Getting Our Bearings, Finding Ourselves At Home

On our second full day in Istanbul, we have discovered that this is one of the least stressful countries we have visited in recent years.  Aside from the carpet purchase, which is yesterday's news, we have felt well within our comfort zone here.  Because we are in the tourist part of town (this is a huge city and we are staying in one tiny corner, walking everywhere), we have not seen the areas where there must be hardship. Unlike Greece, there are no beggars on the streets.  We did see one lady in a pitiful posture on the ground, just outside the Grand Bazaar.  No one asks us for money.  Everyone invites us to spend money, but no one seems to be in desperation.  Without exception, every person we have met has been friendly, welcoming, smiling. Even when walking on the winding streets in the dark, picking our way through the snow, we feel safe. This may be an illusion, but we have had no reason to be fearful. In addition, this is the least expensive country we have ever visited.

We had another delightful breakfast (oh yes, everywhere we go there are REAL dishes with real silverware, even in the smallest and least pretentious restaurants) -- this time there were crepes to fill with a hot tomato/meat sauce in addition to the extensive spread we found yesterday.

Outside the snow was slowly melting, there was water running in all the gutters, and the shopkeepers were continuing to clear the sidewalks with their squeegies.  We have never seen anything remotely designed to take away snow.  They break up the ice with those squeegies.  The military guys had some shovels, but they were not snow shovels.  One person with one John Deere garden tractor with a blade would have made a huge difference in this town.  You would think that in a city that has so many tour buses, someone would find a way to make some money on clearing the roads.  I guess it just doesn't snow here very often.

We went to the Museum of Archaeology, which is under renovation in a big way.  There was a big printed banner across the top of the building that said, "the Museum is being restorated."  This museum holds antiquities from Mesopotamia (4000 years ago, with cuneiform on stones) to sarcophogi from two millenia ago (of course they have been re-used many times) to Greek and Roman sculptures to Turkish mosaics.

It is the storehouse and story-house of the Ottoman Empire, which Suat reminded us yesterday was the king of the world for many centuries. Like Britain, they got to keep  a lot of treasures that were accumulated during their time in power.

Like in Greece, there are columns and sculptures lying around outside on the ground -- too much stuff to fit into a museum.  There was even a swingset in their midst, making the space useful.

We spent a lot of time learning the long history of Istanbul, and that made us feel a lot more grounded. While Rebecca considers Athens to be the cultural center of history, I think this city may have a much better story.  It was Byzantium before it was Constantinople (the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and then after that the capital of the Ottoman Empire) for over 1500 years and then it became Istanbul less than a hundred years ago. The number of governments and societies and buildings that  have come and gone is staggering.  We are just walking  around on top of 2500 years of other people's lives.

We were too museum-ed out to go to the palace after that so we just found a place for yet another Turkish meal.  Like in Greece, there seems to be one menu. Luckily it is a good menu.  We have eaten garlic and eggplant, lettuce and tomatoes and cucumbers, yogurt, various kebabs for lunch and dinner  for two days in a row, and tomorrow promises to be the same.  There is a difference in the sauces and the complexity of the cooking, but it is all good and it is all inexpensive.

Then we went to the Grand Bazaar (which reminded us instantly of the Old City in Jerusalem).  A crowded indoor mall with shop after shop selling souvenirs, jeans, scarves, stuff.

Jon wondered how anyone can possibly make a living there.  We walked up and down and around, past dozens of men who wanted us to make their day.  I finally stopped at a place where the man was not trying to engage us, told him I wanted a very plain version of the Turkish tea glasses, he found us what we wanted, started out at 120 turkish lira, went immediately down to 70 TL and we bought the set for 50 TL which was just fine with us.

After that it was time to get off our feet.  We headed home, looking for someone to sell us a cup of selap along the way (Rebecca and Benjamin have both told us how yummy this hot drink is) -- and we found one, finally.  DELICIOUS.  Hot milk with sugar and vanilla and cinnamon, so hot you can only barely sip it.

We got warmed up,  took a long nap, woke up to the call to prayer at 6 PM (just outside our window), read some, and finally roused ourselves for dinner.  We walked a few blocks downhill to a tiny restaurant where I recognized one of the customers as the kid who fell down a steep flight of stairs yesterday while carrying a bucket of soap water where we were eating lunch. He looked much better today (in our world they would have called an ambulance after that event -- but someone just helped him hobble home, saying he would be okay). 

On the way home, we saw a tiny graveyard tucked in between two stores, and we stopped for the second night at the bakery where the man rescued us when we arrived.  They make chocolate baklava that is worth eating twice, among other things.