If you’ve been reading along, you may remember I spent a few months living and teaching English in Istanbul last year.  It was an amazing city that left an indelible mark on my soul. I recently sold some photographs and another article to the Smithsonian on Istanbul. Check it out here and be sure to click on the photo gallery.

With a skyline studded with domes and minarets, Istanbul is one of the truly great romantic cities. In Turkey’s largest city, the continents of Europe and Asia come together as West meets East, separated only by the 18 miles of the Bosporus Strait that stretches from the Black Sea in the north to the Sea of Marmara in the south. And in the less literal sense, on the vibrant streets of this city of 12 million people, miniskirts and trendy boots mingle with colorful Muslim head scarves and prayer beads.

Origins:

Istanbul is a treasure trove of history still being uncovered. Archaeological remains show that people have inhabited the immediate area of present-day Istanbul for tens of thousands of years. In 2008, during the construction of the new Marmaray rail tunnel (connecting the European and Asian sides of Istanbul), a previously unknown settlement dating from 6500 BC has been discovered.  In its long history, Istanbul served as the capital city of the Roman Empire (330-395), the Byzantine Empire (395-1204 and 1261-1453), the Latin Empire (1204-1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453-1922). The city was recently chosen as joint European Capital of Culture for 2010. Istanbul has continued to expand dramatically; today its population is approximately 13 million and increases at an estimated 700,000 immigrants per year. Industry has expanded even as tourism has grown. It continues to be a city that creates its own history at the intersection where both Continents meet.

Then and Now:

Its history traces back from Byzantium to Constantinople to its place as capital of the Ottoman Empire, the most powerful Islamic empire in the world. Today it pulsates as Turkey’s cultural heart and business center.  Urban sprawl has created an Istanbul larger in area than the state of Rhode Island and more populous than all of Greece or Belgium.  Turkey continues to be the center of news and some controversy.  In October 2005 negotiations began between Turkey and the European Union for Turkey to be considered as a possible member of the EU in the future. A conflict persists between the 20-25% Kurdish population and the Turkish government.  For many citizens, women’s dress has become an issue that defines whether a Muslim is secularist or religious. Today, many women are using head scarves as religious symbols against modern Turkish society. The head scarf issue creates lots of problems in the society and in the government between conservatives and modernists.

Appeal:

Istanbul is a jewel box of old and new. Skyscrapers and some of Europe’s largest shopping malls cater to the more affluent set while the old quarter, parts of which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List, continues to dazzle locals and tourists alike with its cobblestone streets, awe-inspiring centuries-old mosques, and the grandeur of the Topkapi Palace which was the official and primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans, from 1465 to 1853. Considered to be the world’s fourth largest cathedral, the magnificent Hagia Sofia museum was originally built by Byzantine Emperor Justinian in 537 AD.  Originally a Byzantine church and later an Ottoman mosque, this marvel is universally acknowledged as one of the great buildings of the world. In this growing city, you can explore the streets where crusaders once marched; admire mosques that are the most sublime architectural expressions of Islamic piety; peer into the sultan’s harem; and hunt for bargains in the world’s original shopping mall, the Grand Bazaar, one of the largest covered markets in the world with more than 58 streets and 6,000 shops, and between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily.

Who goes here:

In 2007, more than twenty-seven million tourists visited Turkey. In the lively and historical city of Istanbul, there are thousands of hotels and other tourist oriented industries in the city, catering to both vacationers and visiting professionals. As one of the world’s fastest growing economies, and Turkey’s financial capital, Istanbul has also become a large center for business and business travelers. It has become one of the world’s major conference destinations and is an increasingly popular choice for the world’s leading international associations. According to Forbes magazine, Istanbul had a total of 35 billionaires as of March 2008, ranking 4th in the world behind Moscow (74 billionaires), New York City (71 billionaires) and London (36 billionaires).

Turkey’s beaches are widely popular with Europeans and Russians looking for some sun and sand. And with 5000 miles of coast stretching from the Mediterranean to the Aegean to the Black Sea (just an hour’s drive from Istanbul) there is a sandy spot for everyone.

