I was looking to travel all of Europe during my time in Munich. I would consider Munich to be so centrally located that traveling would be easy, and it was, but one of the many factors I didn’t really consider was time and money, especially since I was a full time student. This really shortened my list of places I wanted to travel to. I had already seen the Netherlands and Italy during my trip, and had previously been to Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Austria, and my final trip was going to Spain so I needed to find somewhere exotic to travel to. I wanted to go somewhere that was filled with culture and that I would feel uncomfortably comfortable in. I had managed to travel through Italy with my knowledge of Spanish and ability to make Spanish words sound Italian and the Netherlands was pretty much reading funny German and listening to the Dutch speak better English than I probably can. I had never been to a country where I did not understand the language and had felt lost and helpless and if anything isn’t that why people travel to foreign lands to begin with?
Technically we are not in Kansas anymore but I still don’t understand why no one speaks Russian
Luckily one of our friends we met during our first weeks in Munich offered us a place to stay at back in his home country if we ever decided to go. We had all talked about going and were stoked but we would have to wait until the summer to go because it would be the only time we would be able to travel with him. As the semester progressed, the situation in the country started deteriorating and the number of interested Americans dwindled. I did not really understand what was going on in the country but with images like this
at least they have running water!
being plastered over every form of media conceivable, you could easily imagine that not many would be wanting to travel to such a place. It all dwindled down to the point where I was the only one interested in going and it seemed to be another solo trip until I convinced another friend to come. Sure my parents were ridiculously worried and my friends told me to reconsider and to go some other time but that creates a problem. When would I have another opportunity to travel to Turkey for so cheaply, stay with someone from there, have someone be our personal guide, and be able to enjoy the culture up close with actual Turkish people!?! With such well wishes we booked our trips for a long weekend and had prepared ourselves for the adventure that would be Istanbul.
I could smell the Baklava already
before jumping into all the good stuff
My expectations of Turkey were a little different than what I would imagine most other’s expectations would be. In America the common stereotypes of Turkey and its people are men wearing Fezs and thick mustaches while smoking Camel cigarettes on a camel somewhere in a desert. The women also wear hijabs and the people of Turkey might as well be Arabs because Turks and Arabs are easy to stereotype together when you are 7000 miles away. I never really had that stereotype of Turkey but learning German and German culture didn’t help to much either. Turks are an interesting minority in Germany and to explain the whole Turko-German relationship in the span of a couple of sentences would not do it justice but I will try my best. Turks started arriving in Europe, especially in Germany, in huge quantities in the 1950’s and 60’s to help with the post-war construction and job boom. They settled down and contrary to what many of the Germans thought, they decided that their living standard was better in Germany than it was in Turkey and that staying was a better option.
which I can’t blame them one bit
Today the Turkish population, including descendants of Turkish immigrants, is quite high and some statistics place them at 5 percent of the German population. Even though they form a decent portion of the German population, there has always been the question of integration and assimilation. While some have fully integrated to the point of not even speaking Turkish, many maintain ties with both cultures and do very well of bridging the gap between both nations, while others have managed to not integrate what so ever and keep to their Turkish roots. This creates an interesting scenario when learning about Germany because of so many divided opinions. Some view Turks as a well integrated community while others view them as separate as seen by certain city sections housing Turkish stores and restaurants. I personally don’t have any negative feelings or biases towards Turks, one of my first German teachers in Germany was actually Turkish and I had many great friends who are Turkish, but learning about Turks through the predominately German lens kinda creates a certain aura about the Turks in Germany that is hard to shake off.
we can all at least agree on one thing
5 things I learned about Istanbul
1. Istanbul is big!
There is actually not enough sun to light up the city
Istanbul is massive! I had always imagined Istanbul to be a pretty big city but not as expansive as it turned out to be. When we landed at the Istanbul Atatürk Airport, one of the two airports in Istanbul, we were pretty centrally located to the center of Istanbul, or at least the Golden Horn if you want to call that the center. From there we hopped on a bus to Taksim Square to meet up with our friend Alp. Taksim Square is also centrally located and is where any type of meeting, parade, demonstration, and or riot will take place because of both its significance and location. It took the bus an hour to get there from the airport. That is just inside the city. The following day we went from the middle of Istanbul on the Bosporus to the prince Islands on the outskirts of town. It took us over an hour by boat and about an hour and a half the following day to get back home. The Istanbul city proper area covers over 2,000 square miles. To put that into perspective New York City covers slightly less than one fifth of that. Istanbul is the 3rd biggest metropolitan area in the World housing over 13 million inhabitants. This can only mean there is way more to Istanbul to discover than one could possibly imagine.
