Day 9
It's been a busy last couple of days, hereabouts. I would have updated last night but I fell asleep around eleven... readjusting to EST is going to be hell.
Yesterday began late, because we always do, but we made it down to Sultanahmet and the Blue Mosque just in time for the mosques to close for noontime prayer. At least we were able to use the time to begin with some valuable shopping time! I bought a nifty, nifty t-shirt and was right next door to a mosque when the call to prayer was sounded for the first time. It was a nice mosque, so the call was broadcast live over speakers instead of being pre-recorded and replayed. Of course, by the time I finished paying and ran outside, it had stopped, but the point is, mosques are awesome.
Especially the Blue Mosque, or Sultanahmet Mosque! We were first in line that afternoon in the freezing cold, and having to take your shoes off before stepping on the prayer rugs outside the entrance was not fun. Walking around inside the fancy mosque shoe-less was, though! The mosque was even more impressive than its outside, and keep in mind that its outside looked like this. It was like the Hagia Sophia, but with even more domes and minarets and a large courtyard. Inside, the whole floor was carpeted a rich and fancily patterned red, and it was an enormous inside. The roof didn't seem as high as the Hagia Sophia's, but you could see all of the domes, each one having a different beautiful patch of artwork on it. Most impressive of all was the MASSIVE chandelier hanging from the center dome on one loooooong cable. I've seen a lot of chandeliers in my stay in Turkey, and this one may have been only plain iron and electric lights, but it was designed to be functional and light up the place, and it did. There were other hanging lights all around, not to mention central heating, because unlike all of the other historic buildings around, this one is still used every day as a place of worship.
In fact, we visitors were only allowed in the back half of the one giant room, behind a temporary wall they put up when it was open to the public throughout the day. With us were the always-imposing stone walls decorated with the Turkish tile work you see everywhere, and four decorated stone pillars nearly the size of California Redwoods. There was the occasional carved stone fountain, like they have everywhere, for use in the pre-prayer ritual ablutions. Way over there, at the far end of the mosque, there was some kind of podium or stand for the imam, I suppose, but I couldn't see much. There were also a couple of closed-off women's sections in the back wall, but other than that, it was pretty sparse. You could tell it was the kind of place meant to be packed with crowds of people in prayer, not just your regular pretty-for-the-tourists museum piece. I loved it, personally, and I had to be dragged away from the center of the mosque before we left.
On the way out of there, it was a casual stroll through the streets, stopping by at the occasional 200 year old graveyard and dodging insane taxi drivers, as usual. We stopped briefly to have a local meat-and-pita delicacy before we arrived at the Grand Bazaar. It was fantastic on the scale that I've gotten used to by now. It's a 15th century building, if that's the right way to put it, that's essentially like a small town filled with nothing but literally thousands of shops. Each one is only maybe five feet wide but surprisingly roomy, and it's not uncommon to see three, four or five shops selling the same thing -- jewelry, artwork, carpet, food, trinkets, etc. -- side by side, meaning the whole thing kind of runs together. It's nothing like a shopping mall, because a) all of the stores are tiny, and b) I've never seen a mall with streets. Literally. Named streets with signposts and all, all under this one roof. I think I got lost after the first or second turn, because the whole thing is crowded even on an off day like today and hilly like the rest of Istanbul, meaning you lose sight of the exits easily. Once there, we commenced shopping, we took forEVER.
Turkish shopping habits are odd. Haggling is the norm, I didn't pay full price for most things I bought on my own. Shopkeepers are also helpful to the point of aggressive, and you quickly learn to never make eye contact and never, ever express actual interest. Wandering around casually and looking at things out of the corner of your eye with the occasional "Kac? Tesekkur ederim." ("How much? Thank you.) is your safest bet. Also, on any significant purchase -- jewelry and an authentic, hand-made Turkish rug in this case -- you're going to end up chatting about nothing in particular over a cup of tea that the shopkeeper will run out and buy you while you wait. Not me, mind you, my Turkish isn't that good, but I got to sit quietly in the corner sipping a cup of tea on more than one occasion while my Turkish hosts negotiated a price and then chatted away about whatever they were chatting about. Anyway, I managed to spend all of my money and buy everything I wanted to there, so that was a success. I'm particularly happy with my new tespih, a string of Turkish prayer beads similar to rosary beads and quite relaxing to carry and count.
