As it turns out, its a long way for a boat to get from Kusadasi, Turkey to Istanbul, Turkey. Again, wishing google worked all the time so I could zoom in on the map and make sense of it in my head. It’s been a long time since geography class! The captain later told us we had to maneuver through some straights - the Dardanelles!! This passage links the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Which would be the closest I’ll have ever been to the Black Sea. And perfectly close enough for now with the action in Ukraine at the moment.
I woke up in the middle of the night because lights were coming in the room- the pilot boat was here to guide us through the Straights. Cruising is so interesting. Too bad there aren’t pilot boats and tug boats to help us when we’re driving:) Some people could use a really good push out to sea, you know?
The cityscape of Istanbul was breathtaking. Spires and mosques and bridges. I couldn’t wait to go see it. Our tour was a bit later- man are we loving those. We keep saying, “Note to self, in the future, no early tours…” It’s hard to be this old, you know?
My goals of the day were simple: see stuff, eat Turkish food, buy postcards and Christmas ornament. Bam.
So, we first find this brand new, incredible port. They’ve spent the last 2 years building the terminal and it’s truly the best one I’ve ever seen. We meet up with our guide, a lovely lady we called Lisa, for lack of pronunciation skills on her given name. Lisa was chock full of knowledge and an extreme ability to power walk while not looking behind her.
Much to my surprise (remember I no longer have any clue what is supposed to happen any given day), we visited a Turkish and Islamic museum first. It wasn’t very big. I really enjoyed the ancient books of calligraphy. How they figured out how to hand print all those characters with so much elegance. All the inlaid gold and purple colors. Amazing! We saw a bunch of ancient Qurans which were gorgeous and beautifully preserved.
We tried to leave there but had to wait for one couple to stroll out 15 minutes late. Casually sipping their lattes. In no rush whatsoever. Ah, bus tours.
Next we walked very fast over to the Grand Bazaar. I was super interested in seeing this. I’ve heard a ton about it and seen it in all kinds of pictures, movies, shows. The walk wasn’t long, but the streets were packed. People all over the place. Like local people just standing around outside. I’m not sure if that’s normal. Lots of scooter traffic. Cars. If it moved, it was there moving with us.
When we got there, we were given about 45 minutes of free time to explore. After some instructions on how to not get lost, we were off! Our plan for not getting lost was to just take the main road through. We booked right along and then booked it right back. Apparently, we did a pretty good job of looking like people who either didn’t have much money or weren’t going to buy because almost no one talked to us. Fine with me!
Oh the sights! Imagine a shop of every kind. Trinkets to the finest jewelry. Spices to baby clothes. Gold bars to suitcases. All of it. Thousands of shops. The money that blows through there has got to be insane.
Once we cleared the bazaar, we still had plenty of time so we looked around a few shops outside the gates of the bazaar. I really wanted to try some baklava and there was a place- woo! We had a nice time in there chatting with two younger men working the shop. They disagreed with me when I said Turkey was beautiful. They seemed to believe the “American Dream” was where it was at. We tried some tea and bought some of that, too. Everything was so perfect and delicious and just right. I’m so glad we stopped in there.
Afterward, we wandered around looking for a place to sit. We saw two younger British dudes from the boat sitting over near a mosque and went to join them. The call for prayer had just ended- a very interesting thing to see/hear in person in Turkey. A lot of men were washing their feet in fountains outside the mosque preparing to enter for prayers.
It took awhile for our group to get together because a) it’s a chaotic spot and b) Americans suck at being on time and respecting other’s time. Oh- did I type that out loud?
We took off walking again- this time going to another carpet demonstration. This wasn’t nearly as interesting a second time, so we sort of zoned out. As we went to leave there, quite the commotion kicked up because we’d apparently lost a lady. She’d called her friends in the group on her cell phone and they were trying to figure out where she was and how to either get her back to the boat or back to us.
So, we all waited.
Bus tours, yes?
Then, we took off walking very fast to the Blue Mosque. I was excited to see it- i’ve never been in a mosque, I don’t think. When we got there, the women all had to cover our heads and shoulders. And also one very scantily clad young lady had to cover everything else, too. I was surprised that was her outfit of choice for the day after numerous warnings and suggestions. A couple of the guys wearing shorts had to wrap their legs with long pieces of fabric, too. As we got to the entryway, we all had to take off our shoes.
The inside ceiling was absolutely beautiful! There were people inside praying. Several small tour groups. Everyone behaving and talking quietly. And then, my guide went to point something out and needed a free hand and she set her shoes down on the ground for a moment.
That was the wrong thing to do. A man who appeared from nowhere and who seemed violently angry was suddenly there yelling at her. I couldn’t tell what they were saying exactly, but she immediately picked up her shoes, placed them in her bag, and seemed to be repeatedly apologizing. He kept yelling. Finally, he went away.
She explained that what she’d just done, though not intentional, was incredibly offensive to them. However, her quick removal of the shoes from the ground and repeated apology should have been enough. She said, “So, there’s a brief demonstration for you on what Turkey is like these days for women.” Ouch.
By this time, we’d united with the lost lady, walked a million very fast miles, seen a lot of things, but hadn’t eaten anything at all- well, I did have one bite of a baklava sample…and it was time to head back to ship.
I was still thinking maybe there was time to stop at a cafe before getting onboard but two things happened to change my mind. 1) our bus driver took forever to come get us and 2) a big storm came up.
Alas, no Turkish food in Turkey for me. Darn it! But, I had a bag of treats, saw beautiful things, learned some things, and overall it was a good day of exploring a new city.
That night, we’d agreed to meet up with the whole gang in one of the dining rooms. Sue and Jerry, the Montana couple, were getting off the boat in Athens, so they only had 2 nights left with us. So sad! We all (Rich and Ginny, Sue and Jerry, Mike and Diana, and us) had a great dinner together and then went to Vines for the requisite nightcap situation. It was a great evening together.
Little did I know it would be my last. I’m glad in some ways I didn’t know. It couldn’t have been lovelier had I. But maybe I would have had something better than…baked chicken.
No comments:
Post a Comment