OK, Its Istanbul!

ISTANBUL

I have to say first off that we were working most of the time. Basically, we left the hotel around 8:30am. The commute was about 30 minutes there, and we left anywhere between 6-7pm. The ride back to the hotel was longer due to traffic. It would still take about 30 minutes to get back to the area around the hotel, but due to one way roads and lots a traffic, an 800 meter walk took another 15 minutes! We asked to be dropped off where we were, but since the rides were arranged by our hosts, the driver would not let us out. Thus, I don’t have any cool pictures, especially not of the touristy things. I took a few, so I’ll post some of them. Sorry.

Anyway, I’m not going to do a day by day account. I’ll try to just include the highlights. Also keep in mind, our general feeling of uneasiness was due in part to language/culture differences/misunderstanding/ignorance and Turkey’s neighbors: Greece, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and maybe some others I can’t remember without the map.

Sunday, April 17th :
We arrived in Istanbul today. The flight was uneventful. For that I’m grateful. The first night myself and two coworkers decided to head out to dinner. Our fourth member crashed at the hotel and just went straight to bed. The three of us out walked around looking for an authentic Turkish restaurant near the hotel. We found a nice little kebab place. One thing I’ll mention about Istanbul…they eat a lot of meat. My meals for the week (except for one dinner at a Japanese restaurant) were always some sort of combination of chicken, lamb, or beef. For lunch and dinner! I was getting tired of it the second day. Anyway, after dinner we walked back to the hotel. It was less than a mile away, so was easy to get to. Went to bed around 3 or 4am.

Food:
As I mentioned above, it was a lot of meat. I never ate seafood (except when I went to the Japanese restaurant on my own). I inquired of my hosts about the availability of seafood in Turkey and they assured me it was readily available – Turkey is along the sea. Why we never ate fish during the trip I’ll never know.

I got my fill of Lamb. Its pretty stringy…

Walking to the shopping district, my coworker and I passed a man on the street selling little bunnies. He had them in a box, and I thought he was looking to sell them as pets. As we approached we heard him asking “shish kebabs, shish kebabs” I felt bad for the bunnies.

Almost all the dessert we had were some sort of pastry drenched in honey. Sometimes it was a cake drenched in honey. Sometimes, some heavier kind of pastry. Sometimes pears, topped with applesauce, all soaked in honey. There were ok, but I don’t think I’d like to eat it every day like I did.

Coffee!!!
This was great. I’ve never had Turkish coffee before, but after the first, I was hooked. Basically Turkish coffee served in a cup about the size of a double sized shot glass. The coffee is put directly in a small pot along with water (and sugar to taste). Its boiled and poured into the small cup. You can drink about ¾ of it before you start to hit the coffee grounds. I told you it wasn’t filtered. The grounds generally sink to the bottom of the cup and you definitely don’t drink it unless you want to get sick. I ended up getting a cup set, coffee pots, and lots of coffee. It should last a long time, since I don’t think its too healthy to drink this stuff every day. Plus, you make such a small cup anyway. Well, I hope it lasts a while. I’ll ask one of my coworkers to bring some back next time he goes if it seems to go by fast.

Safety:
I’m going to be honest here. None of us felt safe there. I made the mistake of going out on my own one night. I got dragged into a bar and put at a table. Lots of eastern European women dancing around. They sat me at a table with a guy and two girls came by. I tried to leave ,but they put down our drinks. I finally made my way out and discovered they weren’t about to let me leave without paying for my drink. Or the drinks of my “friends”. I was there about 2 minutes, and all this happened. Well the four drinks came to about $200. I had $25 in Turkish lira on me, $100 US dollars, and multiple credit cards. Luckily, I had stashed my lira in a separate pocket and pulled out the wad and handed it to the guy. We argued a bit, but eventually they let me go. It was one of the scariest moments in my life. Any multitude of bad things could have occurred- most of which I don’t want to get into. I figure this was one of the most valuable lessons I’ve had in life thus far—and it only cost me $25! That’s the best deal anywhere. I had been in a good mood, was near the hotel (about 400 meters or so), and a complete dumbass.

Other than that, we all went out in 2s or 3s. Most of us were worried about safety the whole time I suspect.

The people:
OK, hard to generalize. Shouldn’t do it really, but that’s what humans do. ALL the people we worked with were pleasant and nice, and concerned about us. They were all friendly and easy to work with. I guess I don’t have much us to say about that.

A lot of the people we worked with could speak English. Many of them had spent some time in the States at grad school or some other student or work exchange. I was pleasantly surprised.

Overall:
This was a good place to visit (though I would have preferred another time), but I would never want to live there. I felt unsafe outside the office/hotel almost the entire time. I didn’t see much of the city besides the immediate area around my hotel. And even then, I didn’t go out much. Thus I have little to really base a solid opinion on. And the time I got relieved of my money—that could have happened anywhere. There are tons of places like that in Japan, run by Yakuza. But in Japan, I had a better sense of my environment and could tell earlier when things weren’t right. I wonder how many of you have read this. Its pretty long, and I think the only reason I’ve written so much is because I’m stuck on the plane. I’m over the Atlantic now, approaching Canada. I’ll be back in Chicago in a few hours. Then back to the drudgery that is my life.

One more note: thanks to you guys making the podcasts. I listened to you guys on the flight over, during the layover at London, and when I couldn’t sleep in Istanbul. Thanks to
Herro flom Japan - http://www.herroflomjapan.com
3 Monkeys Productions - http://3monkeysproductions.com/
Kobe Beef - http://kobe-beef.blogspot.com/
You made my trip just that much better. I’ll tell all my friends about you guys.