Turkish Delight: Grand Bazaar

(I traveled to Turkey for vacation during first half of July,2014. Following is an account of my experiences in Istanbul. This is the Eleventh installment of the series, focusing on a missed opportunity to visit Topkapi Museum and things I learnt about Turkey. I hope you enjoy it.)

Cumartesi, On Ikinci Temmuz

(Saturday, 12^th July)

I had planned to visit Topkapi palace but as soon as I exited my hotel after breakfast, I felt intense pain in my upper back, just below the shoulder blade.I ignored it initially and took a morning stroll around the half-empty Isteklal Street. During the walk, I bought one of the only English-language newspapers published in Turkey (Today's Zaman) from a small store. During the walk, I noticed the inability to move my neck sideways. It was probably a strained neck muscle, so I visited the nearest Eczane (Turkey's answer to Walgreens) and got some painkillers. Thankfully, I was able to find the right tablets despite the language-barrier.  

I decided to continue with my plan and boarded the Taksim Tünel followed by a tram to Gülhane. I found Meltem and her fellow volunteers Gülhane station. They were guiding tourists about the Istanbulkart Refill machines. I spent almost 30 minutes assisting the volunteers. I wasn’t able to walk comfortable so I decided to postpone the Topkapi visit and walked towards Blue Mosque. My interest was piqued by a sign pointing to a place that used to be Hurrem Sultan's hamam. Initially I ventured towards the ladies' side of the establishment but I was then guided by a lady towards the entrance for gentlemen. At the entrance, I received a brochure for a ‘Royal Message Service’. It felt like a godsend but a) It was expensive and b) I wasn’t looking forward to jumping in the sauna with a loincloth.  

I continued my journey to to Blue Mosque’s gate A and caught up with Hatice and Bayzanur along with their fellow volunteers. Went inside the mosque and sat with Doğukan and Ahmet in the

Shady courtyard of the mosque. It was there that I learnt about traditional Turkish dishes from Sinem, and took some absurd photographs of different varieties of hair. Discovered that Today's Zaman is published by Gülen party sympathizers and they had started criticizing the Erdoğan government since the 17th December crackdown on Gülen sympathizers (Hizmet Movement) in judiciary and police.

I confessed to my volunteer friends that I had already tried etliekmek, kurimpi, simit, börek, patso, doner, Turkish delights, Turkish coffee and baklava among traditioal Turkish cuisine. They asked me to try Iskander, Mantı and Dolma apart from Turkish Pizza. Sinem and I talked about medical education in Turkey and she mentioned that Istanbul University was probably the best medical university in Turkey We also touched upon the cost of braces for teeth. As a former "sufferer" of braces, I empathized with her and reminisced about the difficulties faced by people in braces after eating any regular meal. She explained the education system of Turkey (8 years primary school, 4 years high school, entry exams and then University). I discovered that possessing a Turkish passport was only slightly better than having a Pakistani passport, as people with Turkish passports could only visit a handful of countries without visa.(Being a third world citizen really sucks!) We scattered on sight of Miss Cansu, the supervisor and landed near German fountain.

It was there that I had a good chat with Ertugrul (his name reminded of Chilean midfield player Arturo Vidal) about religion and politics (I learnt that ISIS was called "Ishit" in Turkey). He confessed about his "virtual relationship" with someone in Torino, Italy. Kaan joined us after a while.

We talked to a Ukranian family that wanted guidance regarding a place that was quite far from Fatih and the patriarch of that family was really funny. They were visiting from Kiev and supported the Euromaidan protests. They were amused by my reference to "the Chocolate King"(nickname of Ukraine's current President, as he owns chocolate factories). Kaan made a cheeky comment about him supporting Yanukovich (the deposed Ukrainian president who fled to Russia) which didn’t amuse them and they branded him a “risky boy”.

I was supposed to get a shoulder bag for my younger sister, so I sought help of Sinem in this venture.We walked to Grand Bazaar (called Kapali çarşı in Turkçe) with Kaan and Ertugral in tow. En Route, We encountered a very animated Turkish girl who knew three languages (Turkçe, Italian and Spanish with some knowledge of English). She was interested in our “group” due to the “Ask Me” shirts worn by volunteers. We did a grand tour of the Bazaar focusing on shop that sold bags but the prices were quite high, due to what Ertugrul called the "Grand Bazaar effect". Sinem informed that she could get bags of similar quality from market near her home.

