Holy cow (again). Where to start. Let's see, I stayed in tonight because I haven't been getting much sleep. Too much late night drinking and socializing. In a different context, that might be regrettable behavior, but here it's the access key to Turkish social life. Or at least the level of Turkish social life that I can have as a transient. You see, Turks go out to dinner at 8:30 or 9:00 in the summer, at the earliest. Things get really pulsing in the cities around 11:00 or 12:00. In fact, just the other night, my friend Jim and I decided to go out at midnight, after we'd come back from a small group dinner (that itself had started around 9:00). The Turks don't rush very much. Jim and I had a great time walking through the narrow streets crowded with small wooden cafe tables, tons of folks everywhere talking, smoking, drinking (not just alcohol...tea too!) Like most huge metropolitan places, Istanbul thumps large after dark. We're in Beyoglu (Bay-oh-lu) which is a really cool, funky place. It reminds me of Prague's main drag 15-17 years ago, before Prague got "hip". Our hotel has a bar whose ridiculous drink prices (about $17 for a martini) can only be excused by the totally kickass views of the city it boasts. I mean, For Real. Sick. So whatever. I shelled out 16 lira ($11?) for a glass of wine 2 days ago. Worth it, totally. There has been a municipal ban enacted on public smoking--it went into effect at midnight yesterday (?)--so people cannot smoke in restaurants anymore. They are not even supposed to smoke in partially open cafes...has to be totally open. Having said that, 3 women from our group (2 of the Ladies & Chicago Lizz) and I went to a nargile (nar-gee-leh) this afternoon when we had a 30 minute stop in the Bebek area of Istanbul. A nargile is a smoke shop, and we got water pipes with apple tobacco...actually 2 of them got a menthol spice blend, but I was happy to have the milder apple. I haven't smoked in ages (7+ years now) so it was a bit weird, but very fun. I can see why people spend hours and hours there...the process of smoking those pipes opens the door for contemplation, relaxation. Being first timers, we each got a pipe. That was ridiculous: 30 lira each. We could easily have split one or two, especially in that narrow time window. Still, it was a new thing, a bit on the edge and therefore fun to try.
We also went to the Spice Bazaar, aka the Egyptian Bazaar (Egypt used to be the provenance of most spices here). I got Iranian saffron, but when I told Secil how much I paid for it, she only nodded, leading me to believe I'd grossly overpaid with my 30 lira for 2 grams. She may be right, but I still have to figure out how to use 2 g worth of Iranian saffron. Anyone?
I bought apple tea and...oh yes, a cheap necklace. Turkey is the land of Stuff. You want it, it' for sale. And for you, special price. I am having the protracted occasion to work on my very poor negotiation skills. I do not relish shopping, and I am a poor bargainer. I come to the table, as it were, with a defensive posture. That is so not the Turkish style. I am working on emulating their far more open, amiable, flexible style of interaction, but I have a lot to overcome. I am not sure how much is personal and how much is cultural. Americans are not bargainers, per se. Actually, Chris might disagree with me there, and he bargains with far more ease--and success--than I do. It is a way of life in Turkey, and there are linguistic riffs that reinforce that. During a language lesson with Secil, a former English language teacher at the national high school for gifted students, she asked if I would give her money (we were practicing grammar, keep in mind) and I responded "Hayir" (no). Both she and Ali laughed and said, independently, that the more natural Turkish response would be to say "how much?" instead of a flat "no". We're just different. For them negotiation is not threatening, it is a way of communicating.
I am dead dog tired. I have spent 3 hours poring through pictures and videos from the past few days. Still not fully done. And I have yet to post pics. I think I mentioned, I accidentally put my camera back to high resolution, so I have 2-3 days of pics that are totally huge files. Yipes. So I may upload those to facebook, still not sure. But I stayed in tonight to catch up on sleep. Ha. It's 1:15 my time as I write this.
Here's a quick update on our Istanbul time:
18 July: Saturday...Gallipoli is way more interesting than I expected. Makes me think of Iraq, a political decision that was ultimately proved to have been a disaster, an extraordinary loss of life, and for what? Total casualties of that 8-month campaign were over 500,000: about equal for the Allies (mostly Brits, Australians and New Zealanders, but also French and Indian) and for the Turks. The Allies wanted to take the Dardanelles to control supply lines to Russia. The Turks successfully resisted, a huge surprise to the Brits (almost ruined Churchill's career, as he was Lord of the Admiral Navy, or something like that...too tired to think). The Dardanelles was never captured, and the key military commander for the Turks, Mustafa Kemal, went on to found the Turkish Republic in 1923. That's right, it was Ataturk (which means father of the Turks. It's the name he adopted when he decreed that all Turks needed to take a surname. No one else was allowed to take Ataturk though).
So we saw Gallipoli, and it was very beautiful, very moving. We stopped at a site that shows some of the trench locations for the Australian and Turkish forces. The were about 6-7 meters apart. In fact, there were times when they would lob food or other supplies to each other in trade. Man, war sucks. It totally does. Did I mention over 500,000 casualties?
Yesterday we saw the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, the remainder of the Roman/Byzantine hippodrome and the Basilica cistern (which was way cooler than it sounds). I am too tired to type out everything I thought/saw at those places. They are everything you would imagine. Super beautiful, amazingly elegant and thought-provoking. I am glad that I will be able to go back with Mom. She'll freak out (with glee, as the girls would say).
Today, Spice Bazaar, Bosphorus cruise, awesome lunch by the Bosphorus, Grand Bazaar, 360 terrace drink with a killer view, and no going out for me. Still, it's 1`Zillion o'clock and I have to go to bed. Will upload photos. Check out Beyoglu online if you want. It's pretty rocking.
hugs to all, and good night.
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