Monday was one of my favorite days in Istanbul and a great follow up to my amazing weekend.
We met at Sirkeci Station (where Kristina and I were doing our presentation tomorrow) and hopped on a train that took us around the Seraglio Point. We hopped off after a few stops finding ourselves in a very non-touristy neighborhood and the beginning of the Theodosian walls that surrounded Constantinople, dating back to the fifth century.
The beginning of these walls is marked by Yedikule Hisar. The Fortress of the Seven Towers as it is known in English was built in 1457 by Mehmet the Conqueror after he took Istanbul.
One thing about Turkish monuments: it's an explore at your own risk sort of thing.
That being said, without other tourists milling about or the constant presence of guards, we had a ridiculously fun time. I think Professor Shields meant us to spend about thirty minutes there, but once you stick ten college students inside an old, empty Ottoman Fortress, things get a little out of hand.
We explored all the dark nooks and cranies where there was no light. We felt our way up dark staircases, walked the battlements, climbed higher even when there was no secure way of doing so, and took amazing pictures (and video on my part) from the top of the towers. We poked our way around the old prison cells and the deep hole where they dropped decapitated bodies down to be washed into the Sea of Marmara. We tested the decaying supports put up by the state for tourists and definitely came to the conclusion that they couldn't support our weight. We scared each other coming around corners, talked about the possibilites of skeletons and ghosts, and sang Disney songs. Loudly.
Eventually Professor Shields had to call us down from where some of the group were spelling TURKS from the top of one of the towers.
But the fun wasn't done after we left the Yedikule.
We spent a period of time just walking beside the walls. On one side was a busy road, on the other, a very poor neighborhood. Often times there were small shelters set up in holes in the wall where squatters made a small home for themselves. In many spots the walls were burnt black and covered in soot from fires people lit up next to the wall. You could also find clothes lines fixed on sections of the wall with T-Shirts hung up to dry. At one point we supposedly walked through a gypsy settlement among these poor neighborhoods. There were also a few sections in the old walls that had been restored, and we climbed up to walk it's length for a small stretch.
We were forced to take a bend away from the walls at one point by a modern wall and found ourselves emptying back out into the busy roadway and the commercial district surrounding it. Here we stopped for lunch, just about halfway done with the six kilometer trek that was the old walls.
Afterwards, we all decided to continue our walk. We ended up exploring a restored section that included a couple of towers and some of us managed to climb our way up to the top. Like Yedikule, there was no presence of rails to keep silly tourists from falling. There was one giant hole in the middle of this watchtower and then the ledge that dropped you at least six stories if my judgement is correct. Though the walkway around was pretty wide, having open space in both directions was kind of scary. Four of us did climb on top of the ledge for the sake of a picture and I held on for dear life, though Edward was very nonchalant about the whole thing. The picture did turn out pretty good.
We made our way down from the tower and then trailblazed along the top of the old walls as the restored section gave way for a way back to the road without having to backtrack to the rest of the group. With some help from some friendly Turks who pointed out a steep pathway, Edward, David, Zoe, and I all made it back down to the ground.
We did still have to backtrack though because the others had no clue where we were.
After that, our journey along the second half of the Theodosian walls was all about finding places to climb up and hiking our way as far as we could across the decaying walls before having to climb down again. Along the way we climbed more towers, including one that wasn't restored at all and without any sort of railing to keep us in either way.
After having to climb down once again due to a busy road, we found another restored section that included an almost Inca-like steps up. Much hilarity ensued in getting everyone up and then down, especially when Clayton commenced his Bon Qui Qui immitation to entice Amanda down the ladder-like steps. However, the views from the top of the tower provided the best views of the city yet. I think they surpassed the view from Galata Tower, but that might have been because we had to work for it too.
We finally made it to the end of the trek after getting lost when the walls seemed to disappear in a middle-class neighborhood, but we found them once again. Six kilometers long, the journey took us about seven hours total when accounting for lunch and our play time.
I learned a few things along the way:
1) Turks don't use handrails or anything to keep tourists/students/anyone from falling.
2) The walls provided a home for some people
3) Zoe likes giving me a heartattack (by taking silly risks)
4) We like giving Professor Shields a heartattack (by taking silly risks)
5) Some Istanbullus like to chill in the restored walls and towers by smoking or meeting up with friends.
6) Other Istanbullus use monuments of a bygone era for trash dumping
7) Life continues on around history
8) There are all sorts of people, neighborhoods, and businesses going on just in the immediate vicinity of the walls
9) Armenian churches still exist in Istanbul, right next door to mosques
10) Climbing to the very top of anything is very fulfilling and will provide amazing views
We then had an adventure getting to the ferry. Good thing we have Yekta! Though the ferry left as soon as we arrived so we ended up taking a bus. Then we had a brief hour before we had a Turkish lesson with Hande on our terrace. We have a lot of fun in our Turkish lessons, the best language lessons I've ever had and the most informal. Though it's funny. I always start thinking in Spanish during the lessons.
After grabbing a quick dinner, it was time for Kristina and I to crack down and prepare for our presentation for the next day: Sirkeci Station and the Orient Express. We finished up at about 1:30 and then it was time for bed.
Today we met at the Karikoy ferry at 10:30. After a brief moment of worry in which the ferry had arrived, but not Professor Shields or William. We all gave a sigh of relief when somebody won the "Where's William?" game (See Kristina's blog for details), though I can't remember who; nevertheless everybody got on the ferry in time.
After a brief bus ride in Asia, we took a few minutes to get oriented at our stop and the direction we needed to head to reach the Sufi NGO we were visiting.
Sufism is a branch of Islam (though Sufis themselves wouldn't call it a branch) that is mystical and all about getting along together. To them, there are no Sunni and Shi'a, or any other Muslim sects. At least this is how I understand it. We met the woman in charge of the NGO (I'm sorry I can't remember her name!). She was very intelligent and it was delight to see how happy she was to have us there. We talked for a considerable time. Unfortunately, she herself was very mystic and her answers followed suit.
After feeding us lamacun (pronounced lama-june), we left to head back to Europe and Sirkeci Station so me and Kristina could do our presentation.
Yay, Orient Express and Sirkeci Station!
We treated everybody to tea and then the group split up to do a number of different things. Kevin and I accompanied Kristina and David in sunglass hunting at the Spice Bazaar. Though they both ended up buying a pair near our flat instead.
There was a traditional Sufi performance, supposedly for education purposes as this is the only express Sufis are allowed to have in Turkey, tonight that most of us went to. And though I wanted to go, I had too much I needed to catch up on. Such as this blog. And video editing from last week. As well as housework. Boo.
