European Turkey

Two weekends ago, now, I had an extra-long weekend because of Turkey's Children's Day celebrations. My normal 3-day weekend got stretched to 4-days, and with these 4-days I did some valuable exploring in Yalova's surrounding villages and in some of Turkey's  European destinations.

My weekend began on a good note because immediately after work on Thursday, I went with Megan and Imge to see the Hunger Games. It was good--not as good or addictive as the books, but I love seeing movies in the theater, especially when we get to eat smuggled-in snacks! Contraband Haribo gummies are even more delicious than normal ones.  After the movie, the three of us did some shopping in Ozdelik (a former chain towel store which has graduated into being one of Turkey's few department store equivalents) and then met up with Margot and Oguzhan at Cafe the Kaizen for dinner. Megan came and spent the night at home with us because we'd been planning to go hike around Termal on Friday, to see the rumored thermal waterfalls there.  We never made it, though, because the weather was a bit threatening and we opted to go shopping downtown instead, and later go on a little nature hike in/around Semanli--the village where Megan lives.   (Now I remember, that was actually the evening when I took the kisir to Megan's house for dinner and we got the compliments from the boys on the dolmush.)

Once in Semanli, after the kisir was stored in the fridge, Megan and I went on a neighborhood nature walk.  On our walk we found berry bushes, "Garbage River," some friendly geese, cows and tezes, a few poppies, and an orchard or two. We also summited a hill with an awesome view of the city, the sea and Istanbul behind, passed a beautiful cemetery, and found some sweet pinecones and rocks. Jealous?? It was a great hike.

After dinner we watched Dreamgirls and a few episodes of "How I Met Your Mother," before falling to sleep unexpectedly late.

Megan had to work on Saturday, so after some spring cleaning, I headed to Istanbul to meet up with a few Fulbrighters who were taking  advantage of their own long-weekends by visiting the city. 

My main compatriot fir the rest of the weekend was Ali (Trabzon). She and I stuck together through the ups and downs of last-minute hostel changes, "critters" in the ceiling above where we were sleeping, long buses, unexpected carriage rides, getting lost a couple times, a funeral, and 4 a.m. kokorec (intestine) sandwiches...in other words, a Eurotrip never to be forgotten.  

Above: Ali and me posing in a cute little French cafe off Istiklal, with our coffee mugs of Efes.

Right: One of the mis-matched minarets in Edirne's Uc Serefeli mosque (Three-Balcony mosque).

Early Sunday morning, Ali and I bused to the western reaches of Turkey, to visit Edirne, Turkey's largest all-European city, and the former capital of the Ottoman Empire (1365-1453). Because of Edirne's important past, it is home to some of Turkey's most beautiful Ottoman architecture, including what many people believe are Turkey's most beautiful mosques.

Uc Serefeli is one of those, the others are Eski Camii (the Old Mosque), and (most beautiful of all) the Selimiye Mosque--Mimar Sinan's magnum opus.

Because we were visiting Edirne the day before Children's Day, we got to see some practice marches/parades through the city. This one, in the square across from Uc Serefeli (you can see its minarets), featured a marching band of maybe middle schoolers that, I'm sure, made that proud Ataturk statue even prouder.


After watching the students practice for a while and eating some corn in a cup, Ali and I went to our next mosque: Eski Camii. I really liked the Old Mosque. Its large calligraphy reminded me of Ulu Camii in Bursa, but it didn't have as much bling as the Bursa mosque--it seemed like it was more of a working mosque/community center than anything else. There were a lot of kids using it as a race track/gymnastics room, which is one of my favorite things to see. I love how even in buildings from 1403 that have chunks of the Kaaba embedded in their walls (below), Turkish children are still encouraged to have as much fun as possible.

 

 Piece of the Kaaba! Cool!! (I wonder which Hajji was bold enough to go up to the holiest site in all of Islam and knock off a chunk. It must have been an sultan-caliph, I guess.)

Our next stop, and the most anticipated point on our journey, was Selimiye mosque. Built between 1569 and 1575 by Mimar Sinan (who was the Ottoman Empire's most famous and most talented architect) this mosque is notable for several reasons.  Firstly, it is much more than a mosque. In the picture at right, Ali and I are standing in one of Selimiye's courtyards, having just finished some shopping at its bazaar.  If one of us had fallen ill, we could have gone to its hospital, or if we had suddenly discovered a new vocation (and been male) we could have studied at its medresse.  If dirty, we could have visited its hammam, or, if curious, gone to its library.

At the time, however, we were just interested in seeing the inside of Selimiye's mosque, so we waited a bit in a different inner courtyard until the prayer service was done...

Left: Going through the entrance to the inner courtyard. If that green leather door were gone, you could see all the way to the mihrab (niche facing toward Mecca/the Kaaba) from here.

