SPICE WORLD

I have neglected this space too long, but allow me to remedy that with a few more photos taken while in Istanbul. Yes, I know that was back in April, but there are still many good photos yet to be had.

This photo installment features our trip to the spice bazaar. Normally, I wouldn't care much about some ancient market selling spices. Quite frankly, I don't care about spices at all. But the spice bazaar also has pistachios. I really like pistachios and I lived in California for many years, and they've got great pistachios. Then I tried the nuts from Turkey. I will never be the same again. They are the best pistachios in the entire world. Overnight, I became very serious about pistachios. As a matter of fact, here's a picture of me standing outside the spice bazaar feeling very serious about pistachios.

Oh yeah, that's pretty serious.

So we go in the spice bazaar, me in search of the best pistachios on earth, Julie in search of... well... spices I guess.

And after a few minutes I must grudgingly admit the spice bazaar is pretty cool. The smells are wonderful and the colors, well...Most stores have their spices in colorful pyramids. They're just begging to have their photo taken.Twice.But perhaps the most heavily advertised product is a spice I've never heard of before: Turkish Viagra.Five times in the night? Good luck, indeed. So of course I have to buy some. But then I turn the corner and see...Aw man! Six times in the night? I've been ripped off!

Eventually we found the vendor that sold the specific type of pistachio that I deemed the best (and most vendors deemed the most expensive). They were worth every penny. Worth, perhaps, even more than ten times in the night... but that's hard to know for sure.

TURKEY RECAP: TRAFFIC TERROR

While in Istanbul, we didn't ever drive a car, and that's a good thing. But we spent a lot of our time inside motor vehicles other people were driving, be they taxis, buses, or Christina's Volvo.

I'm a person who loves a thrill ride. I've traveled all over to ride great roller coasters, and I even bungee jumped once. But Istanbul traffic? That's a bit too much.

I have seen things... things I can't even describe. But here are some of the things I have the language to describe.

I have seen people walking in between lanes on a busy freeway (they were trying to sell things).

I have seen buses literally brush back pedestrians with their side view mirrors.

I have seen a front-loader tractor pass a Volkswagen on a curve while going uphill.

Indeed, it is something of a minor miracle that the entire population doesn't die in car wrecks every day. As a novice, I wasn't prepared even to look at it through a windshield. I would try to carry on a normal conversation with Christina, and it would go a little something like this...

"So Nate and Will are almost talking, but not quite. They do this cute thing where they ON YOUR RIGHT, ON YOUR RIGHT!!! Oh, never mind. So anyway, they'll climb up on the couch and WE'RE IN ONCOMING TRAFFIC!!! THE CARS ARE COMING RIGHT TOWARDS US!!! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!! PLEASE DON'T LET ME DIE HERE!!!!"

As it turns out, everything was ok. But I really did need to take blood pressure medication if I wanted to get inside a car.

And just staying off the roads wasn't a guarantee you wouldn't be confronted by cars.

I was honked at while walking down the sidewalk by a driver who decided the sidewalk was his road.

I saw another driver honk at a pedestrian who was crossing the trolley tracks... at the trolley station... but the driver was using the tracks as his own private road.

I was brushed back by a bus and several speeding cars as I walked down a pedestrian path in Istanbul's public park.

But after a while, I did become a slightly more aggressive pedestrian. While once I scurried across the street like a squirrel trying not to get squashed under the tires of a passing bus (or using an native as a human shield), on my last day I crossed the street with confidence and pride. When a bus turned left and got inches away from me and honked, I didn't even flinch. I just looked the driver with a steely cold look that said, "deal with it." That's how cool I was (or stupid, I can't remember which).

Attempts to document the truly insane traffic didn't materialize. When things were really hairy, I was more busy offering up last prayers to any god I could think of. But I was able to shoot a few 30 second videos of us driving around in a more quiet part of town. So this is nutty, but it's a country drive compared to what the rest of the city holds.

CALLS TO PRAYER

It's been too long since I've released any Turkey stuff, so lets see if we an remedy that. This is some video we shot in Istanbul. We were walking through a park when the afternoon call to prayer happened and I really wanted to capture the audio... (what I mean is that the video is nothing special, but the audio is cool... I would love to do some field recording in that park some day)

There are mosques everywhere in Istanbul, and when the call to prayer happens, the sound echoes off the buildings and hills for miles around. The audio in the video above was taken right near Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque. You can hear calls to prayer coming from both places in the video.

This struck me as somewhat curious, because Aya Sofya isn't a mosque. It started as a Christian church, but was turned into a mosque at one point. But when the modern state of Turkey was founded, Aya Sofya became a museum. At first I didn't think they did a call to prayer, but once a saw the sound system on their minarets, I realized that they did.

