Istanbul, Turkey

July 18th through 22nd

"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you might better stay at home." -- James Michener

On this journey through the Mediterranean, Turkey has definitely been a turning point in the way I view societies and peoples. I quickly realized when I first set foot in Istanbul, that I was far from a lifestyle I was warm to. For the first time in my life, I had to be a true traveler and not a mere tourist.

The night before disembarking into Turkey we had our customary ship-wide Pre-Port Meeting. We go over trip information, safety precautions, cultural do's and don'ts etc. Normally we are a very lively and rather rambunctious community, however, this pre-port meeting was conducted with a vastly different tone. Executive Dean Mike made us aware that last year's summer voyage was diverted away from Turkey due to terrorist bombings that took place four days before the ship was scheduled to weigh anchor. There were similar bombings in Istanbul around the same time the year before as well. Faced became a pale white and a hush fell over the crowd. Although I most definitely took the message seriously, I have to admit, I was even more anxious to get into port. I felt like this was the first port where I would see feel and touch the "real world." I couldn't help but to think there are people all across this planet who live with that fear looming over their heads every day, and quite frankly I feel that Istanbul is a vastly safer city than so many other places. I think that night was the first night that many of us shed our first layer of tourist skin and became one step closer to becoming travelers that are aware, culturally accepting, and open to seeing the world for what it is and not what someone else wants us to see.

Stepping out of the port authority building, I was greeted by a security guard casually resting his arm on a semi-automatic gun as if it were as normal as the vendors on the street. I couldn't help but to think "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore." I was happy to be heading to a place within my comfort zone; a cinema to watch Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. As my small group of friends navigated through the tight crooked streets of Istanbul trying to get to the cinema, we were less than ecstatic about our surroundings. It was a sticky hot. We saw stray cats everywhere. Trash everywhere. Vendors haggling and making vulgar comments toward us everywhere. It took about five minutes before I was just about ready to get back on the ship and work on a paper. But just as that thought went through my mind, I turned a street corner only to be caught in a state of reverence seeing the stunning city skyline of Istanbul at dusk. There before me was a bridge bustling with cars above and people below. Boats were traveling from Europe to Asia along the Bosphorous Strait and men were fishing all around. In the distance I could see the dome and minarets of the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Before I knew it, I was five paces behind the rest of the group with my mouth open and my hand over my heart. I was in a whole new world indeed, but one I had just been enamored by.

On the train ride over to the cinema, if being the only white people in the entire train didn't make us noticeable enough, it seemed as though we were the only females besides maybe five women with their children. The train was jam packed. It was like San Francisco's Muni lines during Pride or Love Fest. We were on a packed smelly train filled with men staring at us from all angles. My friend Courtney had a man grab her butt as we were all being smashed together. Apparently, she looked back once, and when he did it a second time she turned directly toward him, looked him in his eyes and told him to stop. He and his friends snickered, and she turned around. Welcome to Istanbul… Finally, enough people had gotten off so that there was actually room to move and a few seats available here and there. A seat opened up near me and I offered the seat to an elderly man that was standing beside me. Obviously, I am no connoisseur in Turkish language, so I gestured toward the seat as an invitation to sit. I think he understood but he had a rather confused look on his face. He then gestured to me to sit down. I refused for two reasons; the first being that I am accustomed to allowing the elderly taking my seat, and secondly because I was very aware of the status of women in Turkey. I was not about to offend someone by taking a seat where a man, as I have been taught, should have sat. Clearly I was no Rosa Parks in this situation. Oddly enough, the man refused the seat when I gestured the offer again, and the seat remained empty for about a minute or so. I then noticed that all of the women, although there weren't many, were sitting as the men stood where there wasn't room. I was rather confused being that I was taught how the status of women was far less equal to men, yet the men seemed to be quite chivalrous during this first encounter. I had much to discover about this culture.

Finally, we made it to the movie theatre where tickets were eight Turkish lira, which is about $5.50. Not a bad price! I couldn't help but notice that on the ticket booth window the movie read "Herry Poter." You've got to give them points for trying right? We bought our tickets ahead of time, and made our way over to a restaurant for dinner.