Istanbul’s appeal among tourists is mainly a result of the vibrant cultures that have flourished in the city and the melting pot of different religions that have existed side by side throughout history.

Famous sons and daughters:

Elia Kazan (September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was born Elias Kazanjoglou in the capital city of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) to a Greek family. He was an Academy Award-winning film and theatre director, Tony Award-winning theatrical producer, screenwriter, novelist and cofounder of the influential Actors Studio in New York in 1947. He directed such Broadway plays as “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”. He directed the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, and many other films.

Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born June 7, 1952 in Istanbul) is a Turkish novelist and professor of comparative literature at Columbia University. Pamuk is one of Turkey’s most prominent novelists and his work has sold over seven million books in more than fifty languages, making him the country’s best-selling writer. His fourth novel, New Life, became the fastest-selling book in Turkish history.  Pamuk’s novel Kar (English translation, Snow), explores the conflict between Islamism and Westernism in modern Turkey. The New York Times listed Snow as one of its Ten Best Books of 2004.  Pamuk is the recipient of numerous national and international literary awards. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, becoming the first Turkish person to receive a Nobel Prize.

Hidayet Türkoğlu, commonly referred to as Hedo Turkoglu (born March 19, 1979, in Istanbul, Turkey) is an NBA basketball player for the Orlando Magic. He stands 6 feet 10 inches tall and won the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award for the 2007-2008 NBA Season. Basketball is rapidly gaining popularity in Turkey. In fact, the Turkey national basketball team came in second in the European Basketball Championship in 2001 in Istanbul and in 2010 Istanbul will host the 2010 FIBA (International Basketball Federation) World Championship, which could introduce more Turks to the game.

Ahmet Ertegün (July 31,1923 - December 14, 2006) was the son of the Turkish Ambassador to the United States. He was born in Istanbul and moved to the United States where he became the co-founder and executive of Atlantic Records. He wrote and produced music, defined careers and changed lives. He is described as “one of the most significant figures in the modern recording industry.” By the mid 1950s, Atlantic had become the country’s preeminent R&B label producing hits by such artists as Ray Charles and the Drifters.  The “Atlantic Sound” — a boogie-based, sax-led band arrangement that became an integral part of rhythm and blues — grew into a phenomenon that swept across the nation and the world. In England, young musicians would buy records just because the Atlantic label was on the sleeve. They would grow up to become members of groups like the Rolling Stones, Cream, Led Zeppelin and Genesis.

In 1987, Ertegün was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, of which he himself was a founder. At age 83, he was injured after a fall at a Rolling Stones performance in New York in 2006 for the 60th birthday of former US President Bill Clinton Ertegün slipped and hit his head backstage. Although he was initially in stable condition, he soon took a turn for the worse, slipping into a coma later dying with his family by his side.

Interesting Facts:

Turkey sits directly on at least three active earthquake faults. Thirteen major quakes have rocked Turkey since 1939-the latest was a 7.4 magnitude whopper in 1999 which killed more than 18,000 people.  Istanbul straddles one of the most active seismic fault lines on the globe. A few miles away beneath the Marmara Sea, the North Anatolian fault line is stirring, and scientists are predicting a major rupture within the next few decades and say the question is not ‘if’, but ‘when?’

The secular country of Turkey was founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who was an army officer, revolutionary statesman, and its first President. An admirer of the Enlightenment, Atatürk instituted wide-ranging and progressive political, economic, and social reforms, transforming Turkish society from perceiving itself as Muslim subjects of a vast Empire into citizens of a modern, democratic, and secular nation-state. Atatürk also wanted to solve the literacy problem. He created a Language Commission who developed a brand new Turkish alphabet using the Roman alphabet in 1928.

The American doughnut shop operator Krispy Kreme announced in 2008 that it will franchise about 25 outlets in Istanbul that will open in the next five years.

Related posts:

1. Turkey Time!
2. Attention Female Readers! Need an Ego Boost? Come to Istanbul.
3. Veni. Vidi. Vici. (I came. I saw. I conquered.)

