So we missed the Chora Church museum - a former Byzantine Christian church - but I wouldn't have traded my experience that morning. (I'll just have to go back and see the Chora museum next time.) We met up with the rest in time for lunch on the "Istiklal Caddesi" - a street young Turks and tourists like to cruise for it's shopping and people-watching (I counted three Starbucks). By this time, I had already enjoyed five cups of chai this morning and, despite Ersin's warning, I insisted that I would try to drink ten cups of tea throughout the day. After some shopping, we said "goodbye" to Ersin and Yusef took us back to the hotel.
I had about an hour and a half before we were going to meet to try to take a ferry out to Leander's Tower (also known as the "Maiden's Tower") - featured in the climactic scene of one of the recent James Bond films, "The World is Not Enough" - so I decided to wander around the neighborhood and look for another cup of tea. I trudged up the hill through the decrepit streets behind the hotel. It was Sunday afternoon, so most businesses were closed (Turkey's secular society observes the same Monday through Friday work week as the West, even though Muslims worship on Friday afternoons). After about 20 minutes of searching, I decided to head back down the hill. I almost walked past the Cafe Kishla the first time. This was one of those "hole-in-the-wall" establishments and gave me another of those experiences that one can only have in a culture where no one looks like you and you don't speak the language. The only Turkish word I know is "chai". The proprietor nodded and said "yes" - perhaps the only English he knows - and I settled in at a table by the window. There were a couple tables of middle-aged Turkish men playing cards and another game that looked like dominoes with numbered tiles. Smokey and sweaty, I spent the next 40 minutes drinking tea and describing the setting in my journal.
When I got back to the hotel, I washed my face and met the rest of the group downstairs. We didn't make it in time to visit the tower, but after some ice cream we decided - and I have no idea how this topic of conversation came up - decided to find a cafe and try a "sheesha pipe", as Rachel and I were the only ones in the group who had every tried it. In Middle Eastern society it's popular to smoke flavored tobacco through a contraption that is essentially a water bong (I will assure you that it was only tobacco; drugs are illegal in Turkey, too, and from what I understand carry a much stiffer penalty than in the U.S.; "sheesha" is very popular at cafes in Istanbul). I've only tried a regular cigarette a handful of times, but one notices right away that it is much smoother than regular tobacco. (The first time I smoked a "sheesha" was actually on my first tour in Iraq in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert with some Kuwaiti soldiers.)
The walk back featured a beautiful view of the sun setting behind Leander's Tower on the European side. When we got back, Brent and I hit the sauna before dinner. Later that evening, Ryan and I tried to fall asleep in a room that felt like a sauna with our malfunctioning air conditioner. Keeping the door open kept the room cool, but then we heard the cheers, whistles and fireworks of families celebrating the departure of their sons into compulsory military service at the ferry landing below our hotel.
[Me and Brent Smith enjoying a chai Sunday morning.]
[Velle, me, Ryan, Vesa]
["Flat" bread (giant air bubbles). I really like Turkish food, by the way.]
[Istiklal Caddesi]
[Istiklal Caddesi]
[Ersin and me.]
[Cafe Kishla]
[Side street behind hotel. You can just make out the sign for the Cafe Kishla behind the first car parked on the right side of the street.]
[Boats on the Bosphorus.]
[Blue Mosque (six minarets) and the Hagia Sophia (four minarets).]
[Leander's Tower]
[Sidewalk cafe on the Strait.]
[Tea and sheesha.]
[Leander's Tower]
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