Sights and Sounds of istanbul

Morning comes early in Istanbul. I am deeply asleep when there is a sound like a finger tap on your shoulder. It is the first syllable of the morning call to worship from the Blue Mosque. The syllable grows and and ululates. Then dies away. You fall back into sleep. Then the call comes again with a vengence. It begins louder and and grows in volume and voice wails and ululates. You can hear it echoing off buildings. Then it falls away and you hear the answering calls from other mosques. It comes again and again until you are completely awake. Then silence. It’s 4:45 am and still dark and I am awake… Istanbul is waking up. Soon you hear the rumble of the first commuter train. Soon the light begins to color the sky rose and the sound of sweeping brooms as the street cleaners come through. The calls of the bread sellers begin to echo along the street.
It’s full light and I am up and ready for breakfast.
As you walk along the streets of Istanbul the shopkeepers stand in front of their shops and invite you in. They call “are you French?” “are you English?” “Hello English!” “Come have a tea with me.” They all want to sell something. You have to get used to politely saying no and walking on past. Some are more aggressive and will follow you down the sidewalk. There is always conversation in Turkish which is a little bit more guttural than Spanish or French but more musical that German. People smile and nod. If you greet them they will smile and return your greeting.

There are always street vendors. They have carts of bottled water and juices. You smell chestnuts and corn roasting on grills. Oranges and other fruit. There are always young boys walking around with trays of small glasses of tea. Tea is offered everywhere. If you go into a bank or a rug shop the owner will send a boy running for tea. They will offer you tea while they show you rugs. If you engage a Turk in conversation before they will offer you tea.

As you walk you can smell hints of spices from shops, roasting meats from the kebapi (kebab shops) little hints of sewage here and there, perfume and diesel exhaust, and scents from flowering trees and plants.

If you get off the main streets the side streets twist, turn, rise and fall and the houses and shops are packed cheek to jowl. They are full of people sitting on chairs and in cafes, kids playing on the sidewalks and people calling to each other. There are very few street signs so it’s easy to get lost. But if you look up you can usually spot the minarets (towers) of a nearby mosque and head for it. Mosques are always easy to find on the town maps and make good navigation points.

Turkey has Islamic, Christian and Jewish people living happily side by side. It has been a democracy since about 1926 when then President Attaturk declared it so. Turks are very proud of their democracy and their heritage and tke voting seriously. We are arrived during an election and their were polling stations set –up in the airport arrival areas. Many Turks are Islamic in faith but they are not Arabs. Like all Islamic peoples they are very clean. They before praying and the very faithful pray 6 times a day.

I love walking in Istanbul. People call out hello and smile and the men mostly dress in grey or blue slacks and short sleeve button down shirts. The women are dressed in a huge variety from very Western wear. Too black dresses with shawls so only their noses stick out. Women as a rule keep their shoulders covered and don’t wear blouses with revealing necklines. They wear a wonderful variety of scarves in any color and pattern you can image.

There were a few people begging on the street in Istanbul but not nearly as many as we saw in Athens. Here they seemed to be Turks where as in Greece they all seemed to be gypsies or North Africans.

Istanbul is quite clean for such a big city. There is not much trash lying around. There are people who pick up trash and you see them dragging huge containers of trash that are constructed of fabric on a PVC frame built around a hand truck. They stuff them as full as possible. It is amazing how much they can fit into their containers. At one place back in an alley I could see a bunch of these guys sorting out what they had collected. They seemed to be separating the metal from plastics etc.

We had some rain storms roll through and people pulled out umbrellas or put newspapers on their heads and continued on. They didn’t seem to mind the rain and luckily it never lasted too long.

We walked and rode the trolley, but not the buses this time. Turkey has a very extensive bus system around the country. Istanbul is such on old city that there are antiquities everywhere you look. People have been living here since before recorded time. I love the layers of the City. There are buildings of different styles and time periods all mixed together into a wonderful mosaic that Istanbul. If you look at older walls and buildings you can see bits and pieces of even older buildings that were used in their construction.

We walk and look until we are tired and hungry and then choose a café and sit down for a drink and a meal. One of my favorite drinks is Aryan, which is yogurt that has been mixed with water and salt. It is very tasty and refreshing. Especially on a hot day. You almost never see pork on a menu. Though one place that caters to Enlish and German tourists had swine frankfurters on the menu. They have wonderful lamb, beef and eggplant dishes. Also fresh grilled fish.

When the evening comes you see some Turks having alcohol with a meal but mostly after dinner. They make a tasty beer Efes (Ephesus) which comes as a pilsner or a dark. I prefer the pilsner. If they are going to drink hard liquor it will be Raki which is anise flavored like licorice and very strong. It is served like greek ouzo with a glass of water which is dripped into the raki which turns milky. When you have diluted it to your satisfaction it is then sipped. All is quiet save the low rumble of a large sleeping city. Turks as a rule don’t really drink to excess so Turkish cities are pretty quiet at night. Sometimes you hear some roosters giving their last calls as the last light falls away. At about 9:45 at night you hear the evening call to prayer and soon after Istanbul sleeps. As much as any major city ever sleeps. So I read a few sentences and drift off. Good night!