MERHABA ISTANBUL

Hey guys!

So on February 14 through the 17th I went to Istanbul. It was an incredible experience! I went with about 100 kids from my program; I’m going to give you the run down of the itenerary, and the culture we were immersed in.

First and foremost, two days prior to our departure the second in command of Hamas was assassinated in a car bomb in Damascus. His death is being blamed on either the US or Israel, however, Muslims are more keen to blame Israeli’s. As a result, traveling to turkey at this time was a risk, and was not recommended by the US or Israel. We were in a catch 22 because we were a bunch of American kids with Israeli student visas in our US passports. However, we went anyway, perhaps not the smartest decision, but in the end we were all ok.

On February 14, we left Ben Gurion airport at around 5, we landed in Istanbul at 7. We flew on Ornu airlines which was a joke of an airline and the flight may have been the most nervous I was all weekend! Ha! Upon arriving in Istanbul we drove to the hotel, the grand halarem. Istanbul is a very interesting city. It is divided by a the bosphorous, as a result half of the city is in Asia and the other half in Europe, furthermore, it is divided by the old city, where our hotel was located, which is home to the historical sites we visited. Furthermore, the old city is more conservative than the new area. We stayed around the old party during the day to see the sites and ventured into the new area at night for some nightlife.

Once we got to the hotel we quickly changed and were out of there. We hailed a cab to ortakoy, which is in the new area, its a quirky pedestrian area wit tons of cafes, shops, street venders, and hookah places. It is located on the bosphorous and some cafes have a beautiful view. Istanbul is home to 14 million people and only 5-7% live on the European side, everyone else is across the bridge in Asia.

That first night we had an authentic Turkish meal, which was interesting, a lot of meat, bread, and salads. I wasn’t that big of a fan but I have definitely had worse food. Following dinner we all went to a hookah place and got 2 hookahs. It was awesome, I also got a kiwi tea BC I had never heard of it before, but let me tell you it was delic! After around 2 hours of "being Turkish" we headed back to the hotel to rest for our HUGE day of sightseeing the next day.

On the 15th we were out the door by 9am. The group for the day was myself, Marissa, Melissa, Ariana (a fellow badger who is amazing wisco girls you guys will love her, she’s one of my closest here!), and Kimmy (who is also great! and for those chi o's reading, she is Andrea Lear's little sister).

Istanbul was home to two major empires, in 537 AD the Byzantine controlled the region, however, but the 1400's the Byzantine Empire was quickly deteriorating and the Ottoman's easily took control of the region. Following World War I, Kemal Ataturk who installed a strict secular society defeated them. Recently, Turkey elected their first Muslim Prime Minister, and their mandate of secularism is quickly diminishing. There are 2500 mosques in Istanbul alone (and 17 synagogues with 24,000 Jews)

Our first stop was the Topkapi Palace, which was built in 1459 under Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire. From 1465-1853 it was the home (the official and primary residence) of Ottoman Sultan's who controlled the region. The Palace is made up of 4 courtyards and at its height housed 4000 people. It was really unbelievable it is not a palace in the European sense, it is not just one building, but it is scattered over 70 acres. There was the Harem, which was the home to the Sultan's concubines, and it was said that at night he would got to the Harem to choose his wife for the night. On the palace grounds were also the palace mint, a library, a school, infantry, and a massive kitchen. There were also rooms for armory, the Sultan's hats, and dining areas. It was really spectacular. The palace has a direct view of the entire city including the bosphorous and is located on the European side, however the Asian influence from an architectural standpoint cannot go unnoticed. Most of the buildings were domed shaped, there were tons of Chinese influenced paintings. Interestingly enough, while the ottomans were Muslim they recognized the Jewish faith since Ishmael their founder is a son of Abraham, and Jewish stars were all over the place (check out my albums for some pictures). Check out my pictures in general for an explanation of what i'm talking about. We spent about 2 hours touring the palace, our tour guide, ALP was great a Turkish born man fluent in English. He was very informative and funny. Maybe most interesting at the palace were old keys and locks to the black stone. The black stone is located in Mecca and is where Muslims make pilgrimage to once in their lifetime.

Following the palace we got some roasted chestnuts, which were roasting, on an open fire. Street venders selling their chestnuts were all over the place. They were delicious. I had never tried a chestnut before. Afterward we went next door to the Haiga Sofia.

Haiga Sofia literally means Holy Wisdom. It was formerly a basilica, a Byzantine Church since the Byzantines were Orthodox Christians, it was constructed between 532-537 AD however, in 1453 the Ottoman Sultan converted it into a mosque and in 1935 it was converted into a Muslim by Ataturk. It represents the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is especially famous for the massive dome in the center of the building. Once it was converted into a mosque huge disks were placed on the walls of the Haiga Sofia with the names of Allah, Muhammad, and the four main Muslim caliphs encrypted on them. The interior of the building was very dark and my pictures did not come out as well as I would have like, but the Haiga Sofia was truly incredible to see architecture from the 500s was unreal. It was beautiful, and its enriched past contributed to regality.

