Turkey

My visit to Turkey was one of the most memorable of my time overseas. My first time in a Muslim country as well as the continent of Asia (although the peninsula of Turkey is known as Asia minor). This is the land of the ancient Trojans, of Mount Ararat from Genesis, the homeland of Jacob and Esau, of the early Christians and apostles--Paul, John the Evangelist, Luke; it is a land of sultans, hookah, Turkish Delight, the Orient Express, the Silk Road, and Byzantium. Our word for "meander" comes from the winding Meandros river; the tomb of King Mausolos is the origin for "mausoleum." The Anatolian peninsula, Turkey's geographical name, came from the word for mother-goddesses, and places such as Ephesus was the home of the famed Amazons. The musical terms "Ionian" "Lydian" "Dorian" "Phrygian" and other modal names originate in the provinces of Anatolia. Turkey exports the finest silk, dried apricots, tea, wool, and coffee. Turkey invented coffee, and when the Ottoman Turks invaded Vienna, the Viennese adopted the drink and introduced it to the rest of Europe. When the Viennese drove out the Turks, inspired by the moon symbols on the Turkish flag, they invented a crescent-shaped pastry to celebrate the victory--the croissant.

Thus, a visit to this culturally and historically dense land left me only wanting more. I spent three days soaking in just a tiny fragment of all that this place has to offer:

Our flight from Rome to Istanbul on Turkish airlines was a fun experience. On a mere 2 hour flight they served us a really tasty lunch; the music when we entered the plane was something akin to "arabian nights." All of our eyes lit up, and for the rest of the trip, the girls would frequently break out into songs from Disney's Aladdin. When we landed in Istanbul, I received a Turkish visa to stick in my passport as well as a neat stamp. We then took a short flight to Izmir, then boarded a boat to Kuşadası, a resort town where we would spend the night. The town was situated in a little cove overlooking the Aegean Sea. A fat golden moon rose over the horizon as we made our way to the hotel. The next morning, we had a very Turkish breakfast of tea, bread, feta cheese, olives, and sweetened sour cherry jam. We were going to visit the two locations of the town of Ephesus, situated on a ridge surrounding a flat plain that had once been the Aegean Sea. Now several miles away, the Aegean used to lap up to the docks of Ephesus, but since then the river has silted the land and created a wide delta. The first location was where we would find the remains of the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Nearly all of the marble was carted away to create the Basilica of St. John by the Byzantines, but a few columns have been reconstructed to give an idea of the scope of the temple. The temple to Artemis is an indicator of the peoples who first occupied Ephesus--the Amazons, worshipers of mother-goddesses. In fact, Ephesus' name comes from an Amazon queen.

As I was snapping some photos of the temple, my classmates and I noticed a small herd of sheep grazing on a hill above the temple. Abandoning the historically significant ruins of an ancient wonder, we excitedly took photos of the baby lambs instead, until the annoyed mothers herded the little ones down the hill.

Our next stop was the second location of Ephesus, the city where Paul lived, worked, and preached, where John the Evangelist brought Mary to live out the rest of her days, and where the Emperor Ceslus built the third-largest library of the ancient world. The highlight of the visit, besides all the friendly cats, was seeing the Odeion theater from Acts 19, the only Roman theater mentioned in the New Testament. This massive open-air theater is carved into a cliff and sat up to 25,000 spectators, and was a place where gladiators fought, speeches were given, plays performed, and other public events held. It was chilling to stand on the very stones were Paul was the subject of a riot by the silversmiths of Ephesus, who were being put out of the business of idol-making due to Paul's evangelizing.

In the old location of Ephesus, the Basilica of St. John stands as a monument to the very place where John the Evangelist wrote and died. Built by the Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora, the Basilica is in ruins due to an earthquake, but still contains some precious frescoes and an old baptistery. Built with two exits and a central font, the person to be baptized would enter from the West, symbolizing pagan Rome, and after baptism, would exit to the East, symbolizing sunrise and the New Jerusalem. There is a marble plaque near the high alter marking the tomb of St. John, who wrote his Revelation while in exile on the nearby island of Patmos. Sadly, his remains were removed in the Crusades and now sit in some unknown reliquary in Christendom. While we were in the Basilica, a group of Korean tourists sat down and had a worship service. They sang some of the old Church of Christ tunes, including "It is well with my soul." Though I don't know if they were in fact Church of Christ, seeing and hearing these believers from so far away in the land of the New Testament was an experience I won't soon forget.

We capped off a day with a visit to an archaeological museum with relics from Ephesus, then went to a Turkish rug-making business. Turkey is known for having some of the world's finest silk due to its white mulberry trees (white mulberries help the silkworms make extremely white silk), and is famous for its silk carpets. After seeing how silk is extracted, we were shown how the rugs are knotted on a loom and served Turkish apple tea. After the demonstration, the owner had rug after rug rolled out onto the floor for us to kneel/roll/lay/step on to admire the craftsmanship. Apparently, a rug's value is not only determined by its make and material, but also how used it its; the more used = more valuable, so the owner was all too happy for us to lay on them. The silk rugs, which can be up to a hundred or more thousand dollars in value, were some of the most beautiful objects I've ever seen/felt. Incredibly intricate, the tightly knotted silk fibers change shade depending on how the rug hits the light, thus a bright apple red can turn into the deepest garnet when the rug is turned upside down.

