Alone

It is difficult to find alone time to focus on writing this blog. This is the exact opposite of what I expected. Not that I am complaining, not one bit. Meeting all of my new friends has been the highlight of the trip, and it is really sad as they move on to other places. I think there can be a special bond between travelers who are on their own, there is an understanding and camaraderie about it. With that said, tomorrow I hope to have a quieter day, I think maybe I will go to the Prince's Islands then to another Hamam. 

Today was an adventure in the rain getting out to Chora Church, a Byzantine church West of the old city. It was quite small, but the tiled mosaics were simply stunning. 

Later we went to The Blue Mosque, I found it truly peaceful because of its massiveness paired with its simplicity. Compared to many old Cathedrals, I find it easier to simply be with God because there is little to distract you, no statues, mosaics, frescoes. 

Additionally, I had my favorite meal so far. It is basically chicken and rice cooked into philo dough then cut open. I did not get a picture, but here is one of some other fantastic food...

I keep getting notes from friends back home regarding the protests and riots. I assure you that I am staying far away (remember, Istanbul is huge). If necessary, I will leave and go elsewhere, but I highly doubt that will happen. The only way this is impacting me is that it is prohibiting me from going to some of the places I would like to go and from seeing my friend. I do really feel for the Citizens of Turkey, though. Being here has shown me how important free speech and democracy really are.

Ok, one last photo for the night and then I am going to bed early!

Valens aquaducts!!

Asia!

In an attempt to avoid the riots, which I am sure you have heard of, my new friends and I embarked over to the Asian side yesterday morning. (I can now say I've been to 4 Continents, yay!) We started with visiting a Hamam (Turkish Bath) in the area of Kadikoy. This particular Bath House, called the Aziziye Hamami is only about 150 years old, and was quite simple, but still beautiful.  I suspect later this week I will go try another older one, just for the sake of it. Plus, it is enjoyable. It's basically a sauna where you can relax and get a full body exfoliation and massage. 

Afterwards, we wanted to go to the local market. On our way over, we noticed a bunch of news vans and police and realized that there was a protest there that day. So we high tailed it back to the ferry and came back to the Old City. It was really disappointing to have to leave, the riots are really having an impact on how much  we can see and do. Granted, it's a worthy cause, I believe, the Government is just trying too hard to control everything, and the people are not happy about it, which I don't blame them for! 

Setting up for the protest, I guess it got pretty bad over there about an hour or so after we left.

We ended up wandering the Spice Bazaar, which is less spice and more stuff, but there were a few fun spice booths:

I do plan to go back and buy some teas and Turkish coffee!

We were all absolutely exhausted from the heat of the Hamam and the day, so we came back to the Hostel to chill out before dinner with a view:

Apparently, my body has decided it only wants to sleep for 5 hours a night, yet I'm exhausted. Today is really rainy, so it might be a good idea to just relax....

Underwhelmed and Overwhelmed

Let's start with the Underwhelmed part. My new friend and I awoke early to go to Topkapi Palace which was the home of the Sultan and his family for almost 300 years. We arrived prior to its opening and still had to stand in line, but it was a short line compared to the rest of the tour of the Palace! Fortunately, we toured the Harem first then the rest of the Palace. By the time we exited the Harem, the lines to see the other major exhibits were HUGE, like, so big they weren't worth waiting in. Plus, there are almost no signs to tell you where you are, so it's very difficult to find where you want to go. Additionally, if you didn't hire a tour guide, there is no information other than an expensive book guide to give you further history (and that's what I want since I'm a nerd). It was gorgeous, the tiles  were simply stunning, there was so much diversity in the styles of them, but we didn't see that much of the Palace because it was just so hard to maneuver.  I want to offer to volunteer as their curator to fix all of their sign and information problems.  Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

Most useful sign ever...said no one ever! But at least there was some beauty as well:

Iznik Tiles!

Also incredibly annoying are all of the merchant men leering and you and calling you "Sweetheart" to get you into their restaurants and shops. I hate ignoring them, it feels rude, but it's just kind of gross.

Now for the AMAZING parts of the day:

1.  Turkish Breakfast is about the best thing ever, and our hostel puts on an excellent spread.  They eat breads, cheeses, fruit (fresh), tomatoes, granola, yogurt, etc.  It's the perfect way to start the day.

2. I walked over to the Caferage Medresesi, which is an arts center where you can take lessons in Turkish crafts. Initially I had gone to get a schedule for their Ebru class (see prior post: Classes). I ended up getting a private lesson right there and spent an hour making art! It was SO much fun to see it work and explore different techniques. I will pick up my dried art tomorrow and will take pictures for you then.  Seriously, I was giddy afterwards.  The whole process involves painting on a canvas of water with an oil based paint, then transferring the paint to paper. I think when I return home I will look into getting the supplies to do it at home because it was such fun.

3. My friend Kelly who is from Portland lives here in Istanbul where she teaches English. I brought 2 of my new hostel friends (I've now made 4 because I am so popular), and we met Kelly who took us to the area of the Galata Tower for a Turkish dinner (I had lamb kepab....Yum!). We sat and visited for quite a while before going to get some of the best Baklava ever. There are riots in Taksim Square which isn't far from where we were, so Kelly headed home and the three of us tourists came back to the Old City.

4. On the way back from there, we stopped at the New Mosque, which is 350 years old. We got there just before the Call to Prayer, so just spent a couple of minutes there. It was lovely:

5. While at Topkapi Palace, we sat for a while at a cafe and talked to a tour guide who was on his break, he gave us excellent tips and didn't try to sell us anything! 