Next? The Spice Bazaar! Or Egyptian Spice Market, the smaller and better smelling 17th century equivalent to the Grand Bazaar. Obviously, they sell spices there, everything from black tea to pure Iranian saffron. Unfortunately, it was mostly in Turkish, so I couldn't tell you much more than that and that the mounds of multicolored spices in baskets in virtually every other stall looked delicious. They were more like stalls here than full-blown shops, by the way, and tended to sell more food and touristy trinkets than jewelry or electronics and the like. Also, Turkish delights! I am now the proud owner of a solid kilo of "white chocolate" Turkish delights, which are hopefully not illegal to bring back into the U.S., cause I am, damn it. They're delicious. We lingered there for long enough to appreciate it all, then headed out on the road again.
This being Istanbul, and it being rush hour, "on the road" didn't actually mean that far. Fortunately, Tanya's mother drives like a maniac, and we got pretty far by being more willing to hit the other cars than they were to hit us. Seriously, she forced like two different buses out of our lane by virtue of refusing to get out of the damn lane, and came within an inch or two of a poor, unfortunate taksi that tried to slip into our lane during one jam. After an hour of this, though, we gave up and pulled over at a mall for good ol' fashioned shopping. Did I mention that I had been in a car full of women? They made a beeline for the nearest clothing store and got "a little carried away," as I was later told, apparently not satisfied with the volumes of clothing they already owned. It was a good thing that I had bought those prayer beads. I counted off three thousand beads before getting bored and wandering off into the mall for a bit. I am pleased to say that after more than a week here, my Turkish has improved enough to allow me to order myself a cup of coffee at a cafe all by my lonesome. No English at all, and I just pretended to only speak Spanish if they tried any on me. Some rudimentary Turkish, a few hand gestures, and too many liras later, I was able to enjoy a cup of coffee in peace. Fortunately, the clothing store the girls were at was closing early that night for some reason, and we left around 8:30 or so to head home. I was able to stay awake all the way through dinner time and some American Dad (love that show), then crawled into bed and collapsed by eleven. Day accomplished!
Yesterday began late, because we always do, but we made it down to Sultanahmet and the Blue Mosque just in time for the mosques to close for noontime prayer. At least we were able to use the time to begin with some valuable shopping time! I bought a nifty, nifty t-shirt and was right next door to a mosque when the call to prayer was sounded for the first time. It was a nice mosque, so the call was broadcast live over speakers instead of being pre-recorded and replayed. Of course, by the time I finished paying and ran outside, it had stopped, but the point is, mosques are awesome.
Especially the Blue Mosque, or Sultanahmet Mosque! We were first in line that afternoon in the freezing cold, and having to take your shoes off before stepping on the prayer rugs outside the entrance was not fun. Walking around inside the fancy mosque shoe-less was, though! The mosque was even more impressive than its outside, and keep in mind that its outside looked like this. It was like the Hagia Sophia, but with even more domes and minarets and a large courtyard. Inside, the whole floor was carpeted a rich and fancily patterned red, and it was an enormous inside. The roof didn't seem as high as the Hagia Sophia's, but you could see all of the domes, each one having a different beautiful patch of artwork on it. Most impressive of all was the MASSIVE chandelier hanging from the center dome on one loooooong cable. I've seen a lot of chandeliers in my stay in Turkey, and this one may have been only plain iron and electric lights, but it was designed to be functional and light up the place, and it did. There were other hanging lights all around, not to mention central heating, because unlike all of the other historic buildings around, this one is still used every day as a place of worship.
In fact, we visitors were only allowed in the back half of the one giant room, behind a temporary wall they put up when it was open to the public throughout the day. With us were the always-imposing stone walls decorated with the Turkish tile work you see everywhere, and four decorated stone pillars nearly the size of California Redwoods. There was the occasional carved stone fountain, like they have everywhere, for use in the pre-prayer ritual ablutions. Way over there, at the far end of the mosque, there was some kind of podium or stand for the imam, I suppose, but I couldn't see much. There were also a couple of closed-off women's sections in the back wall, but other than that, it was pretty sparse. You could tell it was the kind of place meant to be packed with crowds of people in prayer, not just your regular pretty-for-the-tourists museum piece. I loved it, personally, and I had to be dragged away from the center of the mosque before we left.
