1st day in Istanbul

We were told that out of all the ports we should wake up and see the sunrise as we pulled into Istanbul.  There are two reasons for this: one reason is because we pull in through the Bosphorous Straight and on one side is Asia and the other side is Europe; the other reason is because the Istanbul skyline is littered by minarets from the many mosques in the city.  So, at 6:00 I rolled out of bed to see this magnificent sunrise and skyline.  Unfortunately no one informed the weather that we were going to be watching the sunrise, and instead of awakening to a clear beautiful day it was actually really hazy and hard to see anything.  I took that as a cue and went down for breakfast and then to get ready for my day.

 

  My day would prove to be a little different than it had been in other countries because my friend Amanda had a family friend, Murat, who lives in Istanbul.  Murat had volunteered to take us(Amanda, Catherine, Caitlyn, and myself) around the city and show us Istanbul from a native’s perspective.  So we met Murat and were instantly on our way.  I found out that Murat had lived with Amanda’s aunt for 9 months to learn English better.  This is common for upper class Turkish citizens, men and women, the way Murat talked about it.  We began by walking over one of the bridges in Turkey to the main part of the city.  We then walked through the Spice Market, which is everything one would imagine when thinking of a Spice Market.  Shop after shop was lined with piles of spices and Turkish delights.  It smelled amazing and the colors were incredible. 

 

From the Spice Market we went to Kapali Carsi, or the Grand Bazaar.  This Bazaar has over 4000 shops and was overwhelming, to say the least.  The best thing to compare it to is to the Fashion District in Downtown L.A., but that doesn’t even do it justice.  There is a jewelry section, rug section, pottery area, and pagmina area.  We first stopped at a Pagmina, or scarf, stand.  Murat told us to each pick one out and then gave it to us as a gift.  We all tried to tell him no but he wouldn’t hear of it.  We then started looking at the hand-painted bowls that were everywhere.  Again, Murat said to pick out one we liked and he gave it to us as a gift.  We told him that we appreciated his kindness, but that he didn’t need to give us gifts.  He said that he wanted to and we moved on to see a mosque near the bazaar.  The Mosque was across from one of the Universities in Istanbul, it was the first mosque I had ever been in and I marveled at its beauty.  I truly think that after all the churches I have seen in Spain and Italy, Mosques are the most beautiful houses of worship. 

 

Next we took the metro to where we would be having lunch.  We ate lunch at a great little place across from the Blue Mosque.  We had salads and meatball-like things, and a drink that tasted like watered down yogurt.  It was all delicious.  After lunch we went into the Blue Mosque.  Murat had to go do his noontime prayer and the four of us walked around and took pictures of the beautiful architecture of the mosque.  We walked around the area a little after the going into the mosque, and saw Top Kapi, and old palace, and the outside of the Hagia Sofia, an old mosque turned museum. 

 

We walked back through the bazaar on our way back to the ship.  Caitlyn, Amanda, and Katherine all went with Murat for dinner and I parted ways to go to see a Sufi Dervish Ceremony.

 

I took a bus to the location of the ceremony and once there entered a completely circular brick room.  Musicians entered and then the dancers, and the whirling began.  The Sufi ceremony is based in religion, basically the men doing the dance get lost in their devotion to god and become hypnotized in dance.  I started getting hypnotized as well due to the constant circling that the dancers were doing and also from being tired.  After the show let out we returned to the boat for some sleep.  What a wonderful first day I had in Istanbul, I already love the city.