As we sat down, our waiter poked fun at the fact that we were now a group of six girls and one man. We all laughed. The food was mediocre, which is what we have come to expect of any menu that includes pictures clearly identifying the restaurant as an overpriced under satisfying tourist restaurant. I tried a Turkish drink that was said to taste like yogurt when in fact it tasted like rotten milk! After the three tastes you're out rule, I went back to the good old fashioned water. I did give it a fair chance though, so brownie points should be earned for that! Our waiter was a young student at The University of Istanbul studying law. I asked him what he wanted to do with his law degree and he flippantly said "I want to be President!" My eyes opened big as I replied "Me too!" He said he didn't like his president, and that's why he wanted to become president; so he could help change his country for the better. Samantha asked him how people actually started to date in this culture. She was curious to find out how men and women come together when women are oppressed having to cover nearly all of their skin, and how the two genders start dating and eventually marry. He didn't really understand the question, and instead wrote down a pick up line on a piece of paper and handed it to her. Once we figured out that it was a pick up line in Turkish we all laughed and tried to re-explain the question, but we really didn't get anywhere. As we ate, I couldn't help but to notice that every man I saw would make I contact with me and smile. It was that slimy smile, the one where you feel like they were undressing you with their eyes. I couldn't understand why. These men don't allow their women to show their skin, and at the very least their hair because the belief that it is only meant for the husband's eyes, yet it seemed that every single one of them was thrilled to see the skin on my arms. I would think that they would look down on me as impure and a sinner. Once again, I was baffled by this culture, and my preconceptions were not at all what reality was.

The movie theatre was three stories underground, and about fifteen minutes into the movie we realized that there was no air conditioning. Gosh we are pampered with luxuries we forsake as standard! The lights went dim, and we began watching previews, and by previews I mean Turkish commercials about deodorant for girls, and Teng juice. It was pretty interesting to get a taste of Turkish advertising. The movie began, and as expected it was all in English with Turkish subtitles. Of course, the movie was epic, as all the Harry Potter movies are, and I once again my dream of someday becoming Hermoine Granger was revived. Halfway through the movie there was an intermission, just like in Greece. I really love that concept, and I wish it were adopted in the States.

After the movie let out, which was around 11:30, we began walking back to the ship. The streets were now wide open with hardly anyone out. There was only trash and stray cats. There were several moments where we got that erking feeling and clang to the gentlemen of the group. When we finally made it back to the bridge, and to our surprise the streets were bustling with vendors, locals, and tourists.The under part of the bridge was filled with restaurants and hookah bars. So many people were smoking hookah that the whole bridge was like a giant cloud of scented goodness. We went across the bridge, got on the ship, took showers, and enjoyed the comfort of our own familiar pillows.

The next day was a rather short one for me. We left the ship after lunch and made our way near the bridge to pull out some money from the ATM's. Unfortunately, when I put my card in the ATM and tried to withdraw some lira, I accidently entered the wrong pin number and it ate my card. Samantha, Shandra, and I ended up spending the next hour trying to get a hold of YapiKredi to get my card back. We didn't get anywhere. I went back to the ship, told our purser and contacted Wells Fargo. They did confirm that it was a legitimate seizing of the card, and wasn't an ATM card theft. Samantha and Shandra went off to go see a palace, and I decided to stay on the ship and do homework because I was far too aggravated and knew I was not in the mood to neither appreciate art nor navigate the streets of Istanbul. Although I did miss out on some memories, I do have to admit I was happy to get on top of my work again.

Day three was my first real daytime experience of Istanbul. We walked up and down what felt like the entire city. We bartered like mad. Between the vendors on the streets, the Egyptian Spice Bazaar, and the Grand Bazaar, I felt like an Olympic barterer! We bought tons of spices and tea for friends and family back at home, and after spending hours in the 3,400 stores in the Grand Bazaar, we had serious cases of sensory overload. Istanbul has everything you can think of and about ten thousand things you never even knew existed!

