lifeofpri # 12 - Turkey, being in two continents at once

This was supposed to be where I wrote more regularly, but it’s been impossible to populate this space over the last one month or so. Every time I sat down to write here, I couldn’t help but stare at the books on my desk - Joe Sacco’s Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza and Guy Delisle’s Jerulsalem.

When I read these books in end of September, little had I imagined that a war would break out there in the following 10 days, especially have been in the region earlier this year. So, writing a happy travel story has felt rather bizarre in such times. Anyway, as a homage to the region, I want to write about happier times in the region.

Turkey

One of the few countries that I’ve been to in the middle east is Turkey. Technically, Turkey is partly in Asia and partly in Europe, divided by the Bosporous Strait. Someone recently remarked that Europe and Asia are two different continents today only because of racism, else, there’s technically no reason treat them as such.

Off to a misadventurous start

We took 3 flights from Bangalore to Kayseri via Dubai and Istanbul, and that itself was quite an adventure. We got a lucky upgrade to business class on the Bangalore to Dubai leg, but almost missed our flight from Istanbul to Kayseri. Luckily the flight to Kayseri took off two hours too late, and despite landing past the departure time in Istanbul, we still made it.

Although the Dubai-Istanbul flight was a pain in terms of a late arrival, I had my best flight meal (till date) on this flight. Basically, they’d run out of “hot meals”, so I was given a crew meal. It was a salad with Sarma (ground meat in vine leaves) - it was out of the world. Best dolma I’ve eaten in my entire life, hands down.

When we landed in Kayseri late at night, it was insanely cold. Something about deserts, and extreme temperatures. It was the first time I’d seen smoke coming out of people’s mouths as they spoke, it was that insanely cold.

When we reached our “Sunset Cave Hotel” in Goreme, Capadoccia, we heard that there had been a massive earthquake in Turkey while we were enroute, and my dad had called the hotel to check on us since he hadn’t heard from us by our scheduled landing time. I was definitely excited for the rest of our (mis)adventure.

Capadoccia

Capadoccia is a historical region with a very interesting landscape, which makes it so popular among tourists. A few things that were memorable for me at Capadoccia:

1. There are brilliant hiking trails all over the place. I don’t even know if all of these trails are meant for tourists, some of them seemed very unexplored. When we lost our way once, we found a Japanese tourist group, who didn’t speak a word of English, but with my broken Japanese, we managed to find our way back. We hiked to the Rose Valley, and there wasn’t a single soul around. I remember sitting on top, drinking Ayran (Turkish buttermilk) after a tiring hike, feeling absolutely at peace with ourselves. It was a great feeling.

2. Testi Kebap - this is a traditional kebab stew with vegetables cooked in a sealed claypot that is broken at the time of service, native to this region. It was so tasty. For whatever bizarre reason, we can’t get the name out of our heads so many years out. Every time we eat Kebabs now, we think of “Testi Kebab”.

   

3. Hot Air Balloon Tours - the best way to enjoy the landscape in Capadoccia is to take a ride in a hot air balloon. Although feels “scary”, a hot air balloon ride is far smoother than a plane ride. You don’t feel queasy during take off or descent.

   

4. Turkish Night - I realised that we did a lot of “touristy” things while in Capadoccia, and one of those things was a dinner with performance. We were served unlimited Raki, the local wine, which tastes a lot like Sambucca, and some rather unspectacular food (meat and veg). The show started with a whirling dervishes performance, which is essentially a Sufi meditation in motion. It is believed to be a way of getting closer to the Allah. It might have been truly therapeutic for the performer, but being in the audience was less fun. After a few filler acts, there was a spectacular belly dancing performance. It was a sight to watch my husband drool with a teenage boy glee, while the rest of the audience (mostly Chinese men) meekly looked on without a hint of appreciation.

   

5. Turkish Breakfast - The breakfast served at our hotel was so basic yet delicious - hummus, olives, salads, cheeses and breads. On the day we were leaving to Istanbul, I remember our host apologising to us for serving the previous evening’s bread. We were amused thinking about how long we store bread in India. It’s probably similar to how we might apologise for old rice?

