Turkiye (pt 1)
What a beautiful world we live in!!! Türkiye has mountains?!
Perhaps this is something I should have known prior, but imagine my delight when I land in a country I assumed was more desert than topographical, and am greeted with a staggering, mountainous view. Alas, the benefits of traveling un-researched.
Istanbul
No mountains in Istanbul, but here’s what it did have:
mosques everywhere
the call to prayer starting at 4:57am
kebabs
street cats
bazars
an absurd amount of flags
Istanbul is a very busy city, locals and tourists alike. The food was quite yummy. I, predictably, found one meal I liked and revolved my entire diet around it. Urfa kebab!!!!! What is urfa???? Nobody knows!! Aside from kebab stands, there are mosques everywhere, some massive, some as small as a skinny tower it seems. Upon a shameful google search of “skinny tower mosque”, I realize these are “minarets”, used to project the call to prayer. It was an eerie sound at first, because to me it sounded like an emergency alarm system. I grew to like it, though! It plays 5 times a day, and by the end, I found it to be a unique reminder that religious freedom truly is a privilege in Canada.
Istanbul also has a huge stray cat problem. Stray animal problem, in general, there were quite a few scraggly dogs wandering around as well. I get it, they’re fed well. There’s bowls of cat food outside practically every shop. No wonder they populate. If I could roam free, be fed at every junction, and be pet?! Heck yeah I’d lay down some roots.
We went to a grand bazar, which was probably the size of my entire neighbourhood back home. There was a spice corridor, a jewellery corridor, souvenirs, chess boards, head scarves, you name it. Just tented mazes of avenues, each with its own obnoxious variety of vendors yelling, “for you my friend! good price my friend!”. Türkiye is also extremely patriotic. That, or very controlling politically. I’m tempted to guess the latter. The streets are lined with flags, both the national flag and Mustafa Ataturk flags.
We visited the Hagia Sofia. My first mosque! I liked this site more than the sites I saw in Paris, because it wasn’t as restored or tourist-y. Locals still use the Hagia Sofia to pray everyday. Tourists can only walk around the upper ring. It was crumbling apart in places too, which made me like it even more, because I could better appreciate its architecture and age. This was the oldest building I’ve stepped into, and it showed. It was completed in the year 0537! Sarah and I had to wear a hijab, and everybody had to have their shoulders and knees covered. For other mosques we entered, like the Blue Mosque, we also had to be barefoot. This was difficult, as I do not like feet, but as my dad always says, “if that’s your biggest problem right now, life is pretty damn good!”.
Antalya
We, (the women), decided to leave it up to the men to book us a rental car for our road trip across Türkiye. Terrible, terrible mistake. Never leave anything to men. I never did think I’d step foot in the Tartan Prancer.. they rented a Fiat Doblo, in the colour army green, with a CAGE in the back. This is the most suspicious looking vehicle one could rent in a foreign, authoritarian country. We got pulled over for police checks thrice on our drive to Antalya. Nothing screams “welcome!” like an AK47.. or four. We drove right across Türkiye, from the north to the south. Haphazard speed limits, muslim farm towns, and a frighteningly large armed police presence.. everywhere, it seems? We stopped for lunch at an old couples’ farm. They had a faded “restaurant” sign out front, but it turns out it was their home, where they had set up plastic patio tables in their backyard and served customers their local produce. We were eating chicken and eggs.. as the chickens and eggs ran around us in the yard. The surviving chickens, that is. A vegan’s nightmare. The food was among the best I’ve had here, though. The wife takes your order and the husband is inside their personal kitchen cooking it all up. I had the best melon of my life. We could also reach above us and pick grapes off a vine. I felt less guilty eating the fruit because fruit didn’t squawk in your face as you bite into their friend. Perhaps it is I who is the vegan’s nightmare.
In total, we spent 3 days in Antalya. This town really charmed me. This was the mountain town. Apparently it’s a huge tourist destination, but it felt empty! I guess the fall drop-off has already started. We went to the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen. A resort-blue sea paired with a rugged mountain range. We also hiked up to the old city of Termessos. Equally as jaw-dropping. Termessos was an ancient city, now reduced to ruins. You hike around a few kilometres of ruins, the main attraction being the old theatre. Nothing was protected, which was shocking. You could walk freely all up and down these structures. THIS now becomes the oldest thing I’ve walked into (or on top of.. which feels disrespectful). Apparently this city is around 2,700 years old. Dating back to some time before 300 BC. Some stones still had petroglyphs carved into them. Apparently it crumbled with an earthquake, destroying its aqueduct, and was therefore abandoned. The road up is a steep, winding, switch-back road that our tank of a car, who we lovingly named “Marge”, handled turbulently.
Our third, and final town, is Cappadocia. I wrote all about it in my next blog post (Turkiye pt 2)!
All my Turkiye photos are uploaded to my album, peruse at your leisure:
