Istanbul (not Constantinople)

Yes, I'm taking a long time to update the blog. Without any further ado, here's Istanbul:

I rolled into the sweeping metropolis that once served as capital to several of the world's largest empires around 7am. I was incredibly tired. I took my time getting to Sultanahmet where I intended to find a hostel, because it's hard to check in so early in the morning. So I stopped by a cafe for a breakfast of...you guessed it...yogurt (and orange juice - the combination of which, by the way, does weird, somewhat painful things in one's stomach).

After breakfast, I jumped on the tram and headed for the center of all things touristy: Sultanahmet. This neighborhood on the tip of the Golden Horn on the European side of Istanbul is home to Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace (the Sultan's Palace), the New Mosque, the ancient Roman underground Basilica Cistern, the Egyptian Spice Market, the Grand Bazaar and a TON of hostels. I chose the Sultan Hostel, a nice little place that stands in the shadows of the Blue Mosque.

I arrived around 9am and was luckily able to check in that early, whereupon I immediately jumped onto a top bunk and slipped into a much-needed several hours' slumber.

When I woke up, I decided to head out to check out the sites. It was Monday, and since Hagia Sofia is a museum, I wasn't able to go there, so I went to the Blue Mosque. It is an ENORMOUS building that was built by the Ottomans as an answer to the Christian Hagia Sofia which, at the time of construction, was the largest building in the world. This was my first time inside a mosque and it was very beautiful. I was also impressed that Turkish Muslims have chosen to allow non-Muslims to see the mosques, whereas Moroccans vehemently prohibit it. The mosque was, as I said, enormous and was filled with Turkish carpets and lights hanging from the ceiling.

After the Blue Mosque, (which by the way is called Sultanahmet and is the building from which the Sultanahment neighborhood derives its name) I headed up the street to the Grand Bazaar, which is the world's largest covered market (they seem to have an affinity in Turkey for all things "the world's largest"). I wandered around the bazaar a while taking in the atmosphere and seeing if anything perked my interests. The objects that did surprised me: pillows. And so, for the next couple hours, I wandered the bazaar examining a wide array of Arabic pillows before settling on the four which will likely adorn my bed in Boston.

Pillows? you say. Middle Eastern pillows are cool. They have cool Arabic/Middle Eastern patterns on them and are all over the place in this part of the world. Instead of couches, most people have assorted sized and shaped pillows to sit on. Even the Sultan's throne in Topkapi Palace is essentially a giant pillow covered with other pillows which were in turn covered with beautiful women who existed for the sole pleasure of the Sultan.

Enough of pillows. After that, I headed out for some food. In the interest of retaining the reader's attention, I will condense all of my Istanbul food experiences (well, most of them) into this paragraph:

Turkish food is good. I've already made clear my affinity for yogurt. Now let's talk about Turkish Delight. That stuff is amazing. And for those of you reading this who are my friends and didn't just find this blog while browsing Technorati or Blogger (although I'm glad you're here), you will get to try some of this precious succulence upon my return in early July. Turkish Delight is much light a giant "inside of a jellybean" covered in powdered sugar. It's good eatin'. Turkey is of course also famous for its kebabs. In fact, after 8 days in Turkey I am currently boycotting kebabs. A restaurant menu is essentially a list of every conceivable way of preparing a kebab. My favorite is the infamous Iskender Kebab (named for Alexander the Great - ya, I think they had trouble pronouncing his name). It is a plate covered with traditional döner kebab pita bread upon which the lamb meat is spread and then topped with two heaping scoops of fresh yogurt. Good stuff. Another common sight in Istanbul is corn sellers. They stand with little stands throughout the city and sell corn on the cob. Döner kebab stands abound (those are the ones, similar to a Greek gyro that have the kebab meat inside a pita with lettuce, onions and tomato and either a white yoghurt or red sauce). Down by the port (water taxi and ferry are common forms of public transport in Istanbul) they sell fish sandwiches - a fillet of fish stuffed into a roll with lemon juice and lettuce. Finally, I should mention the mussels. There are mussel street vendors all over. They take mussels, stuff them with rice, cook them and then sell them for pennies from street carts. They're super good too. Oh ya, and don't forget the fruit salesman that provided me my self-determined daily recommended value of cherries.

Well, now that I've departed from the chronological format that has hereto served as the foundation for this blog, and because it's been a couple weeks since I left Istanbul anyway, I think I'll just throw in all the other notable events of my 7 and a half or so days in Istanbul into the remainder of this blog entry. No wait, better yet, I'll start a new one - and I'll call it Istanbul Stew.