On Friday, we took a ferry to the Princes’ Islands, visiting the largest, known as Büyükada, or Grand Island. There are no cars on the island, so we were temporarily free from the dangers of Istanbul traffic. The main attractions are little shops and restaurants and the amazing views. We toured the island in a horse-drawn carriage, which brought us up a hill from which there are sprawling views of the water, the coast, and even Istanbul an hour and a half away.
That evening, Tay’s cousins and their wives took us out to dinner in Taksim, one of the young and modern areas of the city. We went to a restaurant that serves small pieces of meat on skewers; you wrap a very thin, crèpe-like pieces of bread around them with one hand and use the other hand to pull out the skewer. Then you add toppings from a variety of options on the table, such as greens, diced tomatoes with pomegranate juice, an onions, fold it up, and eat it. Afterwards we went back to one couple’s apartment for wine, çay, fruit, and nuts. Unfortunately, my cold had progressed, and it’s hard to keep with five people speaking Turkish, only a few of whom are able to translate for me, so I was completely wiped out by the time we got home… after 3am.
Obviously no alarm was set for the following morning, and we spent the afternoon strolling around and checking out some stores in the old part of the city, near the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. We found a store completely dedicated to Tay’s favorite soccer – sorry, football, as everyone here reminds me – team, so he is coming home with a very sharp-looking jersey. We enjoyed lunch at an outdoor café, and the food must have fueled my brain, because when I greeted a salesperson in the next store we visited, he asked if I was Turkish! I had to admit that I am not, but I was able to explain (in Turkish) that my husband is. This put a big proud smile on my face. :)
Outside, we heard music and stumbled upon a concert by a traditional military band for the national holiday celebrating some aspect of the formation of the Turkish Republic.
Then we continued our meandering, stopping to purchase fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice by the side of the road and some much-needed decongestant at a pharmacy, and eventually met up with Tay’s friend from college who lives here. He has season tickets to one of Istanbul’s main soccer (I mean football) teams, Galatasaray, and had offered to bring us to a game. We had been disappointed that Tay’s team, Beşiktaş, had games scheduled for one day before our arrival and after our departure, but he likes this team as well, and it would be a fun opportunity for me to experience a European football match.
I had a great time – when I told Tay how much fun I was having, his eyes lit up like he’d won the lottery :) - mostly because the fans are hilarious. They come all decked out with their team’s jerseys, jackets, and scarves. I never understood what the scarves were for, but they swing them around over their heads. Right from the start, entire sections were cheering and chanting together, jumping up and down in sync. The funniest part, though, was that with every call against their team, the fans all made the exact same hand motion (arm sticking straight out at about 45 degrees from the front of the body, with the hand out like Hey, come on!) and shouted the same things (not that I knew what they were saying). It’s exactly what I see Tay do whenever he watches a game on TV; now I know that he’s not crazy, he’s just a typical Turkish fan.
Today we did some last strolling and shopping, then took a ferry across the Bosphorous to Asya (Asia, as you probably guessed). Many Turks live on the Asian side and commute to Avrupa to work. The ferry only took about 15 minutes, and two bridges also connect the two parts of the city. There, we met Sumru, a friend of Tay’s from our Boston days; she’s an ophthalmologist who did a uveitis fellowship at the practice where he worked. She and her husband are incredibly sweet people, and took us to a fish restaurant right on the water. I tried a number of different foods (some of which I might not have tried had they told me what it was first, such as sheep’s liver) and different ways of eating them (one small fish can be eaten whole, except for the tail; you can swallow the bones). Another type of fish – shield fish, which was my favorite – is only caught during a certain season, and Turkish fishermen apparently cross into Russian waters to catch it. If they are found doing this, they can be jailed for 6 months, yet they still go back and do it again the next year because the fish is so good. Being the incredibly thoughtful person that she is, Sumru had bought us the special kind of tea kettle needed to brew the Turkish çay that I love, as well as another set of tea cups and spoons, so now we are coming home with everything we need – plus extras – to make çay. I hope you are all ready to try some the next time you come over!
You can imagine the challenge posed by packing up all of our goodies in preparation for tomorrow’s flight. We wish we could stay longer; I feel very acclimated to the city and am able to learn bits of the language pretty quickly and Tay feels a great sense of belonging with the people here. (The other day, he had to leave a message for his cousin, and when he gave his name, the person taking the message just wrote it down, spelled correctly, with no quizzical look or questions asked. How often do you think that happens to him at home?) Tomorrow we will say goodbye to Istanbul, but only for now. I’ll leave you with one more shot of the unmistakable skyline:
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