After the rug shop we visited a tile factory, where my mouth watered at some gorgeous blue ceramics, and then we loaded up the bus to return to the Izmir airport to fly back to Istanbul. We boarded another bus in Istanbul and drove to our hotel in the historical district on the European side. Istanbul is a city famed for spanning two continents, Asia and Europe being divided by the Bosphorous strait. Our hotel sat on a hill over the Golden Horn, which is the wide harbor before the strait begins, and had an amazing view of the Topkapi Palace and Blue Mosque lit up by floodlights at night. My hotel room came with some great complimentary items, and on the top shelf of the wardrobe I found a prayer rug, you know, in case I was a good devout Muslim and needed to pray while on vacation.

The next morning our bus took us to the church of the Holy Savior of Chora to admire some Byzantine mosaics. Like most Byzantine churches in Turkey, when the Turks invaded, it was converted into a mosque, the mosaics plastered over and a minaret and prayer niche added to indicate the direction of Mecca. Now, the Church is a museum and the mosaics have been restored.

We also visited the Hippodrome, now a park, which was once the Roman arena where chariot races were held. Nothing of it remains today except for a tall granite Egyptian obelisk, but many famous statues were once here, including the four bronze horses that now sit in St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. These horses date back to the time of Alexander the Great, and were taken from Constantinople to Venice, then were removed to France by Napoleon, then returned to Venice.

The Hippodrome sits right by the Blue Mosque, which was our next visit. The mosque was easily more impressive than any church I have ever visited, with its blue slate domes stacked one on top of the other, golden spires rising from the massive top dome and the famed six minarets. It was incredibly elegant, a feat of Muslim architecture. I had to take off my shoes upon entering the mosque, and my feet sank into soft carpet as I craned my neck, looking up at the amazing intricate tile work and frescoes of vines, leaves, and flowers, decorating the ceiling and walls. Low-hung candelabras with glass globes of light gave the whole place a very ethereal glow.

We next saw the Hagia Sophia, the Byzantine church-turned-mosque-turned-museum. Besides the gorgeous domed architecture and marble craftsmanship, the Hagia Sophia was mostly a bizarre mix of Byzantine Christian and Muslim iconography. While inside, Tommy and Jaclynn devised a plan to grab attention--typical. These two are merely good friends and partners in crime, but would be a cute couple if they actually were together; both are blond and possess a preppy fashion sense. Inspired by a marriage proposal in the Uffizi that grabbed the attention of everyone in the Botticelli room, they decided to fake a marriage proposal in the Hagia Sophia. We were all informed of this plan, but were going to act as if it were a surprise. In front of the former high altar, Tommy gave Jaclynn a cheesy romantic smile, knelt in front of her, and proposed marriage. Jaclynn, suppressing giggles (which worked because it looked like she was emotional) said yes, then Tommy kissed her cheek and they shared a hug--but by this time, were aware that their plan was foiled, because the other tourists paid them little attention. They merely turned around to see what was going on, shrugged, then continued taking pictures. Oh well, it made a good video.

Our visit that afternoon took us to the Topkapi Palace, where the Ottoman sultans ruled their empire in fabulous luxury. Everything was marble, lapis lazuli, gilt, and silk rugs. We toured the Harem, marveling at the opulence in which the concubines and wives lived. It was like stepping into the palace from Aladdin. The windows were shaped into arabic arches, and low couches, glittering crystal, and intricate designs were everywhere. Every room had a fountain; when water flowed through the copper taps, it would create white noise so that the sultan and his favorite could converse unheard. We learned that the Sultan's mother would have a personal gossip reporter. With so many women in one area with little male interaction, all of them sleeping with one man, the gossip would have been off the scale compared to our soap operas. We also toured an exhibit with examples from the sultan's treasury. I have never seen so many rubies, diamonds, and emeralds plastered onto things. There was a gilt box full of hundreds of emeralds, as well as an 86 carat diamond. We saw a suit of Turkish armor that was solid gold and stuck with so many jewels that I imagine the wearer would be barely able to move.

Our bus then dropped us off at the famed Grand Bazaar. This covered shopping extravaganza covers 65 streets and has over 3300 shops, all of them selling the best counterfeit designer bags I have ever seen, brass oil lamps, ceramics, silk and cashmere scarves, leather jackets, silver jewelry, perfumes, and other items from the Orient. It is a disorienting maze of shops, all the streets branching off from the wide golden road, which is lined with jewelery shops. The colors drip from the walls in the form of beaded strings, frescoed arches, lamps with colored glass panels, and Turkish flags. I had a mere hour and a half to explore this maze and haggle with the very pushy shop owners. They were full of phrases to shout at as I walked past them (all of the shop owners were men). I was the recipient of such slogans from the mild persistent "Excuse me? Lady?" to "Buy one get me free!" or "Oh, can I have your eyes?" (Turkish people like blue eyes A LOT) "Oh, hello, spice girls?" or "Hello, angel, come see Louis Vitton?" to "How about a date, can I have your number?" I literally heard these phrases hundreds of times, simply because each and every shop owner stands outside their shop and shouts these, and there are hundreds of shops.

