Istanbul

I am staying at Agora Hostel in Instanbul. I would say that I am getting too old for this shit, which I am, but considering that a dorm bed in a shared room still costs $25 a night, when you're going away for nearly a month, it's the only thing that's going to be affordable. Anyway, it's always a craps shoot what you're going to get, and I am thrilled with this place. It's walking distance from the Sultahamet tram, where the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia museum is. The aircon is frigid, the showers hot and strong, the people who work here are really sweet, and the place is spotless. It's got a beautiful indoor/outdoor rooftop bar, which Europeans seem to love calling "chillout spot,"for some god-forsaken reason, and there's a great breakfast spread. The only trouble at the hostel seems to be the Korean girls in our dorm room, who have been secretly confiscating the remote control in the middle of the night to turn off the airconditioning. Also, one of them leaves her phone on, so I'm also subjected to an annoying, cloyingly "cute" cartoony voice Asian teenagers love and ringtone 5 times a night. And they seem to have no problem talking and giggling when THEY decide it's time to get up. Of all the people I thought I'd find rude, I wouldn't have thought it would be the Koreans. Istanbul is a really well thought out city, in my opinion. It's got a comprehensive and easily understood public transportation system. There is a tram, a metro, a couple of funiculars, and numerous ferries. Each time you get on one type of transport, you buy a 2TL token (about $1.10), no matter how far you are going. There's also a bus system, but the regular traffic is prohibitive in Istanbul. The only problem I seem to be having with getting around is (a) my notoriously retarded sense of direction, and (b) the fact that no one here seem to have given any thought to including most of their street names on a friggin' map. I have a Lonely Planet, a map from the city... neither has the tram/metro map in it. Most of the streets are not labeled. Today I took a ferry to the Asian (Anatolian) side today, and I was excited to find a tourist office, and unpredictably, they did not have a city map with streets on it. Oh, that and I almost got hit by the tram. Really, really, close. Totally my fault. Istanbul is a secular muslim city. There's lots of tourists, many of whom are Turkish. Many of the women are wearing hijab, and many are wearing full burka. I instantly realized upon arrival that I did not pack anything remotely appropriate. But it doesn't matter. There are very, VERY few woman, tourist or not, wearing skimpy clothing, but the ones that do do not receive any more attention than the ones who are dressed more modestly (but western.) A western woman is whatever is the opposite of finding a needle in a haystack. At ever possible corner, there is some man either trying to chat you up or sell you some shit. This is not an exaggeration. The salespeople speak great English... one guy says to me "How come you don't come in my shop? Are you from America?" After I tell him I am from NY, he says "Oh, my family has another shop in Saratoga Springs!.... you know, the races, college girls..." I laugh, and in order to get rid of him, I follow him to the store to get his card. This DOES NOT WORK. The second I get in the store (an art/rug dealer,) I am introduced to his father, his aunt and uncle, and two other patrons of the store. I ask for a card and say I have to go, and he says "please, have some tea" and says some idiom about making lifetime friends over tea. I say "I'm REALLY late, I have to go" and he says "but the tea is already here!" and blocking my exit, sure as shit, is some dude with the ubiquitous tiny glass of Turkish tea. I practically knocked him over to get the hell out of there. The other men try to pick you up in idioms. "Angel! Hold those horses. Where are you going? You don't know what you're missing" all in one breath, as if they're trying to sell you their penis like the other guys a rug. It's constant, but they're actually pretty funny about it. If you ignore them, they try to make you laugh, and no one follows you or tries to touch you. So it's not that bad. And it didn't happen at all on the Asian side of the country, so I think it might be just what they do to tourists on the European side. All of this makes you think about what it is like to be a woman in an Islamic country. I know that it's a lot deeper than this, but it it a relief to walk around all covered up, so that you don't receive any unwanted attention? Or am I getting all of this attention because