On the way out of there, it was a casual stroll through the streets, stopping by at the occasional 200 year old graveyard and dodging insane taxi drivers, as usual. We stopped briefly to have a local meat-and-pita delicacy before we arrived at the Grand Bazaar. It was fantastic on the scale that I've gotten used to by now. It's a 15th century building, if that's the right way to put it, that's essentially like a small town filled with nothing but literally thousands of shops. Each one is only maybe five feet wide but surprisingly roomy, and it's not uncommon to see three, four or five shops selling the same thing -- jewelry, artwork, carpet, food, trinkets, etc. -- side by side, meaning the whole thing kind of runs together. It's nothing like a shopping mall, because a) all of the stores are tiny, and b) I've never seen a mall with streets. Literally. Named streets with signposts and all, all under this one roof. I think I got lost after the first or second turn, because the whole thing is crowded even on an off day like today and hilly like the rest of Istanbul, meaning you lose sight of the exits easily. Once there, we commenced shopping, we took forEVER.
Turkish shopping habits are odd. Haggling is the norm, I didn't pay full price for most things I bought on my own. Shopkeepers are also helpful to the point of aggressive, and you quickly learn to never make eye contact and never, ever express actual interest. Wandering around casually and looking at things out of the corner of your eye with the occasional "Kac? Tesekkur ederim." ("How much? Thank you.) is your safest bet. Also, on any significant purchase -- jewelry and an authentic, hand-made Turkish rug in this case -- you're going to end up chatting about nothing in particular over a cup of tea that the shopkeeper will run out and buy you while you wait. Not me, mind you, my Turkish isn't that good, but I got to sit quietly in the corner sipping a cup of tea on more than one occasion while my Turkish hosts negotiated a price and then chatted away about whatever they were chatting about. Anyway, I managed to spend all of my money and buy everything I wanted to there, so that was a success. I'm particularly happy with my new tespih, a string of Turkish prayer beads similar to rosary beads and quite relaxing to carry and count.
Next? The Spice Bazaar! Or Egyptian Spice Market, the smaller and better smelling 17th century equivalent to the Grand Bazaar. Obviously, they sell spices there, everything from black tea to pure Iranian saffron. Unfortunately, it was mostly in Turkish, so I couldn't tell you much more than that and that the mounds of multicolored spices in baskets in virtually every other stall looked delicious. They were more like stalls here than full-blown shops, by the way, and tended to sell more food and touristy trinkets than jewelry or electronics and the like. Also, Turkish delights! I am now the proud owner of a solid kilo of "white chocolate" Turkish delights, which are hopefully not illegal to bring back into the U.S., cause I am, damn it. They're delicious. We lingered there for long enough to appreciate it all, then headed out on the road again.
This being Istanbul, and it being rush hour, "on the road" didn't actually mean that far. Fortunately, Tanya's mother drives like a maniac, and we got pretty far by being more willing to hit the other cars than they were to hit us. Seriously, she forced like two different buses out of our lane by virtue of refusing to get out of the damn lane, and came within an inch or two of a poor, unfortunate taksi that tried to slip into our lane during one jam. After an hour of this, though, we gave up and pulled over at a mall for good ol' fashioned shopping. Did I mention that I had been in a car full of women? They made a beeline for the nearest clothing store and got "a little carried away," as I was later told, apparently not satisfied with the volumes of clothing they already owned. It was a good thing that I had bought those prayer beads. I counted off three thousand beads before getting bored and wandering off into the mall for a bit. I am pleased to say that after more than a week here, my Turkish has improved enough to allow me to order myself a cup of coffee at a cafe all by my lonesome. No English at all, and I just pretended to only speak Spanish if they tried any on me. Some rudimentary Turkish, a few hand gestures, and too many liras later, I was able to enjoy a cup of coffee in peace. Fortunately, the clothing store the girls were at was closing early that night for some reason, and we left around 8:30 or so to head home. I was able to stay awake all the way through dinner time and some American Dad (love that show), then crawled into bed and collapsed by eleven. Day accomplished!