Tales from Turkey

Guest Columnist
David O Brown
Note: While I returned to MN, David and Anna took an opportunity for some father-daughter bonding time and flew to Istanbul, Turkey for five days. Here is his report. Pictures coming soon.

One of the reasons why I took this job in Kuwait was the opportunity to travel, so this last Christmas I took that opportunity to go back to a country that was part of my growing up. I had been there many years ago and I did not remember any of it, but the smells and sounds were very familiar.
One of the reasons why I took this job in Kuwait was the opportunity to travel, so this last Christmas I took that opportunity to go back to a country that was part of my growing up. While Nadine went back to Minnesota, Anna and I visited Istanbul, Turkey.
I had been there many years ago and I did not remember any of it, but the smells and sounds were very familiar.
I really thought that at the end of December that there wouldn’t be that many tourists there – it was quite thin on tourists when we were in Europe last Christmas. But this trip was not that case. Istanbul was full.
Within Istanbul, many of the tourists sites are centrally located. Anna and I started by going to an underground cistern that was made by the Romans. Very neat place – Love to show you those pictures...alas I accidently deleted them.
Travelling in larger European cities offers all sorts of adventures and opportunities. One has to be on the look out for the Good ones-and the Bad ones. For example, following out trip to the underground cistern, we were going to visit the biggest church in the Byzantine Empire – Aya Sophia. It was a church until the Ottoman Empire when it was changed to a mosque – then a museum in 1924.
As we arrived, we were approached--okay, actually we were collared by a "tour guide" who was said he would show us the Blue Mosque. So, not being Turkish, and not having a guide book, we thought "Why not?" So we walked over there and he talked about the history etc etc and then suddenly he decided that it was in our best interest to let him "show us the best carpet shop in the area". So, we went to the shop. As soon as I got in the shop, I told the guy I did not have the money nor the inclination to buy a carpet but he could show me.
But did that stop the sale pitch? No! While the silk carpets were beautiful, they were expensive. Like 4000 dollars for a carpet 2 yards long by 1 yard wide. After 45 minutes I was able to get out of there. But then our guide had to show us "The Best Silver Shop". At least that had something I could afford (Nadine and Anna received lovely earrings for Christmas).
It certainly is an art of separating tourists from their money. After a while I got used to just ignoring sales people when they said something to us. Anna is good at it and at times it got a bit too aggressive. One guy said” Are you from America” we said nothing “Well you can’t be from America", he said. "They have manners when someone asks a question”. Well I wasn’t planning on buying from him and after that there was no way. But I imagine they get frustrated trying to sell all day.
One of the most unique experiences we had was a visit to a Turkish Bath. Quite an experience. For 60 dollars Anna and I got the deluxe treatment. Anna went off to the female side and I went into the male side. After changing to a towel, I went into a large room that had a large marble pedestal table where men were laying. The marble was heated from below and it was hot and steamy in the room. So, I lay on the marble and relaxed my body. After about 10 minutes a large Turkish man pointed at me and I slid to the edge of the marble and he had a scrub sponge. He doused me with soapy water and scrubbed me back to front. He poured warm water over me to rinse me off and then he then gave me a rough massage. He led me into another room and poured hot water on my head and proceeded to scrub my hair and head. After that I went into a massage room and got a ½ hour massage. It was a great experience – I’d do it once a month if I lived there. I only had one small problem there. As I was taking a final shower, my glasses fell from a shelf and one of the lenses popped out and I could not find it –after searching the massage room and marble area, I went back to the shower and crawled on my hands and knees and I found it – not much fun if I hadn’t.
The next days were a lot of walking and we discovered how to used the tram system. We saw a lot of mosques. Oh look another mosque. As in Kuwait, it seems like there's a mosque on almost every other block.
We got lost a couple of times and that is always fun. Istanbul is a very hilly city so we spent a lot of time walking up, up and up. Once we were trying to find an area called Taksem. We were following a map that made no sense or maybe we made no sense. Anyway we made it only to discover the church we wanted to see was closed and the monument in the area was surrounded by plywood as they were renovating it. But we did stop at a tiny restaurant where we enjoyed tasty food. We also didn’t see many other tourists, which was a plus.
We got lost one other time. After a tram ride to somewhere, we stopped for tea and played some cards and started walking to where we thought the Roman aqueduct was and we found it! Anna wanted to walk on it, but the only way on was to climb a 15-foot wall and I did not really want to get arrested so Dad nixed that plan. We next aimed for the Suleiman Mosque (Oh another mosque) but again we got lost but we did encounter a real out door bazaar where real Turks shop and that was fun. We eventually ended up at the New Mosque (It was built in 1565 so it was the new mosque)
We also took a boat/city tour. The tour bus pulled up and we were the only on the tour – nice to have a private tour. We went to the Spice Market and that was neat – lots of cool smells – Ah but the tour guide took us to a store where we could get great bargains! –Oh well I really did want some Turkish dried apricots and Anna was introduced to Turkish Delight candy which she liked. We then cruised the Bosporus and had a nice tour history guide.
Some of our other highlights were a dinner and show at a restaurant where they had Whirling Dervishes – the music and show was about an hour and that is enough of watching three guys go round and round. We saw the Topkapi Museum where the Sultans lived. We went to the Museum of Modern Art – quite dull for me but Anna liked it.
Overall we had a good time – good to spend time with Anna – Missed having Nadine with us. So, if anyone wants to meet us in Istanbul, I think I can show you a good time.