I was technically there for the U-20 World Cup so one more thing off of the list
2. The food and drink is beyond delicious
I wouldn’t mind getting conquered by the Ottomans for this food
So Turkish food is pretty well known among food circles for being delicious but one thing is having kebab at the Bosporus Straights on Park Avenue, having 3 a.m. drunk döner kebab at the east train station in Munich, and having the actual thing in Istanbul. The actual thing was amazing. We went with Alp, our Turkish friend from Munich, and some of his friends and wandered the streets of Istanbul until we finally found the particular restaurant we were looking for. What could be so special about this particular restaurant?
showing up in a newspaper 7,000 miles away is a good start
A restaurant that makes it onto the New York Times gets my vote of confidence. And if there is one thing to add to any meal, which I also dearly miss here in America, is Chai.
I don’t not drink beer, but when I don’t, I prefer a hot glass of tea leaves, water, and sugar
Sure other cultures drink tea but there was something about Turkish Chai that got me hooked. It goes well with pretty much anything. I could have tea with tea and it would probably be followed by another tea. Another interesting thing that we ate was Iskander Kebab. I wouldn’t consider the food interesting per se but the fact that we went to a food court at a local mall to get some of the best did irk me a little.
Can we kick out Sarku Japans and Panda Expresses and just add this instead?
But it was amazing, not just for mall food, but overall it was tasty. Its pretty much meat on meat with some tomato sauce on top and yogurt. If that wasn’t enough there is a man that walks around pouring melted butter on top at your liking. And if we didn’t have enough yogurt, we drank all of this down with Ayran. Ayran is what happens when you get plain yogurt, add water and salt, and decide that the combination is drinkable. I personally got used to it after two days and had no problem drinking it. My Turkish friends told me it was always a refreshing drink. My traveling partner had a taste and asked me for help finishing them whenever she got one. Refreshing might be a relative word. Lastly I would like to dedicate a small section to the drink known as Raki.
probably Turkish for death
Turkey being known as a Muslim majority country, although the government itself claims to be secular, I would have thought that alcohol wasn’t really big in Turkey and that they would get their fix of holy spirits from praying. I was wrong. Raki is quite popular and there wasn’t a day or afternoon meal that wasn’t accompanied with some Raki. It is poured into a glass about half way before ice cold water is mixed. It is originally clear but the cold water makes it cloud, similar to absinthe. It also packs a punch. It is also known as lion’s milk, and milk for the strong. The founder of the Republic of Turkey Atatürk himself was a fond Raki drinker and he would regularly drink this with his close friends and advisers. I guess you can’t go wrong with drinking what the founder of the nation you are in drank.
3. The sights are amazing
I can eat dinner in Europe while looking across at Asia
Every city has its own beautiful and unique sights but I am going to go out on a limb and say that Istanbul is one of the most picturesque cities I have ever traveled to. There was just so many different things to see and it was all scenic. One of the things that caught me off guard was how clean the city was. Not that I was expecting a dirty city but you can tell that the Turks put a good amount of time and effort into maintaining their city beautiful.
you are better off finding Waldo than finding litter
There are also a ridiculous amount of mosques scattered around Istanbul. I understand that at one point or another a high percentage of Istanbul 13 million inhabitants will have to connect with Mr. Almighty up above but its just staggering to see the amount and how they create the Istanbul skyline. Maybe I am just not used to it and I could imagine that a Turkish transplant in America would have a similar feeling about the countless amount of first denominational church of this particular driveway that we have here in the states.
There are between 4 and 6 mosques in this picture, and I’m not even sure
And just sightseeing in general and the amount of things there are to do. You can go walk in one of many parks.
I happened to encounter former President Atatürk and we had a nice chat
or you can go shopping in the world’s largest and oldest covered bazaar
now if Costco could get their stores looking this cultured
or you can decide that you have had enough of this mainland nonsense and that maybe island hopping is more of your cup of tea.
Greeks island hop out of necessity, Turks do it out of pleasure
and just in case you needed to visit something cultural and scholarly, the Golden Horn just so happens to be home to the Hagia Sophia, which originally was a Greek Orthodox Church but was later converted into a mosque but is now a museum.
give it a couple more years and it will convert into a restaurant or a Walmart
or you can go walk around the edge of the Bosporus and look at the white houses contrast the green hills in the background and maybe even take out the yacht for a quick excursion
American girls not included, although I’m pretty sure Liam Neeson is looking for her
and if you have finally had enough of just aimlessly wandering the streets of Constantinople, you should probably go find the Galata Tower
because every great city needs to have one phallic looking object jutting out of the ground
climb it and once you are at the top you can rest easy knowing that you will have one of the best views 12 Turkish Liras, or 6 Turkish Liras if you can pass of being Turkish like I did, can buy.
I’m a sucker for blue eyes and beautiful panoramas
I am pretty sure that last picture is all the proof needed for Istanbul’s beauty and expansiveness.
