Istanbul, the Eurasian city split by the Bosporus, has long been at the top of my "Bucket List." Friend after friend has visited and emphatically informed me how vital it is that I go. "Titia, you HAVE to go to Istanbul! You HAVE to!" I was certainly not going to argue, but finding time and funds for that trip (Turkey is not as cheap as it used to be!) took me a while. But, with a partner who was as eager to see the city as I was, it finally happened.
General thoughts:
First of all, they were right. You HAVE to visit Istanbul. Secondly, it really is where Asia and Europe meet, in both the geographic and cultural sense. As someone who has lived, studied, and spent ample time on each of those continents, my head spun with the overlaps I saw everywhere.
Plus there's just this vibe, wherever you go that is a distinct blend of European and Asian. I don't know how to articulate it. It's in little gestures, little smells, the way stores butt up against each other, the way the old men look, the way the young women walk...it is neither Europe nor Asia, yet it is both.
We encountered European technology and architecture surrounded by the "boy clubs" (as I call the clusters of men that sit and smoke in the squares or play games while they hover over tea in tight t-shirts and jeans) that I was used to seeing in India and Nepal. Women stayed mostly out of sight in the Muslim neighborhoods, and when they emerged, wore hijab. This is not typical, from what I understand, of the whole city, just our neighborhood.
Contrasted with the strict Muslim observances (our innkeeper would not even drink the wine I offered in public because he knew the other shopkeepers would see and be angry with him), are things like the nightlife, which REALLY starts to get going around midnight, and doesn't quiet down until 3 AM or later on weekends. The square where our inn was located had a fish market nearby and boasted some of the poshest seafood restaurants I've seen. Every night musicians circled the little piazza, dancing around the fountain. Diners, both local and tourist, sang and danced and threw tips to them.
Another Asian remnant is the street dogs and cats that wander the city, but in contrast to Hindu and Muslim countries, they are rarely beaten or poisoned. They coexist in a fairly friendly manner with the tourists, while still looking suspiciously mangy enough not to pet. Some of the puppies are just asking for it, but I refrained!
One of the most evident dissonant harmonies of the city is the fight between Muslim and Christian history for dominance. The most famous monument to this controversy is the Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine church which was converted to a mosque, and is now a museum. There is a conservative faction in Turkey who would like to convert the museum back to a mosque, as a holy religious site, but the moderates argue that as a museum it represents the secular history of Turkey, not allowing one narrative to dominate. If you have been following Turkish news at all, you can see that that fight for the dominance of Islam over secularism is hardly over.
Is it dangerous?
One impression I've picked up repeatedly from people in the US is that Turkey is dangerous. I suppose it is if you are alone in a bad neighborhood and don't know where you're going...but so is London, and New York, and Tokyo. Frankly, I'm not sure how Turkey got this reputation, unless it's the simple justification from Americans who really have no desire to visit and this is the only excuse they know how to articulate.
While I was never by myself in Istanbul, I never got the impression it would be more scary than any other place if I were. We stayed predominantly in the tourist sections of the European side, riding public transit and walking. At no point would I say we were at risk.
In fact, the people we directly encountered could not have been kinder. Our innkeeper, Volcan, was a chatty, sweet, conscientious guy who loved hanging out with guests on the patio of his hotel. (Lancelot Hotel, for those who need a place). One man saw us trying to figure out what this was:
so he bought us some! (Turns out to be a seasoned bean patty)
Then there's the impromptu dance party I had with the vendors who sold me tea and Turkish coffee cups:
In fact, Istanbul is probably better, in many ways, than much more famous cities I've visited. The touts are aggressive as you walk by restaurants (understandably as the competition is fierce and they are all 6 inches away from each other), the water is not potable (although no one in Europe drinks tap water anyway) and there is a struggle for the dominance of a fundamentalist religious faction. But in terms of a visit, it was stimulating, exciting, completely unique (versus London, New York and Paris which are all kind of the same city with different accents) and it's one of the few cities I will tell you: yes, you MUST go. There's actually no place like it that I have found.
General thoughts:
First of all, they were right. You HAVE to visit Istanbul. Secondly, it really is where Asia and Europe meet, in both the geographic and cultural sense. As someone who has lived, studied, and spent ample time on each of those continents, my head spun with the overlaps I saw everywhere.
Plus there's just this vibe, wherever you go that is a distinct blend of European and Asian. I don't know how to articulate it. It's in little gestures, little smells, the way stores butt up against each other, the way the old men look, the way the young women walk...it is neither Europe nor Asia, yet it is both.
We encountered European technology and architecture surrounded by the "boy clubs" (as I call the clusters of men that sit and smoke in the squares or play games while they hover over tea in tight t-shirts and jeans) that I was used to seeing in India and Nepal. Women stayed mostly out of sight in the Muslim neighborhoods, and when they emerged, wore hijab. This is not typical, from what I understand, of the whole city, just our neighborhood.
Contrasted with the strict Muslim observances (our innkeeper would not even drink the wine I offered in public because he knew the other shopkeepers would see and be angry with him), are things like the nightlife, which REALLY starts to get going around midnight, and doesn't quiet down until 3 AM or later on weekends. The square where our inn was located had a fish market nearby and boasted some of the poshest seafood restaurants I've seen. Every night musicians circled the little piazza, dancing around the fountain. Diners, both local and tourist, sang and danced and threw tips to them.
Another Asian remnant is the street dogs and cats that wander the city, but in contrast to Hindu and Muslim countries, they are rarely beaten or poisoned. They coexist in a fairly friendly manner with the tourists, while still looking suspiciously mangy enough not to pet. Some of the puppies are just asking for it, but I refrained!
One of the most evident dissonant harmonies of the city is the fight between Muslim and Christian history for dominance. The most famous monument to this controversy is the Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine church which was converted to a mosque, and is now a museum. There is a conservative faction in Turkey who would like to convert the museum back to a mosque, as a holy religious site, but the moderates argue that as a museum it represents the secular history of Turkey, not allowing one narrative to dominate. If you have been following Turkish news at all, you can see that that fight for the dominance of Islam over secularism is hardly over.
Is it dangerous?
One impression I've picked up repeatedly from people in the US is that Turkey is dangerous. I suppose it is if you are alone in a bad neighborhood and don't know where you're going...but so is London, and New York, and Tokyo. Frankly, I'm not sure how Turkey got this reputation, unless it's the simple justification from Americans who really have no desire to visit and this is the only excuse they know how to articulate.
While I was never by myself in Istanbul, I never got the impression it would be more scary than any other place if I were. We stayed predominantly in the tourist sections of the European side, riding public transit and walking. At no point would I say we were at risk.
In fact, the people we directly encountered could not have been kinder. Our innkeeper, Volcan, was a chatty, sweet, conscientious guy who loved hanging out with guests on the patio of his hotel. (Lancelot Hotel, for those who need a place). One man saw us trying to figure out what this was:
so he bought us some! (Turns out to be a seasoned bean patty)
Then there's the impromptu dance party I had with the vendors who sold me tea and Turkish coffee cups:
In fact, Istanbul is probably better, in many ways, than much more famous cities I've visited. The touts are aggressive as you walk by restaurants (understandably as the competition is fierce and they are all 6 inches away from each other), the water is not potable (although no one in Europe drinks tap water anyway) and there is a struggle for the dominance of a fundamentalist religious faction. But in terms of a visit, it was stimulating, exciting, completely unique (versus London, New York and Paris which are all kind of the same city with different accents) and it's one of the few cities I will tell you: yes, you MUST go. There's actually no place like it that I have found.