As a last resort, we visited the nearby flea market and finally found a decent bag. On our way back, a restaurant worker recognized me as a Pakistani and tried to tempt me by offering Biryani with kebabs (I would’ve accepted his offer but I was not hungry and am a vegetarian anyway). On our way back, we had to make two stops as Sinem wanted to get bracelets for herself. During the return journey, we talked to a German couple from Dusseldorf who wanted to know directions to the Galata Bridge.

I wanted to get some balance charged in my account and wanted the volunteers to help me interpret it to the sales person. They took me to the nearest “Avea” franchise. To my surprise, one of the sales people was a former musician and knew Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (one of Pakistan's finest Qawals/sufi musicians).I had to sing a stanza from NFAK’s "Dam Mast Qalandar" to convince him that I knew and revered Nusrat. I later roughly translated "Dam Dam Ali Ali" to the guy, who was pleased to entertain us.

Upon reaching the hippodrome, the group split up and I talked about Ataturk, his dictatorial tendencies and effects of "forced secularization" with Kaan and Ertugrul. We were approached by two boys doing a metropolitan survey regarding political choices in the upcoming Presidential elections. I encountered an ex-volunteer (she volunteered last year) named Rabia. She was studying English Literature at the university, favored socialism over the existing political system and had't read any socialist literature (which did surprise me). It was another day well-spent in Istanbul.

Turkish Delight: Konyaaa

Directions

Mevlana

A Miniature depicting Konya

Statue of a Whirling Dervish

After spending a boring day in Ankara, which consisted of lazing around in the apartment all day and visiting Golbasi park in the evening, I was ready to visit Konya. The only saving grace of the Boring day was my Turkish Friend Yiğit, who showed up after his work at the airport traffic control. Yiğit was a volunteer for the program that brought me to Ankara last year. He was one of the most interesting people from my trip. He has majored in Political Science and tried three times to land a job at the Turkish Foreign Ministry.The exam has multiple steps and one has to pass written exams as well as multiple interviews to be finally selected. Yiğit was terribly unlucky as he had once reached the final interview but was deemed unsuccessful by the interviewer. To quote Yiğit, They are not looking for just any diplomats, they are looking for Henry Kissingers.
Among the many gems shared by Yiğit that night, a few are worth mentioning.
On the topic of Turkish foreign policy and ambitions towards a local hegemony
“We [Turkey] cannot actually become a superpower, despite our apparent attempts to do so, we are just too lazy to be a superpower”.
On the topic of Turkish people trying other languages, “Turkish people don’t usually know how to appropriately express themselves in English, which is why they flail and swing their arms like a shadow boxer when speaking English”.

He had participated in Anti-AK party protests after Gezi and SOMA and he regaled us with stories of how Beşiktaş fans trolled the Riot police and how a Tennis Player in Ankara used to to hurl the Tear Gas canisters back at the police using his racquet. I asked him about CHP, the main opposition party in Turkey. He was of the view that CHP felt content with their role as opposition. They are rich, have a support and patronage network and are not too bothered with the nuisance of governing. In 2014, mayoral elections,a CHP candidate lost in Ankara due to massive rigging but the party didn’t capitalize on this issue and chose to remain inside their cocoon.

