Istanbul - Part Bir

Perhaps it's because 16 million people in one city cannot help but be dynamic, or maybe it's the inevitable cultural elegance of a city poised on the cusp of Europe and Asia... whatever is driving Istanbul, it's electric, eclectic and wildly fun. Our adventuresome gang (Scott Northrop, Scott Larson, Russ and Lesley) are in agreement that this city, and in fact this country to the extent that we have been able to experience it, has a flair for living, good humor, and a tenacity that wins in sociopolitics as well as it does in the bazaar.

We all flew in to Istanbul on the same day, and after a wild ride through Istanbul's rush hour (notice the motorcyclist on the sidewalk), we settled in at the lovely Hotel Alp (which we recommend highly--cozy, fun staff, gorgeous view over the Sea of Marmare from the terrace). We strolled the streets of our Sultanahmet neighborhood and finally decided to have dinner on the marvelous rooftop of the Seven Hills Hotel, which is snuggled right between two majestic mosques: the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya. An enthusiastic frontman for the restaurant (an archetype we have since found to be ubiquitous and to which we have had to build resistance) enticed us to "view" the terrace (with "no obligation" of course). The view took our breath away, and the menu looked de-luscious too, so we were sold! Glorious mosques to the east and west, the Bosphorous merging with the Sea of Marmare to the south (and, well, we don't know what was to the north because we were consumed by the rest)... The jovial and extremely courteous staff provided us with rich paisley shawls to ward off the chill of the night as we sat down to peruse the many delights on the menu. Little did we know that this gesture was but one instance of the pervasive, sweeping generosity and hospitality of the Turkish people. (They were also commendably patient with our constant field trips from the table to the terrace's edge for photos.) After dinner, we patted our bellies full of fresh fish, eggplant, good spices, and Turkish coffee and beer and called the night a rousing success, even if it stopped right there...

But everyone likes a bit of foreshadowing, don't they?

Well of course our night didn't stop there, oh no. This gang had to go all out on our first night in Turkey. It was a Saturday night, and Scott Larson (some of you know him as DJ Scottino) just happened to be reading in BPM magazine about a mega-exclusive, invite-only, ultra-slick penthouse-rooftop club in Istanbul called *Godat*Disco*... so we all decided we should try to get in. Why not? The article mentioned the name of the producer of the club night, which we all memorized (with the best Turkish pronunciation we could muster at that point)... Because *of course* we met him in Ibiza this summer, and he *told* us that when we came to Istanbul later in the year, we should come by his club...

Istanbul is a huge city and we had absolutely zero idea where this place was; nevertheless, we piled into a taxi and off we went. We climbed out at the Surmeli Hotel (the hotel with the penthouse club) and watched the taxi drive off as we sauntered up to the several stern-looking men in suits at the door. Scottino and Lesley had it all planned: Scottino, with his DJ credentials, would give the drivel about Ibiza, and Lesley would be on improv backup (and reasonable Turkish name-pronouncing) duty. Scottino goes first, telling the alpha bouncer guy with the headset and the beefy backup crew that we're happy to be finally visiting, and Can (pronounced sort of like "John") said to come by when we made it to Istanbul. Bouncer guy asks for the password!!! Doh! Bouncer guy says: "If you don't have a password I cannot do anything for you." But we were armed and ready: the BPM article informed us that entrance to the exclusive club is controlled by a password that's distributed via SMS. So Lesley jumps in: "Can told us about the passwords but we didn't know how to work that out since we're traveling and don't have phones right now. Besides, he told us to just come by." Then Scottino seals the deal with something like: "Is he here? Let's ask him." (Smooooth, ultra confident.) Bouncer guy peeps a few words into his super secret headset, makes us wait for a while. We converse among ourselves about Ibiza, we drop Can's surname, etc. Bouncer guy says: "Okay" and gestures us past. We're IN! We got the super secret passcard (see strange image at left), hit the elevator, and went all the way up. Scottino opened a tab in celebration of our reckless success, and our first drink was a round of champagne at 20 lira each... That's about 15 USD, yikes! All told, this place was almost as expensive as Ibiza. At one point during the night, we actually saw Can walk by (we recognized him from photo in BPM mag, which we also memorized just in case ;). We thought about going up to him and saying "Hey Can! We made it to Istanbul, remember we saw you in Ibiza and you said we should drop by!" just to round out our lie fully, but figured that might be pushing the fates.

The View from the Top

We could see for miles over the sprawling nightscape, extending from the lights of the city to the lights of the zillion ships in the sea. There are so many lights from ships that at nighttime that it is disorienting: it looks as though the city proper extends far into what you recall was water in the daylight. We didn't take photos at the club because we didn't want to blow our cover... it's a shame because it was a groovy penthouse with half of the club indoors and half outdoors. We met Haldun, a friend of the club's owner who actually constructed most of the interior, turning it from a spa into a night club. He made tables out of old sunbeds (just changed the bulbs from UV to neon!) and fashioned a see-through dance floor atop what used to be a swimming pool. It was impressive. Through Haldun and his wife, we met several fun people, all of them friendly, chatty, and an absolute blast. One great person we met was Kutoy, a professional diver who discovered an amphora from 5th-7th century on an archeological dive (his discovery filled a timeslot that had thus far been empty in the amphorae record). He also taught scuba diving in Bodrum, our next destination in Turkey after Istanbul. He recommended that we scuba dive with his old company while in Bodrum, and gave us their name and number. In the spirit of our reckless night, we decided right then and there that we would do it! And we did. Stay tuned for Bodrum tales, including our underwater photos...

