Expediccionado: CATstantinople

Mid-semester my program traipsed off to Istanbul for some "field research", which was basically whatever we wanted it to be. I showed up with the intention of seeing and talking to musicians. But I soon realized it wasn't entirely feasible and, finding myself surrounded by cats all over the city, I switched my focus to Istanbul's animals. But it wasn't all research. We also did a fair amount of sight-seeing, aimless wandering, eating, and laughing.

I know there was some concern about exactly where I was going. For those of you unfamiliar with Turkey, it is NOT a war zone and is quite different from it's neighbors, which include places like Iraq, Syria and Iran (we were nearest to Greece). Aside from there being more mosques than churches, it is a lot like any other European city I have been to. It is quite liberal, people are friendly and, like just about anywhere, as long as you are aware of your surroundings and don't do stupid things, you will be fine.

First things first: We took a plane from Paris to Zurich to Istanbul. Right away I made a friend, who was quite interested in me and my seat mate, Dan, during the entire flight.

Also, Swiss airlines gets big points for providing chocolate (twice!) and comfy seats.

It was just getting dark when we arrived at our hotel. We were greeted by the hotel owner who offered us tea and attempted to entertain us with some racist jokes. Very soon we discovered that he was a man who never shut up and throughout the trip the students sought to avoid him, especially after he started making inappropriate comments to the women in our group. So, if you need a hotel in Istanbul, I only have a recommendation for which one NOT to go to.

After the customary awkward first night trying to sleep in a new place, only two of us (Bonnie and I) were up bright and early and ready to play. As such, we took a short up-hill walk to the Blue Mosque, which was not far from our hotel.

Well, it's not exactly blue, at least not on the outside.

Intricate domes

No shoes allowed. Women must cover their heads.

The Blue Mosque did not take long because you couldn't really tour through a lot of it. Such is the nature of a religious building that is still used as one, although tourists tend to forget that in Paris. Next, we walked around the Hagia Sophia, which was first a church, then a mosque and is now a museum. On the way, I did some research...

Kitties are people who need places to sit too!

Guarding the gate

REALLY guarding the gate

These were actually the least scary soldiers I saw here. The other ones were too scary to even photograph. It's never a good idea to point things at people with large guns. This is the entrance to Topkapi Palace, by the way.

View across the Bosphorus from the palace grounds

One of Istanbul's many mellow, stray, yet officially tagged, dogs.

That afternoon our group was invited to hear a lecture on the Greek history of Istanbul at a lovely waterfront university.

Being lost

Frolicking in the flowers

After the lecture, one of the students took us to lunch at a nearby restaurant that was tucked into a busy commercial center on the waterfront. The food was yummy and, for once, accommodated both the carnivores and vegetarians in our group.

And on the way...

A street kitty and a fancy kitty guard the bunnies.

After lunch we got lost in a residential neighborhood. Neither our maps nor the street signage were adequate for navigating the city. We eventually found ourselves again.

The house on the corner.

Sunset on the waterfront

Next we decided to head up to Taksim Square, a busy commercial area that is also historically known for protestor vs. police (a.k.a. water cannons) confrontations.

Taksim Square

Now that's a shrubbery!

We wandered around for a long time and, after sitting at a nice cafe for tea/hookah, we made our way back to the hotel.

We passed Galata Tower on the way.

A broken street

Night view from what I decided would be a very good kissing bridge (Galata Bridge)

Restaurant boats

The next day...

Lisa and Geoff have their morning smoke.

Our group excursion today was to a Turkish art museum with a human rights theme. This was the only time I ever felt afraid in Istanbul and couldn't have left the museum soon enough. The reason was that our host mentioned during her talk that the angry neighborhood conservatives came and beat the public with metal rods during the museum's opening. No thank you.

Pink bombs

The museum's bathroom: the back of the toilet bears dictators' names.

Relaaaaaaaax

Then it was time to eat. We found a little kebab place at one end of Galata Bridge.

Julia photographs; Dan speaks.

Chicken kebab. Notice the "Ketçap" in the background.

Then it was time to wander some more...

Waterside leisure

Fishing

Fattening the pigeons

Turkish sweets - some of my classmates (Shanna) got addicted.

Kitty in a carpet store

Sweetest face in town

Then we wandered back into the Topkapi Palace grounds to relax...

Little kitty/Big kitty

Dan, Julia, Carolyn, Christine

Kid on a kitty

Hungry kitties

Kitty was here.

The Bosphorus from the Palace grounds - Not bad.

Time for Turkish tea!

That evening, we headed back to Taksim for a group meal. We had to take three types of public transport to get there: the tram, the tunnel and the trolley.

Trolley! This beats San Francisco's.

Shanna + Alex = Love

Armenian appetizers

Nom nom nom

The owner shows us our fish choices.

Christine and Carolyn

Alex, Shanna, Dan

Behold the sea bass!

After dinner, Stephanie and I joined our professor, Geoff, for a trip to a nearby gay bar. When we arrive we realized it was mostly a place for guys and besides that, utterly dead. Instead, we sat outside the neighboring bar where we listened to some nice, mostly Turkish music by a guitar/violin duo. They also covered a couple of English songs such as "Come Together", "Money" and "Stand By Me".