it's traditional for a woman to be all covered up? It's the Muslim chicken-and-the-egg dilemma. I covered my head and arms a number of times for my mosque visits, and there was something very nice about being swaddled in cloth, seeing all the people face Mecca, touch ground and pray. The call to prayer that happens numerous times of day, on blaring loudspeakers is really beautiful. The mosques are so beautiful. And then you turn around and see where YOU'D pray... behind the men, behind the TOURISTS, in a CAGED area in the back of the mosque. I mean, it's a PRETTY cage, but damn. If I could find the restaurants that I researched, maybe I would be blown away by the food. But I can't find anything with these maps. My usual follow-the-locals-to-the-busy-spots isn't really working. I think that here, the locals are heading to the cheap fast food. Or they aren't locals at all... they're other Turkish locals trying to not spend a lot on vacation. I have snacked well... there's the fish sandwich guys on the Galacta pier that fry up what they just caught and stick it unceremoniously in a fresh roll for 5TL. Bourekas are amazing... stuff wrapped in phyllo dough... today was feta and spinach. I think I would eat dog shit if it were attractively tucked in some phyllo dough. There are inordinate permutations of baklava involving nuts, honey, phyllo, shredded wheat that I am dying to try but being that it's so hot here, my appetite is not what it usually is. Turkey is one of those countries that have a huge stray cat problem. I wonder how many of these cats I can cram in my suitcase without paying a duty or killing them. I have been pretty much alone, by choice, but the hostelfolk are actually pretty friendly without that "let's get drunk on cheap beer and partaaaaaaaaaay" vibe that I hate at hostels. I met the scariest doppleganger of my ex-husband that I had to avoid, but otherwise everyone has been very friendly and nice. He DID alert me to the International Probability and Statistics convention that's going on in town. That was funny enough, until I actually saw three of the attendees on the funicular. It wasn't the nerdy exterior that cued me in as much as the matching messenger bags that said "International Congress of Probability and Statistics," which one dude tried to hide when he saw me peering at it. So I start talking to them, and they're from Britain. I tell them I'm spending my vacation in Turkey and Spain. He says sardonically, "They're not connected, you know." A nerd with a sense of humor!! I was lucky enough to discover that there was an open-air concert of Bebe (Spanish pop... you may have heard the song "Malo" which was big a few years ago in Europe and south America... flamenco/pop fusion) and Buena Vista Social Club. BUENA FUCKING VISTA SOCIAL CLUB!!! It's the first (possibly) annual Latin fest in Istanbul. The most expensive category, sitting in the front, was over $100, and the cheapest category, standing in the back, was $50. This is pretty ballsy... think Prospect Park Bandshell with a better sound system. So I paid my $50 to be all the way outside the little fenced in area for people paying double, but stood right at the gate. This is when I noticed that everything I thought about Istanbullis was wrong. The women are scantily clad, short shorts and high heels, casually dressed, and it felt like I was in Anywhere, USA. Bebe sounded great, and her music is good, but I have to imagine it's a little weird to be relatively unknown and no one understands the words of what you're singing. BVSC comes on, and in the crowd of near capacity, probably about 1500 people, everyone starts to cheer. About 8 people seemed to know how to salsa in the cheap seats. I mean, SRO section. Oh well. Then this guy walks up to me. He's dressed in his day banking attire, sans jacket. He asks me what I'm doing there alone, as he was, and I explain that I was in Istanbul alone traveling, and was excited to see BVSC. He explained that he loves Latin music, can't dance at all, but could not believe that BVSC was coming to Istanbul. He bought the tickets two months ago, came right from work, and didn't care that none of his friends wanted to go with him. "It's BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB," he exclaimed, "I really hope they play Chan Chan. It's my favorite. Really, it's all about the music." At some point we got to talking about what it meant for him to be a secular muslim, a Turk, and how the rest of Europe is racists. I have a kindred sprit in Istanbul. Tomorrow, Izmir. This means my own hotel room, where there be no Korean passive-aggressively turning off my powerful A/C.