The Yeagers’ Experiences

Istanbul (formerly called Constantinople and Byzantium) is the only city in the world that straddles two continents (Europe and Asia) and has been the capital of 4 different empires.  Check out Istanbul’s Wikipedia article for background on its long, illustrious history.  For more than two millenia it has been a point where East meets West, which is still true today. First, a word on what we thought we would find in Istanbul.  Much has been made in the developed world about how moderate Turkey is, so I anticipated a thouroughly modern city not unlike the major capital cities of Western Europe.  I thought most women didn’t wear headscarves and Westerners would be welcomed.  I expected minimal culture shock and viewed this trip as a great chance to learn a little bit more about the Muslim world. 

Our experience of Istanbul was certainly different from our expectations.  First of all, we did feel welcomed, but in more of a “Hey, you have money, come give it to me” kind of way.  Secondly, the cultural differences are not easily glossed over.  I would definitely say the Turks have more in common with Arabs, but also have some things in common with Europeans.  For instance, one of the things that we definitely noticed was the lack of local women out at night.  The nightlife is for sure male dominated, and I suspect this has a great deal to do with the fact that Turkey is 99% Muslim.  With that said, I did notice that about 70% of the local women were not wearing headscarves, so that says something important about Turkey’s moderate political and religious values.  This trip was very educational, and it has left me very conflicted on the question of Turkey’s accession to the EU.  Condolezza Rice was in town for an Iraq summit, so we were slightly worried about the risk for terrorism, especially since Turkey has their own home-grown terrorist elements that the government continues to battle.  Despite our mild fears, everything was fine, and our only indication that there was something important going on was a very large, heavily armoured convoy speeding down the street one night.

Enough politics!  Istanbul was a very beautiful city, despite the fact that it is home to over 20 million people.  You can see Roman ruins, Byzantine churches, and amazing mosques from the heyday of the Ottoman Empire.  One of the coolest and most revealing experiences was visiting the beautiful Blue Mosque.  I had to wear a headscarf (which I completely mangled) and we both had to take off our shoes before we entered the mosque to show respect.  The main area was huge, and completely different from a church.  There were no chairs or pews inside because worshippers kneel on the ground.  Blue tiles adorned the walls and the ceiling of the dome, which was held up by massive “elephant feet” columns.  The main section, which was very large, was strictly for men only, while the women had a small, cramped area partially obscured by columns and screens.  I don’t call myself a feminist, but the separate and unequal nature of the worshipping area struck me as deeply unfair. 

Next up we visited Topkapi Palace, which was the seat of the Ottoman Empire for centuries.  There is a museum inside which houses many priceless items, including several relics of Mohammed and eye-catching jewels.  One of the most fascinating areas of the palace was the blue-tiled Harem, which is where the Sultan kept his women and their children.  Apparently over 300 women were living here at one time, and there was a very structured hierarchy that governed daily life.  We made the mistake of eating in the cafe here and were grossly overcharged!  What a rookie mistake

Istanbul also has something of a nightlife, although I would not by any means put it on par with Madrid or London.  Everyone gets around by the the very modern tram network, so finding our way around was not a problem.  We got really lucky one night and wandered off the beaten path near Taksim Square and found a bar where loads of Turks were drinking and singing folk songs.  There people were having a huge amount of fun just singing and dancing (which didn’t really look like dancing at all).  Afterwards we got a fantastic late night dessert, so this night has to be our favorite memory of Istanbul.

We could have / should have spent a lot more time in Istanbul, but the culture shock did wear on us a lot.  By the end of it we were just really looking forward to coming home and escaping the constant hassle of walking down the street.  I couldn’t count how many times we would walk past a shop and hear things like “Yes please!”, “My friend!”, “Are you from The Netherlands?”, “Let me help take your money! (no kidding)”.  It was a tiring experience but it was really nice seeing and absorbing a completely different culture firsthand.  I think anyone who dabbles in politics these days should definitely go and seek out Arab culture to see what it is all about for themselves.  In some ways it opened my mind, in others it reinforced ideas I already had.

For a really addictive (related) song, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsQrKZcYtqg

Pictures are now up!

…and pollution capital of the current World.