An obvious bonus of staying put in one place for a long time is discovering ‘real’ Istanbul and its neighborhoods where people live, work, and play. The Lonely Planet guide book goes about as far as Taksim Square—the busy town center, so to speak, of Istanbul. It is here where the broad cobblestone-lined pedestrian drag, Istiklal Caddesi (Independence Street), begins, or ends, depending on which way you are walking. It is flanked on both sides by clothing shops, the ubiquitous Starbucks, kebab and kofte (yummy Turkish meatball) eateries, and bookstores. Beautiful French inspired early twentieth century buildings tower overhead and an old fashioned narrow trolley trundles up the hill for those not willing to do the popular stroll. And just a ten minute walk down the hill behind Istiklal, toward the Bosphorus Strait, is my current neighborhood, Cihangir. It is a former Bohemian enclave currently full of expats and artists turned yuppies and hipsters. Nearly everything you need is right here. There is a small produce stand selling plump fresh cherries, apricots, and veggies on every corner. There are grocery stores, bars, cafes, a gym, and an odd plethora of pharmacies. Sounds permeate the air harkening back to an old European village:

“Hot Simit (a kind of Turkish sesame seed ‘bagel’)!! Fresh, hot Simit!!”

“Junkman!! I can take away all your nasty junk!!!”

“Waterman!! I will bring big bottles of spring water right to your apartment!!”

One of my favorite sounds is, strangely enough, the gas man. When I first heard the sweet tunes tinkling out of his truck as he drove around the ‘hood, I thought it had to be an ice cream truck: “Aygaz…get your sweet delicious Aygaz!”

The third floor apartment I’m staying in while I cat sit for “Oscar” and “Wilde,” aka “the OWs,” is ginormous (by the way, this stupid word has been recently added to the dictionary). It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and huge living room. The back has a balcony overlooking a beautiful stand of tall, leafy trees full of cackling seagulls and feral cats in heat. The one problem? They don’t seem to believe in screens here in Istanbul, so I would say I got more mosquito bites inside this apartment than I have on most of my trip. Unfortunately, because of the summer heat, I had to keep the windows open especially at night while I slept. Well, this was just an open invitation to all the stinging insects to come suck some of my blood. Just as I would drift off to a serene sleep, a high-pitched mosquito buzzing around my hear would jolt be into a total state of itchy awakeness. I’d often wake up with new bites on my hands, feet, and even face. The ‘plug-in’ mosquito repellent devices Brigid had did not seem to be working all that much. Some nights I literally had to spray on some repellent just to get more of a sound sleep. There’s nothing like going to bed with the lovely smell of “off” to give you that camping feeling.

I live on a side street right around the corner from several trendy cafes with tables spilling onto the sidewalks in classic European fashion where locals sip on drinks, tap away at their laptops (including me), and just about everyone puffs away on a cigarette. The most popular café is Leyla’s, an ultra trendy spot that could be in New York or London. Café Smyrna’s atmosphere seems a bit more relaxed, although two nights in a row, paparazzi were staked outside with three television cameras waiting for a shot of a few local celebs. I’m actually writing this from one of the cafes right now. Kahvedan is owned by a gal from San Francisco and is a breezy comfortable place to hang out and have a latte or nice bite of something off their international menu of samosas, pad thai, and ceviche—not the norms in the very homogenized Turkish food scene. I love a good doner (spinning roasted meat) sandwich every now and again, but Turkey isn’t the most ‘international’ as far as cuisine goes, although this is slowly changing. Even though it is speeding along into the twenty-first century like the rest of the world, in many ways, Turkey is still proud of its strong roots and not entirely embracing the Western world. Although it is 99% Muslim, you would never really know this by looking, contrary to popular belief. What I mean by this is the US is about 80% Christian, but you also can’t see this just by looking. Here they are Muslim by name, but many are not religious or not practicing. There is a wrong assumption by many that Turkey is an Arabic country. In fact it is quite the opposite; Turks are fiercely defensive of their secular state which was founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a general in the Turkish Army from World War I. His Turkish state is based on Western principles of government and is said to be, in theory at least, modern, democratic and provides a definite separation of church and state. Western Turkey, especially Istanbul, looks like any European city. But what is different is how homogenously Turkish it is. And by that I mean it is not exactly the melting pot of Chicago, New York, or London. Maybe there are a few Bulgarians, Kurds, and expats sprinkled around, but by and large, Turkey is full of young Turks and they are very proud to be Turkish. Here there is little need for the English language or American products. Turkey has a huge manufacturing sector so they manufacture many of their own goods. In fact, many clothes we wear back in the states are made right here. There are no H&M, Gap, or Banana Republic stores here yet (they are coming next year), but a lot of their clothes are actually made here cheaply and exported to the states. So, there are some ‘irregulars’ floating around outlets, markets, and the black market. In every country I have a habit of checking out the grocery store. In Istanbul’s supermarkets my point is quite evident. Among aisles and aisles of mostly Turkish products the only American names I’ve come across are Pepperidge Farm Cookies, Tabasco, Miller Genuine Draft, and Budweiser. I think for some expats that may be all they need. But I have to admit I occasionally have a hankering for some nice comfy, all chemical Kraft Mac and Cheese every now and again.

In this hip ‘hood sushi is just catching on. There are only a few sushi bars around and each savory raw morsel is priced like a rare gem. I desperately needed a sushi fix so I stopped into Tokyo, a slick, contemporary, minimalist Japanese restaurant like any you’d find on nearly every corner in Chicago except here simple maki costs fifteen dollars. That’s a little steep. On the flip side, the drugs here are cheap…and easy to come by. No, not those drugs…prescription drugs. Many pills that we pop in the states can only be had after commandeering a prescription from our “primary care provider” or first getting a referral from our “primary doc” to then go see a specialist who then may give us the prescription we need. Here no prescription is necessary. Simply walk into any Eczane (drug store) and get what you need…and get it cheap. I can get a year supply of some pills I need for $8! At home this would cost me about $100. Hmmm, this gives me a business idea…but probably an illegal one.

Another cool area of Istanbul not really detailed in the guide book is what’s known as the Bosphorus villages. Along the water, several beautiful and quite affluent neighborhoods overlook the water from expensive apartments, white gleaming trendy cafes, and some glitzy nightclubs. I met a guy from Spain who was living in my neighborhood and working here for Nortel. He invited me along to join him and his friends one night at the fancy schmancy Sortie Club. High along the edge of the Bosphorus in an area called Ortakoy are about a dozen swanky outdoor clubs, one after the other, that are pricey, slick and give off an air of elitism with their velvet ropes and beefy security guards blocking the entry. This is the place to see and be seen. Here you can fork over about $100 a person for some ravioli and a few drinks. It was a bit phony and plastic and reminded me a bit of some of Chicago’s Gold Coast clubs, but there was no denying the gorgeously captivating moonlit views of the water. The setting was quite marvelous with white leather couches, dimmed paper lanterns, and the undisputable beauty of the mighty Bosphorus Bridge lit up like a Christmas tree with its own kind of light show, with all its, and the city’s, lights reflecting in the sparkling waters of the strait. So if you take a trip to Istanbul, of course go see the touristy areas and old quarter—it is beautiful, but then be sure to check out some of these ‘off the beaten tourist trail’ spots and see where the real hip Turks are hanging out.

Related posts:

1. Turkey Time!
2. Tea, Sugar, a Dream
3. Attention Female Readers! Need an Ego Boost? Come to Istanbul.

In Turkish, the words for ‘thank you’ are ‘tesekkur ederim,’ pronounced tesh-e-koor eh-dare-em and a way to remember it is to say ‘tea, sugar, a dream.’ I just wanted to break out of the ‘writing mode’ for a second to thank everyone for their thoughtful responses to my last post. I was very touched by all the wonderful and heartfelt comments I received—some from old friends from ‘way back when’ and others from brand new friends that I’ve met recently during my travels. It is so amazing to me to be so far away and yet so many friends drop what they are doing to send me an email to give me heartfelt advice. It brightened my spirits tremendously. The most common thing I heard was how many were surprised that I hadn’t had these ‘reflective moments’ sooner. I think I have here and there, but not this intensely simply because I’ve had a lot of time in Istanbul to get lost in my own brain—a sometimes scary, scary place! I am trying to NOT worry about ‘what I will do when I get home…or the rest of my life’ now. It’s not always easy, but I do want to live in the moment and that is what I should be doing. I have really enjoyed the trip and have found myself smiling while I tell others about it—so I know it’s been amazing.

