Thursday, May 29, 2008

Happy Conquest Day!

Hello all,
I know you probably won't get time to look at this post until after you get back from all the Conquest Parties you're going to today. As you may remember from yesterday's post, today is the 555th anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. I've been surprised by the very public nature of the government-sponsored celebrations. No one else has; they argue that it's a simple affirmation of Turkishness, commemorating one of the most important and triumphant moments in Turkish history. I agree, of course. But at the same time, I can't help but be confused. It seems counterintuitive for the government, which (despite its more Islamic orientation) is avidly seeking membership in the European Union, to emphasize the events of 1453. In the Western psyche, this year is viewed as catastrophic for civilization; the uncouth Turks destroyed the venerable and cultured Byzantine Empire, streaming across southeastern Europe until halted by the heroic efforts of the Austrians in 1529 and Poles in 1683. To celebrate May 29 in such a public way only heightens the fundamentally non-European identity of the Turks. Many European countries are struggling to integrate their rapidly growing Muslim populations, and are hardly enthusiastic about admitting 70 million more into the EU (a population increase of over 15%). May 29 is a day of understandable pride for Turks, but I still wonder about the government's rationale.
Enough rambling (we haven't even been to the main celebrations, scheduled for tonight- I'll report tomorrow). Today we woke up early- 8- to go to Sabancı University, one of Turkey's newest and best universities. We had to take the ferry to Asia, and then an hour-long bus ride, and techincally it's still in Istanbul! It was a really interesting day, interacting with Turks our own age who spoke much, much better English than we're used to; they actually were quiet proficient. The students were so enthusiastic, smart, and curious (I feel like this sounds condescending, and I certainly don't mean it to be!), and we're meeting up with them again tonight or tomorrow night. Here's the group:
Okay, I know this looks more like a class picture than a group of friends, but we're certainly the latter. Here's one of the University itself:
In the very background is the Sea of Marmara, with one of the Prince's Islands. The University's about 9 years old, and has almost 3,000 undergrads. It's private (rare) and interdisciplinary (only one in Turkey with liberal arts and sciences).
That's about it for the day. As any of the other students could tell you, I've been embarrassing myself all day saying stupid things, so I'll cut my losses and say goodbye, happy Conquest Day, and I'll talk to you all tomorrow!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Dead Sultans Galore

Hello all!
I'm writing from the terrace, watching the light fade over Istanbul's skyline, listening to music, and eating my 1 lira rice-with-chickpeas dinner. It would be perfect but for the seagull brawl that is taking place on the tin roof right above me, both making a huge ruckus and giving me an uneasy, 'The Birds'-like feeling.
I need to find new ways of starting posts other than, "Wow! The past day(s) have been incredible!", but that's all I've got for now. The past days have been incredible! Yesterday was pretty quiet, which was a nice change of pace. We mostly stayed in, watched a documentary about trains, and discussed industrialization and city-planning in the late Ottoman Empire, a topic about which all of you are already so well versed as to not merit a summary of our discussion. Highlight was another delicious dinner at Prof. Shields'. Today's been a bit more busy, to say the least.
So one of the projects we're doing here is a site project, wherein we, in teams, pick a site, take the group to it, and teach them about it. Yekta and I chose (thank you Professor Connor!) the Byzantine church-turned-Ottoman mosque-turned-museum Kariye Camii. Since we weren't supposed to meet until 2 or so this afternoon, we decided to go check it out this morning. Woke up early (8:30, and oh my god was it hard), took the tram and a dolmuş (a cross between a bus and a taxi, and, at 2 lira, probably one of the best transportation options here) to get all the way out to the site- it was closed. Apparently it always is on Wednesdays. Undeterred, we went on a five hour trek that took us to six mosques and across a good third of the old city. Some highlights of a long journey:

Yes, these are sheep. Within the city's old walls (it now extends miles beyond the Byzantine walls). In the midst of a neighborhood. I really don't have anything else to say.

A good part of the old neighborhoods by the walls looked like this. Pamuk talks, in his book Istanbul, obsessively about the hüzün (or melancholy) all Istanbullus have from constantly being reminded that the city they inhabit is in many ways a shell of its former self; walking through some of these neighborhoods, I can at least begin to understand it. Also- these neighborhoods were palpably more conservative; we hardly saw any women without headscarves, and the vast majority wore black burqas. The children were just as friendly and outgoing as ever though:

These little boys saw us, identified us immediately as Americans, and said in rapid-fire English "HellomynameisXwhatisyourname?" Yekta spoke Turkish to them after my feeble Merhabas (hello) and memnun oldums (nice to meet you). They also demanded that we take their pictures. The kids here are just great.

