9/3/09
Today we had free time until noon. First, it was time to pack, as we were leaving our hotel for the day at noon. I went again to the grand bazaar, and just looked around. A rug dealer cornered me and would not let me leave his shop without naming a price for a rug I really did not want to buy! Finally I tried to insult him by naming a price too low, but he almost went for it. I had to simply walk away. After the grand bazaar, it was time to meet the group, and we rode the tram down to the waterfront. We ate lunch at a small cafe, but it was mostly bread and appetizers, lots of lamb. It was then off to the Bosphorus cruise. The Bosphorus was really nice, and we cruised up past and under the Bosphorus bridge, to the next bridge, where there was an Ottoman fort that was used to take the city. This was at a very narrow point in the Bosphorus. After we disembarked from the boat, we took a ferry across the Bosphorus which retraced some of our distance. We landed on the Asian side, and were taken to a mosque during prayer time. This was very interesting, as we had not seen the whole prayer cycle in its entirety. We entered the mosque, and the women in our group had to go up to the second floor balcony, where all the children and women were running around. The men first prayed individually, doing four cycles of prostrations, first starting with their hands behind their heads. Following, there are two prostrations. After this, the men all joined the imam in doing a series of prostrations and rising afterward. After they were all done, the imam joined us in the middle of the mosque to answer our questions about Islam and the history of the mosque. Apparently, the Sultan’s mother in the late 18th century commissioned the mosque to be built. As a result, a new breed of rose was made, and was planted in the garden. Being an imperial mosque, it was constructed with a sultan’s lounge on the second floor, with its own “alter,” or front, as I forgot the word in Arabic, and its own private entrance. It is also shielded in case of an attack from below. There were many calligraphy inscriptions along the walls, citing different verses from the Koran pertaining to mothers, as she was the one who commissioned the mosque. After, we boarded the ferry again to cross to the European side, and ate at a cafe, mostly sandwiches. Nikki, Ivan, and I hurried to Josh our friend’s shop to buy some last minute calligraphy, and then we met the rest of the group at the hotel. We loaded the bus, drove to the Asian side of Istanbul, and boarded a very nice train, so much better than anything we rode in Russia! It even has a power outlet and refreshments. This is living a little!
9/4/09
Today I awoke from a rough night on the train, a little sleepy. The ride was nice enough, I just kept waking up. Once we were off the train, the bus was there to meet us, and we were soon making our way across Turkish countryside. It reminded me a little of what I think middle America would be like, since I have never been there. There were mostly flatlands with crops being grown on them. It was all yellow as it is summer, although there were some trees here and there. It seemed almost like a desert. We arrived in Konya at around lunchtime, and had our meal at a little cafe, where I had some beef stew and rice, nothing too out of the ordinary. After, we walked to the tomb of the holy man Rumi, an ancient Sufi philosopher and poet. It was he who started the Sufi movement, and at his tomb there were also many sultans buried. This was an interesting site, being that it was a museum that used to be a mosque. Inside, I could see many covered women praying in front of the tombs of the holy men, even though this site is owned by the secular republic. There seems to be a question of “what do you do?” when you encounter a site like this. If you are a woman, do you put on a head scarf or not? If you are a visitor, do you view this in a secular or sacred light? Other things of interest at the site included many copies of the Koran, beautifully illuminated, many from the 13th century. There were also Korans present from as late as the 19th century. Some had writing that was extremely intricate and small. In the main mosque had an open floor like most mosques do, however it was in this particular mosque that the whirling of the dervishes took place. Adjacent to the mosque site were kitchens and rooms that were used by the Sufis during that time. After we left the mosque, we visited two madressi, or Islamic schools that had been converted to museums. They displayed artifacts mostly from the 13th century, during the Sejuk empire that ruled the area during those years. There were many intricate tiles on the walls, different from anything that we had seen in Istanbul. These were mostly one color, blue, and had intricate and different calligraphy, with more vertical lines, on them. There were a few holy men buried in these schools, and many more headstones from the era. Next, we had tea in a teahouse up on the hill in Konya, and then went to an early mosque that was also from the 13th century, older than any original mosque we had seen in Istanbul. It was almost forest-like inside, with many vertical pillars that were leaning, and a flat roof. During Ottoman times, this was done away with as the point was to build a mosque with as much unsupported floor space as possible (which may have possibly been a reason for the crashing to the floor of the Ayasofia’s dorm many times over). This mosque felt much more claustrophobic, and the center was in the middle of a long rectangle of a floorplan, much different than all of the mosques in Istanbul. After, we had free time, so I did some shopping, and then we had dinner at a buffet, with more westernized food. Following the buffet, we convened downstairs to have a discussion about Turkey and Bible, including some of the sites we have seen or will be seeing, and then we turned in for the night.