My Time in Istanbul

Here is my first real blog…finally found the time! I wanted to share my experiences in Istanbul with you. As I started to write, I started to remember many things about my time there. I am so happy I decided to blog this because I have so many nice memories that I would love to pass along and remember as I grow older.
I know there are many mistakes in my writing but it is not the point for me, I do NOT have the time to sit and make these perfect, if so then they would never be read….so enjoy!

Istanbul Turkey:

A while back we had a 3 day weekend (which is unheard of) before the playoffs started and our coaches decided to let us be FREE! So a couple of us decided to get the heck outta dodge and go with my head coach and his girlfriend to Istanbul for the weekend. Mahmut (my old coach that brought me to Germany and I played under for 3 years) and Deniz are both Turkish and they found us some extremely cheap tickets. I was a little hesitant to go at first being that I escaped the country illegally after living there but Mahmut was confident that it would not be a problem and that he would take care of everything......he did. He told me that I had never experienced Istanbul with a native and someone I could really trust. HE WAS MORE THAN RIGHT!

It was one of the most fun trips I have ever been on and it was unbelievable to go to all these places with him and Deniz. I had lived in Turkey (Baliksir, Edrimit) a couple years before but it was totally different to be there with people you know and who know the land and culture first hand. Plus I lived in a village and this was a huge city! I was there a couple times before by myself but it was overwhelming because I didn’t know where to start and I hit all the typical touristy spots.

It was a different experience to buy things there and have the store men offer a price to me and then I turn and ask Mahmut and better yet…..Deniz if it was a fair price? The store men are afraid of the Turkish women because they know that the women always know the correct price and if they try to rip off a Turkish woman….big trouble is about to ensue—especially with their men standing there. I would just step aside and let Deniz go to work….what do you know…we got a more than fair price, often times with the store man throwing in extra things for us….It was AWWWESOME to watch! We ate like kings and queens and we visited the world famous Turkish Bizarre (where Deniz did all the work)! I was sooo happy to buy and return with some beautiful things from Turkey that I really wanted to buy and bring home the first time I was there but it was kinda hard to bring back handmade ceramic bowls and stuff like that when I was leaving the country in a hurry with one bag! The escape story is a whole other blog! ANYONE travelling to Istanbul must go see the underground Grand Bizarre….so much history and SOOO many interesting things to see, there are just over 4000 shops and over 250,000-400,000 visitors daily. The shops include jewlery, pottery, spices, carpet shops, etc...

My request to Mahmut and Deniz was to see the inside of a Mosque because it was something I could never do when I was living there. Of course, Mahmut found one that would allow us to go into and look around, it took some talking and convincing but he did it…I am so thankful for that because it was a great experience! We had to take our shoes off outside and leave all our belongings outside the mosque, we had to put a scarf over our heads (the women only) and then it was ok for us to enter. It was just as beautiful as a cathedral on the inside, beautiful in a completely foreign way because it was the first time I had the opportunity to see the inside of a mosque. The paintings, lights and detail were so beautiful and there was a great sense of peace within me….just the same as when I am in a Catholic Church. It was a nice experience first hand, as were the people…..so devout in prayer & education. We were in a pretty big mosque so there was A LOT to see. The experience of being inside was by itself, quite moving.

We saw some museums and saw the entire city from a native standpoint. We walked around and saw all the Saturday markets and vendors, football Stadiums, entertainers, statues on the streets and in the squares, it was simply incredible!

What many people don't know about Turkey is that IT IS NOT A MUSLIM COUNTRY.........IT IS A CHRISTIAN COUNTRY. The Catholic churches throughout Istanbul were some of the most beautiful I have ever seen........the cathedrals were unbelievable! There are catholic churches and Muslim mosques everywhere you look, it is a very religious country! The Catholics and the Muslims live amongst one another in peace….which was again, re-assuring! The Skyline of Istanbul is incredible and by far one of the most unique and memorable I have ever seen. All the church steepals and Mosque Minarets (spires) and domes among the other buildings up against the ocean background was smashing. Even more beautiful is that they are lit at night so you can see them from where ever you are, this is when you realize how many churches and mosques there really are in Istanbul because you can see them all illuminated at night. My Turkish friend, Isa said that Turkey is known as a friendship country because so many different religions are practiced inside Turkey.

The sunsets are amazing too and this is one of the things I remember best about living in Turkey! I remember sitting on the roof of my apartment and watching the sunset over the ocean…..I did this everyday. The sun was so big it really was as if you held up an orange on the horizon and watched it sink beneath the water.

There are about 16 million people living in downtown Istanbul, half the downtown is located in Europe and is totally western and the other half is located in Asia. It is fascinating to see the difference in culture when you are in the city! You can most definitely see the European and Asian influences throughout the city depending where you are….in the people, clothing, textiles, food, & in the shops…..even the cars! My biggest fear in life was a dog, until I got into a car in Istanbul. The driving was kinda scary at times but think Mexico......no, no...think Mexico City with millions of people driving in a small area….with no rules! The only reason I just used the word “kinda” was because I lived to tell about it….it didn’t scare me to death but it kinda scared me to death!

