Where we left off in Turkey....
Its Tuesday! And since our fearless leader Jakob loves showing religious diversity everywhere we go (I have my migration and identity class with this guy, and he led me through Bulgaria as well) we went to the the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, an old Synagogue, and an old Mosque. The Greek Orthodox church is the home of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and Istanbul itself has been the center of Eastern Orthodoxy since the Roman capital was established there in 330 AD. We were shown all the mosaics on the ceiling by a guide who joined us for the day, and the walls told the story of the New Testament. For some reason a woman named Elizabeth had a central role through most of the story, a character I have NEVER heard of. The synagogue dated back to the 15th century, but was mostly unimpressive. The mosque, Eyup Sultan Kulliye, is considered the fourth most sacred place for muslims in the world, afer Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. The complex apparently holds the remains and is the burial site of Euyp Ensari, a friend of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, and a revered member of Islam's early leadership.
After a much needed lunch (quince stew), we had coffee, tea, hookah, and time with turkish students in a nice little patio full of bean bag chairs. My student particularly fascinated me considering she came from Armenian descent, and there was a purging of Armenians from the Ottoman empire during the first world war. While the Turkish government does not regard it a genocide, the rest of the world does, and over 1 million Armenian community leaders, men, women, and children were exterminated or sent on death marches. Today there is still alot of anti-Armenian sentiment and people with Armenian heritage are automatically assumed to be inferior. Exploring the extent of this with a student was really interesting and shocking simultaneously.
Wednesday was the big touristy day, and fellow traveller slash Copenhagen Wesleyan resident Sarah Brown decided to join up with us for the day from her own travels in Greece. We started the day off at the Hagia Sophia, a place of Christian worship for 916 years, then converted to a mosque and served Muslims for 481 years. It is full of amazing Byzantine architecture and represents a synthesis between the East and West. If the epic Hagia Sophia can be shadowed by anything, it is by our next sight, the Blue Mosque, or Sultan Ahmet. It is called the Blue Mosque by the predominantly blue coloring of paintwork inside the mosque. It was built between 1609 and 1616 by the order of Sultan Ahmed I, and designed by a student of the architect who designed the Taj Mahal. The building is absolutely incredible; intricate artwork everywhere, vast beautiful carpets, and 16 foot diameter columns holding up a massive stone dome. One of the most impressives peices of classic architecture I have seen, besides perhaps the Taj itself.
After an epically long wait for a mexican food lunch, and a welcome break from the absence of guacamole from my life, we visited the Topkapi Palace and Harem. The palace was the official and primary residence for the Ottoman Sultans from 1465 to 1853. Comprised of 4 main courtyards and many buildings, this is perhaps the most relaxing placees I have ever been. Beautiful green lawns, long hedges of blooming pastel tulips, and a breeze coming off the Bhosphorus river, which the complex overlooks, this place oozes relaxation. It also houses the treasury, where you could see the sultans throne, flask, armor, and many relics, all of which are studded by some of the largest jewels I have ever seen. Within the grounds is the housing for the Sultan's 400 women. Who had access to all these women, you may ask? Just the Sultan and his son; talk about some intense family bonding.
Our last day in Turkey was both amazing and melancholy, for none of us wanted to leave. We had an interesting lecture at Bilgi University about past and present Turkey-EU relations, back to back with a lecture on religion, state, and society in Turkey. We were then shipped back to the central area of Istanbul, and had free time in the Grand Bazaar. The largest market I have ever seen, it is covered, and you are bound to get lost among the thousands of shops selling jewelry, carpets, hookahs, spices, and antiques. After a few hours of consumerist-driven wandering, a few of us decided to go get an authentic turkish bath experience.
Built in 1584, the Cemberlitas Hamam is right next to the grand bazaar. The main male chamber contains a large heated marble platform that you lie on where you perspire and relax. The stone dome overhead sheds natural light through the holes in the roof. Eventually a large mustached turkish man wearing only a waist rag comes over and scrubs all the dead skin off your body using a luffa. Then he soaps you up an scrubs you down again, and really works your body into a limp state. While having an older turkish man pay specific detail to your contours can seem a little invading, this was probably one of the most enjoyable moments of the entire week. AFter rinsing off and sweating some more, going upstairs to your little dorm room where you lay down in the dark is hypnotizing and even more relaxing, if possible. After resting for 40 minutes, I got dressed, came downstairs and had some fresh squeezed orange juice while reading the newspaper. I really dreaded leaving this place, but dinner was just as epic.