Instead of going for a “Visa Run” after my three month tourist visa expires, I will most likely say goodbye to Turkey and head north to parts of Eastern Europe. I do like Turkey and could easily stay here…but there are more places I want to see to feel like I’ve “completed” my journey. I have stayed here longer than anywhere else I’ve stayed on my entire trip and I really do like Istanbul. It is chock full of some of the friendliest, most helpful people I’ve met anywhere in the world. And I will probably be in tears the first few days after I leave Istanbul too… because I have really made a nice circle of good, kind friends here—who even dragged my ass out during my ‘down in the dumps’ day and made me feel better too. It’s great to always have friends ‘around me’ physically and from back home as well, even this far away!

Tea, sugar, a dream.

Related posts:

1. “Should I Stay or Should I go…”
2. Go Fly a Kite
3. Turkey Time!

I have been in Istanbul for more than two months now. As I teach English and wait for other jobs to materialize I can’t help but wonder, should I stay or should I go? It is that hard balance of world travel that I have become increasingly accustomed to. Many times I find myself caught between trying to become more ‘local’ by sitting put in one place or simply being a fly-by-night ‘tourist’ seeing all I can even if it means never truly getting a real sense of the people and the culture because of the constant urge to just ‘keep on moving.’ Somewhere lurking in the air around me is this gravitational pull, the slight tug of travel putting its grips on me and egging me to move on and go forth and plunder. Well, probably not plunder as much as wander.

It is hard for me to dissect this. Sometimes I feel it doesn’t matter if I move on quickly or not because money-wise either way I’m paying to sleep somewhere whether it’s in Istanbul or Budapest or Chicago. But Istanbul is really not a cheap city, relative to others I’ve been in. I feel like as I journey westward, I will certainly be spending more each day to ‘live.’ I long for the days in Costa Rica when I paid $5 a night for a single room with my own bathroom. I guess I could live the rest of my life at “Gringo Pete’s” in Arenal and just retire there, but I know I’d grow bored and the same inevitable pull of travel would always be getting in the way of my retirement.

With the extra time on my hands here, I often have time to reflect back on my journey and look forward to the journey continuing. Sometimes too much thinking, or in my ‘Virgo’ case, analyzing, makes me feel a little down (what do they say? “Idle hands are the devil’s playground…”). While I’m traveling and taking ‘a year off,’ it really isn’t exactly a ‘year off’ as life keeps chugging forward like a high speed bullet train. Things are happening to me here and I’m meeting people and at the same time things are happening back home to my friends and loved ones. My ex-boyfriend has moved on (to someone twenty years his junior in classic rebound/mid life form. I guess he’s no longer pining away for me and waiting for my return with outstretched arms); I now miss someone I’ve met along the way whom I developed a bit of a relationship with; I was stressed out because my storage unit in my Chicago condo was broken into and I really have no idea what was stolen; I am sad about one of my very best friends not being in Chicago anymore (she’s recently moved back to Germany) when I return; And sometimes, when I unfortunately have too much time to ‘over think’ things, I’m a bit perplexed about what I am REALLY doing with my life after all this?? I know what you are thinking: ‘poor, poor you. Boo-hoo, Lisa, you are living your dream, traveling around the world.’ But I guess even a year away has to have its ‘down in the dumps’ moments.

Sometimes part of me does not want to be here in Turkey or Vietnam or a beach Australia, but in a tranquil leafy suburb with big, old colonial homes like those in New Jersey, Connecticut, or Chicago (Hi, Evanston), with beautiful breezy Oak and Maple trees, where the only sounds you hear are birds chirping and wind rustling the leaves that dapple the sunlight onto the lush lawns of green grass that feel cool on your toes on a summer afternoon. Perhaps it is a bit of ‘the grass is always greener’ syndrome. Well, the grass is greener in Evanston, but that’s because they can afford to spend lots of money each year on fertilizer. But that’s neither here nor there. I’m okay. I know this little funk will pass. It’s part of normal life whether I’m in Chicago or Turkey. In fact, I KNOW I’d have more stress and ‘real life’ problems if I were in Chicago right now. I should be feeling lucky, but sometimes it’s just not possible to do that 100% of the time. Like they say, “wherever you go, there you are.”

