Istanbul

Istanbul
OMG.

As always, we’ve been getting around on a bit of local transport. Trams are the big thing here. They run every five minutes through the city. People crammed into every single one, chokka blok – sardines doesn’t even begin to cover it. Twenty million people in Istanbul….unbelievable…..a bit of culture shock going on!!!

The city is split by the Bosphorus channel, one side of the city is in Europe, the other in Asia. There is a huge bridge across the channel, or it’s about 20mins by Ferry….and costs 1.30 lira, lira having about the same value as the NZ dollar. Ferries also run every half hour or so and are crowded as.

Istanbul is very beautiful and very hard. Very big, very crowded, very poor.........and someone from every shop out on the street trying to reel you in and get you to buy something, and they look so offended and wounded when you don't.

Daren't stop and look at anything that takes your fancy or you find yourself ensnared.
It’s hard, because you know they have a tough life, but at the same time you get really sick of it and it’s pretty exhausting.

We looked at a mosque yesterday and this guy started talking to us in english and suddenly we had a guide. He was actually really good...knew his stuff and we learned lots more than we would've wandering about on our own. He told us he had a job three days a week as a history teacher at a college and spent two days a week being a guide.......for which he was paid a retainer by the mosque, of about nz$50 per month - and he made about nz$300 a mth for teaching job. He said $250 to $350 per mth was pretty standard income......and things here are not all that cheap...maybe a little less than nz, but given the equivalency of our currency with Turkish Lira, the buying power of the average Turk is pretty minimal....which is why the shopkeepers are so pushy with us tourists. Their monthly income is about 10 to 15 percent of ours, yet they pay similar prices for things as we do.

On the street, there are about 15 men to every woman. The women are either in full muslim get out (burka) - or headscarf and long coat (quite stylie) - or normal dress with headscarf - or normal dress. Quite a range, and not unusual to see family groups which incorporate the full spectrum, i.e. one of each.

Also on the street, many stray cats and dogs. The cats prowling about and being fed by locals or eating scraps from the mountains of rubbish (which seems to be cleared every day) and the dogs, very placid, just sleeping in the sun. We were told that the dogs were registered to the city of Istanbul. Not sure if that's true!

We went to see the whirling dervishes last night - it's a branch of Sufi-ism which seems to have lots of similarities with buddhism - death of the ego, unifying with the oneness of Spirit..all that mystical eastern stuff. And who could blame them, life is pretty tough here and you'd have to believe in something.

The ceremony involved chanting, music and twirling. Impressive to watch - tho' the insane french couple next to us, having some kind of hissed french argument were slightly distracting!

We actually ended up moving and went and stood at the back!!

Today (Saturday) we joined our tour and went to the Blue mosque, the Sofia and the Sultan’s palace. Very different being part of a tour and seeing only the beautiful places…and they are absolutely stunningly beautiful, probably more so than anywhere else we’ve been so far. Lots of photos of these places, but not down-loaded yet, so will no doubt bore everyone with those later. It's also great to have the info from the guide, who is very knowledgable about all the sites, the history etc.

Tomorrow we head off down the coast with the tour, which is all Aussies apart from us!!