Istanbul again!

Hello, lovelies!

Well, we've been in Istanbul since I last updated, and this portion of the trip has matched my style of traveling much better than the other three weeks. For the first couple days, we did things as a group. We visited Topkapi Palace, home to the Ottoman sultans until around 1900. There, we saw, supposedly, the sword of the Prophet, the swords of all four Sunni caliphs, and strands of the Prophet's beard (think the bones of saints in the Catholic tradition and it'll make sense). The next day, we visited the Dolmabahce Palace, the second major palace for the sultans in the rococo style. Our tour guide (you have to have one, probably because Ataturk died in that palace and they revere Ataturk intensely) was hilarious, saying things like, "And you will now experience the crystal staircase" or "these windows were very practical for having the ladies of the harem to see what was going on." My friend Maryam and I had a riot making fun of him and the place in general, because it's the most obnoxious, tacky place you've ever seen.

We also visited the neighborhood of Taksim, home to Istiklal Caddesi, or Independence Street. It's packed with American-like stores and embassies and nightclubs; not really my scene, but we managed to find a few really cool antique stores. One had little grammophone pick containers from Nazi Germany; they had Hitler and Hitler Youth and swastikas all over them. I couldn't believe such things were still around and being sold. We also found a September 11th chess set, with Rumsfield as the queen, Condi as the bishop, the Twin Towers as rooks, and Blair as the king. They will sell ANYTHING in this country.

Our Lehigh friends left last Thursday, and from that point on, we've pretty much had free time. We have classes on the Qur'an and Rumi in the morning and evening, but the day is ours to explore. One day, I revisited several mosques that I had wanted to take better pictures of and because they're just plain gorgeous. Another day, I went exploring in the Fatih neighborhood, which the guidebooks call the "fundamentalist" neighborhood, but really it's just where the devoutly religious people live. I like it because I don't get catcalls and everyone is really polite. Trying to buy stamps there, however, was a challenge since no one knows English because there are no tourists to bother knowing English for. Oh well.

On Sunday, the whole group went to visit this guy's house on the Asian side of the Bosporus (meaning super expensive real estate, as it was RIGHT on the water). Our professor had only told us that he was a spiritual leader in Turkey, nothing else. As we were asking him questions, he revealed that he thinks evolution and Darwinism are complete lies, that Jesus Christ and the Mahdi (Muslim figure) will return in 15-20 years for the end of times. He was dressed all in Versace and was as big as a house, with his henchmen loitering in the background, doing things at his bidding. Turns out that this guy we visited is the leader of the largest cult in Turkey. Yup, I visited a cult. How many people can say that?

After a day of wandering around, a group of us met up for dinner under one of the bridges that span the Golden Horn. We watched the sun set over the Aya Sophia and the water; it was absolutely beautiful. Today, I went to the Archaeological Museum, which has some absolutely amazing stuff. I enjoyed seeing the artifacts recovered from Troy and the marble statues built by Greeks and Romans.

Tomorrow, we head to the Prince's Islands just of Istabul's coast. I'm excited. :)

We leave on Friday, and that's hard to believe. I've absorbed the rhythm of this place; I know its sounds and smells and atmosphere. Right now, I can wake up and decide to go see the Aya Sophia or shop in the Grand Bazaar, but once I go home those things aren't physically possible. Plus, this place is just so PRETTY that I can't get over it. Yet, I want to see people and sleep in my own bed and not spend any money for a very long time.

I'll write once more before I leave, so no worries.

Check out my pictures of Istanbul and Bursa (so far, those are the only two cities loaded. I'm working on it).
Istanbul part 1: http://picasaweb.google.com/kclocke2011/Turkey1?feat=directlink
Bursa: http://picasaweb.google.com/kclocke2011/Bursa?feat=directlink

Loveliness

Oh my, I've been busy. When I last updated, we had just arrived in Pamukkale, which was beautiful. We visited an ancient Roman city on top of a large hill. The site was chosen because of the naturally warm spring water that flows through the area. That same water has a lot of calcium in it, and over the centuries it cas created this massive, well, mound of hard calcium over this hill. It looks like vanilla frosting cascading downwards with warm water pooling in certain places. I walked through the huge Roman ruins for awhile before spending a good amount of time walking barefoot through the warm water and admiring the rolling farmland below and high mountains in the distance. It was absolutely beautiful.