So, how long will I stay here? Why am I here? I like it, but don’t love it exactly. I’ve heard others say, ‘you love it and hate it at the same time.’ I just saw it was easy to get work and figured why not hang out, make some lire, and see what happens. But I just get confused sometimes. Part of me wants to ‘keep on moving.” I’ve become accustomed to a certain momentum on my trip as I slowly drift around the world from one place to the next. I sometimes feel like I’m living in a strange dream. Like right now, here I am living in someone else’s apartment in Istanbul. It’s a strange feeling and I don’t feel ‘at home’ exactly, but I guess I will continue to go with the flow and see where it takes me.

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1. Tea, Sugar, a Dream
2. We interrupt this Travel Blog for a word from our sponsors.
3. Working Around the World

My new hotel in Istanbul, the Alp Guesthouse , was a small and wonderfully charming place in this city of more than 12 million. In fact, urban sprawl has created an Istanbul larger in area than the state of Rhode Island and a bigger population that all of Greece or Belgium. In my hotel, there are just fourteen, newly refurbished rooms in a small Ottoman-style wood paneled four-story house (almost similar to some American colonial wood houses). It sits on a side street in Sultanahmet, the old quarter of Istanbul between the Blue Mosque and the mighty Bosphorus Strait that connects the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea and eventually, the Mediterranean. My room was a calm oasis with a queen canopy bed with white fluffy sheets, dark wood floors and trim, and a newly marble tiled bathroom. It had a lovely large window overlooking the ‘backyard’ with all the delights of spring–green leafy trees full of chirping birds set against an almost constantly deep blue sky. Just beyond the trees was a reminder of the city I was in–an old brick mosque, small in comparison to others around the city, topped with a tall stone minaret tower that bellowed with the calls to prayer five times a day. It was lovely to look at, but the loud operatic chants at 4:45am were quite the alarming wake-up call that certainly had me jumping from bed enough to ‘pray’ they would stop.

Murat was the soft-spoken hotel owner. In the three weeks I was there I think we spoke a total of five minutes to each other. He only had two other guys that worked the front desk—Eren and Mustafa. Eren was a tall, dark, good looking younger guy who seemed to be book smart, but acted pretty immature. He would greet me daily with a kind of boyish pout, wondering why I wasn’t ‘hanging out’ with him more. He wanted to take me to dinner and, although I didn’t really like him all that much, I said I would go, but was quite frank in saying it would just be ‘as friends.’ I wanted to be super clear since guys here seem to think all foreign women jump into bed after one glass of wine. He always responded to my honesty with “oh, come on Lisa,” accompanied with more pouting and loud exhaling, as if my answer to his advances must be wrong and I was just toying with him. He was harmless so it was all just mildly entertaining until he started ‘petting’ me one day. I guess he figured even though I had already said I wasn’t interested that if he stroked my arm…I would be put under some magic spell or something. No such luck for him and of course I had to yell at him to “stop touching me!” Mustafa worked the ‘other’ shift every day from 8pm to 8am. He literally slept in the lobby once all the guests were tucked in for the night. He was quite the opposite of Eren—more mature and determined to improve his English for his future business success. He was working here strictly to get experience and to meet people from all over the world and talk with them. One day he took me sightseeing around town in exchange for my English. He just wanted me for my mother tongue—not my actual tongue—that was a nice change from most guys around these parts. He was a pretty sharp guy who also owned a retail clothing business. He has hopes of owning his own hotel one day…and I think he will. I also got to know some other guests from America, Brazil, & France as they visited and moved on, as well as some of the neighboring hotel owners and workers. I stayed at this hotel for nearly three weeks…so it became a bit like ‘home’ and this was my family, albeit a dysfunctional one.

