We took a taxi to their house, noticing the dogs and cats roaming the streets (as if squirrels or rodents). Istanbul is full of stray animals and the city and its inhabitants takes care of them (instead of sending them to shelters). Their home was just a one-bedroom apartment inside a shared house, but they used the space extremely efficiently. It contained a futon, a bed, and an extra mattress - fitting exactly five people. The boys were fully prepared with sheets, pillows, towels, and a "guest-first" policy - we told them their mother raised them well. (They are Rotary Club members! Yes, they have that in Turkey! They also, hilariously, owned an American Janet Evanovich book, which is part of a literary series aimed at teenage girls. Apparently, while in New Jersey one summer, Baha thought it would be a great way to brush up on his English - obviously having no idea that he would later host three American girls who would tease him about this particular literary selection. =) ) They also invited us to everything that was in their refrigerator, assuming that we had already peered inside. This is one of the things I love about Mediterranean/Eastern European culture: a "what is yours, is mine" mantra, something that would never happen in many American homes. The house was situated on the side of a hill overlooking the city, water, and highway. Istanbul's hills, ports, and bridges reminded me a lot of San Francisco, and its crazy, laneless traffic reminded me of Athens.
The boys immediately took us for traditional Turkish fare at a local university restaurant called the Wonderlands. The food was comprised of spicy meats, vegetables, and bread soaked with sauce: delicious. During the trip, we had tried to pinpoint "exactly" what "Turkish food" was The boys could not tell us, pointing to a variety of varying fare. We finally realized that this would become a metaphor for Istanbul itself, a conglomeration of East and West, conservative and trendy, European and Asian: burka-wearing women walked alongside liberal European-esque college students who had just returned from a night of partying. Indeed, as the boys repeatedly tried to impress upon us, Istanbul escapes pat, cognizable categories, and can best be described by its unwillingness to bow to any one culture or religion. After all,as as Tolga boasted as we toured around Istanbul later that weekend, Americans looked to the old Ottoman Empire as an example of how to keep together an empire comprised of myriad divergent cultures for hundreds of years, with minimal strife.
After dinner, we walked through the Bogazici University campus, which looked exactly like an historical, East-Coast American University. Apparently it was founded by an American in the 1800s and was dedicated to English-speaking higher education. Finally, we walked through Bebek (meaning "baby"), a wealthy Istanbul enclave overlooking the water, past docked boats, little shops and ended up, of all places, at Starbucks! This has to have been the most well-placed Starbucks I had ever seen: its interiors were standard, but it had an adjoining back deck that overlooked the Bosphorus, the strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. I have to say that, given my penchant for studying at Starbucks, if I had were an Istanbul-ite, my grades would be off-the-charts!
No comments:
Post a Comment