We discussed my plan to get back to Istanbul and then to take a plane to Cappadokia. He advised me to book a plane ticket, instead of taking the bus, as the price-difference wasn’t too huge and it would save me time as well. As he left, I looked up websites of different local airlines on the inter-web and chose Pegasus’s flight. The only issue was that my credit card was not valid for online transactions and I had to get that authorized by the bank in Pakistan. It was time for Suhoor in Pakistan, so I called my parents in Pakistan who got the card activated for online transactions and the deed was done. I was supposed to fly at 9.20 am to Istanbul, the caveat being that the flight was to land at Sabiha Gokcan airport while my Cappadokia flight was to leave from Ataturk Airport at 1:20 pm. I left the details to the future and took a good nights’ sleep.
My Pakistani friend and I left for Ankara-gar an hour before our train was scheduled to leave for Konya. I discovered that Ankara’s train station was established in 1937 and it connected Ankara with Antalya, Eskisehir, Konya and Sivas in the eastern part of Turkey. As we embarked upon the train, it was the first time outside of an airport that our luggage was scanned by a machine. In Pakistan, every major government/private building has scanners and people who pat you down for security purposes. The train journey was smooth and without incident. I discovered that speed on the screens was shown as Kilometers/s. I initially thought it was Kilometer/second, but my friend corrected me that the “s” denoted “Saat” (which means hour in Türkçe). I spent the two-hour journey reading Elif Shafak’s ‘Forty Rules of Love’ (Its Türkçe version is called ‘Aşk’) while my friend dozed off.    
From Konya-gar, we took the tram to reach Mevlana, the site of Mevlana Rumi’s shrine. I must confess that I am not a very spiritual person and I was not exactly moved by the experience at Mevlana. I went there as a curious tourist and was delighted to see history and historical items being preserved in the leafy Anatolian town of Konya.I was disappointed when my friend informed me that Whirling Dervishes only performed on Saturdays and we won’t be able to witness a live performance during our short visit. Following the visit to Mevlana, we walked to the nearby Bazaar and looked for a good place to eat some Etli Ekmek(Pizza-like dish which originated in Konya). Despite being a vegetarian, I indulged in the ritual to mark the occasion. The Ekmek felt bland as we were not given any sauces with it, and I improvised by using some lemon juice and spices as a spread for the Ekmek.
Our train was supposed to leave at 6 pm and we were done with Mevlana by 2 pm. There were four hours to kill, so we walked across town, found a green spot to rest and saw some old mosques. From the Bazaar, I got some Pişmanye, a sweet which is similar to “Pateesa” in Pakistan. We found a graveyard of Indian soldiers who were part of British Army in WWI but switched sides and fought alongside the Turks. I discovered that parking at Mevlana was free for the first one hour and one had to pay certain amount afterwards. Konya is a small city and we walked across the city center to reach Konya-gar by 4 pm. My friend dozed off again while I busied myself with reading some articles off the internet. On the return-leg of our journey, my friend, who is doing his Masters Degree in Soil Sciences, talked about difference in agricultural practices between Pakistan and Turkey. He comes from a land-owning family and has studied agriculture in Pakistan so it was an enriching experience listening to him.
We were really tired by the time we reached the apartment but it was a day well-spent.   

Turkish Delight: Road to the Capital

Atakule

 

Monday/Pazartesi
Fret not where the road will take you. Do not go with the flow. Be the Flow. Elif Shafak

I have this weird habit of not planning about things when abroad. Back home, I plan every single detail possible but as soon as I step into foreign territory, I am without much planning. In the last three years, I have visited two countries (US in 2012, Turkey in 2013 and 2014) and I didn’t plan much in either of those trips. The US trip was pre-arranged by an organization so the lack of planning was not a problem. The first Turkey visit was also pre-arranged (or at least its Ankara leg) so there was not much I could do about it. The second trip to Turkey was my first foreign tour without a conference/program and I was supposed to be completely on my own. I did get my hotel booked online and learnt some basic Turkce phrases, but that was it. My only plan was to spend time in Istanbul and to visit Konya with my friend in Ankara. The plan to visit Cappadokia was a last-minute impulse buy and I had not thought it out well. Anyhow, I got the ticket on Sunday evening for a 10 am bus to Ankara.

Istanbul's Otogar evoked mixed memories in my head. I had visited the place last year on the very first day that I was in Istanbul. I had enjoyed a very good ride from there to Ankara. I had endured a disastrous journey on my way back and had reached the place at 5 a.m. I vowed to make my experience better than my previous one. On Monday morning, after an early breakfast, I checked-out of my hotel almost two hours before the time of my departure. 

Using the Karakoy-Bagçilar line and then the Aksaray-Airport line, I reached Otogar in almost 40 minutes from my hotel in Sultanahmet. I got out of the central area and failed to locate the "Metro" bus service centre initially. Then I asked one of the ticket-guys who guided me to the Other side of Otogar. I had apparently ventured onto the wrong side. Upon reaching the right spot, I was disappointed to find very few seats in the station itself. I stopped outside the place and waited to get a vacant seat. 