After a long day of walking and bartering we were headed out to enjoy the three hundred year old Turkish baths. From the boat, we took a taxi and walked inside to a world of marble. Samantha, Shandra, and I changed into our bathing suits and put our things in our lockers. We were then greeted by a Turkish woman who lead us into the bathing chambers. She opened a pair of heavy wooden doors and inside we saw a huge marble circle in the center of the room where women were being washed. The room was incredibly warm and humid. I felt like I was breathing more water vapors than oxygen. I lied down on the giant marble circle and looked up to see a huge dome with star cutouts allowing a place for all of the steam to escape. A lady came up to me and scrubbed me down and I'm pretty sure I lost three shades of my tan. She put a blanket foam bubbles on me and it felt like a cloud just came and sat right on top of me. She then brought me to the shampooing station and scrubbed my head down. I was sent over to a new room where the Jacuzzi was. It was a small pool of warm water with a fountain in it. Samantha, Shandra, and I joined up again inside of there, and of course the second it was all to ourselves we started playing in the water, doing flips and synchronized swimming. After a good twenty minutes we went and put on towels, and sat in another room where we had tea and chatted. Then we all got our nails done and chatted some more, and then finally left. We must have been there for five hours. Every lira was worth it. It came at the perfect time in our trip and was incredibly relaxing.

On day four Samantha, Shandra, and I went out with one of our favorite people on the ship, Shawn Rohwedder. She is the wife of one of the professors on the ship, and Samantha and I babysit her son Ryder every other day while at sea. She got some time away from the family, and came out with us to go the famous underground cisterns and some more bazaar shopping. The cisterns were awesome! You would never know they existed. In fact, when Constantinople was conquered by the Turks, they didn't know they existed. People whose houses were above happened to make a hole in their basement floor and they discovered water below! You can still see a few holes of where the people dug! Once you go down below you are welcomed by giant orange-lit columns and water below. The area is huge! All the way in the back there are two columns that have a base of sculptures of Madusa's head! It is incredible! Rumor has it that they were actually stolen and were hidden in the Cisterns for safekeeping.

After the cisterns we took Shawn to our favorite ice cream man. We have become great fans of his "ice cream and a show." He does all sorts of tricks while serving ice cream and it's guaranteed to make someone laugh and be baffled every time they get a cone. We then went to the world's oldest mall, the Grand bazaar, and did more window shopping. We went and bought some hair dye, came back to the ship and then dyed Shandra's hair red. It turned out really nice!

Day five Samantha and I left the ship, and headed straight to the one place I have been waiting for more than any other place in any other port: The Hagia Sophia. I had learned about it in art history in high school and had been waiting to see it ever since. When I got inside, I was stunned. It is huge! It's actually now simply a museum, but before it was a mosque, and before that, it was a Catholic cathedral. The two clashing influences of Catholic architecture mixed with Islamic influence makes it one of the most studied and interesting buildings on the planet. They are actually in the process of recovering Catholic mosaics underneath the painting and plaster from the Muslim inhabitance. Unfortunately there was a large scale renovation going on inside, so there was scaffolding leading all the way up to the highest dome. It kind of took away from the majesty of the moment. Still, I was stunned by the dome. This was the first building to support a dome in such a way. The entire dome has holes along the base, making the entire weight of the dome only being supported by the structures between the windows. The dome is supported by other half domes on the sides as well. This is also the first building to use the architectural support of the pendentive to efficiently support a half sphere dome supported by cubic base. The Hagia Sophia was far more rundown than I had imagined it would be. It was also very barren. I have to admit my expectations were not met, but nonetheless I really did love looking at the architecture and the dual religious influence.

Next up was the Blue Mosque, which I knew nothing about. It was still an active mosque, so we had to take off our shoes and observe quietly. The inside was stunning. It was covered in blue mosaic designs and Islamic inscriptions. However, what I found most interesting was that the Muslim men had three fourths of the mosque roped off specifically for prayer toward the kiblah wall, then the tourists had about an eighth of the room to observe, learn, and take pictures, then behind us was the woman's prayer section. There were even signs that said "Women only. "Not only were they allowed one eighth of the entire room but they were furthest from the kiblah wall (which points to Mecca), but they were behind the tourists of both sexes! So, I, being a non-Muslim woman, had more of a right than the Muslim women had to be closer to the kiblah and the men. I found it very odd.

Afterleaving the mosque, Samantha and I ran to get some last minute gifts and made it back to the ship just in time to take some of the kids we baby sit to dinner on the ship so the parents could get some alone time.