4. Turkish people are pretty awesome
Couldn’t ask for a better crew to get stuck on an Island overnight
So most of the Turkish people I had met in Germany were pretty cool but I really wasn’t sure what to expect in Turkey. Maybe the ones in Germany had been made more liberal by the copious amounts of German beer, dirty German porn, and overall lax European social attitudes and maybe the ones in Turkey were ultra conservative and religious hardliners who would be about as fun as watching grass grow. I’m glad I was completely wrong. Our friend, and impromptu Istanbul guide, Alp introduced us to two of his really good friends Denizcan and Burak at Denizcan’s office. After we were invited to eat dinner along with some other friends on the rooftop which resulted in a good amount of drinking, dancing, and just an overall amazing time until the wee hours of the morning.
It could be sunrise or sunset, although the 3/4 full bottle is saying sunset
The following day we met up again to delve deeper into the spicy world that is Turkish cuisine and to wander around Istanbul before we were surprised to find out that we would be going to the island of Heybeliada. Throughout the day we got to know them better and although they might not speak English with native fluency, they spoke better than I ever expected anyone who had not lived in America to speak English. They told us about their jobs, what they did, where they had traveled and what they wanted to do. Burak was more of the funny one and his good humor kept the good vibes going on for the whole trip. Denizcan was more informative and really helped me understand what was going on and really got me into the loop. Kaner was a Turkish friend who lives and was raised in Munich and just happened to be in Istanbul during the same time. He really served as a bridge between the cultures.
we could probably take over the world
The trip there would have not been as enjoyable without them and it really made it comfortable knowing such cool people there and realizing how similar we are even though we live in different cultures separated by countless miles.
5. Expectations are meant to be broken
Granted I really didn’t have many expectations of Istanbul and I was going more for the learning experience I did imagine some things that did turn out being pretty incorrect. For one all the riots and dangers people warned me about were not really there
about as dangerous as a day old puppy
and while I do understand that riots had taken place there previously, we were told that regardless it had been safe for tourist because just like any other place where tourists visit, they will avoid the particular places where things might not be completely safe. While it might not be the most satisfying answer I really can’t explain how I got lucky enough to arrive there after the riots but I will admit I never really felt threatened nor did I feel any unbearable tension in the people, granted my knowledge of Turkish is enough to get me a beer at a bar and probably just that. So I will strike that one off of my first expectations. I then imagined the country to be ultra religious and conservative and to see some women walking around in Burqas and many more signs that I was in a Muslim majority country. Wrong again. If anything Turkey, or at least Istanbul is way more secular than I ever expected. While the landscape may look like some Sheikh sitting on a faucet of oil decided to drop Mosques all over the place like Drake making it rain at the club, the city itself was pretty secular and the only Burqas I saw aside from a couple of older Turkish women were those of tourist from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states who mainly come to Istanbul to visit the Sultan Ahmed or the Blue Mosque and any other Mosque of religious significance.
and just like white privilege, male privilege gets you to the front of the Mosque
Kinda of how Catholicism is more of a tradition than a lifestyle in southern Europe and Latin America, just look at the lifestyle and tell me how much of the book is actually being followed, I felt that Islam is more traditional in Istanbul than it is a lifestyle and religion. Many celebrate Ramadan similar to how many celebrate Christmas but it is mainly a social norm that comes along with gluttonous food and good friends at the end. One of the final things that really caught me off guard was the gay parade I happened to have stumbled on the last day. I really wouldn’t have expected a full on display of homosexual support in Istanbul, a city in a country where gay rights have not really been taken to kindly. While there is long and tough struggle for the homosexual community of Turkey, it was actually pretty pleasant to see a full on parade occurring through the main street without any real counter protest or signs of violence.
did you ever think that maybe they just like rainbow colored flags?
And while countless other things did break my perceptions of Turkey, I will sum it up on those because I feel like they were the ones that changed Turkey from a rigid religious country to a diverse and opening country who just like any other country in the world is trying to figure out its true identity and place in the world in the 21st century.
and a last note
Istanbul has been probably one of my favorite cities to have visited if not my favorite city to have visited. I did love all the cities I visited during my time in Europe but Istanbul broke all of my expectations and really left me wanting to stay some more and just delve in deeper. This is probably why this blog post has probably been the longest one of them all, even after cutting out a ton of stuff out. I feel like I still haven’t done Istanbul justice. Well if you guys do read this, I have probably thanked you all enough but I’ll send one last thanks to Denizcan for hosting us on your amazing rooftop and showing us what Turkish BBQ is all about, Burak for keeping me laughing the whole time, Kaner for the German-Turkish insight, Kayla for joining me last minute on the trip and being my travel buddy, Ekin for motivating me to go in spite of all the news reports stating how dangerous and hectic it was, and Alp especially for inviting me to Istanbul, letting me crash at your place, and showing me the best of your city. You have no idea how thankful I am for being able to say that I have visited Istanbul.
Do it again next year?
reverse kultur shock 