I got a seat after about 10 minutes and hopped on the relevant bus at 10 am. It takes almost 1.5 hours for the bus to leave Istanbul as it stops at different small stations. I had good memories of the last time that I travelled in the 'Metro' company's bus. The seats were spacious and there was Wi-Fi throughout the journey. This time, my seat was the same but Wi-Fi was terrible. I sat along a Turkish guy who slept for most of the journey. It felt different this time. Maybe I had forgotten it due to my excitement of last year but the journey was tooo damn long and the seat wasn’t as comfortable as I expected it.

I tried listening to a football-themed podcast that I like. Then I started Elif Shafak's book, which I felt was quite interesting. There was a little girl sitting across the aisle from me who was very active and naughty and smiled back whenever I smiled at her. 

As we approached the city of Ankara, my friend called and asked about my whereabouts. He and I used to be roommates in a boarding school when we were in the 7^th grade. Since then, I had graduated from medical school while he had acquired a bachelor’s degree from an Agriculture University. He was pursuing a Masters Degree in Soil Sciences from Ankara University and had been living in Turkey for the last 8 months, learning the language. He could speak Turkce fluently and had helped me learn the basics. Upon reaching the Ankara Otogar, I waited for him to arrive. Meanwhile, I wanted to get some dollars changed but there was apparently no Doviz at the station. I didn’t know what a money-changer was called in Turkce so I decided to ask the lady present at “Information Center” of Otogar. She probably didn’t understand English and thus pointed me in the wrong direction. I later found out that there was NO Doviz at the station. My friend arrived and we took the tram to Ulus from where we rode a bus to Atakule(Ataturk Tower). I was amazed to know that Cinnah Cadessi was named after the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah/Cinnah. We moved to a flat near Cankaya Cadessi, the road which evoked beautiful memories from the previous year.

I have been to capitals of three countries, Pakistan, Turkey and United States. While all of them are wonderfully planned, they share that one trait which is universal to capitals: They are really boring places to be. Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, is known as ‘Islamabad the beautiful’ and it indeed is very lovely(If straight roads and greenery is your thing). It is also incredibly boring. Washington DC at least has some good museums to while away one’s time. Ankara had none of these. No greenery, not much natural beauty and no wonderful museums either.
My friend had arranged for us to live at a Pakistani diplomat’s flat in a residential neighborhood. On our way to the apartment, we stopped to buy some shopping at a grocery store where we got some vegetables and bread(Ekmek) for dinner. I was surprised to find the way people got their vegetables. In Pakistan, when you go to buy vegetables/fruits, you ask for a particular item and the shopkeeper provides you with that item in the required quantity. In Turkey, there are no shopkeepers to put the items in your basket, there are disposable shopping bags. You can choose the vegetables you want and weigh them at the store, paying for them at a separate counter. This way, you can choose the vegetables of your choice(size, shape etc) and it is not left to the whims of the shopkeeper.
It was during that walk that I discovered “Bim” stores. They are like utility stores where one can buy items of daily use in bulk form, at subsidized prices. I was incredibly tired upon reaching the apartment so I unpacked hurriedly and called home to inform them of my arrival in the city. My friend had to visit his dorm so he left me in peace. After the necessary updates on Facebook and browsing through twitter, I sat down with the young Pakistani diplomat. He had been stationed in Ankara to learn Turkce and was being posted to Istanbul in a few days. We talked about my interest in International relations and he told me about the workings of Pakistan’s Foreign Service. We sat down for dinner and he told me about the Turkish claim of having the most diverse cuisine in the world(and how it was not exactly true). He also told me of the special kind of Ekmek(a bulky one) that was available only during the month of Ramadan. My friend arrived from his dorm and we talked about the plans for next two days. We had to go to konya and we had a spare day. I had already seen Ankara’s main attractions(Ataturk’s musoleum,Cankaya Cadessi, remains of old city) so there were few options left. I was also supposed to see a Turkish friend of mine whom I had met last year.