From there we traveled to Kusadasi (Kush-a-day-see), which is a town on the Mediterranean coast. The view of the ocean from our hotel was absolutely amazing, and we got two free days to do whatever we wanted (we don't get weekends here). Three other girls and I (everyone else was super lame) took a one hour ferry to the Greek island of Samos one day, and it was absolutely the most amazing day ever. Samos is a mountainous island with several towns scattered about it, and it has been inhabited for as long as history has been around. We took a 20 minute taxi ride to the town of Pythagorion, and spent the day there. The other girls spent the day at one of Samos' pebble beaches, while I went exploring on my own.

Having the day all to myself, without 24 other people swarming around me, was exactly what I needed. Plus, the island was absolutely beautiful and incredibly laid-back and peaceful. No shopkeepers yelled "Hello lady!" at me like in Turkey, no one asked where I was from, and I could just do exactly what I wanted. I found this amazing fifteenth century Christian basilica; no one was there, and it was beautiful. I discovered a castle used to attack the Turks (who else?) and climbed half-way up a mountain to get an overview of the town. I spent some time at one of the small, quiet pebble beaches before wandering through the town and eating the most delicious green apple I've ever had. The architecture in Greece is the most beautiful and relaxed I've ever seen (yes, I wouldn't mind becoming an architect some day) and I found the house I want to live in some day. We all met up again and took the ferry back to Turkey. Greece was probably my second favorite portion of the whole trip thus far.

After a day spent writing a paper, on Saturday we ventured to Ephesus. Yes, that means the Ephesus of the Book of Ephesians, where Paul preached. We saw the fountain of Hadrian and the ancient library, as well as the amphitheater where Paul denounced the idol-worshipping Romans. We also visited the supposed house of the Virgin Mary, which is a pilgrimage site for both Muslims and Christians. Finally, we caught a plane (and almost missed our plane) back to Istanbul.

Yesterday, we visited the shrine of Eyup, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad and considered the most sacred site in Turkey. After a lovely tea session overlooking the Golden Horn, we went to a Turkish bath in the afternoon. There, the girls and I were scrubbed down til our skin glowed and then massaged. The room was super warm, so all my toxins were sweated out, and I felt ever so clean afterwards. The only stain on the experience was this old American woman asking all of us what we wanted to do with our lives. When I told her I want to be a Palestinian rights activist, she started telling me to get a second major because everyone in the Middle East would want to kill me and I wouldn't like them anyway. I got really pissed off; I don't like being told that a certain sector of the population doesn't matter for whatever reason.

Today, we ventured to Topkapi Palace, home of the Ottoman Sultans until 1900. The place screamed money everywhere you looked, and one room held an 84-carot diamond ring. Also, the Sultans were fat, because their outfits were in there, and about three of me could have fit in them.

My whirlwind tour of Turkey is almost over, and my heart is definitely ready to go home. We have more free time from here on out, though, so I'll be able to explore more. I'm finally getting used to opposite light switches (up is off) and hole-in-the-ground toilets and crazy shopkeepers just in time for me to come home.

My friend Joe in one of the calcium pools















The amazing Christian basilica in Greece










The Greek ocean











The ancient library at Ephesus

Roaming Around Turkey...

So, when I last updated, I was in Cappadocia, which has been my favorite part of the trip thus far. Our second day there we visited an underground city, the first two stories of which date back to 2000 B.C. The Byzantian Christians later added six more floors, and they used it to hide from invading armies. It was pretty amazing; we crawled through four foot high tunnels to get from room to room and saw the winery, kitchens, bathrooms, and trap doors it included.

We also attended a sama' ceremony in Cappodocia, otherwise known as a whirling dervishes ceremony. The practice began with the Sufi poet Rumi (whom we're here studying) and his Sufi order. Men wearing long, poofy, white skirts literally spin in formation for half an hour or more, their skirts never touching. Their teacher moves between them, and he magically never touches anyone either. Traditionally, the practice was meant to connect a person to God by centering their thoughts on the Divine, but since Ataturk banned Sufi orders in the 1930s, the public ceremony we attended is labeled as "folklore" and done mostly for tourists. Watching, though, produced this incredible feeling of both tranquility and thoughtfulness; I really enjoyed it.

After two days in Cappodocia (where the head waiter of our hotel refused to believe that my eye color was real; he kept asking if I had color lenses in), we journeyed to Konya, where the shrine to Rumi is located. The shrine, which is now labeled a museum because of the ban on Sufi orders, is very pretty and packed full of pilgrims coming to interact with Rumi's baracka (sort of mystical power force and also where our President gets his first name from). Yeah, I could explain more, but you might as well just read my class notes.

Also in Konya, we visited some medresas, former religious schools under the Ottoman Empire, another mosque, and Sufi shrines. This morning, we packed up for Pamukkale (REALLY fun name to say--Pam-oo-ka-lei) which is near the beach and really pretty. Tomorrow, we head to the BEACH at Kusadasi, where we get three days to ourselves, other than writing a paper. In that three days, I'm going to take a ferry to the Greek island of Samos, which I'm really excited about.

I can't believe I'm almost three weeks into this program. It doesn't feel like three weeks; it alternately feels like three days and three months. I am looking forward to understanding what people are saying again, and sleeping in my own bed, and actually knowing what I'm ordering at restaurants. But I'm enjoying it while it lasts, and am excited to return to Istanbul and buys lots of souvenirs. :)

Underground City















Rumi's shrine (no pictures allowed inside, says the Kemalist state)










Subverting the Kemalist state by taking photos where I'm not allowed to take photos. This is from a beautiful Seljuk-era medresa








We ate lunch in a small village overlooking Konya











Kelsey and I in Pamukkale at the calcium deposit mountain (real name to be determined later) that we'll climb tomorrow!

We Have Terrace!

So, we've been rather busy. We left Istanbul on Saturday for Bursa, the fourth largest city in Turkey. It's located west of Istanbul on the route the Silk Road took. We visited the Silk Bazaar, which is literally lots and lots of little shops filled with silk products--scarves, purses, shirts, dresses, ties, everything. They were all GORGEOUS, and as it was in an old caravan saray traders used on the Silk Road. We also visited lots and lots of tombs of Ottoman sultans and a mosque of a completely different architectural style than normal (lots of little domes, no Iznik tiles, an indoor fountain) because it was built in a transition period, before the Ottomans conquered Istanbul.

We left for Ankara yesterday, where we visited a Roman fortress and the mausoleum of Ataturk, the great Turkish national hero. He led a volunteer army against the British and French, who were trying to divide Turkey into different countries after the Ottoman Empire was on the losing side of World War I. After establishing a republic, he instituted sweeping reforms, including a secular state and the switch from the Arabic script to the Latin script for Turkish. The mausoleum is ENORMOUS, located on top of a hill/mountain overlooking the city and includes the mummified body of Ataturk along with a museum full of military history and every item Ataturk ever owned. The construction of the museum fascinated me, since the construction of history to fit the nation state model, as well as the invention of nationalism, is extremely interesting to me.

A two-hour bus ride brought us to the Salt Lake (not in Utah, thankfully). It's the second largest lake in Turkey. Pretty much it's miles and miles of five inches of water and then tons of salt under that. In a month or so, the water will evaporate and the whole place will be salt. We took off our shoes and waded around in it--great exfoliation, I must say, though it hurt after awhile.

Tonight, we arrived in Cappadocia, which is located in central Anatolia. We were driving in around sunset, and the pink light bounced off mountains and vistas and it was absolutely gorgeous. The lights were twinkling from the little nestles of houses and we finally arrived at out hotel.

So, our hotel in Anakara was total crap--dirty, smelly, sketchy (not the coordinators' fault, it really looked good on the website), so we didn't have much hope for the hotel here in Cappadocia. We were proven wrong. Our hotel is an historic Seljuk house. You walk into a gorgeous Mediterrean courtyard with little sitting nooks and fountains. In front of you is three stories of open air balconies leading to rooms; huge turrets and spiral staircases lead you up to rooms with wooden beam ceilings and massive bathrooms with marble counters (there's marble everywhere here; the Sea of Marmara off Turkey's coast means the Sea of Marble). This place is so massively pretty that I'll just have to post pictures.

Ok, so it's 11:30 at night and I'm tired and have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. So I will post pictures ASAP. I love you all!

P.S. The title of this post refers to the very exclamatory sign that restaurants in Istanbul will have to indicate they have a rooftop terrace. :)

Ataturk's mausaleum











Salt Lake










Our amazing hotel















The amazing rock fortress we climbed















Me on top of said rock fortress












Fresco in one of the cave monasteries we visited

Why Did Constantinople Get the Works? That's Nobody's Business but the Turks!

