Trying To Get Our Bearings In Istanbul

[TECH NOTE:  This post has been delayed because I’m using a new iPad 16 for our trip and the simple way to shrink photo file size on my MacBook doesn’t exist (or at least I couldn’t find it here.)  I’ve looked at a bunch of videos on how to do it plus more written instructions and was even more confused.  Finally I found this one:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAz60h22k6c Which shows a really easy way to do what I’ve needed to do.  Thanks Dan for the video.  Now I can post some pictures of Istanbul (and one from Frankfurt, Germany.]  

[A few minutes later after uploading the first picture.  First Blogger said it couldn’t upload the image.  I did it again.  It uploaded it, but none of the controls (size, right-left-center, etc.) seem to work.  It may be all the pics will be large and centered.  Better than no pics at all.]

Actual post begins here:

After a couple of nights in Frankfurt to catch up on sleep and meet Nik’s sister-in-law and niece, we went on to Istanbul.  (Nik is the Ukrainian who lived in Ketchikan who I tutored in English for about two years over FaceTime.)

                             

Above is the Haupt Bahnhof (main train station) in Frankfurt

By the second full day in Istanbul I was wondering what we were doing here - it was all so overwhelming. 

 [Pic is Istanbul Airport walking and walking and walking to get to passport check and then to baggage.  At least here there were long big open spaces so you can see where you are going.  In Frankfurt you were in smaller spaces turning this way and that way, never quite sure if it was the right way. Not sure how the pic got on the left.]

We were staying in Sultanahmet - the most touristy section of Istanbul from what I can tell. [Because it has the oldest and most spectacular things for tourists to see, like the Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Casıı), the Grand Bazaar, and other notable landmarks.  [Can you tell that I’m stalling here?  

We stayed at the Side Hotel - see the little white circle, middle bottom - in the section called Sultanahmet.  The section on the right is the Asian part of Istanbul

We spent our time just walking around, figuring out where we were, how  to get an Istanbul Card (lets you ride on all the forms of public transportation), getting Turkish Lira from the ATM and trying to figure out how much things are in US dollars (1 Lire is about .024 cents; a dollar is worth 41.58 Turkish Lira.  Quick, they bring you the bill and it’s 1670 Lira, what’s that in dollars?)  It’s been harder than most places for me to be able to ‘feel’ my way around and naturally know which way is North. The hotel map suggests that lots of places are less than a kilometer away. This stalling I’m doing now reflects how I felt, and still feel].   Below is a picture of Turkish Delight.  Below that is a display of teas in a spice shop.

The second day I determined to do something.  Well, of course walking around and looking at things is doing something, but the next day we took the Bosphorus ferry.  The Bosphorus Strait flows from the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea (which eventually connects to the Aegean Sea).  North is the European Side,  South (I think - east of the Sultanahmet section) the Asian side The tour boat went close to the shoreline on both sides.  That helped a lot for getting my bearings and seeing how much more of Istanbul there is.  But from what I can tell, where we are is the real tourist area - lots and lots of places to eat, from food carts to fancy restaurants.  Carpet salesmen lurking like sharks.  Opening line for most seems to be, “Where are you from?”  It’s been in the 70sF during the day (which feels hot in the sun) and into the low 60s in the evening, with a strong breeze.

Most of my Bosphorus pics are on my camera.  I’m not even going to try retrieving those for this post.

We’d been told not to visit the Ayasofia (Hagia Sofia) - the huge mosque about a quarter of a mile from our hotel - not only is it more crowded on Sunday, but we were told there was also a cruise ship adding to the crowd of people who wanted to get in.  So we got our tickets early Monday.  

Above is the exterior of Hagia Sofia and below an interior shot. The link takes

you to the Hagia Sofia museum site and will help you understand the significance of this mosque

The next day we visited the Sultan Ahmet Mosque (the Blue Mosque).  It’s maybe a quarter of a mile away from the Hagia Sofia.  Here’s a link that tells you more, though most of the links are tourist oriented and talk about getting tickets.  You don’t need tickets to enter this mosque.  

Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmet Mosque) exterior from the roof of our hotel above

And from inside.  Magnificent!

Istanbul folks, according to the guide books and websites, use an Istanbul Card, which functions like similar cards in other cities.  This one may be a bit broader in scope than most - it works on all forms of transportation - busses, trams, trains, subway, funiculars, and ferries.  Even though you can switch the machines to English, it was still a bit daunting to buy our card (more than one person can use the card).  So this day we topped it off to make sure there was enough money in it.  

Machine to get Istanbul Card

And after Sultan Ahmet Mosque we took tram 1.  I wanted to cross over the water into the northern part of Istanbul.  We rode and rode but never crossed the bridge over the Golden Horn.  Eventually we got off and walked around a neighborhood that didn’t seem to have a lot to offer (us anyway). We walked back three stations before we got on the tram to go back.  When I was relating our adventure and lack of water crossing to Emre who works at the hotel, he was confused.  I showed him a picture of the station where we got off.  Eventually he said, “You went in the wrong direction.  You got off in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Istanbul”. 

Riding back on the tram.

