Yes, I know I have been remiss in writing, but I am on break!!!!
My Trip with Katie to Turkey
I really do think that all of us should take advantage of the fact that travelling around this part of the world is quite inexpensive and take the opportunity to see new places while we are living here. So..... when my friend Katie mentioned that perhaps we should go to Turkey...I was tempted and in a few days the plans were made.
Leaving Tel Aviv on a Thursday evening (the night before the Sabbath) on the last weekend in August was a mistake but....who knew? The place was a mob scene with everyone in the country either returning home or going away for their final weekend somewhere. Wall to wall people and carts..
You know, as an American living in Israel, I often find myself asking questions about the way things are done here...for example, why do they allow those metal luggage carts in front of the ticket counters and why is there nothing to help with the order of things when it's so needed...? I see the well dressed El Al Exec strolling around like the king rooster as if things look fine to him while I am holding several locks of my hair that I have removed without feeling it. So anyway, after many, many hours of standing in a line with people who need to learn the words..."one must bathe everyday" we did make the plane ...Oh, I forgot, we also searched for a Visa for Turkey (which we knew we needed but were not told to get it IN Turkey). One would think that the people you hire for an information desk might be cordial and certainly helpful...guess again.
I was amazed that the El Al jet was a 757, a huge plane, and it was full. We arrived to Istanbul in less than two hours. The airport was new looking, western looking, nothing at all like what I imagined. (visions of camels with luggage on their backs?) We were picked up by the Israeli Tour Company and whisked off in a nice modern bus to be dropped off at our hotels. Carmen, the Turkish guide, is talking (midabereting?) a mile a minute about the next day's tour. Katie and I begin a discussion about how cool it might be to take a tour in Hebrew, but I did ask her if the guide would speak English as well.
I don't want to drag out all the details but needless to say we checked into our four star (sub Holiday Inn but adequate) hotel ...headed for Mcdonald's for meat and cheese ( a no-no) and went to bed.
When the bus arrived for the all day tour to the sights of Istanbul, we had our own english guide! This warm, santa-sized, wonderful man, Beyazit, (B.A.) sat in the back of the bus with us and we had a private tour for the day, in English.
Worth mentioning: When I went to change my Israeli Shekels into Turkish Lira, I saw that the places in the airport do not accept them. Also, guides would lead their groups holding a flag from their country so their people could find them. The Israeli guide held a Chinese flag. (I did see a big "huh?" from the Chinese tour group ...ha ha.
In the early 1600's Sultan Ahmet I set out to build a mosque that would rival and even surpass any other. Designed in classic Ottoman design (whatever that is) this is truly a beautiful sight. You take of your shoes and can walk in and explore. There are beautiful stained glass (replacement) windows that are exact copies of the original and the painted interior domes are magnificent. The mosque is incredibly huge and truly makes one wonder how without modern machines.... it was built. ( I see elephants pulling giant pieces of stone, what do you see?) Actually, when I asked I was told about the huge cranes that were used in those days.
We then visited the Hippodrome or Horse Grounds, which was the scene of countless political and military dramas during the life of this city. (ok, so I copied from the guide book again) It looks now like a long town square with several monuments. One is a fountain from Kaiser Wilhelm, another an Obelisk carved in 1450 BC in Egypt (oy, that's old!) and was brought from there to Constantinople in 390 AD.
Then we boarded a boat for our excusion up the Bosphorous, a salty waterway which runs through Istanbul and ends at the Black Sea. The color of the water is azure and that day, full of giant jellyfish. It is interesting to note that Turkey is in 2 continents, part in Asia and the other Europe. As we headed out..Asia was on my right, Europe my left. We travelled up the Bosphorous looking at the magnificent homes, a University, and old ruins along the way. A Lunch of fresh grilled fish awaited us when we got off the boat.
Our final destination that day was the Grand Bazaar. A touristy spot, it still has tons of charm and consists of 4000 shops, in addition to mosques, banks, police stations and workshops. It's a great place to buy leather goods, knock off pocketbooks, middle eastern trinkets, tapestries, and rugs. You can bargain and get close to your price, but even then, I am sure these men are making money. They are polite, sometimes funny, and genuinely happy for your business. Some of the little shops have seating and they serve you apple tea as you look at their wares. We sat in a pocketbook store and began talking to its so called "college educated" salesperson. In a matter of minutes we learned his take on the US and the Jews. (you know I love Americans and Jews but?)Here it is in a sarcastic nutshell, the Jews own and run everything, yes, Hitler was a crazy man, and they found him to kill the Jews so then they could say they needed a homeland...it was all to get the land of Israel, oh and, 911 was committed by the US itself as the Saudis would never do anything like that and the US just wanted to be able to flaunt its power to the world...so they made up the story so they could show how powerful they are to would-be terrorists of the future. How's that? Katie and I looked at each other after, trying to reason with the "educated" one... left and began talking about wanting to be back on Israeli soil.
The following day, we toured on our own. First, we visited Aya Sofya, the Church of the Divine Wisdom. It was built by the Roman Emperor Justinian around 530 AD and became a Mosque when Constantinople was conquered in 1453. It was declared a museum by Ataturk in 1935. We also toured the magnificent Topkapi Palace built in the mid fourteen hundreds and was the residence of Sultans for almost three centuries. We then walked to the Egyptian Spice Market in order to buy my favorite thing,Turkish Pistacio Nuts and some Turkish Delight for my professor, Eli. These nuts are smaller and spicier and tastier than the jumbo Californian nuts and I have loved them for years. I bought 2 kilos ( 4.4 pounds total) and I have now.....drum roll.....about a cup left. Luckyily, I walk alot. Turkish delight, on the other hand, to me, is the most disgusting candy made on the face of this earth but so loved by many. We ate a wonderful Turkish Dinner at a place that Beyazit recommended...and called it a night.
Our last day was spent relaxing and walking around. We started at Starbucks..quite often now, I do find myself craving American things, coffee, ice cubes, and cleaning fluids that smell nice and not worse than what one is cleaning...I won't even describe how I shop for these ..ok I will, I open every bottle and spray every can until I find something I can stand and get weird looks from those in the market.
All in all, we had a great, great time! The people of Turkey were warm, the city of Istanbul more Western than I thought, and the break was good for me.