This is the dome of the mausoleum of Mehmed II Fatih, 'the Conqueror' of Constantinople. In fact, he captured the city 555 years ago tomorrow (May 29), so there'll be big celebrations. The mausoleums are jewelboxes, so intricately detailed and colorful. His was particularly beautiful I thought.

The next mosque we stopped at was Şehzade Camii, commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent in honor of his son's early, unexpected death and executed by the great architect Sinan (one of his first buildings). It was great because:

a. it was completely empty, a first for a mosque in my experience, especially one so huge, and

b. it was so incredibly beautiful. Obligatory neckbreaking ceiling shot:


Next, we headed over to Süleymaniye Camii. Here's Suleiman's mausoleum (at this point, I think I've seen about half of the Ottoman sultans); the lighting and shape of the building are really complex, so taking pictures was difficult.
Tiles, marble, stained glass- this place had it all. Fitting for the greatest European monarch of the 16th century.
The thing on the left is a huge elephant tusk. Most of the earlier sultans are buried flanked by one. I guess a symbol of imperial power, but it looks kind of weird. And of course the huge white turban in the middle is that of Suleiman himself.
(Bird war update: the birds have either started using projectiles or one just dropped dead on the roof.)
Finally it was time to meet the group, so we drifted over to the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art near the Blue Mosque. There were so many stunning pieces, but I was most impressed by the manuscrips and calligraphy.

For some reason this picture will not rotate! Anyways, this is the bottom half of the page, 8 or 10 inches wide, and a foot and half tall. The book was hugely thick as well; I can't imagine how long it would've taken to complete. Definitely click to see the large version too. Not a bad view from the porch either:
Kind of a jarring image, isn't it? It's the obelisk of Theodosius and the Blue Mosque. In such incredible shape, it's hard to believe it's a real obelisk but it is, from 1300 BC or so and brought to Constantinople in the fourth century AD.
After our guided tour through the museum, we had our first (and hopefully not last) actual Turkish lesson! I hesitate to say that I'm more than a complete stranger to the language, but I really have learned so much in the past week.
Four seagulls just swooped down in unison from the roof about 15 feet in front of my face, so I should probably get back downstairs. İyi akşamlar, and I'll talk to you soon!

Monday, May 26, 2008

I'll Have Afiyet Olsun, Please

Okay, I know I just posted, like, two hours ago, but I want to tell the story of our dinner before I forget. So we decided to go to the little döner and pilav places (they're right next to each other, and both 30 seconds from us- pictures to come) for dinner. First, over the course of dinner, we were trying to decipher the various menu items at our döner place. I asked Zoe what she usually gets, some kind of filo or pasta and cheese thing. She was like 'Um...I don't know...I usually ask for 'Afiyet Olsun'", which are the words that ring the place's walls. We were pretty sure Afiyet Olsun was not a dish, so we cracked up. Turns out 'Afiyet Olsun' means 'Enjoy your meal', or 'Bon appetite'. So, every day, Zoe has been ordering bon appetite from various vendors around Istanbul. Her ordering style is, needless to say, more pointing-oriented than visual.

Second, they brought us a round of tea for free! This might not seem like a big deal to you, but this means that we're regulars. And we've only been here a week! We engaged in something between a charades game and a conversation with them before we left, solidifying our friendships. In all, a çok successful evening!

Adventures in the Harem, and I Get My Shoes Shined

Hello all!
Today's big event was a tour of Topkapı Sarayı, the foremost palace of the Ottoman Sultans for the first four hundred years of their residence in Istanbul, led by NYU's Leslie Pierce. We couldn't have asked for a better guide; she knows every part of the complex and its history, and related it all with so much enthusiasm. It's such an incredibly huge and beautiful set of buildings, I'm having trouble deciding which pictures to post. Here are the ones that best capture what interested me about the palace.

God, was this place gilded! Every surface not marbled, painted, or tiled was covered with gold. This is the the outside of the building where the sultan's ministers met; he often attended in secret, hidden behind a (surprise!) golden screen.

One of the most interesting and compelling parts of the palace, for me, was the use of columns. Every column in this picture is different, and very much so: greens, purples, reds, whites, and drastically different patterns as well (striped, spotted, solid, etc.). Imagining the various origins of the columns, which clearly all came from different Byzantine monuments (which themselves could have appropriated the columns from even earlier sources), is one of the palace's attractions for me.

Just try to count the number of tile patterns used in this one small niche of the harem (the innermost part of the palace complex, NOT some kind of stable for the sultan's concubines). The tiles are just incredible, and pretty much occupy all wall space in Topkapı.

