Revisiting: Turkey

Map credit: Lonely Planet

Where: Istanbul, Turkey

When: June 2010

How: Direct flight from Newark to Tel Aviv, flight to / from Istanbul

Duration: 6 days, 5 nights

Accommodations: Boğaziçi University dormitories on the cheap. Attending an academic conference as a grad student, I got a sweet deal on a dorm room and bunked up with 5 other conference attendees from around the world for a whopping $45USD.

Boğaziçi Üniversitesi

Language: Sign language! Unless of course, you speak Turkish. English was not widely spoken when I visited just last year.

Currency: Turkish Lira

Tourist facts: Istanbul has been gaining popularity as a tourist destination. According to the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in 2010 the country logged 28,632,204 foreign visitors and the number continues to rise. National Geographic opens their review of Istanbul with a quote from Alphonse de Lamartine, a French politician from the 19th century: “If one had but a single glance to give the world, one should gaze on Constantinople.” I must say, it certainly deserves a look.

Links I recommend during trip planning: I consulted the NYTimes to look for their 36 hour report, which was written in February 2010. As recently as July 2011, the Frugal Traveler (once Matt, now Seth) took a swing at the city on a $100USD budget. You can see the details of his adventure here. Just reading it makes me want to go back, immediately! Another tried and true resource: Fodor’s online guide and users forum for Turkey.

My absolutes:

• see Sultan Ahmed, more commonly known as the Blue Mosque
• visit Hagia Sophia: once a basilica, later a mosque, now a museum
• haggle in the Grand Bazaar
• enjoy a Turkish bath
• eat, eat, eat

Sultan Ahmed (the Blue Mosque)

What I saw: A city on the rise: chaotic, historic, thrumming with energy. The Blue Mosque is postcard perfect, and you can walk through as long as you’re not baring any unnecessary skin (arms + legs, ladies) – the guards will give you fabric to tie around your bare parts. Hagia Sophia is enormous, and stunningly beautiful: a mash-up of Muslim and Christian decor, resulting in an awesome sight, as opposed to a garish one.

Grand Bazaar

What I did: Sweat all my calories away waiting in the sunshine for the public bus. Held my breath when the un-deodorized masses surged around us. Sweat a bit more glamorously on a marble slab in a positively ancient Turkish bath (circa 1500s). Walked along the Bosphorus Strait and stopped for tea with my face to the water and my feet up on a chair. Bargained shamelessly for a pashmina that I now own and love, and laughed out loud at the salesmen inquiring if my friend and I were Top Models. Accidentally drank the soot at the bottom of Turkish coffee and have not had a cup since.

Kumpir: one serious potato!

What I ate: waffles, kebabs, kumpir, kunefe. You know kebabs originated in Turkey, right? You know how I feel about kebabs.

I’m sorry I missed: The famous 6th century cisterns, often referred to as the  “sunken palace” and the other side of the Bosphorus.

If (when) I return I will: book an appointment at Çemberlitaş Hamamı immediately. Plan to stay in the historic district. Take the ferry over and spend some time on the Asian side of the country.

Turkish coffee

Thanks to: One, a student working at the university who gladly took charge of my tour through the town, along with a fellow conference attendee. This meant waffles in Bebek (twice!) and my first taste of Turkish coffee (still recovering). Two, a post-doc who  visited my university in the US and welcomed me to her country that summer with open arms. With her we walked along the Bosphorus Strait, drank Turkish tea (much better) and chowed down on kebabs. Three, a Turkish native home for the summer from his studies at Northwestern took time out of his vacation to guide us through the Grand Bazaar. Most notably, he drove us through the most chaotic traffic I have ever witnessed, to date. My thanks to Tuba, Nagihan and Mert for their insights and their expert view into this beautiful city!

If you want to read the original post: You can see it here.

Now, you: What will you do when you visit Turkey? Have you been there before? What do you recommend?

Turkish delight

I spent the second week of my vacation in Istanbul, Turkey – a quick two hour flight from Israel. I won’t talk about the security process but let’s just say it was … secure. Very Secure.

Boğaziçi Üniversitesi

As a good academic, I did attend a number of sessions at the World Congress for Comparative Education Societies 2010. Happily, I got to see some of my favorite scholars and met a great deal of people from all over the world. The final total was something like 1500 participants from over 100 countries (don’t quote me). I was lucky enough to stay in the dorms for super cheap, and although the location was truly beautiful, I was dying to explore the city of Istanbul.

Tuba, Kelly & Stina

The Bosphorus University is set exactly where you think it is – at thetop of a hill overlooking the Bosphorus Strait. This provides an incredible view at every hour of every day, and you never quite get tired of photographing it! On our first day there, one of my roommates and I were lucky enough to befriend a student volunteer who took charge of our local experience. Thanks to her, we had waffles in Bebek, and our first Turkish coffee at a cafe by the University.