Our resturant was on the top floor of a six story building on a hill overlooking all of Istanbul. The glass walled dinner room showed us the nighttime skyline of the city, and the little patio allowed us to have some fresh air to enjoy it as well. Besides being one of the nicer resturants I have ever dined in, the dance floor, DJed by a loft overhead, was clear glass and overlooked the lobby multiple stories underneath. After 4 amazing courses and red wine (and a toast conducted by yours truly), we got up to dance and mingle. We thought we were going to go see the nightlife of the city one last time, but this place was too epic and memorable to leave, and we all boogied ourselves to exhaustion before dragging ourselves into bed.
The next morning was spent on a satisfied note. We had a wrap up session evaluating our academic and tourist visits and spending a couple of last hours together. On this trip we truly saw a cosmopolitan 21st century Istanbul, full of relics from its centuries-old history.
While the following week was great (read catching up with friends and boatloads of work), I left Thursday night for Budapest, where I met up with high school friend Mitch Alva. That adventure, which I am just back from now, will have to wait however.........
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Heads Will Roll
Where we left off...
I am headed on a train to Berlin. Without a passport. Im sitting on the train, have my ticket checked, and for once everything is going alright. Then the police get on the train and start to sporatically check passports. Im reading the newspaper and notice that they check the passports of the people right in front of me, as I start to read more and more intensely. Apparently it worked, and I got into berlin with enough time to find a hostel, unpack, have a well-deserved beer, and chat with the people in my room. One of them is a girl studying in Copenhagen (small world), and the other guy was stepping into the west for the first time in 4 years. He was teaching first grade and pre-school in Japan and had just ended his program. We chatted about the culture shock about entering the west again and how it is actually harder to come back than to step into another culture. Given india and japan are very different, but it was enough to have a conversation. And he gave me some great sweet potato cake from japan. I also learned that Japanese kids think that McDonalds is a Japanese company that was exported to the US. Boy do they have something coming.
My first day in Berlin I decided to see the main sights. I saw a section of the berlin wall, and sitting right behind it is a much larger wall slash billboard advertising converse sneakers. The wierd thing was they both showed similar graffiti patterns. Maybe capitalism and communism aren't that different after all. HA. I saw the reightstag where Hitler seized power in 1933, which is now adorned with a beautiful glass dome in the middle of the square stone building. There was also an extremely unimpressive memorial to Jews who died in Europe in World War two, and was full of children running around playing hide and seek.
At this point I was really bored with seeing the "sights" of cities. I am burnt out and upset. So I decide to go on an alternative tour of berlin which I picked up a pamphlet for in my hostel. We meet up and of course it is being led by this Dreadlocked dude from Scotland, and I immediately know this is going to be a good time. He shows us some more of the berlin wall, and then we go to an alternative art space in downtown. This was the building where the first live televised events were shown, in this case the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It is an epically historic and beautiful building, and the city wants to tear it down to build a hotel and some souvineer (wow i butchered that) shops, despite the art squatters. He showed us some work by the revered graffiti artist Banksy. Banksy is from Bristol and makes politial commentary-based works all over international cities. In berlin it was an astronaut 4 stories tall floating through space on the side of a building. PLEASE check out his work here (don't be scared away by the rats, he thinks its funny to have rats doing human things, something based in a post-apocalypse mind state):
http://www.banksy.co.uk/
We went to an Absinthe shop, the "rock and roll" bakery, and munched on the best vegitarish kebab slash falafel I have EVER had. So good I went back the next day to have another, and Berlin is huge. We went to a great thrift store warehouse that sells clothes by the kilo, and I also went back to this spot since I was still short on threads. We went to see some bombed out buildings dating back from WWII. Apparently the Allies bombed the crap out of Berlin just days before the war ended, after hitler had committed suicide. Right next door was where "Pimp My Ride Berlin" operated, and we saw some seriously tricked out cars. We ended the tour at a Reggae beach bar, where I took off my boots and dug my toes in the sand, had a beer, and joined a pickup game of volleyball while a DJ spun some reggae. Finally my luck has turned.