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Raiders of the Lost Ships
9/2/09
Today the group met downstairs and we were off to a real life archaeological dig on the outskirts of Istanbul. It is here that an old Byzantine harbor has been discovered, and this site has been called perhaps the greatest marine archaeological discovery of all time. Back in Byzantine times, the walls of Constantinople extended less into the sea than they do currently. The harbor forms a kind of inlet on existing land, and this was only discovered when the city wanted to build a subway station near the water. We had to take a train to get to the area near the site, and when we arrived I could see a helicopter circling the dig. We peered down into the vast hole, and we could see different areas where city workers were currently constructing the subway station. It is a race against time for the more than 50 archaeologists in charge of the site, as they must hurry to excavate it before bulldozers fill in the area. All of the pottery, anphorae, and wooden planks from the dig are carefully documented, drawn, transported to an adjacent lab, and then reassembled for the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. This discovery is so vast and important, it will most likely get its own museum in the city. Adjacent to the property where the ships were found, 34 to date, there is evidence of pre-historic inhabitants on the peninsula that forms the existing city. Up until this dig, historians figured the earliest inhabitants of the area to be around 700 B.C. As we entered the covered site where a ship lay, half submerged, the skeleton sticking out of the ground, we could see that the wood of the ship was wet. Because of the type of mud that encases this dig, the archaeologists must keep the exposed wood in a wet medium at all times. In order to facilitate this, there are sprinklers all along the length of the tent that are run at nighttime. The exposed planks that we saw most likely date from the early 9th century and they exhibit exquisite Byzantine construction techniques. After the planks are extracted from the site and transported to the lab, which we saw later, they are analyzed using a laser technique which records all of the joints, fasteners, saw marks, and every other fine detail of the wood. It is quite a task and journey that these ships must take from the dig site to the museum. After the archaeological dig, the group headed to lunch, and I had the penne arrabiata, which has a very spicy sauce with it. Lunch took about 2 and a half hours, and then it was off to the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, probably mostly made up of treasures stolen by the Ottoman Empire. It was interesting to walk in and see so many Greek sarcophagi and sculpture in one place. That was the whole first floor. Then came the artifacts from the ship site we had just visited, and a floor of Assyrian artifacts, and treasures from Troy. I saw some early cuneiform tablets from the 19th century BC, as well as many Anatolian tools from all different periods BC. The next floor were the artifacts from Palestine and Lebanon. On this floor was an inscription that originally was in the wall of Hezekiah’s tunnel in Jerusalem. It had been looted by the Ottomans most likely in the later 19th century. There were also many Palestinian statues and markers dating from the early centuries AD, as well as many pieces of jewelry. Unfortunately, we only had about 2 hours in the museum, and I would have liked to have seen more. After, we headed for our usual tea house to talk about some of the contemporary issues in Turkey that we have been exploring for the past few days. These include the prospect of a Kurdistan and all that entails, the PKK, the issues of migration in Istanbul, the dilemmas that arise when you live in a modern city with so much history, the Nationalist Party, as well as the Gulen Movement and their hidden agendas. During the next few days of our tour, we will be exploring the innards of the country, and will be doing so with a very nationalistic and touristic tour guide, who of course is paid to be the PR for a Turkey where there are few problems and which is always a great place to vacation. After debriefing a bit, we headed out on our own for dinner, and I had pasta again. This time penne with a little eggplant thrown in. We had an amazing view of both the Ayasofia and the Blue Mosque as the sun was setting and the call to prayer sounded, and Iftar, the breaking of the fast, began.