I told you I was having trouble getting my bearings.  But getting lost is part of the adventure of traveling. Fortunately this was a test ride.  We didn’t have a specific destination in mind, except to cross the water into the ‘newer’ part of Istanbul.   

I’m done with this post.  Obviously I’ve left out a lot.  But my problems with this iPad and photos has made this one of the most frustrating posts to write that I can remember.  I’m sure there were problematic posts long ago that I don’t remember.  But I’m going to stop here.  

And, by the way, 1670 Lira would be $40.39. (At least at today’s official exchange rate.)

”. . . we can return to dreams of our long gone riches, our legendary past”

 I’m reading Istanbul by Nobel Prize winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk.  It’s an autobiographical look at the author, Istanbul, and Turkey. (I’m speculating here, because I’m not that far into it.  He’s talking about his childhood when the neighborhood was filled with the dilapidated old palaces of the pashas of the Fallen Ottoman Empire,  I’m not sure what kids learn about in world history these days, but the magnificence of the Ottoman Empire was left out of the history classes I took.  

This is what people in the US might feel in 50 years or more if our current political trajectory continues and the many riches of the US are gutted, and the rest of the world leaves us in the dust.  

“When I watch the black and white crowds rushing through the darkening streets of a winter’s evening, I feel a deep sense of fellowship, almost as if the night has cloaked our lives, our streets, our every belonging in a blanket of darkness, as if once we’re safe in our houses, our bedrooms, our beds, we can return to dreams of our long gone riches, our legendary past.  And likewise, as I watch dark descend like a poem in the pale light of the streetlamps to engulf these old neighborhoods, it comforts me to know that for the night at least we are safe; the shameful poverty of our city is cloaked from Western eyes.”  (p. 35)

“To stand before the magnificent iron gates of a grand yali bereft of its paint, to notice the sturdiness of another yali’s moss-covered walls, to admire the shutters and fine woodwork of a third even more sumptuous yali and to contemplate the judas trees on the hills rising high above it, to pass gardens heavily shaded by evergreens and centuries-old plane trees - even for a child, it was to know that a great civilization had stood here, and, from what they told me, people very much like us had once upon a time led a life extravagantly different from our own - leaving us who followed them feeling the poorer, weaker, and more provincial.” (pp 53-53)

I’m sitting at SeaTac waiting to board our flight to Frankfurt, so that’s it for now.  

Off To Turkiye Soon

The year I studied in Göttingen, Germany, we had most of March and April off.  Hitchhiking was my main means of travel out of town, though in Yugoslavia I ended up taking trains, busses, and a boat.  As you leave Yugoslavia  and enter Greece you could go to Istanbul,Turkey (which is now Türkiye by the way) or to Greece.  I wanted to do both, but I would have to speed through Greece if I also went to Istanbul.  Also, I had five or six names and addresses of people in Greece - the friends and the parents of a Georg, a Greek student I knew in Göttingen.  

So I vowed to return to Istanbul another time.  It’s now 60 years later and I’m finally going to Istanbul.  Though I fully realize the Istanbul I will see now, is not at all the same place I would have seen in 1965. 

So I’ve been playing travel agent for the last six months.  After booking flights, some initial hotel rooms, loading apps, arranging with our house sitter, trying to figure out which eSIMS to use, doing Turkish on DuoLingo, to list just a few things, we’re almost ready.  But I do understand why people take package tours and let someone else do all that work.  

I’m a bit hesitant to take long journeys these days.  We know about carbon footprints, and I was lucky enough to fall into a life that gave me opportunities when I was younger to see much of the world - mostly I had assignments for an extended period of time (like being a student or a teacher or working/volunteering at an organization.)  It’s a great way to get connected into the local community and be more of a traveler than a tourist.  You are there long enough to be able to use at least some of the local language.  

As I say, I have had opportunities to live in other countries and learn what I could from those experiences.  The world has an endless supply of interesting places to visit.  Bit I've also learned there is an endless supply of interesting people much closer to home and I can connect with them to do important things without traveling the globe.  I hope to enjoy this trip, learn from it, share it with you and others in my life, and then settle back home and discover the richness of the people and geography around Anchorage that I haven't discovered yet. And revisit those I already know.  

But I also realize this trip might tempt me to venture out again.  We'll see.  

We haven't taken any overseas trips for a while and our Outside trips have been to see family and friends.  But the impact does weigh on me.

We all have to figure out how to live reasonably moral lives in the 21st Century.  It’s not easy in a system that values money above everything.  Of course it isn't either or - moral or not. It's probably better to think about it on a continuum from something like evil to something like virtuous.  

The basic standard that I think is reasonable for most people is that they give back to the world more than they got.  “Got” doesn’t have to mean being born wealthier than most.  Having loving parents is also a gift.  Having good friends is too.  But in a capitalist society money tends to give you a greater ability to do harm or good.  

I don’t know how one measures one's moral balance precisely - one needn’t give back in the currency one receives.  Being kind to others is one sort of currency.  Contributing to the improvement of other people’s lives also works.  Passing on wisdom works too, though many people think what they have to say is wiser than it probably is.  All we can do is think about the equation of giving back more than we receive and seriously strive for that everyday.