The best part: It's almost midnight and I could probably keep going even though I woke up at 7:30. If you know me at all, you know I tire very easily, so this is an excellent sign than I am having fun!

Not sure what's in store for tomorrow yet, it will depend on the riots I think, but don't worry, I will stay far away from them!

Pinch Me

Seriously, somebody pinch me because I'm dreaming. That or I'm such in a jet lag induced haze after 20 hours with no sleep. The later is probably the most true.  I am currently sitting in the rooftop cafe o my hostel, letting the breeze from the Sea of Marmara wash over me and take away the sticky feeling from the humidity.  From the rooftop where I sit, I can see the Bosphorus and across it, Asian Istanbul.  I'm suddenly very aware of how large the Bosphorus is and wonder how on earth the old caique (boats) ever made it across in even semi-bad weather (they did not run during real storms from what I understand). The Willamette River holds nothing on the Bosphorus. If I were to move to another spot on the rooftop here, I would be able to see the highest dome and minarets of The Hagia Sophia Mosque. Earlier when walking around with my new friend (more on that later), I heard the Call to Prayer and suddenly felt like a "decadent Westerner" (If you watch "Little Mosque on the Prairie," then you will understand the humor here). It wasn't nearly as loud as I thought it would be. I was hoping it would knock me off my feet, that way I would be certain to hear it from my hostel and it would wake me early enough for embracing whatever the day held.

Back to the new friend. I was initially told that I would have my 4-bed dorm to myself tonight, so I was  a bit surprised after my shower to find another girl had moved in.  I am not certain yet if the Proprietor is entirely trustworthy, but it's hardly a major transgression. In fact, it's kind of great, the girl turns out to be another lone traveller (from Australia). She had already walked around the city a bit, so I followed her up to the area of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia where we found dinner and dessert and just visited. We parted after that so I could take a short nap (still not certain if that was a good idea, I feel more groggy now). It was nice to just have another person to sit down with for a while anyways, we'll see how much we do together. Once again I'm feeling non-commital.  

Tomorrow, I think I will start my day at Topkapi Palace followed by the Archaeology Museum. I'd like to stop by the Caferaga Medresesi (an art school nearby) to check on their schedule for Turkish marbling (Ebru) classes.  I'm also meeting a friend for dinner, she teaches English here.

Here's to a slow, but excellent start to an amazing adventure!

See Asia there across the river?!

A Ferengi in a Strange Land

Growing up with Sci-Fi loving parents like mine, you not only are subject to strange creatures on television, but you begin to love and cherish the characters.  There are, however, a number of characters that will make your skin crawl and if you ever came upon one in real life, you might want to turn around and walk away...very quickly. One such creature is the Ferengi.  It's not because they'll bite your head off, but it's because they are greedy, misogynistic, and generally untrustworthy.  In general, they're a nuisance.  They are all about commerce and money making, it's all about the bottom line and doing whatever they need to do to increase their profits. 

A Ferengi:  Isn't he dashing?

So, imagine my surprise to find the word "Ferengi" in a Novel about Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk.  I don't think I'd ever really questioned where the name came from, just figured it was made up.

But it turns out that it's an Arabic word for European Traders (or Westerners in General).

Great. This means I'm going to be a Ferengi in Istanbul.

 

Jean Luc Picard does NOT approve.

WHAT THE CARP AM I DOING?

You know that moment when your senses are on high alert and you simply stop doing anything?  My counselor said, generally, when people are afraid, they will take one of two actions: a) They will RUN or act quickly in some soft of way or (less likely) b) they will freeze and do nothing.

So here I am, I finally have the information on how much my tax return is (not as much as I was hoping, damned tax brackets), and there's a really good price on a flight to Istanbul.

In the meantime, there was just a suicide bombing at the Embassy in Ankara (not that I'm going to Ankara anyways) AND a young woman just one year older than me (who was travelling alone) was just found murdered in Istanbul.  Commence family and friend panic which = Jessica panic.

So I'm sitting here, frozen by fear of money and terrorists, doing nothing and wondering if I should go someplace else. I talked to my mom who made some suggestions, but nothing is jumping out at me. NOTHING.  I've been thinking about Turkey since last May, so maybe I'm just too focused. And of course, I could go another time, but really, when will I ever REALLY have the $$ and when will it REALLY be safe to go anywhere?

So I booked it.  Yep. Just did it. Decided not to let the fear make me frozen.  Can't wait to see what my counselor says about that.

Am I afraid? Absolutely!  I've had had so many friends tell me how brave I am for going alone, they would never do that!  (You hear that enough and you start to doubt yourself pretty quickly).

But am I excited? EVEN BIGGER ABSOLUTELY.

So, here goes the newest adventure in Jessica Kimmet's crazy life.

Well, here it goes on May 30-June 11 anyways :-)

Classes

There are a number of cooking classes in Turkey created just for tourists. I was tempted to look into them more, but then it dawned on me... I don't like to cook!  I prefer eating, so at most, I think I'll stick to a culinary tour. BUT, I was just reading about an art form called Ebru.  Ebru is an art form in which ink is floated on water and swirled into various patterns. Paper is then set lightly on top, thus soaking up the color.  I love art and trying new mediums, so I thought, I wonder if there are any courses for tourists in Istanbul?  And lo-and-behold there are!  

Here are some courses that are available for my future reference:

http://www.istanbulshotels.com/marble_lesson.html

http://www.bazaarturkey.com/tours/turkish_marbling_lesson.html

Here are some pictures of Ebru art: