Weekend Roundup

So I'm finally getting around to writing this after several days of putting it off - we've been so busy, it's been hard to find time to just sit and relax. Here's a summary of what I've been doing:

Thursday we met the Medresesi Caferaga, an old Ottoman university turned art school that is right next to the Hagia Sophia. The room we had class in was a dorm room for students centuries ago. We talked about our first week, our blogs, then delved into the more intricate details of trying to figure out what it was that made the Ottoman Empire collapse.

Friday we went to the Covered Bazaar (the famous Grand Bazaar), or Kapali Carsi in Turkish. It is one of the largest covered bazaars in the world with more than 4000 shops and an estimated 400,000 visitors a day. The bazaar was not what I expected it to be - although it certainly was busy, it didn't have the same hustle-and-bustle atmosphere with weird smells and people yelling at you as the Spice Bazaar which is down the street - it reminded me more of an American mall, albeit 550 years old. Sellers offered objects as far ranging as fine gold and silver, Turkish carpets, tourist mementos, fake Lacoste and Polo shirts, antiques like Ottoman-era coins and lamps, sunglasses, crystalware, soccer jerseys, headscarves, and more. We went into Adnan and Hasan, a carpet seller who knows Sarah, our professor, and he went into great detail about the different types of carpet, the knots that go into each one, the different sizes and styles, the symbolism in each design, the regions different types of carpet come from, and more. It was really a good experience, and I might go by and buy a carpet myself before I leave. Here's a picture of us in the shop learning about Turkish carpets over tea:
After that, we went to the Mederesesi again, this time to visit with a calligrapher who explained his craft. He also drew our names in the Arabic script that looks more like art designs than a written language. The calligrapher said that it takes a good five years to learn the how to do calligraphy and a lifetime to really understand it.

Saturday night was our first real night experiencing Turkish nightlife - or at least what we could afford of it. Turkey is a Muslim country and thus there is some social pressure to tone down drinking here, so taxes on alcohol are very high. In addition, Turkey's parliament just passed another law saying that all alcohol must be kept in its original container - a serious blow to bars who keep their beer on tap. Nevertheless, what we saw of Turkish nightlife was impressive - Istaklal, a street just up the block from our apartment building, hosts dozens if not hundreds of bars, restaurants and clubs that keep going till six in the morning (from what I've heard). Turks have two drinks here: Efes, a local beer that has a monopoly on the market, and Raki, a licorish flavored drink that is mixed with water. I had a sip of raki and thought it was the most disgusting thing I had ever tasted, but Turks like it, so I guess that's all that matters. Anyway, we hit up a discoteque on Istaklal for a bit which played only techno, and then decided it was all too overwhelming and headed back home.

Saturday was a lazy day. I made my way back to the Grand Bazaar with Kevin and Clayton determined to get a good deal on a fake Lacoste shirt I had seen earlier. Unlike the salesmen in China, though, these vendors were a difficult bunch to haggle with. Some priced their shirts at $50 -- I wanted to get it at $8. And so the process began. I visited one shirt vendor after another (they are all on the same street, so it wasn't too difficult) and tried to get them to bring the price down. One man cussed me out when I told him I didn't want to pay $20 for a fake shirt, and others just said no to me when I told them my price. After more than an hour, I finally got a shirt for $10 - a bit above my price, but it was a decent shirt and the guy who sold it to me was nicer than most.

Today (Sunday) we went over to the Asian side to watch the Red Bull Flugtag - a kind of show where people build "flying devices" and run them off a large platform and see how far they get before they crash in the water. It really ended up being a show to see what would be the most spectacular crashes. Here are some pictures:


A look at the crowd - there were tons of ships out there, too.

And I guess that's all for this week - tomorrow I head to Topkapi palace, home to the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. More later!


P.S.

For those who watch Lost out there, look who I found on the side of a building in an ad for Turkish ice cream: