Sunday, May 1, 2011

Leith (in Turkish)

I had written this whole long-winded post about Türkiye (Turkish for Turkey), including everything from where Andrew and I stayed, to the food we ate, to the places we visited, but after reading over the post I found it didn't do the trip justice.  İstanbul is one of those rare gems that not only unites Europe with Asia and Africa (yes, the country sits on three continents!), but it also seems to embody the rare splendor of many a yesteryear, when the metropolis was the seat of an empire hellbent on exuding extravagance but now is a solemn reminder that empires crumble as easily as the concrete buildings used to decorate the now modern skyline.



Palaces and camiis (mosques) dating back over 1000 years are sill decoratively painted with extravagant gold leaf Byzantine devotions to the Virgin and furnished with delicate crystal chandeliers and the hand-woven Turkish carpets that the region has always been famous for.  Yet standing right alongside these shrines to former prestige are derelict apartment buildings with hollowed-out window frames and missing roofs, standing in perfect homage to what seems to be the outlook of Istanbul: build around history, and forget that you were once great .  There are so many ancient monuments, aqueducts, palaces, and hidden treasures beneath Istanbul's soil bringing reminder to a tumultuous past that it seems that the city dwellers have made a conscious decision to build over and around history with modern skyscrapers and nargile (hookah) bars with bright, twinkling lights, leaving history buried where, it seems, the Turks prefer it to be.

Every Istanbul morning starts with a 6am call to prayer from what must be over a million minare (minarets) throughout the city of over 16 million inhabitants.  Shopkeepers at every çarşı (bazaar) and fruit stand call out to every passing tourist, commanding them to take a look at their wares, which range from everything to hand-ground spices and finely woven cashmere eşarp (scarves) to cheap imported imitation Dior sunglasses.  In front of a centuries-old Roman fountain construction workers stand around sipping çay (tea) for the eighth time that afternoon, content to just people watch and gossip.  And there's plenty of people watching to be had.  The city is a maze of twisting streets and crumbling brick walls swallowed by a storm of both native Turks and Nike-clad tourists.  
 
It's easy to feel lost and overwhelmed, but admittedly--to me, at least--this overwhelming feeling is part of the city's charm.  For a few lira (Turkish money), the Turks are more than happy to share bits of their culture with you, be it an intimate hour-long bath, banana tea, one of their hundreds of different pistachio and honey pastry concoctions (delicious!!!), or simply the story behind the Turkish love of the game of tavla (backgammon).  Having mostly traveled within Europe and North America, everything in Turkey felt new and even being there for a week I felt as though Andrew and I barely made a dent in everything the city had to offer.  

Not only does Türkiye bridge continents, but it also has the heavy task of linking the past glory of forgotten empires with the present reality of a less glamorous economic situation, and modern-day Turks are left trying to choose an identity that fits in with a decidedly more homogenous Europe that Turkey just isn't.  Turkish days are dictated by prayer, spices roasted into every kebap, intimate bathing rituals, whole lives and legacies buried underneath it's eyesore of modern buildings.  The people of Turkey may be reserved, and quite honestly ambivalent about their country's past, but it's clear to me that there is a cultural identity among the Turks that is unique: some parts of their cold cultural exterior may be as drab and interchangeable as their charcoal gray houses, but a much more integral part of their country is as ornate and steadfast as their mosques and music and beautiful though tumultuous Bosphorus Strait, a confusing waterway with two currents running in different directions.

As I stood with Andrew at the bow of our day cruise ship on this Bosphorus during our last afternoon in Turkey, staring off into the Black Sea far away from the busy smog-filled streets of the city, it occurred to me that I could never sum up in just a few words what Istanbul is exactly.  Like the opposing currents running beneath me, so to did the city seem to be pulled.  On one hand the people in Istanbul seemed desperate to modernize every building to please a more streamlined and capitalist Western Europe, yet around every towering hotel and supermarket sits another monument, mosque, or stray kitten or dog that have long been a historical presence on these city streets.  How am I supposed to sum up such a striking dichotomy into a blog post? 

It's no mystery to me why Istanbul was the seat to such greatness, and why--who knows?--it may be again.  The hard part is distinguishing the genuine beauty among the rubble and knockoff designer handbags, because to be honest there's plenty of both.  But if you're patient enough to put up with being swindled from time to time, I can't recommend Turkey highly enough.


3 comments:

  1. i want to go!!!

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  2. (of course, where DON'T i want to go?!) Mom

    ReplyDelete
  3. It can't get any better than traveling with you! I crave Turkish delights at the moment. Until next time!!!

    ReplyDelete

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