All of my friends from the Bahaus hostel in Istanbul.
Ok, I know that it is early in my trip to start making these kind of judgments. And I know that I have been using superlatives a little too much lately. But seriously, Istanbul is the coolest city in the world. Nothing else is going to compare. I should just stop traveling now. But seriously, it is really not what I expected. You may ask, well Elissa, what did you expect? And I will probably sound like a completely narrow-minded Westerner when I tell you that I guess I thought it would be stuffy and dark and crowded and full of orange stucco buildings. And I'd walk through the streets singing "Gotta keep...one jump ahead of the riff raff..." Isn't it sad how all of our misconceptions come from movies? Anyway, there is some orange stucco, it's true. But this city is airy and bright and BEAUTIFUL.
Kristen and I got in yesterday afternoon, and proceeded to take an unplanned tour of the city. We are staying in Sultanamet, the old part of town, but at the airport we accidentally got on a bus going to Taksim, the new neighborhood north across the Bosphorus river. The European part of Istanbul is basically two peninsulas: the bottom one is hamburger style and the top is hot dog (if you ever folded paper in elementary school, you know what I'm talking about). The two peninsulas are separated by the Bosphorus River, a bright and shining river that really is blue. Basically, we got on this bus and drove along the southern coast of the lower peninsula, along the Sea of Marmara, and then cut up through a neighborhood called Aksaray and took the Bosphorus bridge up into Taksim. Along the coast, it reminded me of Tel Aviv. There are amazing little neighborhoods and huge hotels, separated from a grassy beach by a wide road. Cutting up through the city, we passed turn offs into neighborhoods with streets that looked like they were out of a movie set. Everything looks so new and shiny and cosmopolitan. We crossed the Bosphorus bridge, and wound up through the newer neighborhood to Taksim Square. In Taksim, we decided to catch a taxi back down to Old Town, so we quickly hailed a cab, decided on a price, and proceeded to be taken the long way back. This time, we drove west (the wrong way) along the southern coast of the upper peninsula. We were on a big wide street that felt like the Embarcadero in San Francisco, except instead of piers there are hundred years old mosques. It is stunning. We crossed a different bridge further west and snaked our way back east past the Spice Bazaar and finally into Sultanamet. All in all, it took us about an hour to make our journey from the airport to our hostel. And it probably should have taken about twenty minutes. But what a way to begin, taking in the sights of Istanbul.
I suppose it would help all you readers if I could post some pictures to illustrate the sights I speak of. Kristen has figured out how to do this on the hostel computers, and at some point soon I will have her enlighten me. So much more to say about this city so I will write soon. There are tales of naked women with saggy boobs scrubbing me in the Turkish baths, and men who sit in front of their carpet shops all day shouting that they love us. It is also Ramadan, a really exciting time to visit, because the whole city comes out at night to eat and celebrate. What a wonderful place. I'm sure at some point I will direct a new and cutting edge musical about Istanbul, and it will have made sense that I wrote this part of the trip off.
But now I'm going to go eat some Turkish dumplings with a group of people from my hostel.
Elissa
PS- I forgot to mention in my previous post about New York why that part of the vacation should be tax deductible. But I guess it's kind of obvious. Of course I'm going to marry Lin Manuel Miranda, he's going to write a musical about a Latino and a Jew living together in New York City, I'm going to direct it, and it's going to win another Tony. And of course none of that would have been possible without this trip. Totally worth a tax deduction.
Kristen and I got in yesterday afternoon, and proceeded to take an unplanned tour of the city. We are staying in Sultanamet, the old part of town, but at the airport we accidentally got on a bus going to Taksim, the new neighborhood north across the Bosphorus river. The European part of Istanbul is basically two peninsulas: the bottom one is hamburger style and the top is hot dog (if you ever folded paper in elementary school, you know what I'm talking about). The two peninsulas are separated by the Bosphorus River, a bright and shining river that really is blue. Basically, we got on this bus and drove along the southern coast of the lower peninsula, along the Sea of Marmara, and then cut up through a neighborhood called Aksaray and took the Bosphorus bridge up into Taksim. Along the coast, it reminded me of Tel Aviv. There are amazing little neighborhoods and huge hotels, separated from a grassy beach by a wide road. Cutting up through the city, we passed turn offs into neighborhoods with streets that looked like they were out of a movie set. Everything looks so new and shiny and cosmopolitan. We crossed the Bosphorus bridge, and wound up through the newer neighborhood to Taksim Square. In Taksim, we decided to catch a taxi back down to Old Town, so we quickly hailed a cab, decided on a price, and proceeded to be taken the long way back. This time, we drove west (the wrong way) along the southern coast of the upper peninsula. We were on a big wide street that felt like the Embarcadero in San Francisco, except instead of piers there are hundred years old mosques. It is stunning. We crossed a different bridge further west and snaked our way back east past the Spice Bazaar and finally into Sultanamet. All in all, it took us about an hour to make our journey from the airport to our hostel. And it probably should have taken about twenty minutes. But what a way to begin, taking in the sights of Istanbul.
I suppose it would help all you readers if I could post some pictures to illustrate the sights I speak of. Kristen has figured out how to do this on the hostel computers, and at some point soon I will have her enlighten me. So much more to say about this city so I will write soon. There are tales of naked women with saggy boobs scrubbing me in the Turkish baths, and men who sit in front of their carpet shops all day shouting that they love us. It is also Ramadan, a really exciting time to visit, because the whole city comes out at night to eat and celebrate. What a wonderful place. I'm sure at some point I will direct a new and cutting edge musical about Istanbul, and it will have made sense that I wrote this part of the trip off.
But now I'm going to go eat some Turkish dumplings with a group of people from my hostel.
Elissa
PS- I forgot to mention in my previous post about New York why that part of the vacation should be tax deductible. But I guess it's kind of obvious. Of course I'm going to marry Lin Manuel Miranda, he's going to write a musical about a Latino and a Jew living together in New York City, I'm going to direct it, and it's going to win another Tony. And of course none of that would have been possible without this trip. Totally worth a tax deduction.
2 comments:
Sounds wonderful and definitely familiar--only my hamam scrubbers were pervy men without saggy boobs, and instead of hearing men yell I love you, they called me at me and my girlfriends, hey, Spice Girls (shows you how old I am). Anyway, I asked my friend who spends every summer in Dubrovnik for suggestions on where to go, and she gave me a ton, so let me know when/how you want them.
you crack me up. i miss the humor. sounds like an amazing place. def on my list of my future european extravaganza....that i will unfortunately probably not be able to write off...
love - the sis
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