be my escape...

srijeda, 11.05.2011.

14 days of Istanbul

So, what to say? I definitely have a new goal – to go to Istanbul again.
I don't think it's possible to compress everything that happened into a few sentences, so the biggest part of the Istanbul experience shall remain unsaid and simply felt (*read with a poetic voice). However, something needs to be said about the whole thing, and I definitely have the need to write something down, so I’ll share it with “to whom it may concern”.

First things first, the reason for going to Istanbul in the first place was to attend a two week intensive program in Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies. The first part of the program was a conference of the ESITIS (European Society for Interbla bla bla) and the topic was “The Study of Religions in a Changing Europe: Integrity, Translation & Transformation”, and it lasted 3 days. The second part was the actual student program, and the topic was “Translating God(s): Islam and Christianity in South East Europe”. We arrived in Istanbul on April 25th. The conference began on the next day.

The first night was awesome. Not the night itself, but the evening. Our plane landed somewhere around 6pm, and we had to get to the hotel somehow. The hotel was located on the Asian side of Istanbul. The airport was on the European side. Everything was in Turkish. People were speaking only Turkish. We had some instructions how to get to the hotel, some names were written but we couldn’t really tell they were pronounced. So, finding a bus to the Asian side was exciting. The 7 of us, all from the Irish School of Ecumenics – one Irish, two Americans, one Sri Lankan, one Latvian, one Greek and I. So, among us, we spoke at least 5 languages, and none of those were helpful. We took one of the buses that were going somewhere. Luckily, it was the bus we needed. We had to get off at the last stop. Funnily enough, the last stop was somewhere in the middle of the road; a construction site on one side, huge buildings on the other side. So, after about half an hour of driving with that bus, we got off in the middle of nowhere. By that time, my introverted side was feeling pretty stressed out, and intimidated by the hugeness of the city. As we were driving from the European to the Asian side, we saw dozens of huge buildings being built all over the place, a billion houses, the traffic was chaos (there will be more talk about this a bit later) ... I was stressed. Anyway, we got off the bus and got two cabs. Giving the address and arranging the price for the fare was exciting, since no one spoke English. In the end they understood us; we got into the cabs, and were at the hotel in a few minutes. That cab ride was awesome... the guy didn’t speak English of course, but he spoke some German. There were two of us in the cab who also knew some German, however, his German was basically Turkish. So, that wasn’t much help. But it was fun trying very hard to remember how to say “telephone” in German. ... we got to the hotel. It was a really nice hotel as far as I’m concerned. The funnest part, was the fact that it was in an older neighbourhood that looked a bit like the slums. Anyways, the hotel staff was amazing. Such nice people. We made friends with one of the waiters, Cem (read as Gem). He got a crush on Carrie, one of the girls from our group, so we got free cake, fruit and very nice service.

Also, one of the fun parts of that hotel was that there was always something going on in the restaurant during dinner time. One evening, we went down to have dinner and there was a wedding. A Turkish wedding... amazing stuff. Great music – oriental sounds, reggaeton beats, and the voice... and it sounds nothing like Serbian turbo folk. It was actual, genuine music. And the people were loving it. We were loving it too, because it was way fun. That was one of the funnest evenings.

Since we had classes every day from 9am – 6:30pm, and we had to leave the hotel at 8:10, I made a routine of getting up at 6:30 and going down to the lobby to have coffee. I made friends with the guy who was working there. He spoke no English, I spoke no Turkish. But, as Croatia was one of the countries (partly) under the Ottoman Empire, we share some words. It is handy that some of those words are “Kava” and “Čaj” (coffee and tea). The thing with their coffee is that they don’t use actual milk, it’s always powdered milk. Don’t remember when was the last time I used that – well, except for the fact that I’ve been drinking it for the past two weeks. Anyways, after I was down there having coffee a few days, the guy asked my name (at least I think he did...), and so we were officially introduced. After that he told me he loved me (true story) and then we started laughing. I’m guessing that was the only thing he knew how to say in English.

But those kinds of things weren’t that unusual. We were getting compliments all around. Trips to the bazaars were the best. There is a Spice bazaar and the Grand bazaar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spice_Bazaar,_Istanbul, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Bazaar,_Istanbul). First we went to the Spice bazaar. As soon as we walked in guys were trying to get us to buy the stuff they were selling. We got hugs, kisses, Turkish delight, small roses, pictures with the sales guys, evil eyes (good luck charms) and a whole bunch of compliments and nicknames (Charlie’s angels, Spice girls and such). We also went to the Old bazaar. Much smaller than the previous two, but amazing as well. One of the girls wanted to buy a jacket, so we got into a leather jacket store. The man who was working there was absolutely amazing. We stayed there for about half an hour, he gave us tea because it’s their custom to invite people for tea, and we chatted. We came back there another day again for another leather jacket, and we got tea again. Some of us haggled a bit; some of us weren’t brave enough to haggle. But anyways, the whole bazaar-experience was amazing. I think that we got lost at one point in the Grand bazaar. It is huge. Turkish delight everywhere and people were just handing it to us to “try”. I did not like that stuff before, but now I love it. The same goes for baklava, their most famous desert. We had it everywhere. Walks through the bazaars were the best, partly because of the lines the sales people use to get you to buy in their place. It’s all about being the most inventive, and attracting most attention. Because pretty much everything they’re selling is the same everywhere, just the prices vary. So we heard all kinds of lines. From “I know you. I saw you on tv. Miss universe.” (that guy actually didn’t want us to buy anything, he just said it for the sake of saying it), to “Are you looking for me?”, and of course all kinds of “Are you from ...?” where they’re trying to start a conversation. I got greeted with “Hola” most of the time and was asked on various occasions if I was from Spain, Argentina or Brazil. The best thing, speaking superficially, about Istanbul is the amount of good looking people, namely guys, who dress normally. No offence to Irish people, but the fashion here is to die for. And not in a positive way. I kept finding myself surprised by the normality of the clothes and generally looks of people. So many good-looking guys... and that is an objective fact confirmed by many.

