hoş geldiniz

after finding the armenian patriarchate in the southern part of the bazaar district, i wandered in to the church (St. Mary). as i was saying the 'Hayr mer' ('our Father') and lighting a candle, the muslim call to prayer began.
yesterday, i read stories from salman rushdie's 'east, west' while sitting in the park between the hagia sofia (aya sofya) and the blue mosque (sultanhamet cami).
yes- hoş geldiniz (welcome) to istanbul!

since its been almost a week, i wont plod through details, but a few highlights are worth mentioning:

day 1 (weds): after deciding to take public transit to get to the hostel (in the rain), a young couple helped me get to taksim square. they rode with me on a dolmuş (shared taxi) and paid my way. what a welcome! right after, another man helped me find the hostel. after, we went for drinks, and, at the end of the night i was brought a bill for 2300 lira (ca. 1800 dollars). i got out of most of it, thankfully because 4-5 beers didn't turn me into an idiot. what a welcome!

day 2 (thurs): mostly i wandered around taksim area in a semi-hungover-very-ticked-off-about-the-attempt-to-be-screwed-over state. taksim has great shopping, and all the best night life. its also incredibly crowded. to imagine istikal street on friday night, berkeley people could imagine telegraph ave packed to the brim on game day, except the street is full of people too.

day 3 (fri): left taksim and bought my akbil, the little device used for transportation- very cool. san francisco doesn't even have fully integrated transport like this. the cityscape is utterly incredible. i'll get pictures up soon, but they won't do it justice. this is the day i found the patriarchate after lots and lots and lots of wandering around the bazaar district. i ate at a nice seafood restaurant and wandered back through the grand bazaar. the walk back over galata bridge is also incredible. that night, i went out with a couple people from the hostel, including one of my roomates who studies political science at the university of london.

a few words about the hostel: chillout was, well, an experience. the staff was full of characters, often there was no toilet paper or power in the middle of the night, but for 35 bucks for 4 nights, im allright with it. the people that i met were amazing. in addition to my roommate, noteables include the young man who was a university of chicago undergrad now doing his phd at oxford and the argentinian who quoted walt whitman.

day 4 (sat): went out with nicole pay, a girl i met last summer in hopes of convincing her to go to berkeley instead of some other crappy bay area school (i told her brown was okay). she is studying in istanbul, and has been for this academic year. it was nice to see a (even if only somewhat) familiar face. she took me to bekek and beşitas areas north of taksim to walk along the bosphorous. to stare across a strait of water not that wide and say ' im standing in europe, that's asia' is pretty freaking cool. we had dondurma (ice cream, yum!) and she took me to another small armenian church in the bebek area (Holy Cross). it was a nice, relaxing day. and, again, its nice to have someone familiarish to hang out with.
found an armenian church much closer to beyoğlu (bey-oh-loo), about five minutes from the hostel, and went there for saturday night services. it was really moving to be at badarak in turkey.

day 5 (sun): Easter! Christ is resurrected from the dead! Blessed be the resurrection of Christ! went back to church in beyoğlu, which was packed. again, i can't stress how incredible and moving it is to see a packed church with a bishop and 15 altar servers in turkey. i never cease to be amazed at the resilience of armenians.
i moved out of the hostel on sunday, and into my new room in an apartment. uğur (from whom im renting the room- its "uh-ur" or close to it) speaks almost no english, so hopefully my turkish will improve quickly. the room is small, but compared to living out of a bag for four days, its an incredible amount of space, and just as much as i could need. uğur is very nice and accommodating- he took care of dinner on sunday and cooked last night...

day 6 (mon): got moving slowly and headed out of taksim to sultanhamet, the main touristy district. museums (the hagia sofia was turned into a museum by atatürk, the founder of the modern republic) are closed on mondays, but mosques are in full operation. as i mentioned, i sat in the area between the aya sofya and the sultanhamet cami (blue mosque). inside the blue mosque is pretty much beyond words. i just sat and marveled for probably half an hour. the pictures will give you a hint, but certainly cannot do it justice.


ooooookay. sorrrry, very very long post. but now we're up to speed, and i should have internet in my apartment starting today, so it will be more convenient to post, as well as pictures. hope all is well, please leave me comments here or myspace or facebook- its much less daunting being on the other side of the world when i hear from my friends and family!