A Rare Trip to Sultanahmet

I took Hyde to Tourist Central where I gained an appreciation for touristy looking shops which are actually quite impressive and interesting. The best example is a porcelain shop we went into where the manager (and maker of most of the wares) took us on a private tour of the place after I spoke a little Turkish with him. He seemed surprised and impressed and told me that he would sell us things at "the Turkish price". I was not able to confirm this, but we will likely return at some point to further investigate.
Ayasofya was closed but Hyde got to go into Sultanahmet. I would have gone, but the sign said not to enter if you are wearing shorts. I didn't mind touring the outside of it because of course I've been inside before. I enjoyed observing tourist-Turk interactions in the court yard. A dutch woman asking for directions, an Asian couple asking someone to take their picture, a young Turkish guy striking up conversations with only the attractive female tourists his age. Çapkın! He would say hello and ask where they were from. Some of them ignored him, some answered gleefully "I'm from Romania!", as they walked on by. I noticed then that the man had a friend on the opposite side of the courtyard with whom he frequently exchanged glances. At first I was very wary of the guy and I listened to his short conversations to see where he left them. Though his motives were doubtlessly impure, I was relieved to observe him to be quite casual; he was non-aggressive, patient, and friendly overall. I'm sure some of the women he meets really go for a local who takes an interest. Anyway, his behavior distracted and entertained me while Hyde toured the inside of the mosque. At this point, I will change the subject slightly by listing some of the highlights of the day.

- Turks taking a great interest in Hyde's blue hair. He even got a couple of positive remarks about it from strangers. That's a lot more than I can get!

- Introducing Hyde to new foods. Today he tried mantı (mini raviolis), ayran (yogurt drink), Türk kahvesi (Turkish coffee). When I have him try something new, I think this is probably the first time in his life that he has ever consumed this thing. I am always soliciting his reviews and opinions about the foods, and the experiences of eating them in the places we go.

- Meeting up briefly with Ece in Üsküdar. Hyde likes that her name is also his major at WPI (ECE: Electrical and Computer Engineering), though pronunciation-wise they're nowhere close.

- Eating an İftar meal (breaking the Ramadan fast) at a place for such things. We found a small cafe-like place with traditional place settings and Ramadan foods. We were quite hungry, but we waited like everyone else for the prayer to sound from the surrounding mosques. Starting with a date (of course), we quickly ate our soup, kavurma, rice, bread, and then kadayıf for dessert. By the way, I always confuse that stuff with künefe.

- Thinking all day about how unbelievable it is that I am hanging out with Hyde in İstanbul.

- Getting ready for the arrival of Sonia, soon to be the third member of our tearing-up-İstanbul team. We were a crew of two, now we will be a crew of few. Not too few!

As always, more pictures and personal accounts from Hyde, at: http://corvik.blogspot.com/

Pınar, a movie, friends in Moda

Hyde and I indulged in some extra sleep on Sunday morning. Once we were both up, I whipped up a breakfast of melted cheese and tomato open-faced toasted sandwiches with cucumber slices, cheese, a fig, and a fig square on the side. It was hearty and delicious.

The first thing we noticed about the outside world was that the weather was rainy and breezy. We looked for things to do. We had talked with Pınar the night before about the 3 of us watching a chick-flick together. So, Pınar came over and we watched Sleepless in Seattle. Afterward, we walked to Moda to meet up with some other friends. While we waited, Hyde took a few pictures.Then Pınar took a picture of us.
We met up with friends, Atakan, Roseanne, Mert, and others. A little later I got a call from Batuhan which I knew instantly by my phone playing the ring-tone I set for him: the chorus of Özlem Tekin - Bana Bir Şey Olmaz. Anyway, Batu was calling to see if I would play football that night. I thought about it for maybe half a second. "Certainly," I replied. After a while, I left Hyde with my friends (which was a strange feeling- like what I imagine dropping your kid off for his/her first day of school is like) and went home to get ready for the match.

