istanbul... there are no words to describe

I’m glad that I can just write these posts chronologically, because otherwise, I wouldn’t even know where to begin with Turkey. First off, we spent five days there, which we’ve only done for Italy thus far, but secondly, it’s the first country that comes with a true culture shock. At the pre-port meeting for Turkey, the deans warned us about the dangers of the country, most of which involves terrorism and bombings of touristy regions around Istanbul. But, short of just camping out on the ship for 5 days, there's really no way to avoid the risks of this area (it's heavily populated by Muslims, but since it's a crossroads, lots of other minority groups co-mingle; hence the tension)… so, instead of heeding their advice, we roamed all around the city the first day, and it's not really that bad; I'd say the biggest threat(s) at the moment are the crazily sleazy Turkish men who are unabashedly forward to every girl getting off of the ship.

The Grand Bazaar is literally just what it sounds like: sensory overload to the max, huge crowds, and just overall CRAZINESS. There are 4400+ shops in this labyrinth, and every guy working there just looks at Americans as big bulls eyes, and if you’re a girl, it’s for more than one reason. In our group, Greg and Kaene fended off the dirty ones, but they left for a hookah bar, and shit went downhill quickly. Infamous quotes and actions from the bazaar:

- “can I touch you?"

- my friend getting forcibly made out with by a Turkish midget

- vendors geeting us with: “excuse me, thank you”… who taught these people English?

- every single part Asian person calling me “my sister"

- "my turn to help you spend your money"

- "your teeth are fake, yes? your second set?"

- Roby pissing off a Turkish man and being told to “get the fuck out” of his store

Most girls on the ship had some ridiculous stories from this place, but my personal scarring experience didn’t occur until the train ride back from Beyazit to Karakoy (our ship). I guess I should have prefaced this entire post with the fact that, even though it sounds like I hated Turkey, I didn’t; the nature of our first day there was just so hectic and overwhelming, it just sounds like we had a bad experience. Really, the only terrible time I had is the story I’m about to tell.

So, we’re on the train that has no A/C, elbow to elbow with people who don’t believe in deodorant, my friends are in front of me and strangers are behind. Mistake #1: never turn your back towards a group of people you don’t know. Anyway, there’s about 5 stops between the bazaar and the port, and as the stops go on, I become VERY aware of the guy behind me getting progressively closer. Not only is he starting to give me the heeby-jeebies, but he’s also holding a bag and doing something strange with his hands behind said bag; I just ignore it for a while, as there are only 2 stops left. Mistake #2: if something ever feels awry, you really should never ‘just ignore it,’ you need to get the fuck out of there. The train stops for the last time, and all of the sudden I feel something bump against me… I whip around, and, I shit you not, I see this man with his hands IN his pants JACKING OFF ON MY ASS. Just take a moment to wrap your head around this scenario, and then think of what reaction you could possibly come up with. Being in total shock, I just did the first thing that came to my head, which was move away QUICKLY and yell “WHAT THE FUCK?!” grabbing the attention of every single person in there. My second reaction was to punch the guy in the mouth, but we were in Turkey, a country where women are treated like second-class citizens… I’m not sure how kindly they would have taken to an Asian girl from America decking a Turkish man in the face on the train, and, while getting molested on the public transportation system is awful, I’d wager to say being thrown into a Turkish jail is much worse. Meanwhile, the 3 other semester at sea kids are kind of confused because they weren’t sure what just happened, they just knew we needed to get the hell off of the train at this point. Of course, his stop is the same as ours, and as we mass exodus off of that godforsaken coach I can’t stop myself from elbowing him in his chest as he literally flees from sight. The last thing I remember yelling at him was “YOU’RE A TERRIBLE PERSON AND I HOPE YOUR DAUGHTER IS A WHORE,” and moved on with my life. Thus began my love-hate relationship with this crazy country.

Anyway, I was kind of over the idea of going out to bars and clubs that night because I was slightly traumatized still, but luckily, quite a few other people felt the same way, so we went to see the new Harry Potter movie instead - we all just hoped to God that it was in English and not Turkish. So, we walk into the theater, it’s down a dark alley, by the way (go figure), and are all kind of confused because it looks exactly like a theater that a play would be performed in, gold curtain, stage, and all; and nothing like a movie theater. But, everything worked out in the end, the curtain went up and a screen appeared from behind, and I hear the glorious sound of the Queen’s English coming out of the speakers, the first thing that went right all day. Overall, it wasn’t a bad way to end my first night in Turkey.

