Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

I can't help the song echoing in my head every time I say the name of the city: Istanbul! I had a rough time getting there the first time. I took the bus company Metro, which turned out to be a terrible decision. We got to the otogar (bus station) just fine, but that is nowhere near the area you actually want to be. There are shuttles from the otogar to various parts of the city, but nothing resembling a schedule or a map. Nobody speaks English, so I ended up having to rely on this super-sketchy guy to tell me which shuttle to get on (not difficult, people--Sultanahmet is the same in any language!) And yet I still got dropped off a good 50 minute walk from where I wanted to be. From there I got vague directions from a cabbie trying to sell me a ride (in Istanbul, everyone's trying to sell you something.) And finally good directions from a university student (I love students.) 

Chestnut vendor! Roasted chestnuts are delicious, but you have to make sure you're not getting ripped off. 100 grams can cost you 3.50 lira, 4 lira, or 4.50 lira, depending on which man you talk to. One lira is worth about $0.50, so that's an important $0.25 difference!

Pomegranates on display. They look really cool, but as I discovered, the juice is too sour for me.

Simit salesman. These guys can be found all over Istanbul, hawking their pastries for a reliable 1 lira.

The Bosphorus Bridge, the gateway between the European side and the Asian side of Istanbul. Aaand I have now visited Asia! *check*

Lots of stray cats around the city, all of whom seem to be fat and furry. It was not uncommon to see someone throwing meat to random homeless felines.

I was walking along the shore with a friend from the hostel when we reached the ferry port and began to be bombarded by offers for river cruises. We decided to bow to the inevitable and hop on a boat.

See the fishing poles on the right as we crossed the bridge at dusk...

...and some of the same fishermen as we returned at night.

The only thing better than baklava in Istanbul is free baklava in Istanbul ;) This is what happens when you sit in a cafe for an hour after you've finished your food: they try to bribe you to leave.

Troy

On a cold, rainy Monday I ventured out from Cannakale to tour the (probable) site of Homeric Troy, also called Ilios. Or Wilusa, if you look far enough back.

Photo with the different city layers labeled.

See, Troy isn't just one city; it's more like nine cities built on top of each other, the earliest one dating from roughly 3000 BCE.

The buildings were made largely of mud bricks, impossible to repair when damaged. So the old bricks raised the level of the hill the cities were built on, and the people built up terraces to deal with these new slopes.


Homeric Troy is now thought to have been Troy VI or VII.

It's not as big as Hollywood makes it seem...

The "beautiful walls of Troy"--the vertical lines in the defensive walls might have been to allow it to curve around the city, but more likely they were simply decoration.

The builders didn't have mortar to secure the walls, so the stones are custom-carved to fit together.

And here is the horse that breached those walls... I'm told that a few years back, the beast was looking rather more battered, and so the tour guides would pass it off as the original, stairs, windows and all. (That's me in the middle window, by the way--just call me Odysseus!)

House walls from Troy II

Greek inscriptions at the theatre. The first archaeologist to believe this site was Troy  actually married a Greek girl, apparently with the idea that she could translate anything he found (not sure how that worked out, or how he justified the decision in marriage counseling.)

Good prices on Greek marble if you buy in bulk...

Actually in Cannakale and not Troy, but it wouldn't do to forget the *other* Trojan Horse.

Intro to Turkey

This post is not current by any stretch of the imagination, but if I'm ever going to catch up, I need to do these in chronological order. So here goes. 

At the beginning of December I took a small ferry over to Turkey. It was a short trip, they charged me something for a 90-day visa, and then I was--free. In the little port of Ayvalik, which no one has ever heard of, even in Turkey. My first task was to find a bus station so I could get out of town and head north to Canakkale (the main attraction of which is its proximity to ancient Troy. But more on that later.)

Turkish tap water is questionable at best, so these single-serving waters are popular on buses and even in restaurants.

This is the first stage of making donut holes. A man swung this machine back and forth, while little blobs of dough plopped out into the oil. After a while, he scooped them out and passed them to another man, who put them into another basin, possibly filled with more oil.

Pepper star!

The covered market in Canakkale, a huge area filled with tables of clothes, vegetables, meat, and candy.

Fish market.

Simit, the ubiquitous seed-covered bread ring sold out of wheeled stalls all over Turkey.

Turkish tea, another staple. It's very bitter, so it always comes with sugar cubes--but never milk. There would often be a waiter walking shop to shop with a round silver tray, delivering full sets and collecting the spent glasses.

Aaand of course, here we have the good ol' meat-stack, for slicing up to make donner kebabs.

Peanut butter is virtually unknown (it's an exciting find in a large or foreign grocery store,) but nutella is much more popular than at home. Also, it's a real option at breakfast.

Instead they have helva, a sweet, nutty, crumbly substance made from sesame. I wasn't paying much attention and bought some on my first day in Canakkale, assuming it was cheese. >.< It most definitely is not cheese. But it's good anyway!