A receiving room for the sultan, though this was in the harem, so it's not clear who the sultan would've received here. Even his ministers and foreign ambassadors would not be able to enter the harem, so I guess just select family members.

A final interesting aesthetic feature: stained glass. As far as I know, it's not an orginally Islamic art form, but we noticed it in Yeni Camii as well. I don't know of any Byzantine examples either, so maybe borrowed from Western Europe?

One of the most breathtaking rooms. I wish I could remember what it was; Prof. Shields described it as "another room with tiles", and I think that's about as accurate as I can get.

Leaving the palace, we decided to go on one of our more lengthy expeditions across Istanbul: down Divan Yolu to Ataturk Bulvari, then across the Golden Horn to Beyoglu. On our way, we stumbled upon yet another Theodosian monument that I became way too excited about: the ruined triumphal arch from the Forum of Theodosius:

If you think the design on the column is weird, you're right. Alternatively called the tear drop or peacock eye pattern it's a late Roman/early Byzantine motif that no one has been able to sufficiently explain. Pretty cool to just see it on the side of the road. But that's Istanbul.

It's also Istanbul to have a major road going under a fourth century aqueduct, that of Valens:

This thing is huge.

After a LOT of traffic-dodging, we finally made it to the bridge. While crossing, a shoe-shine guy dropped one of his brushes going the opposite way from us. I got his attention, and gave him back his brush. He was very appreciative, and we went our separate ways. Five seconds later though, he tapped me on the shoulder, and gestured for me to put my foot on his little stand, where he was already setting up his brushes/oils/whatever shoes are shined with. Yeah, my shoes are pretty crappy but still, a free shoe shine! Cool, right? WRONG. At the end, he made it clear that he expected 10-20 lira for it. Neither of us were very happy. I gave him a five, and went away pissed, out of cash for the day, and somewhat jaded. This was the famous Turkish hospitality? I guess I should've made it clear at the beginning that I was not going to pay for a shoe-shine (do people with real shoes even get them?) of all things. Oh well. Another Turkish lesson learned.
We got back about an hour or two ago, and it is, again, time for my nap. Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you soon!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

MYSTERIES

Hello all,
The past day and a half or so has been, well, mysterious. These are the questions that have consumed my past 24 hours:
-how do you haggle?
-is there a ruined palace right next to our apartment?
-does Red Bull actually give you wings?
So, the first. Sometime after I posted yesterday, David, Kevin, and I went to Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, the Kapalıçarşı, to explore and maybe pick up some clothes (Turkish men wear clothes that are basically skin tight- I didn't want that small, just clothes that don't look XXL comparatively). I made the first purchase: 6 pairs of socks for 5 lira. I didn't even realize until afterwards that I didn't haggle. Was I supposed to? If so, how does one initiate haggling? "Hey, let's haggle!"? "Are these prices artificially inflated because I am a foreigner and, as such, am likely to pay you upwards of five times this item's actual price?"? But I thought it was a good deal (and I still do), so I wasn't too concerned. When we got to one of the main clothing streets though, the haggling began in earnest, led mostly by David. But I discovered something: haggling only works if you know about what you're trying to buy. I would ask the price of some shirt (to judge from that street, Istanbullus only wear Gucci, Dolce & Gabanna, and Lacoste), get a price, and then freeze. I don't know what they cost in the US, let alone Turkey! I basically got more and more confused, and eventually gave up on the idea of actually purchasing something. Something else about buying things from vendors here: everytime I think about doing so, I get the sinking feeling that if they accept my price, I must be getting ripped off. David ended up buying a shirt, but only after an hour+ of haggling (including being verbally assaulted by one angry vendor) and comparing prices in various parts of the bazaar. I guess that's what it takes.

In the bazaar itself, I found some places more my style, including a tiny hole in the wall coin store. The place was barely enough to accommodate me, the vendor, and the coins at the same time. I ended up buying two 19th cent. German coins for 8 lira. Not entirely sure how good of a deal it was, but it was a very cool experience, and I'd like to go back to look at the rest.

Walking back to our flat, Kevin and I decided to explore the vicinity of our flat a bit more. What we discovered was yesterday's second mystery. A lot about half a block from our building appears to be some kind of ruin, but we have no idea of what. You tell me:

Here are the two bases of a now collapsed brick arch. I feel like this kind of masonry is not completely modern; Byzantine or even late Ottoman seems a stretch, but twentieth century doesn't make sense either.

What are these arches even doing here??

