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People are people

People are people

This past week I spent six days (five nights) in what the Turkish call The Cradle of Civilization in Istanbul Turkey. I had just gotten back from working three weeks in Italy and arrived in the Madrid Barajas Airport 8:23pm. Antonio and I wanted to take a little holiday since he didn’t have to work the next week nor did I. I was thinking that we might go to Barcelona or maybe make it up to the Pyrenees and into France for a little wine tasting, but Antonio found a great deal at “last minute.com” for flights to Istanbul Turkey. Not knowing too much about Turkey I hesitated for two seconds but decided to give the go and press the button to buy the tickets to Istanbul. At 10:00pm I unpacked my luggage and at 10:07 I repacked my luggage being thankful that I had enough underwear to last me six days and five nights. I was too tired to read anything about Istanbul but I did have my Mediterranean Lonely Planet guide book that could help along the way.

Next morning or early evening for the Spanish, I work up at 3:30, eat my toast with oil olive and grab my bags to be at the airport 4:00 sharp for our 6:00 flight to Istanbul. I was so tired I barely remember our flight taking off but seven hours later we landed in the beautiful Mediterranean county called Turkey. This marking the second predominantly Muslim country I have ever visited, the first was ..Morocco.

Now Morocco is a Muslim country at the Northwest corner of Africa and only a two hour flight from Madrid. Turkey is a Muslim country place right in between Asia and Europe and a seven hour flight from Madrid. Immediately I notice how similar Turkey was to the rest of Europe and how Morocco resembled more of a slightly North Africa country. Their public transportation system was available and much better than the public transportation system in St. Louis Missouri. Antonio and I skipped past the hackling taxi divers and hopped right on the Metro for a straight shot to our hotel, costing us 1 Euro. The hotel was much nicer than most my stays in Morocco except for The Palace that Kate and I manage to get a room at for the night and of course Bart’s place. But Istanbul was like any busy city, taxis honking their horns, pedestrians not giving a shit about traffic and people shouting at us saying “Hi ..How are you? Where are you from? Come eat here.”

The first day we walked around the city getting to know it better and avoiding the huge tram in the middle of the road. It’s an amazing city with a load of history waiting to be remembered. The country where Brad Pitt did his famous sword flight in the battle for Troy, where Constantine moved the Holy Roman Empire to the Eastern World and the Ottoman Empire ruled like the Roman up until 1914. And the whole time I just kept singing Istanbul (not Constantinople) from They Might Be Giants.

The first placed we visited was Hagia Sophia built during the Byzantine age as a church and later turned into a Mosque reminding us how Christianity spread with Constantine, but the region converted to the Muslim region after the Ottoman Empire was on fire in the 15th century and were able to almost surround the Mediterranean Sea with their Turkish Delights. Meaning the church, mosque and now museum was pretty freaking cool.

Of course the best part about travelling is meeting the people. In Turkey (like Morocco) the Arabs usually approach you first. They always have a good bargain that will be gone in a flash or some very special magic carpet ready to fly into your home. This bargaining at first I hated it (it’s very un American) but becoming wiser I have actually grown fond of bargaining. My trick is carrying different currency on me and having my money in different pockets. If I like something I try never to show too much interest in it but just enough to ask a couple questions. Then I ask for the best price, what ever they say I will say “Thanks” see you later usually they want you always to stay because if you leave you are never coming back. Then if it is ten dollars, it happens that I only have five dollars in my pocket so I try to bargain the price down to five (they probably made it for .25cents)…it becomes a fun game and hey it’s part of their culture.

The next neat thing is we were there during Ramadan. At night the streets were all filled with people celebrating eating, laughing dancing and eating again. It was Kebab Kapital with meat, chicken and hot dog kebabs (for the tourist). It seemed like Turkey did alright, made money from tourist, celebrated their religion etc. You could feel the European influence mixed with Muslim culture which works pretty well when they are selling magic flying carpets.

All in all it was a really good trip. After living in Europe for awhile I’ve become acclimated to Western European life. It’s always nice to visit a country that five years ago I never dreamed I would visited and have the opportunity to experience a completely new culture only seven hours away. The Turks might just want to sell you a magic carpet but people are people where ever you go.