The game was probably the best I have ever played. I was cautious but creative, and I never seemed to run out of energy. Batu and I played defense in such a cooperative way, backing up each others' attempts to slow down the opposing offense and regain possession. At one point in the game, Batu have me five and patted my back, giving me a heartfelt, "Thank you, brother! You saved my ass." I had run across the field to help him stop a strong player, whom upon gaining the advantage on Batu, lost the ball to my lunging right foot, sending it out for a corner. Later in the game, Batu saved my ass after a blunder. We really felt like our own two man army on the defensive end.

Another highlight of the game was when our side had won a penalty kick. I was watching from the other end of the field as one of the strikers, Eser, set up the shot. But he didn't take the kick. Instead, he turned back to me and said "Cem, you take it." Though I declined, the others on my team all chimed in asking me to take the shot. I jogged across the field toward the penalty area. As I got close, I stole a quick glance toward the left side of the goal. When I was really close, I tried to hide another much shorter and much more subtle glance toward the left side. I positioned my body and foot carefully to strike it for that target. However, at the last moment, I turned my foot sharply and powerfully sent the ball toward the right side. It worked. The keeper, completely fooled, dove for the left side as the ball sailed uncontested into the far right side. It felt awesome (and after all that buildup that's about all I can say about that).

I rejoined Hyde and the others where I had left him. He was in good spirits and told me they had enjoyed deep and satisfying conversations. I engaged in one such conversation with Ayhan about the Kurdish situation and perspectives of Turks in the East and West regions. He is very knowledgeable on these subjects and so it was mostly an opportunity for me to learn a lot, which I most certainly did. He comes from Hakkari, a city on "my list" though I don't think I will get to visit it until next year or later.

Hyde and I have plans for Monday which he doesn't even know about yet, so I won't write them here just yet! But it seems that each day for the next couple weeks will be densely filled with awesomeness. ...and correspondingly, this blog, as well as his blog (http://corvik.blogspot.com/), densely filled with stories and photos.

First night out with Hyde

A pleasant boat ride across town
was followed by a brief visit to Galata Towerand finally a thorough exploration of the Taksim area. This involved walking up and down İstiklâl Caddesi and visiting bars and the like. We saw beautiful craft-work, live musicians, and crowded streets. We even went to Kızılkayalar for one of those heavenly burgers. Before going inside, I quickly briefed Hyde on how to order our burgers. He executed the Turkish masterfully and the man manning the burgers didn't pause or take a second glance, rather he understood perfectly and filled our order. That was quite awesome but the highlight of the evening was Pınar meeting up with us and the three of us hanging out together sipping beverages, cracking jokes, learning languages and savoring the night.

Hyde!

The arrival of my dear friend and former roommate, Hyde, is something I had been looking forward to for quite some time. Going to the airport to meet someone rather than to leave, was an experience I welcomed happily. His flight came in shortly before midnight and we made the long journey back to Kadıköy. The city looks quite a bit different at night, but he seemed interested in many aspects of it. We discussed many things, but we were very tired.

Upon arriving at the apartment, Hyde checked in with his family and then we retired to our quarters. We were both exhausted, but Hyde especially. The following morning I, as I had been planning to do for quite sometime, woke up a little early, bought fresh fruit, dairy and veggies from local vendors and prepared a nearly-authentic Turkish breakfast on the front porch. It was most delightful. Hyde and I also split a fresh fig. It was his first time tasting one.After breakfast, we went to the park in nearby Moda. We walked along the seafront and then stopped at a çay bahçe for some Turkish tea. After that we went to Ali Usta, for some very famous ice cream. I had a scoop of almond and a scoop of kaymaklı. Both were amazing. Hyde got a raspberry scoop and a lemon scoop.
We stopped in almost every store of interest. A puzzle store, a bakery, a spice shop, a cheese shop, and so on. Each time I would explain some of the things people like to eat here or why I like these stores. In the bakery, a woman working there gave us samples of these strange and delicious apricot marmalade squares. They were so good. I think it's good that we were full before touring all those food places.
Hyde will be here for 2 weeks. We have so many plans. As I write this on Saturday afternoon, we are planning to make a night out of Taksim with 3 or 4 sets of my friends (all of whom are eager to meet my mysterious foreign friend). The moral of this post is: come visit me and you'll get to experience all this too! To hear about our adventures from Hyde's perspective, visit his blog at: http://corvik.blogspot.com/. You may also notice that I stole all his photos!