I went to some bars with some people I met on this alternative tour, including a bar owned by the german band Rammstein, completely gothic themed. Then we went to a cool bar pointed out to us on the tour, a ping pong bar in East Berlin. You join a circular game of ping pong, and you slowly get out until just two people are playing, alot of fun. Apparently this place sprung up because you could talk to the person next to you without being overheard because of the sound of the balls, table, and paddle, which was a big deal in East Berlin. Don't want to have a file created on you, and the bar itself was still unmarked.
My last day in Berlin I decided to go to the Sachsussen concentration camp outside of Berlin. This was the model concentration camp that many of the others were designed after, and received some of the first groups of people. It started dealing with political prisoners, homosexuals, and others until finally jews were sent there. What a terrible place. The prisoners tested out shoes there that were crafted in another part of the camp, and prisoners were given heavy packs and made to march 25 miles a day on cobbles in one stretch of the camp to wear out the shoes and test their durability, which were distributed regardless of size. After the war the Soviets used it for their political prisoners. I left Berlin on this somber note.
Back in Copenhagen!!!! Besides sleeping, I decided to do laundry and take it easy. I found out my bag from Bulgaria was missing from the airport, so I had to fill out missing baggage paperwork with Czech airlines. While this was a huge debbie downer, after I got back from turkey they had found my bag, thank God. And I am proud to say I got onto the plane to turkey rested and on time! Maybe a first, but that story will have to wait until I get around to blogging about my Bulgaria trip.
When we get to Istanbul, the sun is shining and all seems good. The group seems like a chill group of kids, and as we drive into town we are passing centuries of history in the form of multiple city walls and gates. The city was started as early as 1000 BC, two hundred years after the trojan wars and when Kings David and Solomon ruled Jerusalem. It also served as the second capital of the Roman Empire when Rome fell, then called Constantinople. Needless to say there is alot of history. It turns out our hotel is smack-dab in the middle of the city, walking distance from the Hagia Sofia mosque and Blue mosque, two of the most visible and epic sites of the city. After a group dinner and a drink on our fearless leader Jakob, we all crash from traveling.
The next day is great. We wake up, have a great meditteranean breakfast at the hotel, and board a boat for a tour of the Bosphorus river. While it was quite chilly, all the turkish apple tea one can drink certainly helped. It was good to wrap one's mind around the layout of the city, and we even saw some greenpeace guys hanging off a bridge. Obama can't stop following me around, and he was actually in Istanbul when we were; we had to change our plans to accomodate his and Michelle's desires to see the same sights we wanted to. This guy is starting to get on my nerves. The greenpeacers were asking Obama to work with the G20 on environmental initiatives, and the police boat floating below them did not look happy.
We spent the afternoon in an immigrant neighborhood talking to Kristin S. Biehl about an NGO and community center there. This rundown neighborhood was a mere two blocks from the center of the touristy area, and was definitely not an area I would have seen without a guide. Istanbul is a huge immigrant destination because of its easy customs, being seen as a bridge between east and west along with being a stepping stone to europe, and the fact that it has much less political and social strife than its neighbors. Ther are immigrants from Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Bangaladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, along with other smaller nationalities. This NGO was actually funded by the EU and provided after-school care for immigrant children, but was in a state of limbo because the area was in threat of demolition of gentrification.
After this we went to a shopping mall, perhaps the nicest shopping mall I have ever been to. Twenty years ago there were no shopping malls in Turkey, and today there are over 120 in Istanbul alone. The idea was to show us a modern turkey, not just the backwards, fez-wearing Turkey many tourists see. This place was huge and apparently designed by a prominent Japanese architect.
We went to dinner at an old Turkish resturant and were quite surprised when the traditional musicians came out. Korai, our guide (who has an uncanny resemblance to Vin Deisel), makes us get up and dance with the musicians two at a time, and who does he pick first but me. Maybe everyone else got a couple glasses of wine before they had to dance, but I was up there imitating some Turkish folk dance with only a few sips. For some reason I am always put in this situation. After shaking it for a while, I sit down and let the others have there turn. After food and raki ( a licorice liquor that you mix with water), the belly dancer comes out. She pulls our teacher and some others up to dance with her, and even gets up on the table and dances. Personally I felt a little uncomfortable since this woman did not seem to love her job, but the group seemed to enjoy it. After all this dancing we couldn't stop, and went to the bar down the corner from our hotel, and turned the place into a dance party on a monday night, eventually with turks joining in.
