A little bit on Istanbul

I've been in Istanbul for a week, and it has been great. This city is so big, and each part of it has its own flavor--all of which I have liked for some reason or another. I think I have enjoyed Sultanahmet, the district where my hotel is located, the most though (probably because the architecture and pace of life is the most different from what I am used to). Sultanahmet is the district in Istanbul that has the densest concentration of historical buildings. This quality makes it an incredibly interesting area to walk around in as you quite literally come across a mosque on almost every corner. It is probably no surprise that there is a lot of tourist traffic in Sultanahmet since some of these mosques are massive buildings rivaling the great churches in other parts of the world. Also in the area is a magnificent Ottoman palace, the Grand Bazzar (an enormous covered vendor market), some Roman cisterns, and many other aged structures. The tourist traffic actually hasn't bothered me though as I can always escape to my hotel which is quite peaceful.

Actually, my hotel/hostel, the Stone Hotel, deserves a paragraph of its own. I feel really lucky to have ended up at this place. When I landed at the Istanbul airport, I jumped on an internet connection and found out the locations of bunch of hostels (this one included). But I probably wouldn't have ended up here had I not been approached by a nice old man named Mufit who convinced me to walk a few blocks with him and check out the Stone Hotel. I ended up paying about $15 per night for a bed in a six person dormitory in which I am the only occupant. The hotel has a fantastic sitting area up on the roof with a vantage point on much of Sultanahmet (which is built onto a pritty big hill). From the roof you can also look out on the Marmara sea that has quite a bit of ship traffic. Often while watching the freight traffic from the roof, I have thought of my grandmother Marion Mans and her pastime of identifying the shipping lines on the detroit river. Also right across the street from the hotel is a beautiful abandoned mosque that you can see in the picture to the left.

Also, I have become friends with the owners and staff of the hotel and they have shown me a great time. We eat wonderful Turkish meals together almost every night on the roof or in the stone garden down below prepared by Yemek, who is a great guy and the chef here. Since I have been here I have been treated to unbelievable hospitality by so many people.

Back to describing Sultanahmet, one byproduct of the tourist traffic in the area is a a local economy that is supported by it. As there is much competition in the garnering of tourist dollars, the merchants and street vendors get quite clever and practiced in their art of luring in customers. One of the more original techniques that I have witnessed here came when a young guy about my age started walking alongside me and asked me where I was from, and how I liked Istanbul etc..., and told me that he was a student trying to practice his english. We walked around talking for about twenty minutes when he said "Come, I would like to show you my family's shop." The next thing I knew, I was sitting on a couch in the shop drinking chai tea, and two of this guy's uncles were showing me carpets.

In this experience described above, I think it is safe to assume that the young guy who approached me wasn't solely interested in conversing to share aspects of each other's cultures. But this type of situation actually represents the vast minority of the interactions I have had with people in Istanbul. The scale has actually been tipped heavily towards the side of people genuinely interested in helping foreigners out, and showing the utmost in hospitality. One friendship I made with another guy about my age named Hatip turned out to be very positive. Hatip works in Sultanahmet at a relatives jewelry shop, and through hanging out with him I met a ton of people and got a glimpse of the tight knit community of locals living in Sultanahmet. It was really fun going around with Hatip because it seems like he knows everyone and is constantly stopping to say hi to people working in shops, guys running carts that sell grilled corn or other snacks, carpet salesmen like the guy I described above, everybody.

Unfortunately I must end this here because I only have a couple of minutes. I am actually in Plowdiv, Bulgaria now and just finished copying some of what I wrote by hand earlier. Thanks for reading and I hope people will comment and relate some of their own experiences and stuff like that.