Impressions of Turkey

For any who didn't hear, Kait and I took a vacation to Turkey just over a week ago, so here are my impressions of our visit there, including some of what we did and saw.

ISTANBUL:

Landscape-
Perhaps the first thing I noticed was how Istanbul stood out when looking at the cityscape. There was one area near central Istanbul in particular - just across the Golden Horn River - that was definitely the most beautiful sight in Istanbul. When you see it, it is a collection of normal-looking buildings (such as apartments, city buildings, etc.,) but there are also incredible, large mosques and churches that usually have a bulbous main building with some spires that go high in the air. The main buildings of course are where people go to worship, and the spires are for broadcasting the call to prayer (more on this later). So in the area across the Golden Horn, there are several mosques and churches with similar construction, so the cityscape is one with breathtaking beauty. The construction of many of these buildings are impressive, to say the least.

Call to Prayer-
This is a regular practice that mosques broadcast over loud speakers from their spires so surrounding neighborhoods can hear it and begin their prayer. The call to prayer is done several times a day at regular intervals, and it is done in a distinct, harmonious, chant-like voice that sounds something between singing and talking.

People-
In Istanbul we found the people to be so friendly that we we were actually a little bit surprised. Often Kait and I would be a little lost, and someone would just walk up to us and to ask us what we were looking for. At first I thought such people would try to scam us somehow or sell us something because this was a very common occurrence in Thailand, and it was very hard to avoid. However, if someone came up to us to help us find our way, that is exactly what they did.

There was actually one instance I remember when Kait and I were looking for a cab, and a guy called us over to a line of parked cabs that were waiting for customers. We knew the guy who called us over would probably get some of the profit from our fare, but so we were sure to be careful. Sure enough, the driver told us that our 5-minute destination would cost a lot of money because there was a "traffic problem." He mentioned that he would cut us a deal by charging us a set fee of roughly 35 lira (which is like 21 dollars or something). Luckily, we just looked at each other and politely left the cab because we knew that when anyone offers to give you a flat fee on cab fare, they are usually trying to rip you off. Anyways, once we got out of the cab, the guy who was standing by the cabs asked us what was wrong, and we told him what the driver told us. It was here that I thought he would try to make us get back into the cab, but instead, he told us how to get to our destination by using the public metro. We were very surprised that even someone who was definitely trying to make money off of us had the kindness to show us our way around, and we walked away feeling a little better about the situation.

Malynda-
(Kait's friend who has lived in Turkey for over a year)

Definitely one of the biggest highlights of our trip was someone who knew the city and could show us around a bit: Malynda. It was not merely her wonderful knowledge of Istanbul that we appreciated, however; we appreciated even more her determination to ensure that our stay there was as pleasant and smooth as humanly possible. She did many things such as pay for some of our meals while we were out; she invited us to stay at her house to save on hostel prices; she came with us to the Grand Bazaar to ensure that we got fair prices on things; she took a day off from work in order to show us many of the main parts of the city; she set us up for a couple of nights at her sister's place near downtown; and she even paid for a museum ticket for Kaitlin, herself and me. (I could go on.) All of these things she seemed to do with the utmost joy at simply having us there, and for that we were very grateful. Thanks Malynda!

The Grand Bazaar/Spice Bazaar-
This was a covered (mostly) market in Istanbul that contains over 1,000 shops that sell anything from clothes to jewelry to food. It was here that Kait and I wandered around for a good part of one day just looking for things we might like to take home. True to it's name, the Spice Bazaar specializes in spices and herbs, such as those used both for cooking and for tea. This is where Kait and I bought a whole bunch of dried fruit, some teas that we definitely could not find in Korea, and a hookah.

We originally looked for hookahs in the Grand Bazaar, but we found that the prices ranged considerably higher than at the Spice Bazaar. Plus we found a very unique hookah with a turquoise-colored, ceramic base; after shopping around, we realized that this was quite the find because we did not find another one like it at any of the other shops.

Turkish Delight (or Lokum)-
This was a sweet that neither Kait nor I had ever tried before, and much to our joy, we found that at local markets and at the Grand Bazaar, this was given away as samples for us to try. The texture is very marshmallowy, and it can come in fruit, honey, nut, chocolate, and coconut flavors (many of which are mixed, of course). The outside is covered with a powdered sugar. The fruit flavors in particular are almost like a gummy. Needless to say, it was very delicious.

The Bosphorus-
This is a river that is indeed a wonder. It is literally on the brink of Europe and Asia, so if you asked which continent Istanbul was on, you would get these two answers. We only crossed over from Europe to Asia twice - both under unfortunate circumstances. We crossed over the first time when we accidentally took the ferry boat instead of a boat that takes people out to touristy islands. The other time, we crossed over when we had to take a VERY expensive cab ride to an airport. (We were running low on time because just before that, we went to the wrong airport...I don't want to talk about it...)

Also worth mentioning is the Golden Horn River, which branches off of the Bosphorus. We crossed over this several times when we were touring around Istanbul. It has fishermen who line up and presumably fish for a good amount of time during the day, but when you look at the fish they have caught, they are no longer than 10 inches long...It also has a place just off of the river where you can sit down and have a fish sandwich - fresh caught from the river! Delicious.

Food-
After coming from Asia, our west-acclimated taste buds celebrated with joy with all of the foods Turkey had to offer. Surprisingly, Korea does not have a ton in the way of just salad, unless we really go out of our way to buy all of the ingredients (at least half of which go to waste because they come in such large quantities) and mix them ourselves. We also enjoyed all of the "village" cheese, butter, and yogurt, which are all actually made in a village outside of Istanbul. (Malynda said they were made in the old style - by hand/churn/whatever.) The cheese was a white cheese akin to Brie or Camembert, and the yogurt tasted very un-messed with, like Nancy's Yogurt back home. There was also an abundancy of western dishes in general such as pasta and sugar-dense desserts. (Korea has rice cake, which is like cooked, ground rice that is very lightly sweetened - but not much - and it has the consistency of marshmallows. So we sometimes do miss a nice, sweet dessert.) Baklava was easy to come by, and we definitely took advantage of that fact while we were there.

Teas were also in abundance. It is a sort of Turkish custom to invite people into your house for tea, and Turks drink tea in the outdoor markets, in the airport, and even in a large square where you can find vendors walking around with large thermoses and plastic cups for you to use. The most common was black tea, but apple tea was also very popular. We took some apple, mint, cinnamon/clove, mixed fruit, and rosehip tea with us before we left.

We were delighted to find a large amount of fruit and nuts there. We even picked up a good deal of dried fruit, like figs, apples, dates, apricots, and more. Walnuts and almonds could be found for very cheap.

Well, that's all I can think of for now. I did not cover Cappadocia, so expect a post soon from Kait about what we did there. It was gorgeous and VERY fun!