OK, OK-- I know there has been an overwhelming overload of pictures. Feel free to scroll quickly. This is the last batch.
More mosque-ing.
Area to wash before prayer.
Istanbul city property.
Sanford thinks he's sultan.
We were walking on the street, Sanford in the middle between Hellen and me. A Turkish man called out to Sanford, "Are you the sultan?" to which he replied a rather irritatingly firm, "YESSSS."
Istanbul streets are beautiful.
Does anyone know what the hell this flat, pimply fish is??
It looks like a measles-infected flounder.
Sanford wanted to take my picture with the monkfish.
Apparently you only eat the tail.
These men were shooting a BB gun at a row of balloons. They didn't make a single hit. When I first saw them, I was confused and said, "That seems like a really inefficient way to fish..."
This cat adopted Sanford.
Interesting squatting technique. Those Turks...
Oh look! Another mosque!
Sanford: Hey look, a bunch of pansies.
I quickly swivel, looking for awkward-looking people.
Chickens in the park.
Gigantic aqueduct.
Fishing on the Golden Horn. There were hundreds of people out lining both banks of the river and both sides of the bridge. And all for a bunch of little sardines.
Climbing up to Galata Tower.
Cutest alleys.
Galata Tower.
Sanford and I did a grand tea tour of Istanbul on Sunday.
(Hellen, Tim, and Gretchen left on the 2pm flight, while we held out for the 11pm flight).
This was our tea stop at Galata Tower.
There were only 2 tables in the entire cafe.
Back in Taksim.
Church in Taksim.
This is one of the moments where I most acutely understood that we were in a 99.8% (actual statistic!) Muslim country. The Muslim visitors were taking pictures all over the place-- posing in groups in front of religious statues and the altar-- and giggling in the pews. I guess that's what it looks like when we go to mosques.
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Istanbul is an amazing city. It simultaneously has an atmosphere of antiquity and exploding modernity, while being the only city in the world to rest on two continents. The distinct influences are apparent in the architecture and atmosphere of the two sides. Turkey is an incredibly expansive, diverse country, and Istanbul was only a speck of what the country has to offer. It was my first experience in an urban setting of such an overwhelmingly Muslim country (we stayed in the deserts in Jordan), and, while Turkey remains a secular state, the conservatism of the culture was very apparent. Even in the metropolis of Istanbul, with a population of over 10 million, the streets and cafes were dominated by males. Often, we'd be in a crowded intersection, and Hellen and I would be two of maybe five females within sight. When I asked a shopkeeper in Sultanhamet (the area that houses the major sights-- Blue Mosque, Grand Bazaar, Hagia Sofya) where all the women were, he responded, "What reason do they have to be here? They've seen the Blue Mosque before. If you go to other areas, you will see the women out shopping, walking." It's true that there were many more women out in Taksim, but still the male:female ratio was always starkly disproportionate. The same shopkeeper argued that the none of the Turkish people besides government officials wanted Turkey to join the European Union, because Turkish culture is so distinct from European culture. When asked to elaborate, he explained that Turks have different values-- for example, Europeans today marry late or do not marry anymore-- they just live together-- or they are homosexuals. He went off on an oratory about how homosexuality was not acceptable, and somehow came around to the argument that the United States will collapse within the next 50 years because too many Americans are gay or not not producing childre-- the loss in human potential being the eventual cause of our demise. With that said, the majority of the Turkish people we met were very warm and friendly, and they seem to love Asians. Many people explained to me that Turkey and Korea have strong relations, and that Koreans are very welcome visitors in their country. I was asked for my picture, my e-mail address, if I was a "photograph model," and one of the bellboys at our hotel asked to accompany us to the Tram station because he was on the way to the pharmacy anyways, even after we gave him a really shitty tip because we ran out of money. It's interesting what a different experience it is to stand out as an East Asian (not apparently) American in Middle Eastern countries from standing out as Asian (also not always apparently) American in America. Obviously, people stare at you a lot here, but there the looks are generally very non-threatening and non-lecherous (exceptions always exist, of course-- there are assholes everywhere). This is not to say that I feel threatened or preyed upon in the States, but I feel that while American society is more diverse, it is more acceptable to stand out as Asian here. I could be wrong, though-- I'll continue to test this hypothesis throughout the course of the year.
As usual, on a completely unrelated note-- if anyone has any Coldplay, Snowpatrol, or similar genre music, could you send it my way? I've listened to "Fix You" 104 times in less than 2 weeks, and I need to expand my music-listening repertoire.
This image seems inherently contradictory.
