I explored a lot of İstanbul with her that I hadn't seen for the time that I had been here. I played tour guide for a little while while I lived in Sultanahmet: the Blue Mosque, Eminönü, the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar, the nargileci tucked behind mosques that felt like stepping back into the Ottoman days of the 1600s when you went inside. She explored a lot of the museums and such herself though while I was working in order to keep busy, so I am apparantly still missing out on a lot of good stuff. We did make it to the Archaeological Museum together, but I wish it had been another museum we had gone to; let's just say this prospective visitors - don't come here just to see the archaeology museum. At times it was like the Greek section of the Met.
One day, when the weather was halfway decent, we went up in the Galata Tower, which is across the Golden Horn from where I live. It is a stone tower built in the 7th century by the Byzantines that functioned as a lighthouse, a fire tower, and a prison at various times, but nowadays it houses a restaurant/nightclub and a narrow balcony where tourists can go out and view the cityscape and the Bosphorous. Since it is on a hill it does indeed provide an excellent view of the city and you are actually higher up than you think you really are. Legend has it that around the 14th century, one man fashioned some wings made from fabric, jumped off the tower, and glided to the other side of the Bosphorous while the sultan and thousands of people looked on. At first, the sultan was pleased, but on second thought he had the man put to death because he feared he may have been some sort of magician or sorcerer.
The view from the top really is breathtaking; on the day we went up you could see clear for fifteen or twenty miles, and apart from the sea and the mountains across it, all there was to see to the horizon was city. İstanbul. You don't really know how big the city truly is until you go up in the tower and see it stretching to the horizon. New York built up, but İstanbul built out. Indeed, you could say that İstanbul is no more than a collection of villages. Many parts of the city actually still retain their village names: Bakırköy (Copper Village), Karaköy (Black Village), Arnavutköy (Albanian Village), Yeşilköy (Green Village), and so on. You really get a sense that İstanbul really is too big for one continent when you are up on the balcony of the tower, looking over the terra cotta roofs with the salty wind blowing in your face and the sound of ships' horns belching in the distance.
Another day we took the ferry to Kadıköy, on the Asian side. The ferry boat is the same fare as riding the bus or the metro, so it is an inexpensive activity for the student or budget traveler. Like the Staten Island ferry, everyone waits in the terminal until the arriving passengers get off the boat, and then once the doors open everyone throngs toward the entrance and you get squeezed like a tube of toothpaste. On the boat we clambered across the rickety wooden gangplank and climbed over the massive piles of ropes and got a seat along the rear starboard gunwale toward the stern. On the way over a thick salty haze over the water made it difficult to see to far, but the deep, cold water was a brilliant blue green color, and sparkled in the weak sunshine.
The Asian side of İstanbul was pointedly less crowded, more laid back and relaxed. People didn't have the urgent hustle of the European side, and the energy was much more easygoing and welcoming. Since we went in the late afternoon, we didn't stay long, just long enough to get a feel for ''The Other Side'' and to catch a few cups of tea, a nargile, and a balık ekmek (fresh mackerel sandwich). On the way back, the setting sun bathed the city in an orange glow, and as the temperature dropped rapidly as we crossed the Bosphorous our puffs of breath mixed with the salty haze over the water. The other side was nice, but I was glad to be back in Europe - back in the busy rhythym. As the boat moved in place to dock, people began climbing over the rails and leaping onto the dock before the boat was even close to being tied up. I laughed and enjoyed the romance of it - it was quite the contrast to back home, where insurance and safety regulations take the fun out of everything. People do still live in some places.
Aside from exploring and running around, going to the gym and hanging out in parks and exploring mosques and cooking and olive-tasting at bazaars, Chrissy made some friends as well. Well, more like she stole my friends from me (wink). Her abundant free time allowed her to spend more time with my friends than I could, and she was well liked by all of them, probably more than I. They gave her countless cups of tea and great conversations and stories, and they were all sad when she left. My friends Kürşad and Üskan had a particularly fun time with her, jocularly joking her with and trying to get her to go home with a carpet, a small Afghan horse-hair carpet that I actually really liked and kind of wish she bought (wink again).
A man's woman
The 15 lira dinner
We did so much and had the best time together, and it was too soon for her to leave; there was still so much to be done. It felt like she had been here with me all along, and now after she has gone my new house, which she moved into with me, is emptier and lonlier, because she made it homey with me. In many ways, it isn't, and won't be, the same.
Nontheless, changes at work coincided with her leaving. One teacher, who went on vacation, decided not to come back, and with another teacher being fired, things have been hectic around the school trying to get the teacherless classes covered. So now I am very busy covering classes, and I don't have much time for anything else - forty hour weeks with Wednesdays off for the time being. It's good because it is keeping me busy, and the exhaustion will be worth it in the end.
But the busy rhythym has been lightened by one thing: I bought a new typewriter for my collection. I haggled with the old keymaker and got it down to 65 lira ($50), and what conditioın it is in. A Turkish Typewriter!!
Mom, make some more room in the attic!!
Quite the keyboard indeed
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