Delightful Turkey

Okay, I know the title is totally cheesy...but hey I like cheese so I figured you guys wouldn't mind...too much.

Have been in Turkey for 3 or 4 days now and it's all quite nifty. Although I would like to take a moment to point out the irony of cancellation of our original Cairo to Istanbul tour because of the war between Lebanon and Isreal, and now that that's all quieted down and we've picked the 'safe' option of just doing a Turkey tour bombs having been going off every day since we arrived! Gotta love that, eh?

Istanbul was neat, but it's a huge city - about 20 million spread over more than 200 square kilometres. Therefore, we were only able to see the tourist area where we were staying, so I don't feel like I really saw much of daily life in the city. But that being said, the tourist area was phenomenal, so we certainly saw lots of cool stuff, including:

1) Aya Sofia (aka Hagia Sofia)
- Built around 500 AD by the Byzantine emperor Justinian, this was one the most important churches in Christendom for hundreds of years. (This was back when Istanbul was Constantinople...not Istanbul...so if you've got a date in Constantinople she'll be waiting.... oh you get the idea)! It was designed as a 'mirror of heaven' so all people who walked into it would be so impressed by its beauty that they would want to be better people so they could go to heaven. Then in 1453, Sultan Mehment II sacked Constantinople, ravaged the church and turned it into a mosque. Then, during the crusades, most of the most important icons and reliquries were 'borrowed' by 'devout' crusaders and taken to Rome. Now Aya Sofia is a musuem, however, the original design is still visible and it stunning.
1) The Sultan Ahmet Mosque (or the Blue Mosque)
- This was built in the early 1600s and was supposed to rival the beauty and majesty of Aya Sofia. It definitely does this. It's beautiful. The most interesting fact about it though is in regard to its minarets. Apparently, the Sultan asked for the minarets (the tall, pointy towers) to be made of gold, but the Turkish word for gold is very similar to the Turkish word for 6, so Sultan-dude's architect mis-heard and built 6 minarets surrounding the mosque. When the mosque was finally built and shown to the religious leaders of the day, the Sultan got into massive trouble because the only other mosque in the world that had 6 minarets was in Medina,which is one of the two most sacred places in the world for Muslims. So everyone thought Sultan-dude was trying to put himself on par with the mosques built in Mohommad's honour! In order to save his reputation (and most likely his hide) he promptly shipped his architect off to Medina to go and build a 7th minaret for the mosque in Medina. Neat storey, eh?
3) Topkapi Palace (now Musuem)
- Built in the 1400s, this Palace was the functioning home and seat of government for the Sultans of the Ottaman Empire for nearly 400 years. It ceased to be used around 1860. Man did those sultans ever like to live in style! The Palace was big enough to have 4000 permanent residents, but often visiting dignitaries would increase the temporary population to 5000 or 6000 at any given time. There were special quarters for the doctors, the scribes, the enuchs, bizzarely there was a circumcision room, and of course the ever important harem:)


All these things are 'must sees' for anyone who chooses to come to Turkey in future. I would not recommend coming in peak season though. That is unless your idea of fun is to get frog-marched along through halls and halls of jewelry, paintings and carpets with about 300 other souls all oooing and ahhing over the same stuff. Blah! Tourists! (For the record, I'd rather think of myself as the kettle, rather than the pot...thanks).

Another highlight of our short time in Istanbul was smoking a nagilah pipe, which is the Turkish version of the Sheesha pipe we smoked in Egypt. Mandarin flavoured tobacco! It was soooooo good! Am seriously considering giving up my life of wandering to open a coffee/nagilah pipe shop in Vancouver!! (just kidding)

Overall impressions of Turkey thus far:
- It's more expensive than I expected; everything is similar to Canadian or European prices which is damaging the budget somewhat. D'oh! (It's alright, I'm quite sure I'll be able to make up my budget on the next phase of our trip - Paris and Rome are cheap, right???)
- It's quite European; the public transit systems here are very advanced, clean and efficient. Also, there is quite a bit of English here, which is really good because Turkish seems like a rediculously hard language to learn. The would for 'thanks' is like 14 sylables: teshekularederimefindim!!! no joke!
- Everyone here still loves and reveres Attaturk, which is cool. If you don't know about him, I seriously recommend picking up a book about him. He is a very, very interesting character. For now though, all my courses on Middle Eastern politics and history are coming in very handy! All that education apparently didn't go 'in vain for nothin'!


Right now we are in Central Turkey in area called Capadocia (pronounced Kap-pa-do-kia). The reason this area has become famous is becuase the land was once entirely covered by layers and layers of volcanic rock and at one point is was also all underwater. This means that the current rock formations are absolutely bizzare and very cool, because of the way the diferent types of rock have gradually eroded. All quite beautiful. (Don't worry, cool photos are coming soon).


The big event for today was going to a small town called Nevshir where they have a pottery factory that has been hand-producing pottery for hundreds and hundreds of years. Apparently, this area was completely agriculturaly useless so the men had to learn how to become potters and the women had to become weavers. In fact, men were not allowed to marry until they had mastered the basic art of throwing a pot* and the better they were the more wives they could have. A master potter, capable of throwing the most difficult pieces was allowed to marry 4 wifes!

Anyway, I learned an important lesson at the pottery factory today: talent is not hereditary! They gave us a demonstration on how to throw a pot on a kick-spin wheel and then asked if any of us wanted to have a go. So, of course I said 'sure'! thinking that as I'd watched my mother do this a million times as a kid, that I'd be able to do it. Besides, the guy giving the demo made it look so easy! I then proceeded to embarass myself entirely by just making a big messy blob of clay. But I got really messy, and it was lots of fun and now I have a new appreciation for just how talented my mother really is!
















- View of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul
















- Inside the Blue Mosque
















- Fascinating rock formations in Cappadocia; yes those are actually windows...people used to live in rooms carved out of the rock faces.

















- Niffty camel rock in Goreme!
















- Me & B hanging out in Love Valley, Goreme, Cappadocia.

- Trying to throw a pot in Goreme, having fun and making a big mess!!!


TK

* For the unenlightened amound my reader-ship, the phrase 'throwing a pot' does not mean literally picking up the pot and tossing it against a wall. It means taking a lump of wet clay, putting it on a spinning wheel and shaping it into a pot with your hands; a delightfully messy process:)