Istanbul

I spent this last weekend in Istanbul, Turkey on a school trip. The NUin program had organized the trip for their students, but when spots opened up, they offered the trip to the regular study abroad students. We left Thursday night at 9 pm, and didn’t arrive in Istanbul until 10 am the next day. It was a long bus ride, and we spent 3 hours at the border getting visas and such squared away. Turns out the NUin director, Tom, had to bribe the border guards to get us across for 10 euro – I don’t know why though. So we didn’t get much sleep on the bus ride, but as soon as we got off the bus in Istanbul we were off for activities all day long. Our first stop was the German fountain, a gift from the German Emperor to the Ottoman Empire. As we walked further we ran into the Egyptian Obelisks, brought over to be placed in the middle of the hippodromos – or racing track in the middle of Constantinople. Our next stop was the famed Blue Mosque, a giant mosque in the middle of Istanbul. We entered its grounds and heard the Muslim call to prayer while we were there. We couldn’t enter the mosque at this time because of the prayer service, but it was so cool to hear the call to prayer while being on such sacred ground. In my religion class freshman year we learned all about Islam and watched a video of the prayer services at the Blue Mosque. The entire religion class intrigued me, so it was especially awesome to experience it all in person. The next place on our tour of Istanbul was the Agia Sophia, which was the main church of Constantinople. There is a smaller replica of this famous church in Thessaloniki, so it was really cool to see the real thing. The church is no longer used because 95% of Istanbul is Muslim, but the entire inside of it is awe-inspiring. There is evening a wishing wall in which you place your thumb inside a worn in hole in the wall and make a wish as you spin your hand in a complete circle. Our next stop was the Basilica Cistern, a huge underground tank used to store water. There was also a huge aqueduct that we had to drive through in order to get to this part of the city. Inside the cistern there were so many pillars lit from the bottom with dim yellow light. It felt like we were inside an underwater cave. There were also 2 pillars that were held up by statues of Medusa. After the Cistern, we went back to the Blue Mosque to actually go inside it. All along the outside walls were these fountains, where Muslim men wash their hands, feet, and faces before entering the mosque. This ablution is a cleansing process required of Muslims. Muslims are required to pray five times daily, whether they go to the mosque to do so or not. We took off our shoes and covered our heads with scarves before entering the mosque. Inside of the mosque was this huge open space with a very low chandelier covering the entire area. The ceilings are painted with intricate designs and there was a huge golden temple area facing in the direction of Mecca. While we were inside the mosque, we heard the call to prayer again, and got up to leave. One of the guards said that we could stay because we had all been so respectful by covering our heads. Women visitors are not required to cover their heads, but it is a sign of respect, so we all had done it anyways. So we stayed in one of the corners to watch the prayer service. The women needed to pray behind screens in the very back of the church, so we were even separating them from the men. Even in such a huge space all the men crowded up to the front as much as possible, leaving a lot of space still in the middle. The service lasted about a ½ hour with a lot of chanting and a lot of getting up and down and kneeling and praying and repetitions of “Allah u Akbar,” which means “God is great”. When the service was over we left and had some free time throughout the city. We walked over to the Topkapi Palace grounds and wandered around there for a while. After that we decided to find some food (Turkish food does not look appetizing at all, so we went to McDonalds – sad, I know) and head to a Turkish Bath.

The Turkish bath had been on our group itinerary for later that night, but a few of us decided to go earlier to get the most out of the experience and not have to wait with 40 or so other girls. It was a good thing we did that, because it would have been very uncomfortable to be there with them. We didn’t really know what to expect out of a Turkish bath, but what we did experience was definitely not what I was expecting. We’d been given a towel to wrap ourselves in, and we expected to be able to stay in the towel the entire time. When we walked into the room, there were about 10 other women in there completely naked. A Turkish bath is basically a giant steam room with a hot marble slab to lie on in the middle of the room. We stayed in our towels for a while, but when we saw what would happen, we decided to just embrace it, because there was no going back. After about 20 minutes or so a group of women came in and poured hot water all over us and then used a rough towel to exfoliate our entire bodies. After that was done the towel turned into a huge soap bubble holder and we got soap bubble massages. Besides for the initial awkwardness, the whole thing was very relaxing and I don’t think I’ve ever been so clean in my life. After the bath we went back to the hotel to nap for a while and then went back to the area we’d been in earlier in the day to have some dinner and baklava and our first experience with Turkish apple tea. The stuff is amazing…it makes me never want to drink any other kind of hot drink ever again in my life. After dinner we went back to the hotel and to bed.

The next day was bazaar and Asia day! The Grand Bazaar is certainly an interesting experience. 10000 people work in the bazaar and there are over 5000 shops all condensed into a small area with people everywhere. Bargaining is a must, and if you start bargaining, the shop owners expect you to buy. There were about 5 different kinds of shops. Scarf/cloth shops, lamp/hookah shops, ceramic shops, rug shops, and designer knock-off shops. The whole thing was a little intimidating, and I’ve never been hit on so many times in my life. I was in a group of 4 girls and we kept being called the spice girls. Men asked if we were from paradise; some men asked if we were from Japan because they know its ridiculous enough to open the lines of communication.

After a couple of hours of shopping and exploring the bazaar we hopped on a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul. Istanbul is the only major world city to be a part of 2 continents, so it was cool to experience them both. We got off the ferry in Uskudar, the most religiously conservative area of Istanbul. We weren’t in Asia for long, but it was cool to see the entire city of Istanbul from it. After Asia we went back to the hotel to get ready for our night in the Taksim shopping/restaurant district. By this point it was raining heavily, which was kinda a bummer, but we still had a lot of fun. We went to an Irish bar (again. really) but there were 2 guys playing Spanish music there for a while. After that we went to another bar and inadvertently crashed a traditional Turkish birthday party or rehearsal dinner or wedding party or some sort of celebration. It was really cool, but we clearly didn’t belong there.

The next day the bus ride took only 10 hours for some reason, so it was really nice to get home earlier than expected. I really liked Istanbul; it was a lot like Thessaloniki, but more worldly. The culture there is similar to Greek culture except for the heavy Muslim influence. It was a great city to visit, there’s so much history there that was so cool to experience.

Next up: Cairo, Egypt
I decided to book an impromptu trip to Egypt for this weekend. I’d always said I wanted to go while I was in Greece, but I didn’t think it would be possible. A few of my friends managed a trip last weekend though and had such a great experience that I had to see if I could do it too. So, when you’re all eating your wonderful American thanksgiving dinner, I’ll be landing in Egypt for an adventure of a lifetime.