Bosphorus

Additionally, I met a Turkish visiting scholar at Lehigh prior to my departure, and she was in Istanbul when I arrived. Through her, we learned a great deal of local history, and she pointed the way to delicious kebabs

Nagihan & Kelly

As all good things do, our local friends came in threes and we also met with a Turk home on break from Northwestern in Chicago. He was brave enough to drive us into the historic district and help us bargain in the Grand Bazaar (an easy task if you speak the language, but a comedy otherwise).

Many thanks and much love to my new Turkish friends and their immense patience with our endless questions!

Turkish tea in Ortaköy

* food. If you know me, you know I am a freak for food. Let’s be clear – the Turks do not mess around when it comes to cuisine.

Our friends were so helpful in directing us to all the right places. Turkish tea, Turkish coffee, waffles, kebabs, kumpir, kunefe.. all the K things were, of course, delicious. Kumpir is an outrageously large stuffed baked potato. When I say stuffed I mean .. JACKED with cheese, peppers, vegetables, meat, and god knows what else. Kunefe is a dessert that involves cheese, phyllo dough and syrup – also glorious. While I did not have the taste for Turkish coffee – Turkish tea was right up my alley, served in small tea glasses and piping hot. Best taken sea-side in a small cafe in Ortaköy

* history / architecture. Boarding a bus and then the tram, when we hopped out into the historic district of Sultanahmet, I was blown away. It is colorful and crazy. The traffic is incredible. Bear in mind that there are 16 MILLION people living in Istanbul, and they are all driving cars. Some of the most creative driving I have ever endured, by far! Stina and I decided to hit the must-sees, which included Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar. I also treated myself to a hamam (Turkish bath) in Çemberlitaş which was simply divine.

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia was a sight to behold – an incredible building with a long history, first serving as the cathedral of Constantinople back in the day. It is a humongous structure, and an architectural wonder. I enjoyed our trip to the Spice Bazaar (also: Egyptian Bazaar) in Eminönü. We had some hysterical conversations with shopkeepers and brought home loose leaf tea, Turkish delight and other trinkets.

* language Where is the English? For a country clamoring to be in the EU I was pretty shocked at the lack of English. Conference attendees carried around well-wrinkled pieces of paper with directions to the University typed in Turkish. When I left the airport, I presented a registration paper with the University’s address on it and four cab drivers deliberated over it without talking to me. After getting in the cab, the driver actually put it in his GPS and we still had to stop for directions! I had Hebrew floating in my head from the previous week, and not a prayer of picking up Turkish in five days time. Even in the touristy areas, the Turks hawking their wares can’t get past initial pleasantries. The shopkeepers do get a bit morecreative in their greetings: “Let me help you spend your money”, “Are you a top model?” and

Kelly, Mert & Stina

“Your money is good here” among them. Some young faces in the Bazaar are students learning English as part of their University coursework in tourism – and they can string together sentences in a handful of other languages. While looking for scarves I overheard Italian, Spanish and French. Sometimes the shopkeepers like to guess at your nationality – and I have to laugh when they say phrase after phrase in different languages, hoping to snag your attention. What a way to make a living!

The Blue Mosque

* tradition. Driving in from the Ataturk airport on the outskirts of the city, you can see a skyline dotted with the minarets of mosques. Not one or two, but dozens. They are small, medium, large – blue, green, white – all manner of buildings with the same recognizable shape. Five times a day the call to prayer is piped out into the atmosphere, and fades into the background. Mosques are open to anyone, and once you are appropriately covered up (head, shoulders, legs for women) – you are welcome to explore. It did make me feel a bit like a voyeur, tiptoeing around and watching people pray. Old men playing backgammon at tables by the Bosphorus are worrying prayer beads, and women are ducking into mosques for a quick minute. Walking throughout the city you can see a woman in a burqa, a teenager in a tank top, or a woman in a head scarf. It is a beautiful mix of people, religions and cultures.

As usual I am left with such a thirst for this country – to see more of it, meet more people, and explore. A return trip is imminent!

Let’s talk Turkey

The initial spark of interest that led me to book a trip to the Middle East is the 14^th World Congress of Comparative Education Societies. As a member of the Comparative & International Education Society (CIES) in the United States, I am extremely attracted to this gathering of societies from all over the world. The Congress was established in 1970 and takes place every three years.

This year’s theme is “Bordering, Re-Bordering and New Possibilities for Change in Education and Society”.

Of course, it’s not every year I get to go to Istanbul, and I am PSYCHED. For starters, graduate students are invited to stay at Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, on the European side of the Bosphorous Strait in Istanbul.

After speaking to several Turkish friends (and hearing Istanbul compared to New York City), I am ready to be a tourist. My to-do list is constantly growing, but these are a few things I hope to see:

- Hagia Sophia – once a cathedral, then a mosque, now a museum

- The Blue Mosque – a tremendous historic mosque

- Topkapi Palace- official residence of the Ottoman Sultans for 400+ years

- Cruise the Bosphorus Strait

- Bargain in the Grand Bazaar

- Sweat it out in a Hamam / Turkish Bath

…. I suppose I’ll attend a few conference presentations as well