So, the other night I finally reached trip overload: too much walking, too much people time, too little sleep. I miss people at night especially, when I crave hugs and quiet down time. But yesterday was better, so hopefully my minor meltdown has passed.

On Tuesday, we visited a Jewish synagogue. I found it really interesting how the Turkish government tried to save as many Turkish Jews during the Holocaust as possible. At one point, the S.S. wouldn't release a group of 75 Turkish Jews from the cattle cars on the their way to Auschwitz, so the Turkish ambassador boarded the train with them. Eventually, realizing the massive diplomatic nightmare they'd have if they killed a Turkish ambassador, the Nazis released all the Turkish Jews.

We also visited the Greek Orthadox Patriarch, the center of the Greek Orthodox Church. I have never seen so much gold in one place before. They also had the coffins of female saints strewn about the room. We also visited this beautiful little church in a small town outside of Istanbul. Its walls were covered with mosaics depicting different Christian events, including events that were only narrated in Gnostic Gospels, such as Mary's life before Christ.

Wednesday was amazing because we finally visited the Aya Sophia (also known as the Hagia Sophia; Aya indicates the fact that the Ottomans turned it into a mosque after conquering Constantinople). As soon as I walked into the giant atrium, I was in awe. The mosaics are gorgeous, light streams in from massive windows, and the whole place has this amazing calming effect.

Next up was the underground cistern, built during the Byzantine Empire. It used to provide fresh water from the forests north of Istanbul, but now it's just amazingly cool. We ate lunch outside the spice market, which smells amazing and is full of little vendors peddling big mounds of spices, each one a different color. Lastly, we visited the Rustem Pasha mosque, which is tied for my favorite mosque we've seen thus far, because it's really light and airy and covered in the quintessential Iznik tiles.

Yesterday was a slower day. We journeyed to a museum of Turkish and Islamic art, where I got to touch doors from the seventh century and see a key to the Kaa'ba. Then we visited another smaller mosque, whose Imam kicked us out eventually. The mosque had six little pieces of the stone from inside the Kaa'ba scattered around its walls.

Whew. We have a paper due tomorrow before we leave Istanbul for Bursa, a city about four hours away. It was the originial capital of the Ottoman Empire, before the conquest of Istanbul, so the first Ottoman emporers are buried there.

We're learning so much that I'm trying to just absorb all of it without opinion or judgment. I'm sure the questions will come in a big burst later on, but for now I'm simply trying to learn as much as I possibly can. We're examining the role of religion in a secular state, the idea of experiencing religion through material culture, the idea of the Ottoman Empire as a multi-religious and multi-ethnic society, and so much more. I'm taking it one day at a time.

One of the mosaics in the small church we visited.













The Hagia Sophia















The underground cistern

Istanbul was Constantinople...

Oh my goodness I'm exhausted, but it's exhausted that arrives after lots of laughter and learning, so I suppose it's a good kind of exhausted. We've been moving about a million miles a day, and there's no way I can describe everything we've done and everything I've thought about because we'd be here for days. But I will give you the highlights.

On Saturday, we visited the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, which is absolutely huge and gorgeous. The inside of the dome and all the inner walls are covered in blue tiles, a specialty of the Ottoman Empire. Recently, one tile sold for $50,000, and this place is full of them. We then visited Little Aya Sophia, a Byzantine church converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest. After a terrace lunch, a small group of us went shopping in two bazaars, looking at amazing carpets and ceramics. That night, we visited a carpet shop to learn about all the different patterns and styles of Oriental carpets.

Yesterday was a packed day. We visited the New Mosque (it's 400 years old, which is considered new around here) and then loaded onto a boat for a tour of the Bosporus. The weather was beautiful and we could see all the mosques and monuments from the sea. It was a beautiful two hour ride. After passing the entrance to the Black Sea, we had lunch in a tiny coastal village; I had bolak, a kind of layered bread with different things in the middle of it. We then drove to a museum of Islamic calligraphy (beautiful stuff) and then arrived at Rumeli Fortress, from which the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453. It has huge citadels overlooking the Bosporus and an amphitheater in the middle. They used canons to blast the walls of Constantinople; each canon could lob a 200 pound piece of artillery for a mile.

Today, we visited two mosques. The Suleymaniye Mosque was built by the Ottoman architect Sinan for Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. The other mosque was beautiful, as well, and then a group of us had a very cheap but very delicious lunch; the owner of the restaurant kept telling the one Turkish-speaking girl with us how much he's obsessed with Obama. He was pretty cool.

