I just read that last entry again after hastily writing it and then running for my train. I apologize to everyone who took time to read it as I feel I am capable of more. Never fear! There's a lot to talk about this time around, so sit tight kids.
Immediately after posting my entry last Sunday, I ran out of my apartment towards the train station. Let me just say, it is no easy task getting to a very early flight to Istanbul. I might have already described this when I wrote about Morocco, but I will do it again anyway. If one's flight takes off anytime before 9 am, there is only one option. Sleep at the airport in Marseille. You see, there are no trains to Marseille from Montpellier early enough in the morning to get you to the airport on time. Furthermore, you can't get a shuttle from the Marseille train station to the Marseille airport (roughly a half hour drive...not worth the taxi cost) after midnight. So the key is to get the very last shuttle to the airport possible, having timed it perfectly with the hour and a half train trip from Montpellier, as to spend the least amount of time in the incredibly uncomfortable airport. Now, I've gotten very good at this over the course of my travels, but the point is that I had to spend another night in the Marseille airport to catch my 6:50 am flight (This is an obnoxious post already...feel free to stop paying attention at any time).
Ah, but this 6:50 am flight is not to Istanbul. No no, it's to Munich. I had a three hour layover in the Munich airport, which is equally uncomfortable but very efficient. Well, it is Germany after all.
At roughly 2:30 pm, I got into Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul. After obtaining a visa and fighting through an enormous, and remarkably annoying, crowd of elderly Italian people, I got through passport control and met my two friends Kiery and Lia.
Immediately what hit me about Istanbul is that it's absolutely gigantic. It's also impossible to describe it as just one thing. The term "hot mess" comes to mind. This all became very apparent just from taking the public transit system from the airport to Sultanahmet. Sultanahmet is the neighborhood where one can find the very famous Blue Mosque and the slightly less famous, but way cooler, Aya Sophia. It is also the home to the hostel in which we stayed. It was really more of a hotel though, or maybe my standards have just gotten really low. Either way, it's owned by this 22 year old Kurdish man named Matthid (sp?). I have never in my life seen anyone so young work so hard, for Matthid not only owns/runs the hostel, but he also owns/runs the bar next door. The man doesn't sleep, nor did he seem to need it. The staff was made up of four or five really random people that just kind of sleep where there is an open cushion. Matthid also had some sort of connection with the rug shop next door and the Australian travel agency on the other side. I couldn't quite figure out how all these businesses were related, but the workers in all of them moved freely from one to the other.
The rest of the trip was mostly based off of Matthid's suggestions. We had decided early that four and a half days was probably not enough to do any extensive travel around Turkey as most of the spectacular things are at best ten hours away on a bus. However, Istanbul was certainly big enough to fill that time period. Like I said before, Istanbul is all sorts of things. If you are walking around Sultanahmet, chances are you're a tourist. Life in Sultanahmet basically runs off of the shop owners finding clever ways to try and strike up a conversation with you to get you in their shop/restaurant. The most standard of these is, "HELLO!!! WHERE ARE YOU FROM?" They then proceed to guess five or six completely not correct countries until they get to the United States. If i had to hear our three voices say, "Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle" one more time, I was going to kill us, or I was going to start saying that I was from Turkey until they got confused. Most of the time, you can manage to not enter the shop if you don't want to. Sometimes you just go because you have nothing better to do. That being said, I spent a lot of time trying to think of new ways to convince random Turkish men that I in fact don't have 400 euros on me to purchase a rug. My favorite interaction was when I calculated exactly how many rugs were equal in monetary value to my student loan debt. I then pointed to the largest stack of rugs in the store and said, "I'm in debt this many to the U.S. government and various banks." He left me alone after that.