Today the group met downstairs and we were off to a real life archaeological dig on the outskirts of Istanbul. It is here that an old Byzantine harbor has been discovered, and this site has been called perhaps the greatest marine archaeological discovery of all time. Back in Byzantine times, the walls of Constantinople extended less into the sea than they do currently. The harbor forms a kind of inlet on existing land, and this was only discovered when the city wanted to build a subway station near the water. We had to take a train to get to the area near the site, and when we arrived I could see a helicopter circling the dig. We peered down into the vast hole, and we could see different areas where city workers were currently constructing the subway station. It is a race against time for the more than 50 archaeologists in charge of the site, as they must hurry to excavate it before bulldozers fill in the area. All of the pottery, anphorae, and wooden planks from the dig are carefully documented, drawn, transported to an adjacent lab, and then reassembled for the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. This discovery is so vast and important, it will most likely get its own museum in the city. Adjacent to the property where the ships were found, 34 to date, there is evidence of pre-historic inhabitants on the peninsula that forms the existing city. Up until this dig, historians figured the earliest inhabitants of the area to be around 700 B.C. As we entered the covered site where a ship lay, half submerged, the skeleton sticking out of the ground, we could see that the wood of the ship was wet. Because of the type of mud that encases this dig, the archaeologists must keep the exposed wood in a wet medium at all times. In order to facilitate this, there are sprinklers all along the length of the tent that are run at nighttime. The exposed planks that we saw most likely date from the early 9th century and they exhibit exquisite Byzantine construction techniques. After the planks are extracted from the site and transported to the lab, which we saw later, they are analyzed using a laser technique which records all of the joints, fasteners, saw marks, and every other fine detail of the wood. It is quite a task and journey that these ships must take from the dig site to the museum. After the archaeological dig, the group headed to lunch, and I had the penne arrabiata, which has a very spicy sauce with it. Lunch took about 2 and a half hours, and then it was off to the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, probably mostly made up of treasures stolen by the Ottoman Empire. It was interesting to walk in and see so many Greek sarcophagi and sculpture in one place. That was the whole first floor. Then came the artifacts from the ship site we had just visited, and a floor of Assyrian artifacts, and treasures from Troy. I saw some early cuneiform tablets from the 19th century BC, as well as many Anatolian tools from all different periods BC. The next floor were the artifacts from Palestine and Lebanon. On this floor was an inscription that originally was in the wall of Hezekiah’s tunnel in Jerusalem. It had been looted by the Ottomans most likely in the later 19th century. There were also many Palestinian statues and markers dating from the early centuries AD, as well as many pieces of jewelry. Unfortunately, we only had about 2 hours in the museum, and I would have liked to have seen more. After, we headed for our usual tea house to talk about some of the contemporary issues in Turkey that we have been exploring for the past few days. These include the prospect of a Kurdistan and all that entails, the PKK, the issues of migration in Istanbul, the dilemmas that arise when you live in a modern city with so much history, the Nationalist Party, as well as the Gulen Movement and their hidden agendas. During the next few days of our tour, we will be exploring the innards of the country, and will be doing so with a very nationalistic and touristic tour guide, who of course is paid to be the PR for a Turkey where there are few problems and which is always a great place to vacation. After debriefing a bit, we headed out on our own for dinner, and I had pasta again. This time penne with a little eggplant thrown in. We had an amazing view of both the Ayasofia and the Blue Mosque as the sun was setting and the call to prayer sounded, and Iftar, the breaking of the fast, began.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Grassroots
8/31/09
Today our group was informed at 8:30 that we were being picked up by a bus at 9. So we hurried! It was off first to a Gulen school, perhaps the best high school and elementary in Istanbul. Founded by Mr. Fetullah Gulen, the school embodies the values he taught, which were traditionally Islamic. The school has many stories, a swimming pool, two gyms, a cafeteria complete with a thumb scanner, and has 3 theaters for showing documentaries. The tuition is $11,000 a year, and we were shown a very enthusiastic video about the school. One of the most interesting things were the sentences in English that were on the faces of the stairs to the second story. The most memorable said, “Turkey is more interesting than Bulgaria.” Others were English expressions such as “It’s raining cats and dogs.” After the school it was off to the Gulen newspaper, one of the most prestigious in the nation, named Zaman. They have a staff of 10 American journalists and many other associates. Next was lunch, where I ordered chicken pizza, which was ground and lay under the cheese. For dessert I tried some sweet cream as well as some pistachio baklava and a type of burnt pudding with very finely ground chicken in it. After, we went to the Journalism and Writing Center, where we were given a presentation on the mission of the center, which is apparently to facilitate dialogue between different cultures and religions. At all of the Gulen centers we went to during the day, we were served tea and some kind of refreshment. The Turks have hospitality down! Next was the headquarters of a charity organization that works all around the world. They served during the Pakistan earthquake. They work with local governments to build schools and establish long term projects in many countries. After the charity, we headed to dinner. We waited for Ibrahim, our guide for the day, to do his prayers in the local mosque, and for the sun to set, and then we had soup and bread, with an interesting drink made from carob. The dessert was some sort of pastry soaked in milk. After the shared meal, we headed back to do some laundry and sleep.