So what to they say during the call to prayer at a place where you don't really pray? Julie and I were on a boat with our friend Christina on the Golden Horn when the evening call to prayer happened. So I tried to explain what they might be saying right then at Aya Sofya. Julie turned on the camera as I started...

For the record, that night on the boat is one of the most beautiful nights I have ever seen in my life. I've got tons of pictures and I'll post them in the near future.

TURKEY RECAP: U.A.S.

What is a U.A.S., you ask? Why, it's the acronym all the cool kids use for "Ubiquitous Ataturk Statue." The UAS is, well, ubiquitous in Istanbul. I can be found in parks...

In government buildings...And most other public places.I'm told Ataturk is Turkey's George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson wrapped up into one. He created the modern Turkish state and kept the place from being carved up after World War I. So naturally, the man merits a statue that looks vaguely Soviet.(This picture was taken from a moving bus, so pardon the framing.)

Sometimes the UAS must be accompanied by another feature of Istanbul, the Ubiquitous Ataturk Picture...

Sometimes hey come with profound sayings...This one is from the Istanbul train station and I believe it says something like, "How joyful it is to be a Turk." (I'm sure Christina will correct me if I'm wrong.)

You'll notice that I'm not making a lot of pithy comments about the statue or much else in Turkey. You see, it's illegal to publicly denigrate Turkishness. A Nobel Prize winning Turkish author was arrested on an Article 301 charge a few years ago. So if this guy can't avoid prosecution, what chance do I have. But I have been looking for a way to get back to Turkey in the near future... perhaps this would be the way to go about it. Hmmmmm...

TURKEY RECAP: SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION

Politics in Turkey is a strange animal. It's a Muslim nation, with a secular democracy, that is routinely overthrown by the military. The current party in power nationally and in Istanbul is "AK" Party. I understand people pronounce the party's name "ack," I prefer to call it "A-K" because I think it would be really cool if they had a campaign song that went, "It was a good day today. You voted AK today."

I could go on about how AK is a slightly religious party and how the country may undergo a judicial coup by the end of the summer, but I doubt you're interested in that.

What's interesting about the current ruling party is the non-stop self promotion campaign they've launched. They've sent glossy mailers to citizens (they weigh about a pound) touting their accomplishments.

From what I can figure out, the party has taken credit for everything from the construction of new sports stadiums to the invention of bread.But the biggest feature of the self promotion campaign involves hundreds of billboards displayed all across town. So one sunny Saturday, Christina, Julie, and I decided to go find some.Unfortunately, most of the billboards are located on freeways, and that's not a good location to get out of the car and snap pictures (although some people in Turkey clearly wouldn't have any problems doing that... more on that subject in a week or so). But we did find a billboard near an easily accessible pedestrian area...But what does it say? For that, let's turn to the U.S. State Department's Media Liaison...

Sounds good to me.

TURKEY UPDATE: LAND OF GIANT-ASS FLAGS

Say what you will about the Turks, they have a cool looking flag, and they're not afraid to show it. During our stay in Istanbul, we were in town for National Sovereignty and Children's Day. Honestly, I don't quite know what the connection is between children and sovereignty. To be honest, I feel like Julie and I have lost a great deal of sovereignty since having children, but we were not consulted before Turkey began naming their holidays. We also weren't consulted before they created this vaguely Soviet looking poster advertising the April 23rd holiday.

And while National Sovereignty and Children's Day is meant to honor the opening of the Turkish National Assembly, it might be better called "Giant-Ass Flag Day." Because, when the Turks have a holiday, they get out some giant-ass flags.Some will spruce up the giant-ass display with an Ataturk picture.Indeed, even the television stations feature a waving Turkish flag during their programming on the holiday. Some also include an Ataturk photo. The fanciest one actually had Ataturk's image waving on a separate flag. Very impressive. Also impressive are the number of buildings they can put giant-ass flags on.But some take the art to a whole new level...This was the flag hanging from a mall close to where we were staying. And that's not even the biggest one. There were several 40 story buildings that had flags that easily covered 20 floors. Alas, I didn't have my camera around when we drove past those.

Even more impressive: on April 24th, all the flags were gone.

IST-LHR-LAX-PHX

4 airports
3 airlines
6 security checks
27 hours on an airplane or in airports
10 hour time change
1 massive case of let lag

...and we're not even home yet.

CRISPO AT THE BLUE MOSQUE

I promised Thomas I would show his chocolate some of the sites of Istanbul, so I did.

That piece of Norwegian chocolate has seen a lot of the world, and it's still got a trip across Europe and North America ahead of it.