We didn't really spend too much time in Sultanahmet other than seeing the aforementioned landmarks, with the addition of the Topkapi palace on the last day. On day two, we got on a ferry to head to Asian side of Turkey. It's just across the Bosphorus and only takes about 10 minutes. Nonetheless, it is a completely different vibe than the European side. It became clear that there was much less money on this side of Istanbul and more stringent Islamic belief/practice in daily life. This might be a brash assumption, though. I probably didn't spend enough time there to really figure that out. However, we went into a bar and the owner walked up to us and asked us what we wanted. He spoke no English (there is a crap ton of English on the other side) and was very uncomfortable with the fact that there were two women in the bar. At one point, my friends lower back showed ever the slightest bit from under her shirt. The own came over and smacked me on the arm, and told me to cover her up. Or at least that's what his gestures told me. Now I'm not saying this is bad. It's just different. I noticed quickly after that that there were far fewer modern Turkish girls around. The modern Turkish girl generally wears skinny jeans and a tight shirt with normal shoulder sleeves. The head scarf seems to be optional based on how religious your family is. In this part of Istanbul, there were many more women in head scarves and a considerable amount covered from head to toe. I won't get into it right now, but this mélange of ideas and levels of fidelity is what makes Turkey one of the most interesting countries in the Middle East. The head scarf is a topic of particular interest in Turkey. Being a religious symbol, it is illegal for a Turkish girl to wear a head scarf in school (please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm always hesitant to write things about the Middle East because I never feel like I know enough about it to make judgments). At the same time, many Turkish families don't want their daughters to go to school without a head scarf. Tis complicated eh?
The pace at which we took this trip was absolutely perfect. We never really woke up early, and we spent a couple hours every morning trying to figure out what to do while eating breakfast and drinking apple tea. My favorite activity by far was just sitting on the rocks by the Bosphorus watching the water and reading a book. Okay...so I'm kind of lazy. But hey, this was my vacation from my very rigorous schooling.
My lonely planet Turkey book, which actually says "Turquie" because I bought it in France, says that if you can't afford to buy souvenirs in Turkey, it's okay. All you need is to bring back a little bit of Turkish hospitality. This couldn't be more true. They are seemingly the most inviting and warm people I have met thus far. Granted, half the time these were people trying to get money out of me. Still, they did it in a very kind and very hassle free sort of way. There's probably less anti-American sentiment in Turkey than there is in France, that's for certain. This, of course, wasn't hurt by the fact that Obama made a trip to Istanbul just a week before I was there to try and fix declining Turkish/US relations started by the first Bush, not considerably improved by Clinton, and greatly damaged by the second Bush. Basically, Turkey has always gone to bat for the U.S. during all of its uncalled for wars in the Middle East. They give the U.S. military land and air space even though they don't necessarily agree with the war, always expecting economic help in return. This, for all intents and purposes, never really arrived. The U.S, until last week, also never openly supported Turkey's ascension to the EU because they didn't want to piss off France or England. France's only real reason for not wanting Turkey in the EU is because Sarkozy is openly uncomfortable with Islamic countries. Wake up dude, millions of Muslims live in your country. Try supporting them abroad, at least symbolically, if you're not going to give them jobs and respect in your own country. They might be less angry with you. Even Turkey's economy is much stronger than some of the countries that they have recently allowed in. Thank god we voted for a President that recognizes this country's importance. Now having visited there, I can easily see how terrible the misconceptions your standard U.S. citizen has about Turkey. Did I mention that Turkey allowed women in government way before the U.S. even allowed women to vote. Gah! Sorry, the United States frustrates me a lot when it comes to the Middle East, if that wasn't already very apparent.
Other random things about Istanbul....
Tulips! They have the most amazing Tulips I have ever seen in my entire life, and they're everywhere. I'm posting pictures of them on facebook as we speak.
Kebabs! They're everywhere and they're delicious.
Ummm...Well there's a lot more. But this is getting pretty long. Ask if you would like to no more about my trip there.
Otherwise, I'm coming home three weeks from today. There are mixed feelings about this to be sure. I'm not quite ready to leave. There are a lot of things that France really does right. This outweighs the things that frustrate me by a considerable amount. I really like what France has done to me, and it would be really interesting to see what I would be like after a year or so. Additionally, every single thing you look at here seems to be life altering and awe inspiring. I find much of the United States to be sans inspiration.
At the same time, I'm excited to see how I will function in the United States with everything that I've learned here. I feel like I'm coming back with a huge secret that I couldn't even explain to someone if I wanted to. It should be really interesting to see exactly how I see things now. I've also got a nice summer planned, where I will be subleasing a room in my friend Irina's house in Minneapolis. I'll be spending most of the summer working and searching for an apartment for the fall with my future roommate Jessica. Oh, and then there's that whole graduating college thing. Woops, I should think about that for a bit.
Okay. Until next time.
Best,
Corey
OK, so, we're going back to Istanbul with Alex and Ryan and Nikkies, right? Right?
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