The second day was a great deal better than the first. I learned from my mistakes and travelled with more guys (and always had my back against a wall while standing in moving locomotives). We went to Sultanahmet, the area where most of the famous historical sights are located within Istanbul, ie. the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and Basilica Cistern. The one that I was most excited to go see was, without a doubt, the Hagia Sophia, but out of the three, it was the one that disappointed me the most. It was an unreal experience to get to go see something that I’ve waited, literally, years for, but the Blue Mosque is SO much more impressive (but in the Hagia Sophia’s defense, the mosque was built specifically to trump it, and it’s amazing, still, in its own right). My favorite event of the day was standing between the two monumental buildings while the Call of Prayer was being played; it’s hard to explain, but the atmosphere, coupled with the eeriness of the situation sends chills down your spine. After visiting these two places, we went to the Basilica Cistern, which is nothing short of an amazing feat of engineering. Experiencing the Cistern is unlike any other thing I have done thus far. Usually, when something is a tourist attraction, it generally has a large, ostentatious sign (or it, itself, is a large, ostentatious building) to tell you where are. Without the line coming out of the building, I wouldn’t have even know this thing was there; the nondescript entryway leading to this complicated maze of underground columns and vaulted ceilings 50 feet underground is really the craziest dichotomy I think I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to believe that this place used to be used to store water, and it’s even harder to believe that it was built over 1500 years ago. It doesn’t seem like it, but doing the tourist thing takes a lot out of you, so by mid-afternoon, we were beat, and decided to head back to the port area to find a place to eat. Later that night, we came back to the same place and smoked hookah (in the US, I think this is something that people do to be badass, but in some of these countries, it’s literally just an integral part of the culture, and locals do it as a socializing/time passing activity, which I find to be way more appealing) and ate some more, because the food was good, the internet was free, and the restaurant was on the bridge that overlooked the Bosporus: what more could you ask for? Obviously, nothing, because a group of a dozen of us, or so, stayed there for hours (this is where some of you guys received your facebook videos from)… such an amazing day.

I didn’t expect it at the time, but my third day partly consisted of a trip to Asia, which is wicked, because when’s the next time I’m going to be able to say “oh, you know, I think I’ll just pop into Asia for a couple of hours, see you later!” It started pretty late, because Colby, Roby, Tara, and I didn’t have to meet one of our other friends, Meghan, until 10 (her cousin, Sarah, has been living in Turkey for the last year or so and offered to show us around) by the water. We took a ride down the Bosporus River and jumped off onto a little fishermen’s island, where we hiked to the top of it and stumbled across one of the greatest views I’ve seen since Dubrovnik. On top of the ruins of an old fort/castle, we saw the mouth of the Black Sea on one side, and Turkey on the other. For lunch, we had an authentic Turkish meal, and, as a bonus, met some Spanish women from Madrid that were on vacation. And because going to Asia for the day wasn’t enough, our group decided to go try out a hamam… a.k.a turksih bath… a.k.a. completely naked in front of strangers (and friends, which wasn’t THAT awkward…) while someone beats you for a while. Overall, it was an experience that was worth experience, but maybe only once, haha. That night, some of us went to the futbol game, and some of us went to see the Sufi Dervish; I did the latter, but, from what I hear, I should have gone to see that game.

Our last, real, full day in Turkey is easily the most amusing memory I have of the country; the whole day just seems hilarious in retrospect. We went to Topkaki Palace because it’s on the list of places to see in Istanbul, but 20 yards away from the building, a Turkish man speed walks past Colby, Roby, and me and just says in a hushed tone “palaceisclosedtoday!” and rushes away. So now, we’re thinking maybe this guy is about to blow this place up and is trying to tell us to get the fuck out of there; so we do. We make our way, instead, to the spice bazaar, where, not only do they sell spices, they apparently also sell pet ducklings, peacocks, puppies, and “Turkish Viagra” (“make eight times one night!”). Here, Roby was told to “fuck off” by a Turk (I don’t think they appreciated his bargaining methods), Colby was told that he looked like a local (blatant lie), and I was approached with “excuse me, where are you from, you are very brown.” Oh, and we were accosted by a self-proclaimed pedophile; lesson learned, do not return to the spice bazaar. We decided to end our stay in Istanbul with a bang, and so we went to Taksim Square that night and bar hopped well into the morning. It was nice to have a long break from the constant partying, but I’m not going to lie, the clubs in Turkey aren’t too shabby.