We planned to stay late late late in anticipation of a glorious view of sunrise, but a moderate rain began to fall around 4:30 and the party moved indoors. The club became too packed, too smoky, and frankly too dramatic (the club really filled up around 3:00 and the drinks were flowing freely), so we called it a night. Not bad for our first night in Istanbul!

One new acquaintance of ours was Hakkan, who works nights at our hotel. He probably hated having us wake him up when we came in at various hours of the night, but he commented with amusement that we didn't hit Istanbul like most tourists do :) so we think at least we were curious to him. All of the staff there were super friendly--every time we came in or left, they would ask how we were, what we're up to, and take a few minutes to converse and offer tips and ideas as well as hear about our adventures.

We slept in until noon and then met up with Hakkan to go to the Blue Mosque. In conversation the day before, he offered to go with us, which we thought would be interesting; most of our gang had never been to a mosque before so having a Muslim around to ask questions of would be instructive. In between our oohs and ahhhs at the majesty of the place, we found out that 98% of Turkey identifies as Muslim, and about 25% practice strictly, including prayer five times a day and fasting during daylight hours of Ramadan (which would begin a few days later). We had fruitful discussions about the state of the world, the "war" in Iraq, the policies of various governments, etc. Our conclusion? We, a group containing Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, and No Label Please members all felt the very same way about the state of affairs in the world.

Turkish Hospitality

After the mosque, we went to Hakkan's family's carpet store to meet his big brother, Salih. Over tea, Salih taught us about the different styles of rug making in Turkey (carpet vs. kilim, double vs. single knotting, hand vs. machine made, etc.). Of course it was a sales ploy but Salih turned out to be quite a character--which worked out well with this crew...before you knew it, Scottino and Salih were stirring the pot of bawdy humor and getting along famously. It turns out Salih will be in San Francisco within a handful of months. Cards were exchanged, reckless plans were laid... What a pleasure here in Turkey that even though vendors are hoping to make a sale, they are interested in just enjoying their time with guests as well. And so it was with Salih that day - we could afford nothing in his perfect-tourism-location shop one block from the Four Seasons Hotel in Sultanahmet... but we could be accomplices in bad jokes and good cheer.

Deep, Rich, Warm

The color palette of Istanbul is deep and rich, with warm earth and jewel tones. Even in the rain. We spent part of one day wandering around the Arasta Bazaar (not the Grand Bazaar) in our neighborhood, and what a pleasure to have our senses saturated with color and music and texture and the over-the-top sound and sight of persuasion as good-humored vendors tried to almost literally scoop us into their shops. The saturation continued into dinnertime, when we went to Turkmenistan restaurant, where we enjoyed live mellifluous Turkish folk music, utterly decadent yummies (perfectly spiced stuffed grape leaves, ayran [watered-down yogurt drink] with mint), lush traditional decor and several purring kittens at our feet.

Topkapi Palace

We visited the opulent Topkapi Palace, which was home to Selim the Sot, who drowned in the bath after drinking too much champagne (thank you Lonely Planet for that tidbit). There we viewed the living, ruling, and worshipping quarters of sultans along with a museum of weapons. The guys had a rather strong reaction to seeing the Circumcision Room (see photo). On a terrace over the sea, we met a sweet Ukranian woman, Katya (props to Scott N., who asked her to take our photo). It was her last day in Istanbul, and she was traveling alone, so we asked her to join us for a drink. We ended up finding a plushy corner to relax in for a while. We invited her to dinner and she accepted (by then she realized we weren't mean or dangerous ;) We shared stories, laughs, pictures, and drinks at our hotel before meeting up with Lesley's friends Hande and Dana.

Friends in Istanbul!

Hande is one of Lesley's former coworkers at the Language Learning Center at the UW, and Dana is her awesome partner. They pampered us silly, taking us out for the most amazing Turkish cuisine in the Taksim Square area. I think everyone's sides hurt after the meal - partly from eating too much, but mostly from laughing so much! What a great evening. We only got to see them for one evening in Istanbul Part Bir, but Russ and Lesley will see them again when they return to Istanbul (Part Iki!) after traveling around Turkey.

Ecumenia

We've been able to talk with many people who practice the Muslim religion. Their humble demeanor would earn the respect of any believers of anything: they have demonstrated a conscious acceptance of other faiths and have professed no judgments at all. In fact, they have reminded me of Muslims I have met in the United States--good people with good hearts, solid families, and friends from many walks of life. Nice to be able to confirm that Muslims outside the U.S. are just as great, just as human--not that we would have thought otherwise, but we appreciate the blaring contradiction to the image our government would have its constituents believe...what a disgrace. Rick Steves' "Back Door" travel series has this to say about Islam: "For us to understand Islam by studying Muammar al-Qaddafi and Osama bin Laden would be like a Turk understanding Christianity by studying George W. Bush and Jerry Falwell." A comment told to Steves by a Muslim mayor of a small town in central Turkey summed up the general attitude we've encountered nicely: "It doesn't matter what you call Him, as long as you call Him." Tell that to Dubya.

Five pillars of Islam:
1. There is only one God, and Muhammad is His prophet.
2. Pray five times a day.
3. Give to the poor.
4. Fast during daylight through the month of Ramadan (which began during our time in Turkey).
5. Visit Mecca. (Incidentally, Muhammad said: "Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you've traveled." This is very reassuring for Russ and Lesley who left jobs and responsibilities to round out their life credentials with travel ;)

That's all for now! Next up: Bodrum, Ephesus, Cappadocia, and Istanbul Part Iki.