Istanbul

So, I was in Istanbul this last week, which you know because I dutifully warned you. It was an intense week, starting with the intense-but-relatively-convenient direct flight from here to Amsterdam, then direct from there to Istanbul. The planes, for some reason, were FREEZING COLD. I had my airplane socks and a sweater, and even pestered the stewardess into giving me an extra blanket, and I still nearly died of exposure. The flight to Amsterdam landed early, which was great, because I only had 1 hour to make the flight to Istanbul, but we wound up having to sit on the runway for so long that it was later than scheduled getting to the gate. The sprint to the next flight was probably all that saved my frozen toes from falling right off.
When I finally did get to Istanbul, though, things went quite smoothly. They let me into the country (you have to buy a "visa" for $20 at the airport before they let you leave), my bag arrived on the same plane I did (a shock, considering my layover), and Ayse was even there to meet me. Since I arrived at about 4:30, all we did the first day was go home and eat and go to bed. When Ayse explained this to me at the airport, I said "no, no, I don't want to ruin your evening, I have the energy to do something!" But Ayse just shook her head. Then we sat in traffic for THREE HOURS. I wish I were exaggerating, but I am not. It was excruciating, after the airplanes, and terrifying. As you can perhaps tell from the picture of Ayse, she does not have very good peripheral vision, between the headscarf and the sunglasses, which certainly had something to do with the 5 or 6 near-death-experiences we had on the way to her house.
When we weren't almost getting killed, we were sitting completely still, not moving at all, not even an inch. Luckily, Ayse understands the silliness of the Turkish belief that air-conditioning can cause paralysis, so at least we weren't at risk for dying of heat-stroke. And we weren't going to starve or die of dehydration either, because there is an entire industry which has sprung up around the traffic jams of Istanbul. There are men who walk up and down the highways between cars selling cold bottled water, simit (a kind of Turkish bagel), and lemonade. If you squint, you can see one of the simit men in the photo on the left. I wanted to take one closer, but Ayse said if I did, he would not only insist that I buy a simit, but that I buy it at "foreigner prices."
Eventually we made it home. Ayse's family lives in a part of town called Sultan Beyli, which is about an hour from the city center. They (Ayse, her mom and dad, and two of her three brothers) live in an apartment on the second floor of a 5 or 6 story building populated entirely by her relatives. The outside looked pretty run-down, and the "courtyard" was really just a driveway with a couch in it, but (typically for Turkish families, I learned) the inside was very nice. The only things that weren't nice were the toilet (squat toilet) and the lack of air conditioning or even fans (which won't necessarily cause paralysis, but definitely aren't good for your health).
I should get on with my day, which will be jet-laggedly short, so I'll post more stories tomorrow. Here are some pictures, though:
Me, Ayse, Elif, Elif's little sister, with Anna and Jenny (the two on my side of the table, who are staying with Elif while they take Turkish classes for the summer), and one of Ayse's 500 uncles. This one thought I was hilarious, but spoke very quickly with a Kurdish accent (Ayse's family is Kurdish), so I never really quite understood why. I thought he was pretty great too, because he owns a fantastic fish restaurant, which is where we are in this picture, on the verge of stuffing ourselves.


This is Ayse at some random cafe on the water, where we met up with a couple of her friends for tea one night. You can sort of see the bridge across the Bosporus in the background, which is the stuff driving nightmares are made of, but which is also lit up with funny changing, dancing light shows at night.






This is the only thing I ate in Turkey that I didn't like. It's their version of the stuffed baked potato, which I love in America (with cheese and broccoli and ham or bacon). In Turkey, though, they stuff it with seasoned bulgar wheat, canned corn, pickles, bologna-like sausage, ketchup, and mayonaise. I ate two polite bites and then switched to the fresh fruit and nuts in the background.