2 posts tagged “istanbul”
The weather in Istanbul has started getting cooler, and is actually starting to resemble Portland's fall weather more closely than we had expected!
Yesterday we had planned to go to the Prince's Islands with some friends, but the sunny weather suddenly became overcast and our friends all came down with colds. We decided instead to put off our trip to the islands until a sunnier day and to go to the Spice Bazaar instead. The Spice Bazaar is also known as the Egyptian Bazaar and as the Mısır Çarşısı.
Like the Grand Bazaar, it is covered (thus our choice for the rainy day), lined with shops jammed to the rafters with things to buy, and inevitably contains a misrepresentatively large portion of the English speaking population in Istanbul. "Hello can I help you?" "Hello where are you from?" and "Hello I love you" are some of the more popular phrases.
Unlike the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar is not insanely large, the salesmen aren't as pushy, the crowds are much smaller, and there's more stuff that you actually would want to buy. I set off with a list of spices in English and Turkish and was taken by surprise when the sales people immediately spoke to me in English, which I automatically replied in. Only after a few interactions did I start using Turkish more, and nearly every shop keeper was happy to see that the group of yabancıs (foreigners) were able to speak (some) Turkish.
We sampled Turkish Delight and honey dipped off the comb with tiny spoons, smelled innumerable scoops of spices, and had a long, enjoyable conversation with a young man who had just returned from his obligatory military service in the East. After asking him where we could buy a practical caydanlık (a Turkish teapot), he walked with us outside of the bazaar to a side street where the small shop was to help us get an uninflated price. Everything was closing up early for ıfta (breaking fast at the evening call to prayer) but I'm looking forward to going back when we have more time.
With all the things I got at the bazaar, our cooking is likely to improve as well!
Ami:
We've finally started teaching! My first class was a little nerve wracking - what if they just sit and stare at me? - but everything went smoothly. Josh and I are both looking forward to getting regular classes so we can get to know the students and get into a normal pattern of lessons.
At the beginning of every new class the students ask us questions to get to know us a little. These questions inevitably are: Are you married? Where are you from? How old are you? You're so young! Why did you come to Istanbul? (Generally in this order.)
Outside of work we've been poking around Istanbul a bit more. We took a ferry up the Bosphorus from
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Eminönü to Sarıyer. The Bosphorus is full of boats - small personal fishing boats bobbing in the wakes, huge freighters that look like they're going to crush everyone else, tour boats packed with tourists in sunglasses and flipflops leaning over the rails to take photos, and the ferries that crisscross between Europe and Asia all day. Istanbul lines the length of the Bosphorus and you can pick out the changes in districts as you pass by. Each district has it's own dense center full of tall buildings swarming up and down hills and finally thinning out and giving way to thick trees and huge houses right at the water's edge. These houses are probably about a million dollars a piece, give or take a few hundred thousand, and have little boats docked right at their backyards next to the gardens and lawns below the impressive terraces. The day we took the ferry was Victory Day (Zafer Bayramı) and every house, office building, skyscraper, and bridge was hung with Turkish flags. The flags from the bridges (bridges between 2 continents!) are about the size of buses. Unfortunately because it was a holiday, there were a lot of people who had the day off work on the ferry. Including a group of loud, brash, and tactless American English teachers. Who naturally sat next to us. It turns out that many of the sterotypes of US travelers/expats are not totally unfounded. We actually got off the ferry a little earlier than we had planned just to get away from them. In Sarıyer we walked along the water past rows and rows of men fishing (these men are on every bridge, dock, and sidewalk that is over the water), kids jumping off the old docks, and fishermen untangling their nets. We had tea and coffee at a little cafe where we could watch the boats coming and going before we caught the ferry back down the Bosphorus. |
We'll add another update really soon, but for now there are a few new photos to look at!