 Selimiye Mosque is considered the most beautiful mosque in Turkey because of its amazing dome and its brightly lit prayer space. At 31.25 meters across, the dome of Selimiye just budges out the dome in the Aya Sofya. Sinan, though, perhaps because he was building 1000 years later, was able to build with a lot more finesse than the architects of the Aya Sofya. His dome seems to be floating above row upon row of windows. His arches are perfect, his lines unbroken.

Also, Sinan's dome is so strong that when it was hit by a Bulgarian shell in a 1913 siege, it was largely undamaged. Seeing this, Ataturk decreed that the damage should not be restored, because this would be a warning to future attackers of the perseverance or perhaps unbending strength of the Turkish Republic.

Though that's a militaristic thing to say, I don't think any visitor coming to Selimiye would think about the military while they were there.  The graceful, intricate geometrically-based calligraphy is amazing to behold. It's Iznik tiles twinkle in the sunlight, while its large, but not dominating, mihrab is visible from any space in the building. Even its Sultan Lodge (where the emperor and his besties got to do their prayer) is refined and rather beautifully unassuming. Below, looking up towards the central dome from under the Sultan's Lodge.

After we finished looking around at Selimiye, Ali and I trekked out to see Muradiye Mosque--a mosque a little further outside of town that ended up being closed, but well-worth the walk for the amazing view. (At right, Selimiye still dominates Edirne's modern skyline.)

Muradiye is an older mosque than Selimiye, but younger than Eski Camii. It is unique because it has calligraphy both inside and out, and a cemetery that goes practically right up to its doors.

 This is a little ironic because when we were winding our way through the neighborhood below Muradiye, Ali and I, who were clearly the only blonde girls who'd been wandering there in a long time, stumbled across a funeral/memorial service in action. There were tons of suited men, and many of the roma (?) locals were all waiting around on their front steps until the time when those men would bring out plates of food to them, in return for them remembering the deceased. It was a very interesting experience, and one that was totally unexpected.

For dinner, Ali and I went to a little meze place on a cool pedestrian street in the city center. We then wanted to see the river where there were supposed to be some really pretty bridges, so we hurried there. This was a bit bold to do because we had gotten lost on the way to the restaurant, and so had a very limited time until when we had to catch the service bus back to the bus station to get back to Istanbul.  Realizing our time-crunch, and wanting a carriage ride, we decided it would be a much better idea to take a fayton back to the bus stop, than to walk. It was awesome! Our driver was quick, he blasted Rhianna for us, and we got to wave cheerfully at everybody we passed on the street. What a perfect way to end a visit to Edirne!

 Monday morning, Ali, our friend Russell and I left the touristic center of Taksim for Bogazici ("Bow-wah-zeh-chi", meaning Bosphorus) University's campus--my first home in Turkey, so long ago on Term in the Middle East. It was a perfect day and the Bosphorus was looking perfect.

Bogazici's campus is so beautiful! After my visits to some of Turkey's universities, Bogazici is such a standout! Its manicured lawns, its flowering trees, its tenderly-cared-for flower gardens--they are all so beautiful. Then placed upon the backdrop of Bogazici's old, classical college buildings, it's amazing! I wish St. Olaf were so beautiful!

For Ali and me, going back to the campus was a walk through time. I remembered when Laurel stopped to pet every cat she saw, when the big TIME group went to Larson Lodge for lunch everyday, and when Colin and I were woozily wandering around the quad after fasting for 5 days in ramadan. Ali told us about some of her experiences, too, and Russell just said, "Wow! This is a pretty cool place."  We agreed.

Left: Ali and Russell walking toward the wisteria-draped staircase to Larson Lodge.

Below: View of Rumeli Hisari--the fortress built by Fatih Sultan Mehmet II in 1453, that paved the way for his successful conquest of Constantiople--from Larson Lodge. 1453! The conquest of Istanbul! Right there!!! I don't think it would ever get old if I were a student at Bogazici.

After we'd had enough reminiscing and were starting to get hungry, the three of us headed downhill from campus to Bebek. We walked up the Bosphorus to Rumeli Hisari, then back from there to Bebek's center where we finally settled on eating at a restaurant called Taps, which is a microbrewery (!!! Yes! There is one of those in Turkey!!! I'm shocked, too!) with awesome burgers and killer jalepeno poppers.  Taps also had a pretty sweet view of the strait with an excellent vantage point for people watching.  Being in Bebek was wonderful and felt so cosmopolitan.

As we watched the parade of yachts, commercial ships, families and fashionistas go by, I felt so relaxed and so happy to be with friends, exploring more parts of European Turkey. --Of course that would include beer, fashion and super-old universities, right? That's what Europe is built on, isn't it?

Too soon, it was time for Russel and I to say goodbye to Ali (for the last time in Turkey???), and to get started on our taxi-tram-ferry-dolmush-ferry-bus sojourn that took 5 hours, but eventually got us from Bebek to Yalova.  It was a great weekend with so many beautiful sights, a lot of good times, a few stressful ones, good shopping, and delicious beer. What more could a girl want from a European adventure?