Friday, November 27, 2009

Istanbul, Turkey

We made it to Istanbul on the overnight Orient Express – safe but not entirely sound. Since we arrived, we’ve been holed up in our apartment, all five sick with what may well be the swine flu. It’s not so bad; we have a nice view of the city from the kitchen of the apartment we’ve rented in the Beyoğlu neighborhood. As we sip our chicken noodle soup, we can see barges floating down the mighty Bosporus toward the Black Sea. We’re taking advantage of the down time to pour through all of our travel books, and Jason has an itinerary of 10 days’ worth of sites to pack in. Just as soon as we feel well enough to get out…

The mosque next door broadcasts the call to prayer into our window from the loud speakers every few hours and reminds us we’re not in Kansas anymore. Five times each day, mosques around the city sing out versus from the Koran (in Arabic, even here in Turkey where the people speak Turkish) calling believers to kneel toward Mecca and pray. Before spending time in Tunisia, I was worried about whether we would be expected to, or ridiculed for, taking part… would people be dropping to their knees all around, and we the only ones left standing, like musical chairs? But that was not an issue in Tunisia or nor has it been here in Istanbul. As the call to prayer sounds, you may see men running toward the mosques (women are only allowed on Fridays), but nobody seems to be dropping to the ground outdoors.

We will be celebrating Turkey Day from Turkey this year. We’re trying to focus on the humor in it rather than get homesick. We were hoping to forego the whole feast preparation, turkey, gravy, stuffing, and had planned instead to take the kids to a traditional Istanbul meyhane (dining room) where you kick off your shoes and sit around a low round table on floor cushions while the chef sends out dish after dish of his daily specialties from which to choose. It sounded to Jason and me like a perfect substitute for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, though, the kids will have none of it. We were out voted at this morning’s breakfast-table ballot, so it looks like we’ll be venturing out to the local produce market on the shores of the Bosporus today… and cooking a traditional Thanksgiving feast here in our apartment tomorrow… Haven’t figured out how we’re going to fit the turkey in the toaster oven.

Cheerio,

Angela