Dancing for hours can work up a mighty sweat, and a bunch of us decided to go down the street to an outdoor hookah bar and smoke and relax. We get there and sit down on multi-colored pillows, sitting under fleece blankets, drinking tea and smoking shishah. Surrounded by new friends and looking foreward to the rest of the week, while recapping all that has already happened, I realize I am in for an amazingly special trip. My luck has turned.
I am headed on a train to Berlin. Without a passport. Im sitting on the train, have my ticket checked, and for once everything is going alright. Then the police get on the train and start to sporatically check passports. Im reading the newspaper and notice that they check the passports of the people right in front of me, as I start to read more and more intensely. Apparently it worked, and I got into berlin with enough time to find a hostel, unpack, have a well-deserved beer, and chat with the people in my room. One of them is a girl studying in Copenhagen (small world), and the other guy was stepping into the west for the first time in 4 years. He was teaching first grade and pre-school in Japan and had just ended his program. We chatted about the culture shock about entering the west again and how it is actually harder to come back than to step into another culture. Given india and japan are very different, but it was enough to have a conversation. And he gave me some great sweet potato cake from japan. I also learned that Japanese kids think that McDonalds is a Japanese company that was exported to the US. Boy do they have something coming.
My first day in Berlin I decided to see the main sights. I saw a section of the berlin wall, and sitting right behind it is a much larger wall slash billboard advertising converse sneakers. The wierd thing was they both showed similar graffiti patterns. Maybe capitalism and communism aren't that different after all. HA. I saw the reightstag where Hitler seized power in 1933, which is now adorned with a beautiful glass dome in the middle of the square stone building. There was also an extremely unimpressive memorial to Jews who died in Europe in World War two, and was full of children running around playing hide and seek.
At this point I was really bored with seeing the "sights" of cities. I am burnt out and upset. So I decide to go on an alternative tour of berlin which I picked up a pamphlet for in my hostel. We meet up and of course it is being led by this Dreadlocked dude from Scotland, and I immediately know this is going to be a good time. He shows us some more of the berlin wall, and then we go to an alternative art space in downtown. This was the building where the first live televised events were shown, in this case the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It is an epically historic and beautiful building, and the city wants to tear it down to build a hotel and some souvineer (wow i butchered that) shops, despite the art squatters. He showed us some work by the revered graffiti artist Banksy. Banksy is from Bristol and makes politial commentary-based works all over international cities. In berlin it was an astronaut 4 stories tall floating through space on the side of a building. PLEASE check out his work here (don't be scared away by the rats, he thinks its funny to have rats doing human things, something based in a post-apocalypse mind state):
http://www.banksy.co.uk/
We went to an Absinthe shop, the "rock and roll" bakery, and munched on the best vegitarish kebab slash falafel I have EVER had. So good I went back the next day to have another, and Berlin is huge. We went to a great thrift store warehouse that sells clothes by the kilo, and I also went back to this spot since I was still short on threads. We went to see some bombed out buildings dating back from WWII. Apparently the Allies bombed the crap out of Berlin just days before the war ended, after hitler had committed suicide. Right next door was where "Pimp My Ride Berlin" operated, and we saw some seriously tricked out cars. We ended the tour at a Reggae beach bar, where I took off my boots and dug my toes in the sand, had a beer, and joined a pickup game of volleyball while a DJ spun some reggae. Finally my luck has turned.
I went to some bars with some people I met on this alternative tour, including a bar owned by the german band Rammstein, completely gothic themed. Then we went to a cool bar pointed out to us on the tour, a ping pong bar in East Berlin. You join a circular game of ping pong, and you slowly get out until just two people are playing, alot of fun. Apparently this place sprung up because you could talk to the person next to you without being overheard because of the sound of the balls, table, and paddle, which was a big deal in East Berlin. Don't want to have a file created on you, and the bar itself was still unmarked.