Exhausted from the long day of sightseeing, many of us had signed up to have a Turkish bath. These bathhouses were once centers of socializing for the couped-up Muslim women and business talk for Muslin men. Since the Muslim faith demands great cleanliness from its believers before entering mosque, the baths were significant religiously. Turkish baths also became extremely popular in England during the Victorian era. Nowadays, it is a spa-like atmosphere and a great way to draw out the toxins in your skin. We were separated by gender into the bathhouses, and given keys to lockers to deposit our clothes as well as a large cloth sarong. The girls were nervous, since Turkish baths are traditionally done nude (well, it is a bath). I won't say here what I did, but most of our girls went topless, a few completely au natural. The necessity for this was explained when we entered the steam room. A large heated marble slab took up most of the circular room, and on top of it lay women either warming themselves or being scrubbed down by a big Turkish woman. She first used a rough cloth to buff away the dead skin, then used a net to lather up a huge ball of suds from olive soap, then poured them over you and rubbed you down. Then, there are little alcoves off the main room where small shallow fountains are filled with taps of cold and hot water. You dip water out with a tin bowl and wash off the suds, then the bath ladies wash your hair, dumping more water all over you. There is no actual washing in a bath tub or pool like a Roman bath. It was so refreshing to be pampered and cleaned in a such a manner, and all of us girls had some quality bonding time.

Our last day in Turkey began with a visit to the Egyptian Spice Bazaar. This market is much smaller than the Grand Bazaar, and features shops selling spices from all over the Orient, including precious Iranian saffron. There are all kinds of teas, herbs, essential oils, dried fruits, and nuts. Turkey is the main exporter of hazelnuts. The spices are piled into miniature mountains of yellow, rusty orange, dull green, black, and deep crimson. Cubes of sugary Turkish Delight, or lokum, are stacked in front of sweet shops along with boxes of apple tea and homeopathic cures. Gleaming hookah water pipes and the sweetened, flavored tobacco, called Tumbâk, accompanied them in colorful boxes outside herb shops. I ended up buying a bag full of aromatic teas, some curry, chili, and barbecue spice, as well as a rather expensive 3 grams of Iranian saffron.

We next boarded a little ferry and took a cruise down the Bosphorous strait. The houses and palaces surrounding the strait belied the richness of Istanbul during the Ottoman Empire. We sailed all the way to the opening of the strait into the Black Sea, able to view the two continents of Europe and Asia separated by an expanse of silver water. We had a long lunch in a fancy restaurant overlooking the strait (a meal that included caviar) and then took the bus across a bridge to the Asian side. It was raining and cold, and so instead of exploring the rather mundane Asian market, I sat in a cozy Starbucks and chatted with my classmates. I even met an American missionary who was living on the Asian side of Istanbul--he was from Arkansas and had moved with his wife to Istanbul two years previous. Turkey has only 5,000 Christians, being a Muslim country, and they felt called to help with church building there shortly after graduating from college. The missionary, Lee, was surprised to see so many American students on the Asian side, since few tourists ever leave the European side. The Starbucks workers were also astonished to see so many Americans there as well, and since so many of us had crowded into the cafe out of the cold rain, they offered us some small cups of french-pressed caffe-lattes and coffee cake. Not usually a coffee drinker, I took a latte and actually liked it, though I think I will stick with tea.

That evening, as our last event in Turkey, we walked to the Sirkeci Gar, the train station that served as the end of the Orient Express. It had some very arabic architecture and was an interesting location, but our purpose there was to see the Whirling Dervishes. The Dervishes are a dying sect of Islam, and whirl in circles as they pray, their long white skirts fanning out. They wear beehive-shaped hats on their head, symbolizing a tombstone for the death of the Ego. The Dervishes did not always allow outsiders to view this ritual, but since they need money badly as well as recruits, they now have exhibitions open to the public. It felt strange watching this ritualistic prayer, because it was obviously not something meant to be a spectacle.

After the Whirling Dervishes, we trooped back to our hotel for dinner and bed. I was exhausted by the end of the week from late nights and early mornings, but wanted a week more to explore this amazing city and country. I felt such a religious connection to this place, virtually the land where Christianity was born and began is spread to the West. The exotic nature of this land, a crossroads of European and Eastern culture, was addicting. It made me wish to see more--to explore the middle east, to see India, China, and other places where ancient cultures were born. I will never forget the colors, sights, and smells of Istanbul, nor the stones of Ephesus where so many events of the New Testament took place. This is one place everyone should try to visit in their life. As the Turks say, Şerefe!, or, "to your honor."