Sunday was my last day in Plovdiv and Zarko had the day off so we walked around town together and he showed me a couple of places which he thought was interesting...me not so much, but I appreciate the thought regardless. I guess for some reason he is really impressed by fountains and athletic fields, so we actually took a 30 minute bus ride out to the "Rowing Channel" and the surrounding athletic complex. The rowing channel itself was pretty cool I must say. It's a 2.3 km long Olympic "pool" that attracts a lot of joggers and such when it's not being used for competition.
The best thing about staying with Zarko is our daily cooking sessions. On my last night we made the typical Bulgarian Shopska salad with tomato, cucumber, pepper, parsley, and healthy pile of Bulgarian cheese on top. The main course was a special sausage from his hometown of Chirpan. I have 100% intention of recreating these amazing dishes when I get home, but hunting down some of the ingredients should be interesting.
Monday was uneventful; transit day. 11am bus from Plovidiv and arrived in Istanbul a little bit after 5pm. I didn't do my research very well and just assumed I don't need a visa for Turkey, so I was completely caught off guard when the border agent said in a menacing tone "No visa!" Turns out I could purchase one on arrival for $20. Crisis averted. My host in Istanbul is Kenn, a construction engineer who has lived in the city for almost 20 years. My initial host canceled at the last minute due to a family emergency and I ended up sending out emergency CS requests the night before and Kenn kindly agreed to let me crash at his apartment. By the way, I suddenly realized this morning that he looks like a young Turkish version of Dustin Hoffman.
Istanbul is overwhelming and huge in comparison to the past few places I've visited. Just its public transit system consists of metro, bus, metrobus, suburban train, ferry, seabus, etc... My "commute" from Kenn's apartment to the city center by suburban train is about 30 minutes and that even bypasses all the surface traffic. By bus it'd probably be an hour or more. Yesterday, my first day in Istanbaul, I visited the Blue Mosque (known by locals as Sultanahmed Mosque), the Hagia Sophia, the Grand Bazaar and everything in between that links those places. Tons of walking. For some reason I had really high hopes for Istanbul and it doesn't disappoint but I'm having trouble accepting the hoards of tourist groups - and I AM a tourist. I can't imagine how the locals feel. But to be fair, the residential areas are less suffocating.
Walking around in Istanbul, the first obvious character is the numerous minarets dotting the city skyline. The mass majority of the population are Muslim and there are hundreds of not thousands of mosques in the city. The most famous of these are the two that I visited yesterday, and they're right next to each other. The Blue Mosque is still a functioning mosque and has free entry. Tourists line up to enter and there is an attendant who hands out plastic bags to everyone for their shoes - it breaks my ecological heart. The interior of the mosque is covered with blue colored iznik tiles, hence its name. Next door is the Hagia Sophia and that was converted to a museum I think as early as 1935. $15 entry fee but totally worth it. I was literally slack-jawed when I walked into the place. Hagia Sophia is unique because it houses both Christian and Muslim religious symbols and artifacts because it served as both throughout history. It was originally an orthodox basilica until the Ottoman Empire when it was converted into a mosque.
After those two I was a bit mosqued out and decided to grab some lunch in the Grand Bazaar area. An over friendly carpet salesman chatted me up and I ended up talking with him in his carpet shop for almost 2 hours. And HE looks like a young Turkish version of Stallone. It's not just me; his colleagues even call him Stallone. He showed me some gorgeous carpets and kilims and then showed me the horrendous price tags to go along with them. I knew they were expensive, but not $6000 expensive. Anyone out there interested in purchasing an authentic, handwoven Turkish carpet? If so, place your orders now :) I'm sure they all say this. but Hasan (Turkish Stallone) promised to sell to me at cost price and send door to door via DHL for free. I'm not under the illusion that it's free, but it's still cheaper than purchasing one in the US. He travels there for work frequently and says there's about a 500% mark up in the US. Who knows.
Today I'm exploring a different part of the city center - close to Taksim Square. It's a huge pedestrian street, and I discovered the section that sells musical instruments, so I was able to get a quick guitar fix. Right now I'm tying this on a MacBook Pro in an electronics store since I didn't have time to finish up last night. Off I go before the store attendants kick me out.
Istanbul is overwhelming and huge in comparison to the past few places I've visited. Just its public transit system consists of metro, bus, metrobus, suburban train, ferry, seabus, etc... My "commute" from Kenn's apartment to the city center by suburban train is about 30 minutes and that even bypasses all the surface traffic. By bus it'd probably be an hour or more. Yesterday, my first day in Istanbaul, I visited the Blue Mosque (known by locals as Sultanahmed Mosque), the Hagia Sophia, the Grand Bazaar and everything in between that links those places. Tons of walking. For some reason I had really high hopes for Istanbul and it doesn't disappoint but I'm having trouble accepting the hoards of tourist groups - and I AM a tourist. I can't imagine how the locals feel. But to be fair, the residential areas are less suffocating.
Walking around in Istanbul, the first obvious character is the numerous minarets dotting the city skyline. The mass majority of the population are Muslim and there are hundreds of not thousands of mosques in the city. The most famous of these are the two that I visited yesterday, and they're right next to each other. The Blue Mosque is still a functioning mosque and has free entry. Tourists line up to enter and there is an attendant who hands out plastic bags to everyone for their shoes - it breaks my ecological heart. The interior of the mosque is covered with blue colored iznik tiles, hence its name. Next door is the Hagia Sophia and that was converted to a museum I think as early as 1935. $15 entry fee but totally worth it. I was literally slack-jawed when I walked into the place. Hagia Sophia is unique because it houses both Christian and Muslim religious symbols and artifacts because it served as both throughout history. It was originally an orthodox basilica until the Ottoman Empire when it was converted into a mosque.
After those two I was a bit mosqued out and decided to grab some lunch in the Grand Bazaar area. An over friendly carpet salesman chatted me up and I ended up talking with him in his carpet shop for almost 2 hours. And HE looks like a young Turkish version of Stallone. It's not just me; his colleagues even call him Stallone. He showed me some gorgeous carpets and kilims and then showed me the horrendous price tags to go along with them. I knew they were expensive, but not $6000 expensive. Anyone out there interested in purchasing an authentic, handwoven Turkish carpet? If so, place your orders now :) I'm sure they all say this. but Hasan (Turkish Stallone) promised to sell to me at cost price and send door to door via DHL for free. I'm not under the illusion that it's free, but it's still cheaper than purchasing one in the US. He travels there for work frequently and says there's about a 500% mark up in the US. Who knows.
Today I'm exploring a different part of the city center - close to Taksim Square. It's a huge pedestrian street, and I discovered the section that sells musical instruments, so I was able to get a quick guitar fix. Right now I'm tying this on a MacBook Pro in an electronics store since I didn't have time to finish up last night. Off I go before the store attendants kick me out.
very interesting! jw
ReplyDeleteYou are such a tuff buyer. He could not sell you a piece of carpet in two hours. Good job! If I were you I could buy one already. Haha. wl
ReplyDelete