. It went something like this:
“Dear friends, family, and those of you how I don’t know but are, for some reason, enjoying my blog, I wish to impart upon you all a few words of advice regarding Istanbul. Entrance to the Hagia Sophia – 20 lira and totally worth every cent. Entrance to the Blue Mosque – free and obviously worthwhile. Entrance to the Topkapı Palace - 20 lira and completely not worth it. The artifacts were nothing that I wasn’t satisfied seeing on Wikipedia, and the decoration leaves a lot to be desired after the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque. I could recommend some back streets that are far more entertaining and considerably cheaper”
About 2 minutes later, I ate those words. I got to several of the more intricately designed areas of the palaces, and the designs and calligraphy on the walls were stunning. The colors were brilliant, and it was completely amazing. I continued into another portion where they had, on display, a large number of religious artifacts included a stick that, according the placard, was Moses’ rod... I think I’m with the other American I heard saying “I seriously doubt that’s the real thing. It would be way too big of a deal.” I did, however, note that the rod did not say anything about being a replica while several other things in the exhibit mentioned that they were models or reproductions. This requires further investigation, and I’ll keep you posted if I figure anything out. If the rest of the palace didn’t suffice to make me eat my words, the harem (an additional 15 lira entry) was more spectacular than the rest of the palace combined. The decorations were incredible – definitely the best part of the palace.
After the palace, I decided to walk to Taksim to poke around a bit, and then wall my way up to Şişli where I would grab the metro bus back home. Along the way, I encountered a mall that seemed creepily Singaporean, complete with a Krispy Kreme, Claire’s, a Carl’s Junior, and even a mall Chinese food place (not something you’d find in a Singaporean mall). Note that I have yet to really find Chinese food in this country. It’s an ongoing search, which I feel, sadly, will end in vain. The few venues I have located thus far were all being run by Turkish people, and I’m just not sure if I can trust that. It’s ok, though, I’ll have my fill in August when I head back to China. I’m sorry for the long post, but I had to get caught up a bit. I’ll keep them coming more regularly over the next few days.
I’m now going to go back to my tea break (meaning that I’m sitting down consuming an entire pot of çay) and my epic cleaning of the kitchen while I wait for the internet to get back up and running. It was down when I came home from work today, and I’m hoping that it’ll magically come back sometime before I go to bed. If not, you’ll see this post soon enough.
Oh, and…. As I’m starting to get into that quotidian, living here kind of groove, let me know what you want me to talk about. More food? (I could happily oblige talking about the delicious carton of pistachio and vanilla ice cream that I finished off today). The climate? (Nice). The people? (Turkish). Work? (think office space, only less boring as I enjoy what I’m doing). You let me know, and I’ll yap at you about it. Until next time, I bid you all au revoir and (to those of you in North America) I remind you to rejoice in being able to use dryers to dry your clothes. Later this week, I'll have my laundry day, and I will be hanging mine up on the line.
Hi Ben, I'm glad to read that you are having the time of your life. Makes me want to travel!
ReplyDelete~Regena