This was particularly strange. In the immediate foreground is a piece of extremely polished granite, set into the ground, not just resting atop it. Again, I just don't know what to make of it. I just can't wait to explore more of this city.

Last night, most of us just stayed in; Friday night was about as much Turkish clubbing as we could take in one weekend, for now anyways. Another mini mystery though: there were tons of fireworks throughout the city, particularly on the Asian side. Here's one pretty cool picture of one:
Topkapı Palace and fireworks from the Asian side, beyond the Bosporus.

ALSO- I had lamb intestine for dinner. !!! It's called kokoreç, and while it didn't taste too exotic, it was very, very good, very, very cheap (2 lira), and very, very close (about a 45 second walk from the front door)- not bad for dinner, eh?

Today's big event was Red Bull's Flugtag (there are commercials for it all the time on TV- click on the link for more), which luckily came to Istanbul during our time here. It was on the Asian side, so we left at about 10, but didn't get there until 12 because of all the traffic- Turks love Flugtag! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but some of the 'flying machines' included a giant Turkish tea glass; a flying carpet; a pirate ship; Florence Nightengale; an F-117 Nighthawk; a wind-up mouse; a paper airplane; a simit seller/tram car/Trojan Horse; and a DJ booth (which the MC kept referring to as 'Chicka chika boom boom'?). Enjoy:

(Florence Nightengale. They pushed a person on a stretcher in after her; maybe I'm just old fashioned, but it did seem a big non-PC)
(You should really click on these, because it's worth it to see the large, high resolution versions of them)
Ready for a nap after such a long day. Talk to you again soon!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Arts 'n' Crafts Day! Plus: Cribs, Istanbul Edition

Hello all!
I feel like I should apologize up front for the lack of kitten pictures today- thanks for all of your responses, though. Also, if you have lolcat caption ideas, please do not hesitate to pass them along.
Moving along! Yesterday, we were introduced to two of the most important and impressive parts of Turkish visual culture, rug-making and calligraphy. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (I wish I could've gotten better pictures in the rug store, but I think you can still tell the incredible colors and designs).

The guy is Hasan, who owns the rug store in the Grand Bazaar. He was awesome, so knowledgable and so friendly. Incidentally, in a piece of presumably non-rug related advice, he told us to hurry up with having kids, because our parents want grandchildren (thoughts, Mom and Dad?). Also, the small, lightish carpet in the foreground was $1,600. No one's getting that for a coming back present, sorry guys.

The $1,600 one. It's silk, and would take a typical worker 3-4 months, working 8 hours a day.

The colors in this place were just breathtaking.

Then we went to a calligrapher, about two blocks from Hagia Sophia, who told us about techniques, etc. He drew us our names, too.


Here's my name (Clayton, for those of you who don't read Arabic or who have forgotten whose blog this is). He thought I said 'Clean' when I first told him my name.

After class, Edward, David, Kevin, and I went exploring. Things in this city just never get old to look at, visit, or photograph. I'll spare you most of them, but I particularly liked this view of the Blue Mosque, from the back:
We also persuaded some restaurant manager to let us go up to his terrace to get some incredible views of the Sea of Marmara:

This is looking south-east. The islands are the Princes' Islands, and in the foreground is the almost entirely ruined Byzantine palace, the seaside Boukoleon Palace. It's so tragic how comparatively few vestiges of Byzantium there are in this city, the center of Byzantine life for over a millenium.

Looking south/southwest. On the horizon you can see all the huge supertankers waiting to come up the Bosphorus to fill up at refineries on the Black Sea.

Coming back into the city, we stumbled upon the mausoleum of three of the late Ottoman Empire's most significant sultans, including the Empire's last really autocratic sultan, Abdul Hamid II. It was an incredible building, occupants notwithstanding.

Islamic cemeteries and mausoleums are so interesting. In the back, you can see the three sultans' coffins- they're the ones with the red fezzes. From left to right: Abdul Hamid II, Abdul Aziz, and Mahmud II (who was described on his plaque as having 'suppressed' the Greek Revolt in 1826; Wikipedia that to see why it's funny/interesting)

We explored a little more, but had to get back to get ready for our first night out in Turkey (I borrowed Edward's shirt, because I didn't think any of my clothes were tight-fitting enough to be acceptable in Turkish night-life). Very few pictures of this night survive, but here are a couple:

Dream Team is not a joke. Also- I don't think I appreciated until right now how freakishly tan I've become. Oh my God.

Successful world travelers, and Murat's beer.