And unfortunately that journey will start much too early tomorrow morning. We'll spend a very long day hopping from Istanbul to London to Los Angeles and then to Phoenix before we drag our tired butts to bed. I'm really anxious to see Nate and Will again, but I'm not really looking forward to leaving here. This is a great city, and I'd like to spend more time here.

I'd like to go on, but it's time to start packing. I'll write more on the plane tomorrow and post it when I can. There are also many more stories and photos to share from this trip, and I'll be doing that in the days and weeks to come.

But for now, it's "so long" from Istanbul, a city I hope to return to some day.

FUNNY BUSINESS

What with the language barrier and all, I have noticed some pretty funny business names In Istanbul. Take for instance this grocery store on the western side of town.

And this dubious sounding business...I don't even want to know what those guys are selling, but it sounds, well, very naughty.* Then there's the store that sells lingerie called...And once you have store called "boob" its just a matter of time before you find the store called...They sell silver. Nice stuff actually.

*I'm told by a Turkish speaker that"Koc" (I don't know how to make the little dangling thing at the end of the "c") is pronounced "coach" as in "motor coach." That makes a lot more sense now.

DERVISHES

When you tell people you're visiting Turkey, anyone who has been there will invariably say, "You must see the whirling dervishes." At which point I tell a joke about Maria Von Trapp and the whole conversation gets sidetracked.

(So here's the thing, in the Sound of Music tune "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria" some nun claims that Maria could "Throw a whirling dervish out of whirl." So it seems like the dervishes would not want Maria anywhere around. They probably post her picture up at the performance hall just to insure she doesn't make it in, because that woman simply can't be allowed to disrupt the performance that way. Too obscure?)

I'm sorry, where was I? Oh yes, the point is that we did go see the whirling dervishes, and they really are a sight to behold. The performance starts with a short concert.

Followed by the entrance of the dervishes in a room with very poor lighting.Then, after some walking and bowing, they start spinning...Their outfits are designed to symbolize the death of ego. The hats represent tombstones.And the white cloaks represent shrouds.They spin with one hand up and the other facing down, meaning "From God we receive,and to man we give: we keep nothing to ourselves."They spin four different times for about 8 minutes. Each spin cycle (I'm not trying to be funny with that, I really couldn't think of a better term) is designed to take the dervish from the cares of earthly life into a realm of non-existence where the dervish is one with God.It is beautiful and hypnotic and it is really easy to get carried away taking pictures of the performance. But after an hour, it's over. The dervishes bow once more.And then they leave. It's such a meditative experience, the audience seemed unsure whether to applaud when they left. Eventually we collectively decided that some applause was in order just as they were walking out the door.

The performance was one of the highlights of the trip so far, and if you're in Istanbul, well, you really must see the whirling dervishes. Until then, may I offer you a short one minute excerpt of the performance. Enjoy.

BLOGGING FOR THE MAN, PART 2

Today I wrote I piece for my employer's website about television news in Istanbul. You can check it out here.

ISTANBUL: 911

Istanbul's police force comes in many varieties.
But the motorcycle cops have perhaps the best outfits.But the logo... well... that's a little less macho.Why a dolphin? I have no idea. I'm told the Bosporus has dolphins in it, but that still doesn't make sense. You can't patrol the river on a motorcycle, nor can a dolphin ride a motorcycle. Indeed, this may just be one of those things a foreigner can never understand.

AYA SOFYA

On day one in Istanbul, we did what any self respecting tourist would do: we got our butts down to Sultanahmet and took the obligatory self photo.My facial expression is an attempt to convey the gravity of our arrival in the old Ottoman empire. After the quick snap, we did the other obligatory thing, we checked out Aya Sofya.While the basilica dating back to the 5th century is relatively unadorned on the outside, many people consider the inside to be the most beautiful interior space in the world.But a giant hunk of scaffolding in the middle currently ruins all sight lines in any photo you take.But despite that distraction, it really is a pretty spectacular place full of mosaics......and some really cool stained glass.And while the scaffolding was annoying, it's part of a major restoration project, so let's give it up for the scaffolding.

We spent our evening watching a sound and dance spectacular based on the Trojan War. It was performed by a dance troupe that is roughly the Turkish equivalent to the Lord of the Dance posse. The war seemed a curious choice for the troupe as the Greeks seemed to get the best of the Turks in that whole episode. But some revisionist history took care of that, and the performance was able to continue without any problem.

Our arrival at the venue underscored how nice it is to be hosted by an employee of the U.S. State Department when traveling (yea Christina!). When we arrived, Christina gave her name to someone holding a clipboard who snapped to attention handed us off to a person wearing a black suit. We were promptly led down a closed corridor and directly to our seats... in the front row... directly in the center. Yes, it's nice to be mistaken for someone important. The third richest man in Turkey was in the front row, too. Our seats were better.