ISTANBUL

Niklas and I have a history with Istanbul: Back in 1998, we Eurorailed for a couple of months before he started working for Microsoft. At one point, we ended up in Budapest, which at the time, seemed so despondent, dreary, and decrepit. While we enjoyed learning about the city and taking a cruise up the Danube, we thought we’d escape the grey and grime and trek down to Turkey since we were so close.

We loved our time in Istanbul! It felt like we’d traveled back in time. It was thrilling to be in such a radically different environment and culture and to learn about their incredible history. The conditions were tough, though, and when we landed again in Budapest, it felt like we’d returned to a wealthy, dynamic, progressive, organized place with paved streets, tall buildings with windows in tact, and where driving laws existed and were abided. It was the best lesson in the power of perspective!

Flash forward to present time. The kids’ school was closed on a recent Friday so we booked a last minute trip to Istanbul. We only wanted to invest the time, energy and expense to go some place truly different than any other European city before we head back to the states; where we could learn about a different culture and see life from a different perspective.

Imagine my surprise when we arrived and found this!

Last time we were here, poverty was prevalent, but during the past decade or so, the wealth factor has skyrocketed! Last trip, we could have traded our North Face jacket for a beautiful Turkish rug or antique; now there are at least two North Face stores where anyone can simply walk in and purchase a jacket. Not only do they now have all the stores of any European or American city, many of the traditional rug shops have been replaced with high-end jewelery stores.

Nothing against Starbucks, but why on earth would the Turks, who have such a long coffee tradition need a Starbucks?! And not just one, but many, all around the city!? Oslo doesn’t even have a Starbucks. Last trip, we drank the traditional Turkish coffee in tiny cups filled halfway with grounds and sugar; this trip, we never found it… Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled for the Turkish people that their standard of living has improved so dramatically. It’s just that I question whether the entire world needs to be drinking the same coffee, eating the same fast food, and buying  the same clothes.

They still had their sweet tea, though! Whew!

Since we had paper pictures from our 98 trip, I’d done a scrapbook album and in it I wrote that should an earthquake hit Istanbul, the destruction would be devastating. One year later, that’s exactly what happened.

But clearly, they’ve rebuilt. This cafe scene could be from any European city. All the new and restored buildings have intact windows and are standing tall and straight and proud! There are roads and lanes and traffic lights everywhere now and the traffic flows in an orderly manner. They even have a new tram system and modern buses. Last time we feared for our lives whenever we were in a taxi or on a bus–a crash in that chaotic, lawless environment probably wouldn’t be survivable. This time, we were just uneasy because there were no back seat belts for our precious cargo, but the traffic ebbed and flowed in an orderly manner.

The city planners deserve kudos. Rather than just quickly paving a bunch of roads as they reconstructed the city, they chose to install cobblestones in many areas, especially around the old town, which compliments the historical energy of the place and of course adds a degree of beauty that pavement just can’t match.

With all the dirt roads gone, the city takes pride in keeping its streets clean.

These guys are definitely old school. On our last trip, we marveled at how nicely dressed the men were in their suits, or at a minimum, slacks and a dress shirts. We couldn’t figure out how they had crisp, clean and ironed shirts and slacks while selling their wares on the dirt roads and the electricity going out regularly. We felt sloppy and dirty in comparison.

Today, jeans are omnipresent…

Luckily, there are still some signs of the traditional way of living in Istanbul, but I would wager that in another decade, many of those will be long gone as more and more modern influences spread here.

For example, most wares sold before were from tarps spread out over dirt roads, whereas now, storefronts are the norm. The funny thing is that the stores cluster together. Here is the “satellite dish” section of town. Seriously, there were at least 20 of these shops lining both sides of the road; back-to-back satellite dish stores. We also walked through the music section, the wedding invitation section, the power tool section, etc. — each with a dozen or more stores selling essentially the same goods. I couldn’t figure out how one wedding invitation shop differentiated itself from the any of the others, but maybe that’s where family connections come in or something. Or maybe they are following the tradition of the several hundred year old grand and spice bazaars.

Of course we visited the main attractions which are just too amazing to describe, but to be honest, I think a lot of it was lost on the kids… To be in a 1400 year old building with such important historical significance was awe inspiring, but I guess when you’re just 6 and 9 years old, it’s hard to grasp that magnitude.

They really only wanted to chase the wild cats which are everywhere (a much easier wild animal to deal with than the wild dogs of Bali).

What they (Joakim at least, Linnea and Mattias practically live on air they eat so little) enjoyed most was getting to eat the local food surrounded by locals and all their vibrant energy! (Reality check: you’d never guess Joakim had been a world class nightmare right before this picture was taken. Is that a grin or is he gritting his teeth? But I have to hand it to the kid, he’s an adventurous eater and for that I am grateful).