Yesterday, I was on people overload and had to take some time to myself in order to prevent self-combustion. Everyone was really understanding about it and left me alone. Today, though, I've been really relaxed and have had a lot of fun. I've got all these thoughts rolling around in my head about Islam and Turkey and politics, but they haven't congealed into questions or opinions quite yet. Usually my process for learning something massively new (like a religion) is to absorb as much information as possible before processing it. That way, I can make better judgements than I could off of little information. Then the cycle repeats.

I'm developing a good balance of wit/sarcasm with quiet time, even within group activities. I have to remind myself to be calm and not to seek approval from other people, and that tends to calm my nerves. I do miss people though, especially at night when I someone become aware of how LONG five weeks is and how much I depend on certain people for comfort. The people here are lovely, though, and I'm developing some nice friendships. I'm not sure if the professor likes me, but whatever.

Tomorrow, we visit sites for all three monotheistic religions. I'll update soon!

The Sultan Ahmet Mosque at night













Taken from atop a citadel in Rumeli Fortress













Rich, Kelsey, and I on the Bosporus boat tour; the Suleymaniye Mosque is in the background.












The dome of the Sultan Ahmet Mosque

We Have Arrived!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have reached Istanbul at last. I can tell because my browser is in Turkish. So, I got on the flight to JFK at 8 Thursday morning; two people from the trip were also on that flight so we bonded while waiting for flights. We then sat in JFK waiting for Turkish Airlines to open (after traveling by airtrain from terminal 8 to terminal 1) for six hours. International tourists are CRAZY; we saw one guy roaming around with two brand new gas grills and a microwave. The rest of the UNC group arrived, and we all boarded the flight to Istanbul.

The plane was insane. They handed up free stuff every five minutes: sleep masks, blankets, pillows, socks, ear plugs, head phones, really good food. There were tons of free movies to watch, games to play, and music to listen to. They even had an exercise program that came on and taught you how to keep from feeling so disgusting while sitting in a seat for 10+ hours. We sat on the runway waiting to take off for two hours, but that was the only foul part of the flight.

We arrived, got our passports stamped, collected our luggage, and rode the bus to the hotel. Even the ride was gorgeous; we skirted the Bosporus the whole time. The houses here are so pretty, piled on top of one another with their white walls and colored roofs. On nearly every street, modern architecture sits next to buildings that have been standing for centuries; some women are wearing full head covering while others look like American fashion magazines. The call to prayer rings out over the city, but the shop keepers keep piling more stuff onto sidewalks. We're staying in the Laleli neighborhood of Istanbul; each neighborhood is named for the largest mosque in it. The buildings are four or five stories tall with multi-stories of little family-owned shops. And the sidewalks! There are seemingly random staircases downwards, or huge steps out of nowhere. Shopkeepers greet you in several different languages--French, Spanish, Turkish, English, Russian--trying to see where you're from.

We walked down to the Aya Sophia and Sultan Ahmet Mosque; we're going in tomorrow. They're insanely beautiful and HUGE! We wandered around a little before going to dinner. My table ordered the house special kabob platter. After feeding us bread and various dips, the platter arrived, complete with flames in the center. It was really, really good and cheap, too. Everything is cheap here; the Lyra equals about 70 cents.

Everyone seems really nice thus far; my roommate and I went exploring during our downtime and took pictures of the crazy things Turks put in shop windows (such as 30 baby dolls velcroed to the wall) and figured out our hotel room (you have to put your key in a slot in order to turn the lights on, for instance). At dinner I got to be sarcastic with people who actually understand it (yay!) and I generally like everyone. I'm not forgetting Kate quiet time though; even while we were wandering about I tried to be quiet so I could absord everything.

It still hasn't quite hit me that I'm in another country, or that I won't be going home anytime soon. I'm slightly awkward with people, but I'm reminding myself to shut up when I don't want to talk, and that generally seems to be working. I'm so exhausted though (I didn't really sleep on the plane and have been dealing with people for almost 48 hours straight) that nothing is really sinking in. I'm going to bed soon (it's only 9:30 PM here).

And, as promised, PICTURES!

This mosque is considered TINY by Turkish standards.














Me in front of the Aya Sophia

















Our massive platter of kabobs, complete with flame in the center


















I love you all! I'll update soon. :)