I will first apologize for the lack of blog posts these past few months, things have become slightly hectic.
Friday, December 21st, I boarded a plane bound for Istanbul. What was once Constantinople is now Istanbul, as They Might Be Giants so poetically sang about the largest city in Turkey. This ancient city, the bridge between two continents, has held a special place in my mind – a mixture of romantic idealism and a love of history. Besides the city, there were other, better perks of visiting this city for Christmas. Rhonda and Mark Williams were making their trek across the Atlantic to visit me. It had been four months, almost to the day, that I had left out of Hartsfield to start my adventure and now I was able to spend the holidays with family. There was an even larger added bonus, the addition of Melissa Royer, my cousin and close friend, to this all ready rather magical group of people. Melissa is a PCV who teaches English in Romania, she is finishing up here time there this year – she will have put in her complete 27 months and I am blown away by her commitment and drive. And we cannot forget Jeremy, a fellow PCV in Romania, whom I would become friends with over the next five days.
After an emotionally charged reunion, and a glass of whisky, I headed to bed after only a few hours in Istanbul. My flight arrived a little before midnight, visas, baggage, finding my driver, taking the trek into the city, and a reunion put my bedtime roughly around 3 AM. In case anyone is keeping a tally of my bed times. When I awoke, I started to take in the sights and the sounds of the city. I think the first thing that I thought of was how overwhelmingly large the city is, and how shockingly beautiful it is as well.
I had read, coming into this trip, somewhere that Constantinople has aspired to look like Rome. In this pursuit, it strove to build 7 churches on the 7 hills around the city. I was most intrigued, as I really knew very little about the actual geography of the areas surrounding the Bosporus Strait. Things that I quickly realized, 1) Prishtina: Istanbul like Appalachians: Rockies; 2) a base number of 13 million people is unfathomable; and 4) being a tourist, after so long of trying to be a native, can be pleasant and therapeutic. (If you started looking for the 3rd thing that I quickly realized, don’t be ashamed. I called it the greased pig technique)
I will start with the first one:
1) Prishtina has hills. The same way the Appalachians are mountains. However, Istanbul has hills. Our hotel was at the bottom of such a hill, and every morning it was a nice, pleasant trip up that said hill to get to the main parts of the city.
2) We came to Istanbul during the low season. There are still 13 million people in this city. 13 million people compared to the 5 million in Atlanta is daunting, now add the fact that I am living in a city of 600,000. It was crowded, I felt jostled, and I had similar feelings, at times, of being at a Dave Matthews concert, in terms of crowd size. Was this upsetting? Of course not. It added to the mystique of the place.
3) I hate being a tourist. But it’s a nice relief at times. Everything in moderation, I suppose.
So Mom, Mark, and I set off out to do a bit of exploring before Melissa and Jeremy arrives that evening. It really took a lot to even get my mind to absorb the scenery around me. We tried not to see too many of the “sites”, but more tried to get a feel of the town. The biggest thing about the place is that everything is grand. Apartments, grand; Mosques, grand; The Grand Bazaar, well it was aptly named. The one thing that I truly learned about myself during this trip is that I have a huge fascination with Arabic letters. This is something about how the calligraphic nature of it all really adds to this sense of flow; it is like perfect cursive but on a whole different level. As we wondered the city and the day waned, it was time to locate and find Melissa and Jeremy. This is always a fun thing to try to pull off; rendezvous without the flexibility of a cell phone is a little bit of a lost art. It did give me a perfect “excuse” to grab some McDonald’s, though it was only coffee. Still, things were a success, considering they had a delay, so we checked it off the list accordingly!
Sunday began the tourist adventures. We started with the Sultanahmet district, which is the old town. It is home to of the most iconic buildings in Istanbul, the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. These two structures defied my current definition of grandeur. Hagia Sophia was a culmination of 1500 years of successive enlargements, both Christian and Islamic, to produce this gigantic, living piece of history. The Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed) is the most precise and descriptive name; it is a gorgeous monument to the history and power of the Ottoman Empire and their religion, Islam. It is very easy to get lost in the majesty of the building; they change the definition of vaulted ceilings. While a non-Muslim could not enter the prayer area, a vast, carpeted area of the room, it would be thought provoking to lay and look up at the ceiling. Just a moment to soak in the engineering skill to produce something so massive, while still keeping an eye on the most minute of details in the interior design can knock you off balance. It really is a peek into bygone era of empires and architecture.
Tape 1 is now complete. Once tape 2 is ready, be prepared to read more about this trip.
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