Turkey for Thanksgiving

The Blue Mosque in the evening light
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October 9, 2006

Turkey for Thanksgiving

Well, we have Turkey for Thanksgiving in a different way this year.

It is Thanksgiving Monday and we are thinking of you all at home in Canada enjoying turkey and cranberry sauce and masked potatoes and brussel sprouts and….Yum! We hope that you are all enjoying the Thanksgiving weekend with friends and family, and that you are remembering to be thankful for all the big and small blessings.

The entrance gate to the Topkapi Palace
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Well, we have Turkey for Thanksgiving in a different way this year. Let me tell you a little bit about our Turkey. We hope that you’ll be able to taste the flavor!

Our first experiences and impressions of Turkey are ones of extremes. There must be bigger and more crowded cities in the world, but for us so far, Istanbul takes the cake. We spent 3 nights and 4 days in Istanbul and were amazed not by the Topkapi Palace, which is grand, not by the Blue Mosque, nor by the Hagai Sophia, nor the cruise on the Bosphorus, which is nice, but by the masses and masses of people on the streets and the unbelievable gridlocked traffic jams of cars, trams, tour buses and more tour buses. Watching these buses maneuver in and out of parking lots with only inches to spare between themselves and the next bus was a lesson of patience, assertiveness at the right time and collective achievement. It takes one brave driver and several men in front and behind each bus to move a bus in an impossible mess of cars, trucks, taxis and buses headed in every which way! Istanbul is busy with many, many Turkish people here to visit their capital city during Ramadan One of the things that we repeatedly gave thanks for on this weekend was our quiet roof-top terrace on the top of our hotel where we could retreat from the often overwhelming busyness of this city.

The ceiling of the Sultan's room inside the Topkapi Palace
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The major site that we chose to visit in Istanbul was the world-famous Topkapi Palace. After having visited so many castles and museums in our 3 months in western Europe, we were eager to see how a sultan’s palace would compare. The Topkapi is actually more than a palace. It is a collection of buildings, courtyards and libraries dating back to 1462. It was used until a sultan (which one was it?) in the early 19^th century decided to use the Dolmabahce Palace on the other side of the Bosphorus. The Topkapi includes a 400 room harem, which commands a separate entrance fee, and through which one is hustled in 30 minutes at breakneck speed. Life must have been very different in those days. Who would you rather have been…the Sultan who supposedly ruled over this empire, one of his 4 wives, one of his dozens of favorites or 100’s of concubines? Certainly, you wouldn’t want to be a brother or nephew or even older son when a sultan rose to power, because then you would be put in the Cage and kept captive to ensure that you didn’t assassinate the new Sultan. Some men, by the time they had their turn at power, were crazed and neurotic after years of captivity in the Cage. Probably one of the most powerful persons of that time was the mother of the Sultan. She had great impact on the life within the palace, and it is said that she even affected politics and economics of the time. I can’t imagine that she was popular or liked by many. I think I would have preferred being a gardener. The grounds of the Topkapi were beautiful and serene and had a lovely view of the Bosphorus and valleys below. In the interior, the Sultan’s bathroom was impressive; 3 huge marble rooms for Turkish baths and massages. The princes’ room with its beautiful tile work was also very beautiful. Void of furniture now, one can only imagine the scene as it would have been, filled with beautiful Turkish carpets, furniture and princes in their silk embroidered gowns attended to by their servants.

The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul
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The Grand Bazaar is undoubtedly a destination for all who visit Istanbul. It is an amazing collection of approximately 400 vendors all under one roof. The most amazing thing to me is that is has been in operation since 1453. It must be one of the oldest shopping malls of the world! Exploring it was fun, but one can only take so much personal attention from eager vendors for a short while. I found it difficult to dash so many hopes at making a sale, but our only purchase was some Turkish delight.

Beautiful presentation of a pomegranate at a fruit stand
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Aside from being persistent salesmen, we were touched by the general helpfulness of the Turkish people. They often went out of their way to show us directions or make us comfortable, and were genuinely interested in where we come from and who we are. Karsten and Stephanie often received free gifts of little souvenirs or fruit. We did have a few incidences where we felt ‘ripped off’ (at a barber in Istanbul David lost more than a bit of hair!) but these were the few bad apples in a barrel of good ones.

Life in Turkey is as different as it could be from life in Canada. We hope that you can just even get a glimpse of our Thanksgiving Turkey and imagine what it would be like to experience it!