So the story of the last month and a half begins roughly… well, a month and a half ago. After the first term of my school year flew by, my family arrived to celebrate Navidad with me here in Madrid. Long story short: I was sick but nonetheless had an amazing week. To top off the fun, I gave them the parting gift of my illness, so they were all able to fondly remember me in the following weeks back home.
The day after everyone departed, I left on my own journey: New Year’s in Istanbul. There are few cities that have called to me in the way that Istanbul has over the past several years. As a student of international relations focused on Europe and the Middle East, Istanbul has always been a natural destination. The “East meets West” stereotype is a bit overdone, but in many ways, accurate. Where else can you take a 10 minute ferry from Europe to Asia, see Baroque palaces alongside towering mosques, and walk from classical European shopping promenades into crowded, chaotic bazaars?
As I thought about what to expect, my mind jumped to my previous experience in the “Muslim world,” namely my stay in Morocco. Clearly, the two are miles apart, both literally and figuratively, but many similarities remain. As the sun rose on our first day, I heard the call to prayer coming from the Blue Mosque, very near to our hostel. As I went upstairs for breakfast, I could hear it echoing all across the city. In Morocco, the muezzin had always been a comforting reminder of the passing of the day and of a general cultural focus on something beyond the daily grind. Though Turkish and Arabic are significantly different, there were also a large number of borrowed words from Arabic that helped considerably in navigating the city. (The Ottoman Turkish everywhere, written in Arabic script, certainly didn’t help my frequent urge to respond to modern Turkish speakers in Arabic.)
One difference was clear as soon as we left the airport, when I saw a large billboard advertising Efes, the local beer. In Morocco, alcohol is available for tourists, but otherwise largely nonexistent and looked down upon. Thus, in Istanbul, it was a bit jarring to see streets full of bars, but eventually I found Efes to be an excellent companion to quiet evenings in the rooftop café of our hostel. Also famous is the traditional anise liquor called raki, but one sip was enough for me. I’ve always considered black licorice to be a crime against humanity, and turns out that I feel much the same way about its drinkable alcoholic flavor twin.
Unfortunately, the experience of the lovely rooftop café of our hostel was slightly marred by an overenthusiastic hostel worker convinced that he was in fact working at a nightclub. I came to this conclusion after the first night, when he started blasting his “cool” music for the crowd of four of us who had previously been peacefully reading. He gave us a huge smile and started moving with the music. We gave him a glare and started moving downstairs. A note on “cool” music in Turkey: it’s quite similar to the Arab world. That is, it consists primarily of the most recent pop hits from Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and DJ-whatever, with occasional breaks for absurdly melodramatic music videos in the local language. Luckily for me, I was able to understand one word (lütfen=please) of the latest heart-breaking chart topper and it will forever be burned into my brain. For a taste of the drama, see the video below.
As for the sites, there are many, but one deserves mention above all the others. In the 6th century, when Istanbul was Byzantium, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian I decided to build a church that would be the crown jewel of Christendom. The result was the Hagia Sophia. Having studied the building extensively in one of my college classes, it was the most anticipated part of my trip, but no class could have prepared me for the awe I felt upon entering. The Hagia Sophia is today a secular museum, but was converted into a mosque during the Ottoman Empire, and consequently many of its greatest mosaics were plastered over (due to Islamic prohibitions against art depicting humans). Even with the loss of this artwork, the beauty of the building remains obvious. The coexistence of Christian and Muslim symbols is fascinating on its own, but each of them also bring their own appeal. The fact that such a massive structure was completed in only 5 years, a full millennium before architectural masterpieces like the Vatican, is simply beyond belief.
For brevity’s sake, I’ll stop here. If you want to hear about the cruise on the Bosphorus. my visits to the Asian side of the city, daily fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice, baklava oozing with honey and pistachios, Turkish coffees by the water, fish sandwiches right off the boat, and all my other adventures, you’ll just have to ask me about it (or see my pictures).
Oh and the New Year? I rang it in in cold, drizzling rain with my fellow Fulbrighter and two Aussies on Galata Bridge, watching fireworks go off on two different continents as the fishermen by our side carried on with their work, indifferent to the passage of time.
The day after everyone departed, I left on my own journey: New Year’s in Istanbul. There are few cities that have called to me in the way that Istanbul has over the past several years. As a student of international relations focused on Europe and the Middle East, Istanbul has always been a natural destination. The “East meets West” stereotype is a bit overdone, but in many ways, accurate. Where else can you take a 10 minute ferry from Europe to Asia, see Baroque palaces alongside towering mosques, and walk from classical European shopping promenades into crowded, chaotic bazaars?
As I thought about what to expect, my mind jumped to my previous experience in the “Muslim world,” namely my stay in Morocco. Clearly, the two are miles apart, both literally and figuratively, but many similarities remain. As the sun rose on our first day, I heard the call to prayer coming from the Blue Mosque, very near to our hostel. As I went upstairs for breakfast, I could hear it echoing all across the city. In Morocco, the muezzin had always been a comforting reminder of the passing of the day and of a general cultural focus on something beyond the daily grind. Though Turkish and Arabic are significantly different, there were also a large number of borrowed words from Arabic that helped considerably in navigating the city. (The Ottoman Turkish everywhere, written in Arabic script, certainly didn’t help my frequent urge to respond to modern Turkish speakers in Arabic.)
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| The Blue Mosque as viewed from the hostel's rooftop terrace |
Unfortunately, the experience of the lovely rooftop café of our hostel was slightly marred by an overenthusiastic hostel worker convinced that he was in fact working at a nightclub. I came to this conclusion after the first night, when he started blasting his “cool” music for the crowd of four of us who had previously been peacefully reading. He gave us a huge smile and started moving with the music. We gave him a glare and started moving downstairs. A note on “cool” music in Turkey: it’s quite similar to the Arab world. That is, it consists primarily of the most recent pop hits from Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and DJ-whatever, with occasional breaks for absurdly melodramatic music videos in the local language. Luckily for me, I was able to understand one word (lütfen=please) of the latest heart-breaking chart topper and it will forever be burned into my brain. For a taste of the drama, see the video below.
As for the sites, there are many, but one deserves mention above all the others. In the 6th century, when Istanbul was Byzantium, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian I decided to build a church that would be the crown jewel of Christendom. The result was the Hagia Sophia. Having studied the building extensively in one of my college classes, it was the most anticipated part of my trip, but no class could have prepared me for the awe I felt upon entering. The Hagia Sophia is today a secular museum, but was converted into a mosque during the Ottoman Empire, and consequently many of its greatest mosaics were plastered over (due to Islamic prohibitions against art depicting humans). Even with the loss of this artwork, the beauty of the building remains obvious. The coexistence of Christian and Muslim symbols is fascinating on its own, but each of them also bring their own appeal. The fact that such a massive structure was completed in only 5 years, a full millennium before architectural masterpieces like the Vatican, is simply beyond belief.
For brevity’s sake, I’ll stop here. If you want to hear about the cruise on the Bosphorus. my visits to the Asian side of the city, daily fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice, baklava oozing with honey and pistachios, Turkish coffees by the water, fish sandwiches right off the boat, and all my other adventures, you’ll just have to ask me about it (or see my pictures).
Oh and the New Year? I rang it in in cold, drizzling rain with my fellow Fulbrighter and two Aussies on Galata Bridge, watching fireworks go off on two different continents as the fishermen by our side carried on with their work, indifferent to the passage of time.
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| Sunset over the Bosphorus with the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque in the distance. |
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