TURKEY
It is hard to know where to begin to describe our trip to Turkey.
It was fascinating, beautiful, delicious, and a lot of fun.
We made three stops: Ankara, Cappadocia, and Istanbul.
Gerald was working for part of the time in both Ankara and
Istanbul, but we were able to tack on a few days just for being
tourists. One could easily spend a lifetime exploring the
country; we know we only touched the surface of what it has to
offer, but it was fantastic anyway!!
The first evidence of humans in Turkey is from 9,000-12,000 years
ago! Turkey has a long history that includes "stays" by Assyrians,
Hittites, Greeks, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Selçuk Turks,
Ottomon Turks (whose empire was as large as the Roman Empire and lasted
for about 600 years!), among others. There is a great mix of these
cultures evident in the architecture, art and food. When
Atatürk made Turkey a republic in 1923, he tried to sever as many
ties to the past as possible to "modernize" the country as quickly as
possible. There is a constant "pull" between old & new, East
& West, and
secular & Islamic, as the country continues to find the right
"balance". The tension among these factors is very real and
relevant
to Turkish politics, education and everyday life. We
recognized a lot of the issues that we had read about in Orhan Pamuk's
memoir of his childhood in Istanbul. Very interesting to see in
real life!
Atatürk's importance to the country is clearly evident - his image is everywhere:
in grand statues, busts, photographs, memorials and museums. It's
a bit cult-like, but there is no question that his achievements were
great.
The question of whether Turkey will be part of the European Union (EU)
was discussed a lot while we were there, especially since the new
French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, made it clear he will oppose their
entry. (Turks seem very interested in politics; one sees
"everyone" reading newspapers (often more than one a day!).) The
importance of Islam is visible in the number of mosques (minarets
replaced the common view we've had here in Europe of church spires),
the five-times-a-day call to prayer, and in the number of women wearing
scarves on their heads. But there is also a strong desire to have
the country remain secular. Turkey's population is very young and
is growing (unlike European populations). Bayram said that every
year 2 million students take the national entrance exam for
university. Only a small fraction of them make it, so one of the main
issues is finding work for everyone.
The Turkish language shares its origins with languages like Hungarian
and Finnish, but is influenced also by French (with whom the Turks had
strong and good relations since the 1500's), Arabic and Persian (mostly
names). There used to be an Ottomon script (looks like Arabic),
but when Turkey became a Republic in 1923, it was replaced with a Latin
alphabet (with a few extra characters to match the sounds in Turkish).
Sounding out the words didn't help our understanding of the
language though. We left knowing how to say please, thank-you,
excuse me, tea, and good-bye (literally "go with smiles").
Luckily we had Bayram with us through most of the trip, and in
Istanbul most folks spoke/understood some English, so we were okay.
We also learned a lot of interesting tidbits from Bayram:
that
Turks drink more tea than anyone (including the British) and eat more
bread than anyone (about 300 kg/650 lbs. per person
per year). We saw evidence of both of these facts during our stay. We also enjoyed the tasty "simit" (similar to a light, oversized bagel coated in sesame seeds) that are sold on the streets everywhere.
The people were fantastically friendly and helpful. Gerald's
host, Bayram (as well as his
host in Istanbul, Sadik) spent many hours showing us around and making
sure we were all set with accomodation and travel, etc. Despite
this, driving in Turkey (especially the cities) is an experience.
Lanes and street-lights seem to be suggestions only. The
drivers are very good, but nuts! There are lots of busses, taxis,
and mini-vans used for public transportation. They are constantly
tooting their horns. It's not usually an aggressive honk - just
enought to let folks know they are there / available. Bus and van
drivers would often wait and/or open the doors to let a late passenger
get on. Bayram made the analogy about the drivers' attitudes about
pedestrians: we are like pigeons, and drivers expect we will "fly" out
of the way when they get close. On the flip side, pedestrians (in
a critical mass) will ignore the fact that the cars have the right of
way and will cross the street anyway. This is all made that much
more interesting by the fact that their sidewalk curbs (footpath
kerbs!) are much higher than we're used to. We got the hang of it
all after a while, but we have a few more gray hairs for the effort.
We've tried to share lots of pictures,
so we've split this up into 3 pages (one for each of our "stops") to
make it easier to view. Hope that works! If not, let us
know and we'll revamp it.