Istanbul

Previously known as Constantinople, after the Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great, Istanbul is one of the most important cities in history. This city has been the imperial capital of several important empires from Byzantine (4th century) to Ottoman (early 20th century) for over 1600 years.

The Hagia Sofia, built in the 5th century by the Eastern Roman Empire, holds the story of the history of Istanbul through the various empires as the monument went from being a Christian Orthodox Church to a Catholic Cathedral (and back) in the 13th century to a mosque in the 15th century under the Ottoman Empire.

It is a truly beautiful building. You see Arabic writings on the ceiling, but you can tell it was never meant to be a mosque in the first place. But today, it is a mosque. Being inside it felt like snugging into the words of a history text book.

There’s a huge tree outside my kitchen window. There were these little white cheeked barbets which had painstakingly made a tiny nest for themselves by nibbling out a little hole in one of the dead branches. A few days later, they were ousted by a couple of parakeets, who slightly modified the nest and settled. Then the white cheeked barbets came back, and re-occupied their nest, before the branch was finally cut off.

Istanbul is a very vibrant city, unfortunately, we couldn’t explore the length and breadth of this city. So, I am going to share a few things that I thought were pertinent in the short time that we were there:

1. You don’t expect this, but Istanbul can get really cold, thanks to the Bosporous. Walking around the Bosporous spent chills down my back, it was very windy around the area. We stayed on the European side of Turkey, so we once took a ferry across the Bosporous to explore the Asian side. It felt absolutely surreal to be able to see two continents at once.

   

2. The Grand Bazaar, an absolutely beautiful building, and the main market in Istanbul is a visual treat - fish, spices, lamps, carpets, shishas, nuts, what have you. I spent hours haggling over random knickknacks, ultimately not buying much. The market sees a lot of human traffic, tourists from all over the world, so the sellers hold more bargaining power than any tourist haggling with them.

   

3. Istanbul is extremely vegetarian friendly, which I had not expected. Kumpir - these massive baked potatoes loaded with all kinds of fillings, are extremely delicious. It’s very similar to the jacket potatoes you get in Scotland, albeit with a middle eastern flavour.

4. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but since I was in Turkey, I tried the baklava and Turkish delight. Obviously, I’ve never had baklava just as good anywhere else. As for the Turkish delight, I wasn’t delighted, it’s sort of like the Indian halwa. Although this one time, when I had a lay over in Istanbul, I remember gobbling up tonnes of free Turkish delight that was placed all over the Ataturk airport.

5. There were these tiny local eateries that sold doner kebabs. Eating here was quite an experience, especially at Aynen Durum. We sat on little stools with a long table in front, which is out on the street in front of the shop. They spread out a plastic sheet on your table and place bread, lots of fresh herbs and your kebab on a plate with grilled tomatoes, chillies, etc. The meals were so filling, and fun to eat.

   

6. We saw the very beautiful Blue Mosque, but couldn’t go inside since I wasn’t appropriately dressed with a headgear. We also spent half a day in the Topkapi palace. It is so well maintained, that it made me really sad for how poorly we maintain palaces in India. The Mysore palace, for instance, charges less than a $ as entrance fee.

7. There are cats all over the place. I guess where there are kebabs, there are cats? Huge, white or black cats that you stop to take notice. They eye you back too. Sometimes, they followed us too. As of last month, there’s even a museum dedicated to cats in Istanbul. I didn’t know why there were so many cats back then. The only other country where I’ve seen so many cats roam so freely is Indonesia. There are accounts of the Prophet’s love for felines in Islam, which is why cats are a feature in countries with predominantly muslim population, thanks to their inherent cleanliness.

   

8. Talking about Islam, the unique thing I noticed in Istanbul is how everything came to a standstill on a Friday afternoon. Everybody comes out onto the street, spreads a prayer mat or a cardboard and starts praying out in the street. You feel out of place to be doing something else, as a tourist. It’s similar to how I felt getting my mid-morning coffee in office during Ramadan in Jakarta. Guilty.

We stayed in a rather touristy part of Istanbul (Sultanahmet), because all monuments are quite accessible by walk. But being in a touristy part of town doesn’t allow you to experience the “real city life”. So, I’d love to go back to Istanbul someday, and live there for a bit to explore the city and get to know it better.