Following the Haiga Sofia we went up the street to the Yerebatan Saray, the Byzantine Cistern, which is also referred to as the Sunken Palace. This was really cool. It is 2.4 acres underground, with a capacity of 21 million gallons. It has 336 columns all 9 meters high spaced 4.8 meters apart (check out my pictures for an illustration of my description) there are 12 lines of columns each consisting of 28 columns. It is a HUGE underground water storage tank for water, which was originally built by Constantinople the Great. It was contrasted in the 500s AD in order to provide the Byzantine Empire with water. They would retrieve the water from near by aqueducts and store it in the cisterns for use. It was unreal! Today there are goldfish in the water, which were pretty. Two of the columns of the head of Medusa carved into them, one of the heads is on its side and the other upside down (again check out the pics). Following the cistern we wanted to head across the street to the Blue Mosque, however, Muslims pray 5 times a day, therefore the mosque closes for an hour 5 times a day and at this point it was around 1:30 pm time for their afternoon prayer. Therefore we headed over to lunch at a near by café.
This café was also authentic Turkish food, I got a chicken donor, which is basically chicken kebab wrapped in flat bread with different kinds of vegetables in it, its served with yogurt. It was followed by Turkish coffee, which is very dense and very strong, but nonetheless good. We had lunch for about an hour and a half, time flew by, because by the time we were done it was time for the Mosque to close yet again for the mid afternoon prayer session. As a result we went over to the Hippodrome, which is where Constantinople and the Ottoman Sultans watched sporting events and hosted other leisure events. We walked the streets of the Hippodrome and stopped into a Starbucks (I know soo western of us, but we couldn’t pass it up, we don’t have Starbucks in Israel and Kimmy and I were craving a good ol’ American style latte). The Mosque finally opened and it was time to go in.

The Blue Mosque is also referred to as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. It was built in 1609-1616 during the rule of Ahmed I. it is called the Blue Mosque because it is adorned with blue tiles on the walls of the interior and exterior. When we walked into the outer courtyard of the mosque we also found Jewish stars, which were used as designs for aesthetic purposes, but nonetheless, an interesting choice. In order to enter the mosque we got in a line with other tourist interested in seeing this historical landmark. We had to take our shoes off, and for respectful purposes the girls and I covered our hair. Honestly, we did this to not stand out. The interior of the Mosque is beautiful, we took some fun pictures, and were lucky enough too be there during on the day of a wedding ceremony, so the bride to be and her groom were in the mosque at the same time taking pre-wedding photos with their families. She was beautiful and it was really a neat experience to see the way a Muslim wedding is set up. We were in the mosque for all of 20 minutes, we saw the architecture and left.

Following the mosque we headed to the Grand Bazaar, an outdoor shopping area compromising 4,000 shops. This was something else. It was kind of uncomfortable everyone shouting out at us trying to rip us off etc. I think the 5 of us were called the spice girls at least 10+ times. We all got some eye bracelets which turkey is known for, I currently h ad 7 on my wrist all in different colors, there are pretty. After about 30 minutes in the grand bazaar we were exhausted, we left, went back to the hotel, and got ready for dinner.
That night we went back to ortakoy to have dinner at House Café, a restaurant with a really contemporary ambiance it was very chic. It was located on the Bosphorous and had a nice view. The food wasn’t authentic but nonetheless not so bad the couscous was very tasty. There I also got lemonade with mint drink that came with apples and strawberries in it. It was unlike anything I had ever tried but also well. After dinner it was around 1 am, we were exhausted from our day’s adventures, went back to room 105 and passed out.

The next day it was snowing, I mean really coming down Madison style. We headed into the new area to this pedestrian outdoor shopping center called Taksim Meydan. There were a bunch of cute stores but the snow was so miserable that we were only there for a short period of time. Which there though we ran into a group of 6 American students who were studying Arabic in Damascus, can you imagine being an American in Damascus? Because I can’t! After Taksim we went to see the Galata Tower and walked through the Jewish area of Istanbul for a little bit. We ended up having lunch at a café called storks it wasn’t that good but was a nice atmosphere. The owner cam over to our table to ask where we were from. Upon departing Israel they told us that whenever someone in turkey asked us where we were from to say Canada. So when the owner asked us I said Toronto. Hahaha he then said where in Toronto I used to live there. I’m so money because I came up with this elaborate lie saying we were at the university there, I told him what we were studying there and what not. It was really funny!

Afterward we went back to the Grand Bazaar since it was indoors for a little bit, and then I went for a Turkish bath. What an experience!!

Following the bath we went back to the hotel, Marissa and I got a quick bite near the hotel in a sketchy little restaurant, afterward we all just chilled in the lobby for a little bit, the boys got a mini keg of beer and we all chatted.

The next morning the bus picked us up and took us to the airport for our flight home to Tel Aviv!

Turkey was a great experience for more than the history I saw first hand. The culture is so different than what I am used to. The Muslim influence was rampant. I hardly saw any women walking on the street in the old area, which makes sense considering, as a aforementioned it is more conservative and old fashioned. However, I was surprised considering that during Ataturk’s reign Turkey was truly a secular country, where public religious practice and garb was suppressed, and in effect the influence was limited. Today, the situation is not the same. There were definitely times, many times, I was nervous. As women we were not treated as human beings but as objects, the men looked as us as though we were dirty, slutty, and unworthy of life. Going out at night was a definite risk; as a result we stayed in the hotel the second night. I was very cautious all weekend, very aware of my surroundings, and I constantly was forced to look behind me to ensure I was not being followed. I did not flaunt my Jewish identity, none of us did, and those on the trip that did were ostracized by the locals in the old area (as I mentioned the new area is more secular, and younger). However to be subjected to this culture was definitely well worth it. It was an incredible weekend. It was 3 days in which I learned more about history, politics, culture, and society than I have in a semester.