Just like all the hotels around the old quarter, the Alp Hotel has a lovely rooftop terrace with glass-topped tables, umbrellas, and cushioned wicker chairs where a lovely Turkish breakfast was served every morning. The unblocked views of the other rooftops and the Bosphorus, just a kilometer or so away, were nearly breathtaking. I even “borrowed” the facilities in the kitchen up there one day to cook dinner for Eren and Mustafa and some other guests. I opened a bottle of red and whipped up some salad and pasta with olive oil, garlic, eggplant, and tomatoes. But I really loved my quiet mornings up there, (well, late mornings—I would typically sleep in, roll out of bed around 10am and get up to the roof just in time to grab the last scraps of food and avoid the earlier riser’s chatter) sipping my coffee, nibbling on toast with Feta cheese, watching the sea gulls and crows fight over any food morsels and bread bits that they scavenged from other terraces. I would let the sun warm my arms as I read my book and would look up occasionally to the sea to watch the huge, almost ominous-looking freighter ships ply the gray waters. One day, I watched a man on an adjacent rooftop fly a blue and white kite in the winds coming off the sea. I have always seen people in parks flying kites back home and wondered ‘what’s the point?’ It seemed you could only amuse yourself flying a kite for maybe ten minutes, max. But now, in my relaxed state, the kite looked so pretty darting and soaring against the bright blue sky of Istanbul. Small things are starting to mean a lot more when I am not so preoccupied with the crazy ‘real world’ B.S. that usually gets in the way of really enjoying the simple beauty of life around us. Very rarely in my adult life have I allowed myself to do nothing. I’ve always kept myself super busy with work, friends, exercising, volunteering, tennis lessons, guitar class, teaching…and just about anything I could do to enrich myself and also at the same time to avoid that horrible state of boredom I so loathe. Even during my trip, I have either kept myself busy sightseeing and still being a ‘tourist’ or I have stayed somewhere and found a job or some other way to immerse myself more into the local fabric of society. I had been back in Istanbul for two weeks and even though I had been traveling for eight months already, this finally felt like vacation…and I was getting better at the art of doing nothing and I was enjoying it.

Related posts:

1. Turkey Time!
2. Tea, Sugar, a Dream
3. Doing the Turkey Trot

On my first few days in town, I had a bit of trouble really “seeing” Istanbul because I could not walk two blocks without another Turkish man stopping me to “chat.” They are very suave and charming (oh, and hot) so it’s quite hard to be rude. The men here pretty much all fall into the “tall, dark, and handsome” category with their dark sunken Latin-lover eyes, dark coiffed hair, and unabashed confidence. Most are sharp-dressed restaurant hustlers who want you to come inside and eat, or carpet shop owners looking to get another “genuine” handmade rug off their hands, but it doesn’t stop there. It goes a little something like this:

“Hello.”

“Hi.”

“Where are you from?”

“Chicago, USA.”

“Ah, American. Where are you going?”

“Just walking this way.”
“Can I just ask you a question?”

“No, I don’t want a Turkish rug” or “I just ate.”

“No, I just want to talk to you…you are so beautiful. How about some tea or coffee?”

My first day walking around I wasn’t completely hardened yet and already had tea in the morning with some random middle-aged, gray-haired carpet salesman (who actually lives in New Jersey part of the year). He asked me to dinner. I said no. Then I met another carpet guy who wanted me to chat and have tea. I said no. Then I met an Egyptian cardiologist who lives in Dubai (where I just came from) who is here for business. He just asked me to take a photo. I said yes (see, he doesn’t really fit this equation. He was from Dubai—totally harmless). Then while looking for a place to have a quiet, relaxing lunch, a cute guy offered me a mixed mezze platter (Turkish appetizers) that I couldn’t refuse. And of course, while I dined alone, he chatted me up and asked me to go for coffee during his break. I said yes. Ooh, I guess I let my guard down. If nothing else, the guys here are keeping me quite caffeinated, I’ve never been more alert. In Asia the poor salesladies badger and guilt you into buying something, here in Turkey, the dark sexy Turkish men charm and seduce you into buying something…or more. And, of course, they are all single…I’m sure.

Related posts:

1. Turkish Delights
2. Snapshot: Istanbul
3. “And then they told two friends. And so on. And so on…”