My last day in Berlin I decided to go to the Sachsussen concentration camp outside of Berlin. This was the model concentration camp that many of the others were designed after, and received some of the first groups of people. It started dealing with political prisoners, homosexuals, and others until finally jews were sent there. What a terrible place. The prisoners tested out shoes there that were crafted in another part of the camp, and prisoners were given heavy packs and made to march 25 miles a day on cobbles in one stretch of the camp to wear out the shoes and test their durability, which were distributed regardless of size. After the war the Soviets used it for their political prisoners. I left Berlin on this somber note.
Back in Copenhagen!!!! Besides sleeping, I decided to do laundry and take it easy. I found out my bag from Bulgaria was missing from the airport, so I had to fill out missing baggage paperwork with Czech airlines. While this was a huge debbie downer, after I got back from turkey they had found my bag, thank God. And I am proud to say I got onto the plane to turkey rested and on time! Maybe a first, but that story will have to wait until I get around to blogging about my Bulgaria trip.
When we get to Istanbul, the sun is shining and all seems good. The group seems like a chill group of kids, and as we drive into town we are passing centuries of history in the form of multiple city walls and gates. The city was started as early as 1000 BC, two hundred years after the trojan wars and when Kings David and Solomon ruled Jerusalem. It also served as the second capital of the Roman Empire when Rome fell, then called Constantinople. Needless to say there is alot of history. It turns out our hotel is smack-dab in the middle of the city, walking distance from the Hagia Sofia mosque and Blue mosque, two of the most visible and epic sites of the city. After a group dinner and a drink on our fearless leader Jakob, we all crash from traveling.
The next day is great. We wake up, have a great meditteranean breakfast at the hotel, and board a boat for a tour of the Bosphorus river. While it was quite chilly, all the turkish apple tea one can drink certainly helped. It was good to wrap one's mind around the layout of the city, and we even saw some greenpeace guys hanging off a bridge. Obama can't stop following me around, and he was actually in Istanbul when we were; we had to change our plans to accomodate his and Michelle's desires to see the same sights we wanted to. This guy is starting to get on my nerves. The greenpeacers were asking Obama to work with the G20 on environmental initiatives, and the police boat floating below them did not look happy.
We spent the afternoon in an immigrant neighborhood talking to Kristin S. Biehl about an NGO and community center there. This rundown neighborhood was a mere two blocks from the center of the touristy area, and was definitely not an area I would have seen without a guide. Istanbul is a huge immigrant destination because of its easy customs, being seen as a bridge between east and west along with being a stepping stone to europe, and the fact that it has much less political and social strife than its neighbors. Ther are immigrants from Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Bangaladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, along with other smaller nationalities. This NGO was actually funded by the EU and provided after-school care for immigrant children, but was in a state of limbo because the area was in threat of demolition of gentrification.
After this we went to a shopping mall, perhaps the nicest shopping mall I have ever been to. Twenty years ago there were no shopping malls in Turkey, and today there are over 120 in Istanbul alone. The idea was to show us a modern turkey, not just the backwards, fez-wearing Turkey many tourists see. This place was huge and apparently designed by a prominent Japanese architect.
We went to dinner at an old Turkish resturant and were quite surprised when the traditional musicians came out. Korai, our guide (who has an uncanny resemblance to Vin Deisel), makes us get up and dance with the musicians two at a time, and who does he pick first but me. Maybe everyone else got a couple glasses of wine before they had to dance, but I was up there imitating some Turkish folk dance with only a few sips. For some reason I am always put in this situation. After shaking it for a while, I sit down and let the others have there turn. After food and raki ( a licorice liquor that you mix with water), the belly dancer comes out. She pulls our teacher and some others up to dance with her, and even gets up on the table and dances. Personally I felt a little uncomfortable since this woman did not seem to love her job, but the group seemed to enjoy it. After all this dancing we couldn't stop, and went to the bar down the corner from our hotel, and turned the place into a dance party on a monday night, eventually with turks joining in.
Dancing for hours can work up a mighty sweat, and a bunch of us decided to go down the street to an outdoor hookah bar and smoke and relax. We get there and sit down on multi-colored pillows, sitting under fleece blankets, drinking tea and smoking shishah. Surrounded by new friends and looking foreward to the rest of the week, while recapping all that has already happened, I realize I am in for an amazingly special trip. My luck has turned.
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