From Thessaloniki, with Love: Week Thirteen: Hey - You Guys Want to Go to Turkey This Weekend?

Not a question that would've seemed so easily plausible four months ago, that's for sure. The answer, as I'm sure you've guessed at this point, was the same as my answer to, "Hey - You guys want to go to Bulgaria for the weekend?" and "Oh, how do you feel about gallivanting around western Europe for two weeks?"

"Let's do it."

Greece celebrates May Day (May 1) as a national holiday akin to our current celebration of Labor Day. We therefore were left with a long weekend and nothing else to do but hop a bus over to Istanbul and discover yet another historically-rich city.

After a ten hour bus ride (10pm - 8am), we arrived. We went on a somewhat longer than expected quest to find our hotel, had breakfast, and started exploring. We saw the major sights of Istanbul: The Ayia Sofia, The Blue Mosque, the cisterns, the Ottoman Palace. We saw a whirling dervish performance, shopped at the Grand Bazaar and walked to Asia.

My typical blow-by-blow is shortened here because what really struck me about Istanbul was not the sights by themselves, but the contrasts embedded within the city, it's history, and it's current life.

Istanbul has been an important location in history since great civilizations first started forming in the area. Mesopotamians, Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, Ottomans, and others all coveted the land that the city sits on because it straddles the Bosphoros Straight, which separates Europe from Asia and is the only water passage from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.

Because of its geographical importance, Istanbul has always been the home of a variety of tugs of war - competition between religions, empires, and warring armies dominate its history. It's been a Christian city (Eastern Orthodox, specifically), a Muslim city, a Roman city, an Ottoman city, a site for Crusade attacks, coveted by both world powers during the Cold War; it has major manufacturing centers, but yet is not an overly developed city like New York or Boston.

Likely from this historical context, Istanbul developed certain dualities that are evident there as in no other place I've been. I'm sure many of these things could be found most anywhere, but to see so many facets of a place in just three days and know we were only scratching the surface of the web of outlooks, ideologies, ways of life... A week later and I'm still struggling to find ways to describe it. So here are some meager attempts:

Attempt #1. The city sits on two continents, connected physically by bridges, ferries. One of our companions, confused until we showed her a map, continually asked us - are we in Asia now? There was a certain novelty in being able to stroll casually across a continental divide, but it was more interesting to see the sort of neighborhood differences between the parts of the city on the different continents. "Asia" is younger, bustling with locals, full of brand name stores and everyday lives. "Europe" is very tourist-focused and in some places, has the same claustrophobic feeling as parts of New York often do for me. For the major city in a country trying desperately to become part of the European Union, it seems totally un-European after two weeks in France, England, and Spain. But, in reality, after two-plus months in Greece and Bulgaria, maybe it's not such a stretch.

Attempt #2. The people of Istanbul seem to have come to terms with the fact that the Turkish language is a rare, and difficult, language. Most of its residents we met seemed to be proficient in Turkish (obviously), English, Spanish, and Greek. The Greeks do not return that favor. We had some marvelous linguistic miscommunications, however - either intentional or not. While shopping at the very large, indoor Grand Bazaar, I asked a merchant if he would give me a certain price for a pair of cups. He said of course. Turned out, he thought I said per cup. Legit, and a tad funny. He was very nice about it, but I did have to look elsewhere for some less pricey cups. Not so funny or cute: in the middle of the very touristy area, we were looking for a nice place to sit down and have a drink. One restaurant wrangler told us to join them on their rooftop terrace. We looked up - "I don't see a rooftop terrace." "Yes, yes, rooftop terrace." Now, I'm not sure why we would think that a Turkish man in the heart of Istanbul's tourist district would know the correct definition of "rooftop terrace," but it certainly was foolish. We had some refreshing beverages on a closed-in top-floor dining area with really big windows and views of nothing but trees branches.

Attempt #3. Now, in any large tourist area, one would be highly ignorant to expect that you're not about to get ripped off every step of the way. Istanbul is no different. Just walk down the halls of the Grand Bazaar and try to go ten feet without someone offering you some hand painted ceramics...that look exactly like the ones that you saw six feet before that and another four feet down the way. Try walking down a row of restaurants without having five or six restaurant wranglers following you for twenty paces telling you all about the amazing food you could eat on their rooftop terraces. Opportunism abounds. "Oh, beautiful ladies! Can I help you spend your money?" If you take care not to get caught up in these sometimes overly suggestive comments, it's easy to find that the people of Istanbul are actually quite generous. The employees at the hotel we stayed at brought us tea anytime we were in the lobby. In fact, they gave us an extra free breakfast when we showed up at 9am and they didn't have rooms ready for us to check into. We had more tea at the bus station when we arrived early. If you tried to refuse tea on any occasion, they asked what you wanted instead - water, coke, etc. When asking for directions, people often stopped to walk us at least partially in the right direction. A man from the hotel walked us 20-25 minutes from the hotel to the metro to catch our bus home - and we never would have found it without him. This service was offered to us - not, here's how you walk there, or you'll get lost, let us call a cab. Just, "Here, my friend will walk you there."

Attempt #4. This story epitomizes my perception of Istanbul. After walking to and around Asia for a little while, we returned to the bridge where we crossed the Bosphoros, and decided to find a place to get some good seafood before heading back to our hotel. We walked down a row of restaurants on the waterside - the wranglers were in full force. "Eat here, we have the best views"...."There's a building in front of your restaurant, that's all you can see."...."No, there's no building."..."You're insane..." Then, we noticed that there were big sun umbrellas on top of one of the buildings. Looking in front, it was indeed a restaurant, but no one was heckling us. So, we walked in, asked if we could sit on the roof, and were led to their - gasp! - rooftop terrace. We sat in the sun, in the perfect weather, had delicious, homemade, authentic Turkish seafood meals, and watched the hustle and bustle in the Bosphoros and on the bridge. And we sat. And we talked. We had time to kill. We listened to the call for prayer from a mosque on a hill in Europe. They brought one of the dishes we ordered much later than the rest, and it didn't get finished because we were all full. The owner came to ask us if something was wrong with it! We told him everything was fantastic, and then we were served a round of tea which we hadn't ordered. Eventually, we paid. The owner came back and gave us some business cards. He welcomed us back at any time....and then asked us to go to the restaurant's facebook page and upload our photos and make comments about the restaurant. This little, authentic, beautiful, friendly restaurant. On facebook. Go figure.