9/1/09
Today we had free time during the morning, so all the groups from the neighborhood projects finished their maps of their areas. They were to map them according to different features within the neighborhoods. We chose to map ours by zones, and the look and feel of different areas within our neighborhood. One area was particularly full of rundown wooden houses, and lots of trees, and the next area was the mosque zone, where we saw tombs and the ladies in our group had to put on their headscarves. We also mapped locations on our paper where key events took place, such as when we first met our young tour guides and where they mobbed us for money toward the end of our time with them. After our map was complete, we went for lunch at the local Doy Doy restaurant, with the great view on the fourth floor. However, this time we didn’t sit up there because it was drizzling. I had the chicken kebab, nothing too fancy. After lunch we went over to the newer European side and explored some of the music shops along a particular street. After going through about 4 of them, and playing one of the violins in one of them, I chose to get a zurna, a type of Turkish horn that is also popular all over the Middle East. It is very loud and I guess could sound very obnoxious to many. After, we headed up the hill and met the rest of our group at the top. We were headed to an organization associated with the European Union that works with children in some of the poorest areas of Istanbul. They provide after school care, teach them and their families about hygiene and birth control, as well as encourage artistic expression among the children. This has been very successful, and most of the migrant children that attend are figuring out how to integrate better into urban life. Often times the only connection that the migrant families have, especially the internally displaced persons of Turkey, many from Kurdish origins, are through their children. Therefore, this is a prime opportunity to reach these families and help them integrate into society. After visiting the organization, it was time for dinner, and the group went to a very nice vegetarian restaurant. I had artichoke quiche and a rose-flavored drink, both of which were very nice. After, we shared their version of pumpkin pie and cheesecake, as well as a traditional dessert with figs, grapes and apricots. After dinner, it was back down the hill on the underground finiculer, and then back to Sultanemet, where our hotel is, by tram. The sun set as we crossed the Golden Horn, and it was a very great view.
Today our group was informed at 8:30 that we were being picked up by a bus at 9. So we hurried! It was off first to a Gulen school, perhaps the best high school and elementary in Istanbul. Founded by Mr. Fetullah Gulen, the school embodies the values he taught, which were traditionally Islamic. The school has many stories, a swimming pool, two gyms, a cafeteria complete with a thumb scanner, and has 3 theaters for showing documentaries. The tuition is $11,000 a year, and we were shown a very enthusiastic video about the school. One of the most interesting things were the sentences in English that were on the faces of the stairs to the second story. The most memorable said, “Turkey is more interesting than Bulgaria.” Others were English expressions such as “It’s raining cats and dogs.” After the school it was off to the Gulen newspaper, one of the most prestigious in the nation, named Zaman. They have a staff of 10 American journalists and many other associates. Next was lunch, where I ordered chicken pizza, which was ground and lay under the cheese. For dessert I tried some sweet cream as well as some pistachio baklava and a type of burnt pudding with very finely ground chicken in it. After, we went to the Journalism and Writing Center, where we were given a presentation on the mission of the center, which is apparently to facilitate dialogue between different cultures and religions. At all of the Gulen centers we went to during the day, we were served tea and some kind of refreshment. The Turks have hospitality down! Next was the headquarters of a charity organization that works all around the world. They served during the Pakistan earthquake. They work with local governments to build schools and establish long term projects in many countries. After the charity, we headed to dinner. We waited for Ibrahim, our guide for the day, to do his prayers in the local mosque, and for the sun to set, and then we had soup and bread, with an interesting drink made from carob. The dessert was some sort of pastry soaked in milk. After the shared meal, we headed back to do some laundry and sleep.
9/1/09
Today we had free time during the morning, so all the groups from the neighborhood projects finished their maps of their areas. They were to map them according to different features within the neighborhoods. We chose to map ours by zones, and the look and feel of different areas within our neighborhood. One area was particularly full of rundown wooden houses, and lots of trees, and the next area was the mosque zone, where we saw tombs and the ladies in our group had to put on their headscarves. We also mapped locations on our paper where key events took place, such as when we first met our young tour guides and where they mobbed us for money toward the end of our time with them. After our map was complete, we went for lunch at the local Doy Doy restaurant, with the great view on the fourth floor. However, this time we didn’t sit up there because it was drizzling. I had the chicken kebab, nothing too fancy. After lunch we went over to the newer European side and explored some of the music shops along a particular street. After going through about 4 of them, and playing one of the violins in one of them, I chose to get a zurna, a type of Turkish horn that is also popular all over the Middle East. It is very loud and I guess could sound very obnoxious to many. After, we headed up the hill and met the rest of our group at the top. We were headed to an organization associated with the European Union that works with children in some of the poorest areas of Istanbul. They provide after school care, teach them and their families about hygiene and birth control, as well as encourage artistic expression among the children. This has been very successful, and most of the migrant children that attend are figuring out how to integrate better into urban life. Often times the only connection that the migrant families have, especially the internally displaced persons of Turkey, many from Kurdish origins, are through their children. Therefore, this is a prime opportunity to reach these families and help them integrate into society. After visiting the organization, it was time for dinner, and the group went to a very nice vegetarian restaurant. I had artichoke quiche and a rose-flavored drink, both of which were very nice. After, we shared their version of pumpkin pie and cheesecake, as well as a traditional dessert with figs, grapes and apricots. After dinner, it was back down the hill on the underground finiculer, and then back to Sultanemet, where our hotel is, by tram. The sun set as we crossed the Golden Horn, and it was a very great view.
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