Day 1
First of all, I refuse to start any account of my travels in Turkey with a reference to the song, Istanbul (not Constantinople), because it's JUST NOT THAT GOOD A SONG.
Second of all, I'm in Istanbul! Traveling here wasn't as bad as expected. The flight to Frankfurt was only six and a half hours, of which I got at least three solid hours of sleep. Then I made my way through a clean, well-designed airport and straight through to Lufthansa! I met up with Claudia, who apparently had a much rougher trip than I, paid five U.S. dollars for a bottle of coke (souvenir value, though!) and got a plan straight to Istanbul. A two and a half hour flight, of which I napped for an hour, and then I was in Turkey, somehow nineteen hours later than I left. I'm still getting used to the time difference -- it's five thirty in the morning here, but I woke up after going to bed at eleven and can't get back to sleep.
But wow, Istanbul. I only caught snatches of it, driving through the city on the way home from the airport, but it is FANTASTIC. Let me be clear. I have been to Washington, D.C., Boston, New York, London, Paris, and Mexico City, and this one blows them all away. Sixteen million people spread over two continents, for one thing. The city isn't neatly organized, but somehow sprawling like the suburbs while still being jam packed like a city. And it's so god damn big! Driving along, I get a glimpse across the Bosphorus towards Asia, and it looks like a stretch of land as big as Manhattan Island, and with a number of important buildings along with tons of houses, but it's not even a fraction of a fraction of the whole thing. We drive through a busy shopping center, maybe not Times Square but it would put Clarendon to shame, and it doesn't even rank as one of the intermediate sized downtowns. Downtowns! They have like eight. In its the scope and its enormous sprawling-ness, only Mexico City comes close, but somehow it seems bigger because everywhere is so crowded with cars and lights and stores.
The fact that there are very few flat areas helps. There are so many side alleys that you drive along that are at like a sixty degree angle, and so many tiny roads and buildings crammed into so many hills. I feel like I could walk up and down and around through all of the streets and not only get so lost so fast, but never have to retrace my steps once for hours. The streets literally range from regular American highways down to cramped Parisian alleys in the blink of an eye. Like the whole city! You have all these ultra-modern nightclubs, the McDonalds, the 7-11's, etc., and then so many mosques. It's ridiculous, just driving along and seeing a dozen incredibly beautiful mosques, minarets and all, just popping out of the city and lit by colored lights. It's like walking down the street and seeing the Sistine Chapel on Fifth Avenue. But they're everywhere! My friend Tanya points out to me here's a 300 year old hotel she had her high school graduation in, here's a 1000 year old mosque or something who's name she can't remember, here's the largest bridge in the world outside of the United States, aren't the colored lights cool? I tell you, I can't wait to recover and start exploring the actual historic and touristy regions, they must be fantastic.
That's it for now, I'm going to try and get some sleep and force myself into a regular sleep pattern. Tomorrow, we make plans, celebrate the year, and party like it's 2008.
Second of all, I'm in Istanbul! Traveling here wasn't as bad as expected. The flight to Frankfurt was only six and a half hours, of which I got at least three solid hours of sleep. Then I made my way through a clean, well-designed airport and straight through to Lufthansa! I met up with Claudia, who apparently had a much rougher trip than I, paid five U.S. dollars for a bottle of coke (souvenir value, though!) and got a plan straight to Istanbul. A two and a half hour flight, of which I napped for an hour, and then I was in Turkey, somehow nineteen hours later than I left. I'm still getting used to the time difference -- it's five thirty in the morning here, but I woke up after going to bed at eleven and can't get back to sleep.
But wow, Istanbul. I only caught snatches of it, driving through the city on the way home from the airport, but it is FANTASTIC. Let me be clear. I have been to Washington, D.C., Boston, New York, London, Paris, and Mexico City, and this one blows them all away. Sixteen million people spread over two continents, for one thing. The city isn't neatly organized, but somehow sprawling like the suburbs while still being jam packed like a city. And it's so god damn big! Driving along, I get a glimpse across the Bosphorus towards Asia, and it looks like a stretch of land as big as Manhattan Island, and with a number of important buildings along with tons of houses, but it's not even a fraction of a fraction of the whole thing. We drive through a busy shopping center, maybe not Times Square but it would put Clarendon to shame, and it doesn't even rank as one of the intermediate sized downtowns. Downtowns! They have like eight. In its the scope and its enormous sprawling-ness, only Mexico City comes close, but somehow it seems bigger because everywhere is so crowded with cars and lights and stores.
The fact that there are very few flat areas helps. There are so many side alleys that you drive along that are at like a sixty degree angle, and so many tiny roads and buildings crammed into so many hills. I feel like I could walk up and down and around through all of the streets and not only get so lost so fast, but never have to retrace my steps once for hours. The streets literally range from regular American highways down to cramped Parisian alleys in the blink of an eye. Like the whole city! You have all these ultra-modern nightclubs, the McDonalds, the 7-11's, etc., and then so many mosques. It's ridiculous, just driving along and seeing a dozen incredibly beautiful mosques, minarets and all, just popping out of the city and lit by colored lights. It's like walking down the street and seeing the Sistine Chapel on Fifth Avenue. But they're everywhere! My friend Tanya points out to me here's a 300 year old hotel she had her high school graduation in, here's a 1000 year old mosque or something who's name she can't remember, here's the largest bridge in the world outside of the United States, aren't the colored lights cool? I tell you, I can't wait to recover and start exploring the actual historic and touristy regions, they must be fantastic.
That's it for now, I'm going to try and get some sleep and force myself into a regular sleep pattern. Tomorrow, we make plans, celebrate the year, and party like it's 2008.