Ok ok, so it doesn’t even make the top 5 most polluted cities, but the blanket of smog over Athens was horrendous. I had coughing and sneezing problems the entire time and couldn’t wait to get home to the “clean” air of London. Why is it so polluted? Well, one of the reasons might be that 40% of all Greeks live in the capital. Another might be that the city is surrounded on 3 sides by very large hills. It looked like the entire city was covered in soot and nothing had been cleaned in 50 years. My guess would be that they used to fight the problem by scrubbing every so often, but eventually even the corporations gave up trying to keep their buildings shiny. They try to rectify the problem by allowing only cars with odd-numbered plates on odd-numbered days and vice versa. They are of course examining other options but right now the situation doesn’t look good.

We arrived in the city center via the brand-spanking-new metro, and walked out into a slum. We looked around and everyone was dressed nicely, the cars were fairly new, and the atmosphere was upbeat. It was as if you took people in Buckhead (a nice upscale part of Atlanta) and dropped them in the worst area of New York. We were a little confused by it all, to say the least. Luckily, our hotel was on a street with a few trees which made it look slightly better (and probably bumped up the air quality a bit), but head any direction and you enter the mish-mash of upscale and slum.

Putting on our blinders, we tried to focus on the reason we came to Athens… the monuments, of course! And this was definitely the place for them. Our hotel was in a really cool area – in the shadow of the Acropolis where you could look up wherever you were and see the ancient buildings tower over you. To brush everyone up on their Athens trivia, the Acropolis is a rock outcrop in the middle of the city which has 3 main monuments still on top: The Parthenon (the most famous), the Erechtheon (with a temple to Athena and Poseidon), and the Propylaea (a huge archway). We didn’t do the Acropolis until Day 2, but chose to focus on monuments around its base. There are 2 forums (one from the Greeks and one from the Romans) and an absolutely huge library created by Hadrian. The largest temple in all of Greece is the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which would have been even more magnificent to see if more than 15 of its 56-foot 104 columns still existed and were standing. On the contrary, the Temple of Hephaestus is pretty much all there — it even has a complete roof and is the only Ancient Greek temple anywhere with that honor. Moving up the Acropolis, we walked through a tiny village called Anafiotika which was composed of people from the island of Anafi and their small, bleach-white houses typical of their island homes. Most people miss this tiny town when they go to Athens, but we thought it was one of the coolest parts. When we got to the Acropolis, we walked through the Propylaea to enter the main area, and were completely taken aback by the size of the Parthenon. That is truly one incredible structure. Its only problem is that scaffolding has been erected around it since about 1980 so you can’t get a decent picture off.

We also went to the Greek Archaeological Museum which has famous statues from many generations of Greek civilizations, and also quite a story about hiding everything from the Germans during WWII. Another site we visited that I highly recommend is the original Olympic Stadium which was rebuilt in 1896 for the first modern Olympics (so it looks in mint condition compared to the other sites).

I’m sure you don’t remember much about the history of Athens because neither Stacey nor I could get it right, so let me jump through the basic timeline. The Greeks were there first, then they were conquered by the Romans (Hadrian had a particular affinity for the Greeks). Then the Herulians drove the Romans out, but then the Romans came back, and then the Romans left and the Turks showed up and ruthlessly destroyed a lot of the monuments. Then the Venetians came in and fought a huge battle with the Turks. During this battle, the Venetians made a direct hit on a gunpowder store in the Parthenon (who the hell keeps gunpowder in a really important monument???) and blew its middle completely out. And to finish it all up, Greece was occupied by the Germans in WWII. Basically, this can be summed up like so: the monuments were erected, destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed, built over top of with more monuments, destroyed, built over top of with houses and roads, destroyed, excavated, and eroded. It was a historical nightmare!

We had a very interesting dinner whereby a restaurant put tables outside in as many places as possible, which included right on the street. Luckily ours was on the sidewalk, but we had the pleasure of watching cars come by every 10 minutes forcing people to stand up, move their chairs, and sometimes move their tables. We even saw one huge van pull up and the driver got in an argument with the restaurant server in Greek, then the driver got really pissed and ran over one of the tables. It was quite a scene!

All-in-all, we enjoyed Athens once we forced ourselves to look past the pollution. Would I recommend someone going there? Of course. We saw people from a lot of different countries, as the Ancient World attracts a lot of people interested in the beginnings of the modern-day advanced society. What I might recommend is to try and go as soon as possible. The monuments have already shown a lot of damage from pollution and it’s not going to get better anytime soon. One study even discovered that a particular monument had more damage in the past 50 years from pollution than the previous 3000 years of its life sitting outside in the elements.

Pictures have been up for a bit. You should definitely check them out.

Oh, and you’ve got to check this out: http://www.debevec.org/Parthenon/film.html (download video)