Istanbul

The city of Istanbul is split between Europe and Asia by the beautiful Bosphorus River, making it the only city in the world to span two continents and a perfect transitional place to begin my Asian adventures.

I was in Istanbul for the first time about 10 years ago and admittedly forgot pretty much everything about the city except the magnitude of it’s mosques and the aggressive nature of it’s crowded bazaars. I was happy to find those two aspects of the city had not changed, but in adulthood I hope the impressions of the city will last longer and encompass the complexity and diversity of the city more completely than my first childhood experience of Constantinople.

Istanbul is a city of incredible beauty and culture. Anybody from the western world who sees Istanbul for the first time, will immediately be struck with aw by the multitude of beautiful mosques and their minarets rising towards the heavens across the city. Among the mosques you will find some of the most beautiful architectural treasures of the Muslim world including the New Mosque, the Blue Mosque (aka the Sultan Ahmed Mosque), and the renowned Hagia Sophia, which was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly 1000 years! Standing underneath the beautiful dome I couldn’t help but wonder how it is possible that such a marvel of engineering, built so long ago, could still be standing. Five times a day the minarets of Istanbul’s mosques come to life and call it’s muslim citizens (the large majority) to prayer, once just before sunrise, at noon, in the afternoon, at sunset, and at night. The singing was a constant reminder to take a moment, look around, and realize I was no longer in Europe as I knew it. I was on the road again.

Beginning at the Istanbul airport I was confronted with the natural state of traveling: the fear and awareness that somebody is trying to screw you. It is unfortunate but true that we live in a dog eat dog world and nowhere is that more true than in Istanbul. Within minutes after picking up our luggage, my father and I were confronted by a man wearing an official airport help badge who asked us where we were headed. We named our destination to which he replied the best way to reach it would be by shuttle. We stated that we preferred the bus and he said the bus would not stop at our desired destination and that a taxi would be too expensive. Although skeptical and hesitant we paid the aprox. 60 Euro for the two of us to take the shuttle to our hotel. Once we arrived we asked the hotel concierge how much a taxi would have cost from the airport. The total for both of us in a private taxi would have cost 40 Euro. Those bastards! So we realized our mistake and decided that we would go through our Turkey experience with more caution. We checked our bags and made our way through the city. We took a short funicular ride across the gorge and made our way towards the Taxim Square. As we walked down the street a little boy with a shoe shining kit passed by us and dropped a brush. I called after him but he did not respond so I picked up the brush and ran after him. Upon handing back the ‘clumsily’ fallen item the boy thanked me profusely and offered me a shoeshine, which I could hardly have refused looking down at my scuffed up and dusty pair of worn docs. As he was shining my shoes he asked politely where we were from but quickly proceeded into a well rehearsed talk about his poor sister who was sitting in the hospital with some kind of eye disease. He asked for 20 lira (15 Euro) so that he could support her. No no no we said. He asked how about 10? Not this time. It was a clearly thought our scam. The kid must have been 12! That bastard! This was apparently something that we would have to get used to.
Similar things happened over the next few days with Taxi drivers “forgetting to turn on the meter”, restaurant owners that forgot the price of the items they have been selling for 20 years, carpet salesmen, and bazaar handlers trying to charge us 3 times the market value for their goods. It got me in the true mindset of the traveler: Always be on your guard.

Despite the constant anxiety and fear of being cheated out of my last dime, I did enjoy other aspects of the culture. A very important part of my father and I’s daily ritual was the daily dose of caffeine in the form of Turkish coffee and/or the Turkish Tea. Throughout Istanbul you will see cafes full of men drinking their tea and coffee. Sexism is still rampant in that part of the world and you will find generally only men sitting at some of these cafes. We even encountered a restaurant where women had to eat upstairs and the downstairs was reserved for men.

We also indulged ourselves in the age old tradition of the Turkish bath. Although pleasant the experience could be likened to being put through a relaxation factory. You entered into the main hall where you decided upon the type of bath: self wash, massage, employee wash, scrub, etc., paid, and got assigned to a cabin number. You entered into the cabin where you stripped down and wrapped yourself in a red cloth. (By the way there was a color system. Red was for customers, blue for workers, yellow for the photographer, and white for the finished customers. White flip flops were for the self bathing customers and wooden sandals for the employee bathed customers.) From there you were ushered into the main bath hall where you were given a moment to sweat and then laid on the hot central stone for a pummeling massage. From there you were sent on for a rinse, a lather, and then another rinse. Then you were scrubbed thoroughly by an employee that was sure to ask for a tip at the end. After this you were rinsed again and allowed to stay as you wished to soak up the steam and again reminded that a tip would be desired as you left. Although it was a bit rushed and the constant asking for tips was a bit of an annoyance and a contradiction to the mission of such a venue, it is something I strongly recommend doing at least once in a lifetime.

We also ate incredibly well throughout the trip. The Turks tend to begin their meals with a mix of hot and cold appetizers (mezes) before heading into their meal. Without exception the food was amazing. The same cannot be said for the wine, but the local beer: Efes, is quite good. We also enjoyed an incredible scenic boat tour of the Bosphorus, where we road up to the opening of the Black Sea. The trip took about three hours each way and is a must do for the 15 Euro round trip, should you ever be in Istanbul.

After about 3 days in Istanbul we took a rental car to the city of Edirna near the Greek border. We visited some more impressive mosques, ate some more impressive food, and on the next day decided to take the car over to Greece for a quick lunch before heading back to Istanbul. After we crossed the Turkish side of the border, we headed through the no mans land towards Greece. We were stopped at a second checkpoint where we were mistaken for a father and son team of drug dealers from Germany that must have crossed earlier in the week and we were pulled to the side. Our car was emptied and put through a giant X-ray machine. When the mistake became clear about an hour later we were back on our way towards the Greek side of the no mans land. It turns out all rental cars are screened especially as they cross the border. As we approached the last Turkish checkpoint towards Greece we were asked for our “Triptee”. Our what? Our Triptee!...some kind of international car insurance, which we did not have. They sent us back to buy some in the practical no mans land insurance store. We decided that it was too much stress and that we would just head back to Turkey, but as we tried to cross the check point back into Turkey they asked us for …. Yes our “Triptee”. We replied that we had none so they sent us to buy some in the no mans land insurance store. We were in a catch 22 stuck in nomans land. We required a Triptee to go into either Greece or to go back to Turkey. Those bastards! As we lined up at the counter to buy this necessary paperwork I looked at the sign. It would cost us aprox. 200 Euro. But as they tried to process our insurance the computer would not allow the rental car designated for Turkey to get the needed insurance. We went back to the checkpoint and they sent us to a confinement area. Thank god the good people of Hertz rentals and the argumentative skills of my father got us out of this catch 22. We made it back to Turkey after 2 hours of this fiasco. And so We headed back to Istanbul for one last dinner, and the next day departed for Berlin with a slightly bitter taste of Turkey on our lips.