Day four rolled around and we were largely left to our own devices. This resulted in hilarity, mostly.

First stop: The Grand Bazaar. I didn't really stop to take pictures inside because it would have resulted in people having the chance to try to sell me things I didn't need, as is the norm in Istanbul.

Entrance to the Grand Bazaar

Lunch time: Yogurt (delish!), some kind of chicken/tomato concoction, fries.

Dan, me and my "sister", Carolyn

That's one way to carry your bagels.

Cemetery

Hagia Sophia

Crumbly domes inside the Hagia Sophia

Immensity

Dan tries to capture the immensity.

When you're 1,474 years old, you'll sag too.

Istanbul is more a place for walking than sitting, especially if you don’t want to pay any money while you look around. Yet, having walked for hours our group was ready for a sit. We found the perfect place, free of charge, in an amphitheater tucked within a small park adjacent to the Blue Mosque. It was finally warm, especially once we installed ourselves on the wooden semi-circle bench structure in the full sun. It was not crowded, but several people had had the same idea. A couple of foreigners even slept, stretched out on the wooden planks, hats pulled over their eyes. I assumed they were foreigners because they looked like hippies and I had not seen any Turkish hippies thus far. A middle-aged couple very nearby, possibly German, turned to look and smile at us when we sat down and began conversing semi-loudly. I wondered if we might be disturbing a quiet quietly romantic moment for them.

We began our sit by watching Carolyn eat a chocolate and fruit filled waffle.

A mother and a toddler were sitting together a few benches below us. They were probably Turkish. I say so because they didn’t look like tourists, whatever that entails. The child was doing something acrobatic, like jumping off of the benches, while I silently fretted for her safety. The mother seemed unfazed. Further down, directly in front of the stage, and later on the stage itself, some kids played with a proper pet dog on a leash. It might have been a golden retriever. At any rate, it was the first dog I had seen that appeared to be owned by someone. Once the dog and children had exited the scene a solitary cat appeared in the wings stage left and sniffed at something on the large stone block supporting it. To its left was a large pillar with vertically aligned text reading, “FATiH BELEDiYE BAŞKANLIĞI”, roughly, “Fatih Municipality”.

As we sat, our conversation was lighted-hearted, as it had been the whole time. Suddenly it was interrupted by a couple of shoe shiners who approached us and offered to shine our shoes. I considered it for a moment, but as everyone else had already declined, I let it go. One of the men pointed to Stephanie’s boots and commented emphatically they were very dirty. I found this rude. Is insulting one’s potential clientele really a good sales technique? The man then appeared to indicate Dan’s head or hair and said something that sounded like “credit card”. We repeated this in question form. He repeated himself. This time it sounded like, “curly cut”. We repeated this in question form. The men walked away. Someone suggested it might have been “karate kid”. Whatever the phrase was, it just became fuel for our already sarcastic banter. The early evening call to prayer began, blaring out of a speaker on a religiously shaped building just a few meters away. At the end of each sung phrase, the call received an answer from the speakers on the farther away Blue Mosque. This intoxicating exchange of sound went on for several minutes, its echoing waves drifting through the clear warm air. A few of us attempted to capture the moment with our video cameras.

Following our rest, we headed out to meet Geoff and Lisa for dinner. The place we wanted to try, a Uyghur restaurant, was closed for renovation so we ended up in yet another kebab place. This one, however, was a bit higher quality than others we had visited thus far.

The kitchen

Unbelievably delicious lamb. Puffy bread.

Afterward it was time for some serious fun. The day before, Christine had publicly declared her love for margaritas and, knowing that there was a Tex-Mex restaurant in the neighborhood, we decided to get her one. Fuck authenticity.

Carolyn and Christine sport the sombreros that I demanded from the waiter.

All is well.

Being Mexican is serious business.

We stayed at the restaurant until it closed and then retired to the hotel for a competitive game of Settlers of Catan during which, it is reported, Dan got drunk on raki (a local liquor), became belligerent and called Carolyn a dick. It was all in good fun through.

We had reached our final full day in the city and decided to squeeze in some shopping. First, we stopped in at the spice market so that I could pick up some goodies for the chef.

CHEEEEEEESE!!!

Then Christine and Shanna and I headed back over to Taksim to hit some famous silk scarf store. It was so difficult not to buy anything, but I couldn't justify spending $80 on a flimsy piece of cloth.

People shopping in Taksim

After a long lunch (yes, kebab again) and a rest at the hotel, we headed out for some hookah.

Dan talks to our host, "Turkish Adrian Brody".

Kitty under a restaurant awning across the street

Our final morning we had a couple hours to squeeze in some last minute sightseeing. But first, breakfast!

I can has breakfast?

Then Dan and I headed into the Basilica Cistern, the old underground water reservoir from the days of old. It was spooky and awesome.

Red lights and echoey music

Coins and carp

I could be rich.

Water + Stone

Afterward we headed to a nearby sweets shop so that Dan could pick up some baklava for the road. While we were there, a techno song was playing that contained only the lyrics, "Sex... [and possibly] beer". It was bizarre and I'm pretty sure it contaminated the shop's wares.