A big highlight of our trip was the traditional foreign hair cut. On Friday night about 8pm, we were in a taxi on our way back to the hotel (HUGE shout out, btw, to all our Scandinavian friends with SAS miles to burn, check out the SAS Bosphorus for a special treat!!) when Linnea saw this barber shop and asked if we could stop and go there. On impulse (or did we succumb to whining/nagging?? I’ll never tell:)), we hopped out of the cap and walked into this little shop. Each of the four chairs was occupied with men getting their hair cut or an old-fashioned shave or both. The massages seemed so thorough and relaxing, it made me want to get a cut and shave myself!

The kids were welcomed and treated as though they were loyal customers with massages and all, even though that meant other adult patrons had to wait.

The guy who cut Mattias’ hair finished first and on his own, went across the street and bought freshly squeezed pomegranate juices for the kids. None of us could understand a word the other was saying, hence Linnea getting bangs again, but the friendliness of the barbers and other patrons towards us made the whole experience special and memorable. I guess the outrageous prices for kid’s hair cuts in Oslo has been a blessing in disguise because some of our fondest memories this year have come from these traveling hair cuts.

Another highlight was the open air fish market. This place was so fascinating that the kids made us walk up and down the whole market three times the first day, and twice the second! The proprietors were shouting out their wares and prices and street vendors were selling hot fried fish sandwiches and fish plates as well. This was a local market, ie, no tourist paraphernalia sold–no flowers, t shirts, coffee mugs, key chains; maybe a few vegetables, but primarily fresh fish–most so fresh they were still flapping around and off their trays! The energy of this place made the guys throwing fish at Pike’s Place Fish Market look like they are on sedatives and the dead fish on ice seemed old by comparison.

The fish are weighed using old-fashioned scales and sent off in plastic bags.

Everywhere we went, the kids were given little “gifts”. One of the vendors at the fish market, seeing their keen interest in his fish, gave them these little dried sea horses. He knew we weren’t going to buy anything as we were obviously tourists and couldn’t really buy fresh fish to cook in our hotel room, but still, he wanted to share something with them. In addition to these beauties, they were given coins, a key chain, Turkish delight, juice, the chance to hold the living fish, and countless heart felt smiles and pats on the head. Mattias seemed to draw people to him like a magnate and elicited the most delightful interactions.

Speaking of this character, we did a Turkish bath. It didn’t work out last trip so we made it a priority this time and it was a great experience. The scrubbing down and all was nice, but just to be in that 3ooplus year old room where Turkish life really took place lifetimes ago was an incredible sensation. Males and females had to be separated so Linnea and I had our bath together. Don’t let this picture fool you, we were buck naked in there! Luckily for me, after all my infertility work, cancer treatments and just plain giving birth, I wasn’t the least bit squeamish with the gal scrubbing me down and giving me a short massage in my birthday suit. The stones are warm, by the way, so it’s much more comfortable and relaxing than it looks.

One fun difference we felt was the sheer number of people. Istanbul’s population is over 12 million. There are only 4.5 million people in the entire country of Norway and only 500 thousand in it’s capital city, Oslo! When we returned to the Oslo airport on Sunday afternoon, arguably one of the busiest times for an airport, it felt like we’d returned to the North Pole there were so few people around, relatively speaking. Oh, that reminds me of another change. The airport we flew into 11.5 years ago was practically a shack. The one we flew into this time has over 300 gates! Now that’s expansion!

Another interesting part of being in a primarily Muslim nation, were how beautiful and melodic the calls to prayer were. We truly enjoyed hearing the different tones of the calls sung out from the various mosques. Out of respect, I did not photograph any of the men praying during these times, but if I could have recorded the memorizing calls and shared them, I would have.

This is a random picture, but Joakim has this amazing ability to find money in every country we’ve visited this year. He just tells himself he’s going to find money and then, suddenly, there it is!

As we were waiting at the airport, we talked about our favorite memories from the trip and while there were many, we came to the conclusion that the Turkish people were the best part of our experience. From the  friendly taxi drivers (even though they couldn’t speak English), to the hotel staff, to the dozens and dozens of every day strangers who greeted us with a genuine smile or gracious gesture, we were overwhelmed by the generosity of the Turkish people!

You can imagine my surprise then, when a few days later I read this Newsweek article which talks about the growing anti-American sentiment and how the country has cooled down its interest in Europe. We never once felt unsafe, unwelcome, or as an antagonist. Quite the contrary. We couldn’t have been more warmly welcomed and treated with such genuine kindness.

The  entire time we were there, seeing over and over the vast changes that have taken place in one short decade, I felt an incredible urge to travel the world now, before it morphs into one big ball of sameness. This article just made me that much more determined to do so. Our experiences contrasted so significantly with that report, that had we not had them, we could have taken it at face value and “experienced” Turkey from that negative perspective.

I send out a huge THANK YOU to the wonderful people of Istanbul. I can’t wait to go back and explore more of your beautiful country!

We took a bunch of pictures and almost every one of them has a story behind it, but in the interest of time, I’ll just post a slide show here.

Advertisement