We went to a bar, and then two dance clubs, which can only be described as utterly surreal. Turks have appropriated some really disparate elements of Western pop culture: techno, Kelly Clarkson, and The Bump (the dance) come immediately to mind.
Also, as promised in the title, here are some pictures of where we live. We live on the fifth floor (no elevator) of a building on this street:
We pretty much live at the top of this hill. We literally cannot speak for several minutes after climbing this hill AND all 95 stairs- yes, we counted.
The guys' flat is actually really nice- small but cozy.

My eminently clean living quarters. Also, I have become a Turkish nationalist, at the cost of three lira (the flag, fools).

The kitchen. That big jug of water with a pump is how people drink water in Turkey because no one uses tap water for anything except perhaps watering the street (more on this bizarre custom later, hopefully).
That's pretty much it for now; it's döner time. Love and miss you all!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Traffic, Kittens, and Alcohol

Hey everyone!
I know you have been checking this blog religiously, even hourly, so I apologize for the anguish surely caused by my failure to post yesterday. A lot has gone on since my last post, as evidenced by the title (don't worry, not all those things happened at the same time).
So yesterday's big event was a scavenger hunt! Professor Shields hid 15 items (a marble, a string, an orange, etc.) around Istanbul and we had to go find them!! Actually, we had to find Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and lots of other cool things. Like a place in Asia to eat ice cream:

Turkish soft serve, dondurma, is so much better than American soft serve (why Turkey moment of the day)

We had to go to Asia AND Europe (still not old), and take basically every mode of transportation known to man to find all the places. My group, the Dream Team, was myself, Edward, and Amanda. We won the search, obviously.

After four hours of searching, the Dream Team locates the Blue Mosque, whose minarets are only visible in 95% of the city

After walking approximately 85,000 miles, we were all treated to a delicious feast at Prof. Shields' flat. I wish I had taken a picture of the strawberries, because I've never seen huger things before in my life. Pretty much all produce is delicious here, by the way. Oh yeah, I also figured out how to do black and white on my camera, so here are yet more views from our terrace:


We got back to our flat at about 9 or so, the time we had arranged to meet some Turkish friends of ours. Yep, five days into this trip, and we already have Turkish friends. A couple days ago, up on the terrace, Amanda and I met Murat, who lives a floor or two beneath us (we're still not sure). We also met his friends, Uğur and Yucel; the three of them are students at film school here. It took us about an hour, but we arranged to meet up with them on Tuesday on our terrace for a parti Wednesday night. (Sidenote: alcohol is much more expensive in Turkey than in the US; the conservative AK Party in power for a few years now has raised taxes on alcohol and made it much harder for bars to serve it). The highlight of the night was rakı (yeah, no dot on top of that i- it makes an 'uh' sound), the Turkish national liquor. It's mixed with water, and turns milky white. Observe:


It's anise flavored, and it tastes like black licorice, so only about two of us were able to drink it steadily. I had a good two sips, and couldn't do any more. Still, we all had a great time.

Emily, Amanda, Yucel, Murat (who has a fear of smiling in pictures), Uğur, and David

Şerefe!

We gave each other different names, them in American, us in Turkish. Left to right: Eugene, George (he was not happy about being called George Bush the rest of the night), Çamil, Brad (I told you, the dude does not want to smile), Davut, and Erol.

We went to Istiklal Caddesi later that night with them, to see what goes on in Istanbul at 2 on a Thursday morning. Turns out, not much. One funny thing did happen: on the way back, U
ğur gave me his puşi, a black and white scarf that you wear around your neck- it's the same thing Yasser Arafat wore on his head. Anyways, we stopped to get some döner on the way back, and the guy asked me if I was from Diyarbakır, which is kind of like asking me, when I lived in California, if I was from Compton- Diyarbakır is a rough Kurdish city in far eastern Turkey. Evidently I have gotten reallllly tan over the past couple days.

Today we had class in an art school 2 blocks from Hagia Sophia, and we talked about Ottoman history (my least favorite topic of conversation ever). Walking out, we stumbled upon baskets, literally, of kittens. Don't tell Peaches, but I did kind of freak out.


Can you blame me? The other thing I wanted to talk about today was traffic here. Maybe it's not that different from other major cities, but it is absolutely nuts. It still cracks me up how there are NO rules whatsoever. Cars, people, buses, bikes, and motorcycles go wherever they want without regard for lanes, curbs, other humans, or their personal safety. At lunch, it looked like this for about a second:
Most of the time it looks like this:
Other note- every time someone (waiters, people on the street, etc.) tells us the population of Istanbul, it goes up! The first we heard was 11 million, then 13, then 15; the highest bid is currently 18 million people. Hope all is well back in the states, thanks again for reading, and I'll talk to you soon.