Guest Contributor: Keyvan (pronounced, "Leh-bas, eh-toe, dahr-be-yahr")
Before starting this blog entry, allow me to first thank Justin and Kate for bestowing upon me the chore of writing the blog for this trip. I loved meeting everyone and buying their friendship.
What a trip, what a trip! This trip marked a first of many sorts for all of the travelers involved. This was the first time that Kate, Elizabeth, and I had to deal with Justin's incessant place dropping. The guy is ridiculous, you can't have a conversation with him without hearing him tell you about all the places he's visited. We get it ... you've traveled everywhere and done everything. I love being country and you can't change me.
The trip could be broken into three parts: 1.) Arrival, 2.) the middle part, 3.) Departure.
1.) Arrival
We flew Lufthansa airlines into Istanbul and boy was the food good! Frankly, this was my favorite portion of the trip because they gave you a German candy bar with your meal. Delicious! Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of this, but trust me, Germans know their chocolate!
After arriving, we grabbed a cab and Justin began bothering his baby (Kate, being used to his abuse, attempted to draw my attention away, so as "not to cause a scene.")
We stayed at the Big Apple Hostel (my first hostel). The Big Apple hostel (BAH, as they preferred to call it) far exceeded my expectations. My only knowledge of hostels derived from the movie, "Hostel." The main difference being you got your own shower! The rest of the experience is pretty similar to the film.
Turkey is a muslim-majority country with a secular government or so I've heard. Coming from America this provides a bizarre, post-apocalyptic vision of the world with muslim prayers sang throughout the city everyday, every 24/5 hours a day. However, in the words of Zain, "No." Staying in the "Old World" portion of the city you would expect we would hear and perhaps to a smaller degree witness prayers or movement to a mosque for prayers, but we noticed no such occurances. The only evidence of actual prayers was captured on our first night in Istanbul, through a fence.
Our first, full day in Istanbul consisted of sight-seeing around the "Old World" section of Istanbul; visiting the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, venturing off into the Bazaar and finally eating dinner near the BAH.
The morning began with breakfast, complimentary of the BAH. Although quite simple, it was
wonderful. We had options of feta cheese, hard-boiled eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, black olives, bread (lots of it) and butter and a sour cherry spread. After filling ourselves up, we walked to the Blue Mosque (BAH is next door to this holy shrine). Upon arriving, to our great fear, we noticed a local dog had apparently enjoyed what appeared to be the same bread we had for breakfast, however, this poor pup didn't seem to have the energy we had. Perhaps a chilling vision of things to come.Justin and Kate wanted a picture with the Blue Mosque - they wouldn't stop.
The Blue Mosque is enormous in size and tiled with ornate blue tiles. Warning: History Lesson - There are 6 minarets at the Blue Mosque and at some point this was considered contraversial (although the Adana in Turkey also has 6 minarets). This was contraversial because the Kabbeh in Mecca (the holiest site in all of Islam) used to have 6 spires and the sultan was considered presumptous for matching the Kabbeh's number of minarets. To overcome this historical beef, the sultan paid for a 7th minaret at the Kabbeh and all was settled.
Inside the exterior walls of the Blue Mosque, you find a large courtyard. Shortly after entering the courtyard a small earthquake struck Istanbul - you can notice this on the video clip.
Entering the mosque itself required one to remove their shoes and for muslim women to cover their heads with a scarf. Kate looks like a gypsy in this clip.
We did witness baby adoration, in particular, adoration of Elizabeth. Interestingly enough, there was a moratoriam on babies approximately 20 years ago in Turkey and as a result, the Turks are unfamiliar with the appearance of a baby and thus awe-struck. It was cute at first and quickly became a hinderance on our ability to make good time throughout the city.
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