As a western woman, I was able to travel though out the city in my normal clothes and not worry at all about whether or not I was offending someone else. Many of the women here are dressed in their Burkas, which is a long, loose, body-covering garment with veiled holes for their eyes. Another type of Burka covers the body but leaves the entire face open. Also, there were many women wearing only a scarf covering their heads and normal clothes otherwise. On the other hand, there are many Turkish women dressed exactly like me, in jeans or skirts with tank-tops or sleeveless shirts and in t-shirts as well. While travelling, I am very sensitive about other people’s customs & traditions and I try to respect their way of life completely while I am in their country…..I will say that while I was in Istanbul it was like this, but while living in Turkey and travelling to the smaller towns and villages, I put on more appropriate clothing to respect their traditions…..long sleeve shirts and pants or a longer skirt & that was fine. For me to live and travel among the women wearing their Burkas, at the beginning it created great interest, awkward feelings, curiosities, sadness, confusion, happiness, questions, beauty, etc… At the end of my time around the women wearing their Burkas, it was completely normal for me and my mind was at ease compared to when I first arrived.

The best thing was that one of our team's sponsors owns a world wide Bio-Technoloy company called, Sartorius and they have offices everywhere. The head office is located in Göttingen. My coach, Mahmut and some of my teammates work there. I also worked there for 2 years. Our sponsor for our team who happens to be the head boss-man called and arranged for us to be picked up at the airport by the Sartorius people in Istanbul who drove us everywhere the entire time we were there (until Mahmut decided he wanted to drive……geeeez).

The food was out of this world, restaurants on the ocean with fresh seafood and incredible Turkish dishes along with great company! The Turkish Doner-kebab is fresh meat or chicken cooking on a spit and is served in a pita bread with all sorts of veggies & sauces…..so good it melts in your mouth!

On to the sweets! Let’s just say that I could write an entire blog on the little shops we walked into where the many different types of Turkish Delights were sold. These places should be illegal because you have no idea what that sugar rush did to me….whoa! I don’t even have a sweet tooth but these Turkish Delight were so light and flaky, downright delicious….I couldn’t stop!

Every night I went to bed with so much anticipation to wake up in the morning……..for breakfast. A Turkish breakfast is something that everyone should be able to experience once in their lives. Fresh, fresh, fresh everything! Tomatoes, cucumbers, many different types of olives, eggs, Bread (which Mahmut told us that it tastes better if ripped apart instead of cut), all kinds of dips and spreads, feta cheese, and fresh honey…right off the honeycomb! Of course coffee is involved otherwise everyone who knows me knows that I would not have been so efficient getting here or there. The Turkish coffee is small and strong….think espresso and a normal coffee mixed together. They have a tradition after drinking the coffee, where they turn the cup upside down on the saucer and the remains of the coffee in the bottom of the cup is thick but still a bit liquid and it tells a story about your future and someone else must read the story in the bottom of the cup for you, then you read someone else’s story for them. It led to a nice and interesting conversation. The other warm drink they serve at breakfast is chai, a wonderful tea which is traditionally served through out the entire country.

The Turkish people were sooo wonderful and really nice to be around! They were so excited to hear that I had lived in Turkey, they gave me a Turkish lingo quiz over dinner (with Raki of course, Turkish schnapps), it was funny and they were impressed with how much vocabulary and sentences I knew and had remembered. In the evenings after dinner we went to enjoy live music and feast on the traditional nuts, sunflower seeds and fruits that are offered to the table when you come and sit in a bar/club. The live musicians and singers were fantastic (I was sitting in Istanbul and thinking about my big brother James and how he would love this musical environment). Every place we passed had live singers or musicians who were so passionate about their music, it was beautiful.

Next, we all enjoyed the traditional Shisha, which is better known as the Hookah. It is a water pipe that they bring to your table along with a huge variety of fruits. You choose which fruits go on top (we chose apples) and then it is passed from one person to the next and you smoke the fruit….which tastes excellent. No, there are no drugs involved, just fruit. This is very traditional in the Middle Eastern Countries, (& @ WAZZU) it was nice to experience the culture and tradition like that. I kept thinking of the Native American Indians and their peace pipes.

Anyway, we had a great time and came back refreshed to play in the playoffs. By far, one of the most charming and intriguing cities I have ever been to and the people were so warm and sympathetic. I highly recommend Istanbul as a travel destination to anyone looking for history, charm, culture, differences, great food & very nice people and a beautiful city with a very happening night life. I also recommend seeing the city like I did, on Turkish Coffee & Turkish Delight….nuthin' better than a good caffeine & sugar high to get you around a little quicker!





Here is another video.....it is a bit longer but you can really see the landscape and the city very well. Along with the Grand Bizarre & many other things I just wrote about:



Ok, so I told you that I would use this as a music platform as well. This was my favorite song while I was in Turkey....I fell in love with Mustafa Sandal's voice & the other guy in the video is a German artist named Gentleman (yeah, there really are German Reggae singers...he is good, really positive).
Even though you cannot understand what Mustafa Sandal is singing about, listen to his voice & the music in the background...simply beautiful.