Another interesting experience was sitting in a really Turkish open cafe in the Old bazaar, and smoking nargile (http://camlkk.comze.com/images/nargile.jpg412acc8d-4e88-42ce-8732-841c5782cde0Large.jpg). It was the first time I smoked anything, and I believe it was the last. I had a terrible headache the next day. But it was still a fun experience.

In one of our randomly-walking-into-random-shops moments, we (us three girls) went into a carpet shop (those were everywhere). The sales guy spoke real good English, and was really stylish and sophisticated. He knew we weren’t going to buy anything but he still showed us around, told us stories about carpet- and kilim-making, told us how to buy carpets, what to look for etc. And he showed us some amazing pieces of artwork. One was a really small carpet, which took 10 or so years to make and had 400 knots on a square inch. It actually looked like a real painting.

All the bazaars and site-seeing was on the European side. So we took the ferry several times. When you’re on the ferry looking over at the coast, it’s impossible to see an end to the city. As far as your eye can see you see buildings, mosques, houses. It’s absolutely enormous. Oh yes, so mosques. ... they are everywhere. One of the most amazing things was hearing the call to prayer for the first time from the minaret. It was 9:30, we were in our room, it was cold outside and the sky was kind of reddish. And suddenly we heard the call. It sounds like when the liturgy is sung, except this is in Arabic and has a more oriental melody. Great stuff.

The first morning after we arrived, a few of us went to walk around the neighbourhood a bit. A few minutes walking and we found a burek place. Of course we bought some. And to all you Croats and the likes who like to say that burek with cheese is not burek, take it up with the people who invented it! ... anyways, it was great.

We had breakfast in the hotel everyday – boiled eggs, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, huge bowls of black and green olives, jam, butter and coffee with powdered milk every day for two weeks. We had lunch on campus where we had classes. It was cafeteria food – enough said. After a while some of us just started going to a nearby Starbucks instead of lunch. And we had dinner back at the hotel or the hotel area. First we always had dinner in the hotel but then we discovered a small local kebap joint. Great people. Didn’t speak a word of English. Menus were all in Turkish. But we had amazing food there. It became our place. And by the end of the trip, we were friends with the guys there and took a picture with them before we left.

Another amazing thing was seeing the Blue Mosque at night. It was like being in Disney’s Aladdin. And of course, seeing the enormous Aja Sofia from the inside. Christian and Muslim symbols all around the place. The best part of seeing that place was imagining its history. I think that if I have had time, I would have just sat there and started inventing and writing stories about the place.

Oh yes, and to mention the traffic. It was simply amazing to see people drive there. If there is one city that I wouldn’t want to drive in, that would be Istanbul. It was chaos. Honking all the time. All the time. For nothing. I saw people honk for no apparent reason. Cab rides were always playing with death, but were always fun. But the funny thing, those people did not seem frustrated at all. They were on top of things all the time. It was chaos, but they function like that.

It is an amazing city. It was so nice to be there. On the one hand, it was like nothing I’ve ever seen or experienced before. On the other hand, it reminded me so much of my childhood in Croatia. I can’t define it. It is obviously a cosmopolitan city, but in the same time it is not western. The kids play in the streets. People are friendly, interested in other people, most of the businesses are owned by families so there is always a bunch of people in restaurants and shops that serve you and make buying earrings/having dinner/coffee/etc an amazing experience. The feeling there was good.

The conference itself was a somewhat different story. The experience was definitely a good one. Although if I had to say what I learned there I don’t think I’d be able to answer concretely. There were definitely some good lectures and presentations. Some great people as well. However, there was also a bunch of “what the hell am I doing here?” moments. As well as “what is this all about?” moments. And the likes... However, the whole thing just made me realize a bit more what a big place the world actually is, and how it’s not easy to answer some questions and it never will be. I have been displaced once again. But, I think that is the best thing that could have happened. Being displaced is the worst feeling. Not being able to hold on, seeing how things that were once so sure just are now starting to dissolve. However, I’m thinking it’s the best place to be at.

14 days of Istanbul went by really fast. Although, at certain points of the day, namely around 5pm when the last lecture of the day was starting, it always seemed as if time was standing pretty still. But generally, it went by fast. I had loads of fun with the amazing people of the ISE. I kept seeing Croatian words all over the place, which was cool. The mentality was familiar. I think that was the reason that on various occasions I simply started speaking in Croatian to my English speaking friends. My English got so much worse in those couple of weeks. Partly because I was listening to all kinds of accents, and partly because we had our own internal jokes that required us speaking with weird accents and completely without grammar. It was fun. Think this was the best trip I have ever been on.
Istanbul, the city on two continents; the city of mosques, bazaars, chaos, lights, endless houses and buildings, friendly and good looking people, history, art, genuinity... ah... I sound like tourist. But I’ll definitely remember Istanbul as a city of all those things. And I will go back there some day.

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