2013_01_02 Oh My Gosh... Turkey

My dream of visiting the faraway moonscape cave-hotel area of Cappadocio area must be deferred, It's a long long bus ride, Turkey's a big country, and a simple act like trying to buy a plane ticket on your debit card can have disastrous consequences.

Arriving in MASSIVE Istanbul to the commuter train station before six in the morning after a nightmare succession of trains and buses was a mini-disaster itself, since it was too early for either the ticket booth or toilets to be open. But the cats everywhere in the station weren't worried. The German couple set off for their hostel, I accosted strange men with my dilemma, and blessings be, one of them, though speaking no English, drove the train and invited me to sit in his compartment for a free ride to the bus transfer station.

I had directions to Bosphorus City, a brand new luxury development 90 minutes from the center. I detrained at Bakerkoy and sought a toilet (opening in one hour) and a bus ticket and was directed to 98i (so many buses, minivans, trambuses, trams in Istanbul!) and before the hour was up climbed a hill to the security booth of Bosphorus City.

My California hostess, Amber, was expecting me. Her Spanish husband of a few months, a pilot for a private airline for the wealthy, was in Russia. If Amber is lucky, he will be off for Xmas so they can visit his family in Spain. Meanwhile, she had all the books and maps and information for Istanbul. And spent her days putting together another digital wedding photo album after the first hard drive fried.

Her complex has waterways, restaurants, gyms and markets. And cats! I joined her on a couple of her daily workouts and cooked in her kitchen. Istanbul is huge and getting bigger, that's where the jobs are, if you can stomach  hours-long commutes within the city. She was expecting a second Couchsurfer, a Korean raised in Brazil, studying in Iowa, named Henry. Henry and I went out with Amber's map to explore Sultanahmet, the district where the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, the Grand Bazaar, Topkapi Palace and the underground Basilica are found.

My lost camera was coming to my second Istanbul couch, in the home of two Turkish sisters. But Henry had his camera busy, and I was asked to take many shots of him giving gangland signs in front of historic mosques and palaces. The Blue Mosque is free and open to visitors. But first you must remove your shoes and put them in a plastic bag for your few minutes inside. PLASTIC! The Mosque has stained glass windows and large chandeliers, a courtyard and many faucets for washing the feet before prayer. 

For 25 Turkish lira ($1 is 1.5 lira) you may enter Hagia Sofia, once a cathedral, still bearing mosaics of Jesus and his family and followers, but with large gold Arabic lettering hanging from the ceillings. We climbed the worn and ancient steps to the gallery, past where the empress did her prayers. Henry asked to be my couchsurfing friend so I hope he'll share some of his dozens of snaps with me.

Next we visited the underground Basilica, an impressive Roman aquaduct, so well-lit you could spy the catfish in the water (what do they eat?). There was a large sculpture of Medusa's head; admission was only 10 lire. Then we walked uphill to the Topkapi palace (Istanbul is quite hilly) but Amber said the inside wasn't worth the price. They charge for the inner courtyards, the harem and the treasury. It must all be online! We were tired of shelling out. I saved it for another day.

We met a couple, a Bulgarian Turk (European-looking) on leave from the army, and his Thailand galfriend, and with he found a reasonable eating place in this tourist neighborhood to enjoy a meal together. Our plans to visit a nargile, or hookah-smoking tea house, fizzled so Henry and I set off for the Grand Bazaar, a warren of covered streets with all the carpets, jewelry, Turkish delights and knick-knacks you could ask for. Henry recognized a stone fountain in an intersection from my favorite show, The Amazing Race. He teased the storekeepers but eventually bought a couple of scarves, an Istanbul shot-glass, and a fez hat.

The night before, I had started my 'contest' with Flightfox for the cheapest fare to Jakarta (I should have chosen Bali!). The Times had written about this company, which takes a commission, but saves you money. After our day in the center, I returned to find an excellent price for Istanbul-Abu Dhabi-Jakarta, but that option had sold out by the time I logged on. Lesson learned! So paying $70 more, I tried to book but my Visa debit card was rejected and I resorted to MasterCard. And then my Visa card worked no more! My bank had suspected fraudulent activity and stopped it. It would take a phone call to the states to get it active again. After my struggles in Poland to call the states, I was desperate. But lovely Amber had the answer, Free Call, and thanks to her internet savvy I was able to resolve the problem eventually in minutes.

I headed off to my second couch, along the same bus line, the top floor apartment home of two charming sisters in their twenties, Dilek and Melek, who was cooking a sumptuous meal to enjoy in front of the TV. Dexter! Conan! Movies! The younger, Melek, was giving up her waitressing job in a Kurdish cafe, to be the engineer in a cheese factory, moving a couple of hours away. Dilek, who invited me, would take over her job. She had previously worked on the Bosphorus City project, but hoped to join European Volunteer Services. They made a big fuss over their cat, Fa-de ("Mouse"). They grew up in this large apartment (I had their parents' bed, now living by the sea) and the big dining room was closed off. Heating is costly but necessary. We enjoyed television in English - a rare but addicting treat. Western shows with smoking had an interesting phenomenon. A glittery flower, looking like a firecracker, covered any cigar or cigarette displayed! Istanbul had a snow that stayed. All I needed was to slip and fall!

Dilek took me to Taksim, the long famous street for nightlife, to meet the Indonesian boyfriend of my next hostess in Jakarta. She went to Melek's cafe to work and the student and I sat over tea, then walked the street (always a demonstration going on) down winding medieval alleys to the trambus on the Galata bridge, accompanying me to my last stop and giving me two Istanbul snowglobes for his girlfriend in Jakarta.

I had used Dilek's address for my camera to arrive from Bucharest by UPS. After several attempts, and phone calls. I have it, but the bill was steep - about a hundred dollars! Yet when I forgot it in Tallinn, it came to Riga for 5 euros. I plugged her in and she was still ticking!

I had my yogurt and muesli for breakfast, but soon joined their more interesting meal of omelet, olives, cheese, tapinade, bread, jams, tahini and endless glasses of tea. I set off alone by bus and trambus (avoids highway traffic!) to see the Topkapi (closed) and got befriended ("I am not a guide!") by a carpet shop owner who treated me to hot apple juice, had minions diplay his wares and then delivered me to a travel agency to discuss a trip to Cappadocio. Walking back from the trambus in the dark I got lost, but a passing Turkish air marshall, despite speaking no English, called Dilek and walked me to the right street. The kindness of strangers! I let myself in and the cat ignored me until the sisters returned. They had to pay fortunes for copies of Melek's medical records and bank statements for her new job.

Dilek, Melek and I all went together to the modern art museum on its free day and enjoyed paintings and videos, then the ferry across the Bosphorus to the Asia side where I found a 50-yeat-old used book with maps of Indochina. Chilly, we returned to the Spice Bazaar and then back to Taksim for a kebab meal in a restaurant on the 4th floor of the building where her cafe is. It's a floor below. We met her young Kurdish bosses, brothers. The troubles have been going on too long and bloody. Kurds seem to live in several countries with no autonomy.

My last day in town we went to their salon. I had a haircut and look more like sister Amy now, Melek had her eyebrows done with a fast-moving white string. She rode with me to the metro to the airport the next morning. I was terribly anxious my sandwich for the Abu Dhabi layover would be confiscated. Shedding jeans, boots and jacket in the airport restroom, I left the warm security of the sisters for the great unknown, Southeast Asia!