Thoughts on Belfast

I've now been in Belfast for four days. Here are my impressions so far. It's smaller than I expected. I don't mean population wise. I mean geographically. The neighborhoods of Sandy Row (Protestant), The Falls (Catholic), and Shankill (Protestant) are so close together, and not far off the main roads. I took a wrong turn on my first day here when searching for an electronics store and ended up walking through Sandy Row.

Culture Shock

Despite my initial doubts, I now know that culture shock exists.

This list will be added to as time goes on:

1. Everyone speaks English.

2. Police are not a very common sight.

3. Police do not carry automatic weapons.

4. The military isn't all over the city.

5. I can eavesdrop without even thinking about it.

6. I can ask anyone for directions and understand what they tell me.

7. I can blend in.

8. There is no call to prayer, as such I never know what time it is.

9. Exchange offices have huge spreads and charge ridiculous amounts for commission.

10. There are no military vehicles with turrets going down the street.

11. Nobody honks.

12. Everyone else can eavesdrop on me.

13. Clicking at people is NOT a normal way to say "no."

14. No one pronounces döner or kebap correctly.

15. I can't use my akbil to pay for the bus.

Stambul, seni seviyorum ama görüşürüz

(Translation: Istanbul, I love you but see ya later)

Things I will miss about Istanbul:

1. The breeze that comes off the Boğaz (Bosphorus)

2. My friends

3. Random adventures, even if they don't turn out so well (ahem, city walls)

4. Istiklal Caddesi and its many sidestreets

5. Walking arm in arm along above mentioned streets

6. Functioning public transportation

7. Counting ships that pass thru the Boğaz

8. Çay

9. Simit

10. Peynirli sigara böreği

11. Islak hamburgers

12. Dürümzade

13. Dondurmacıs who play tricks on people

14. Efes Pilsen (I will buy a 12 pack if I ever find it in Spec's)

15. Stray animals, especially having cats in the classroom

16. Amusing translations into English (I have seen #9 translated as cigarette pastry with cheese)

17. Breakfast menus that just list "breakfast" and a price

18. Fresh squeezed orange juice

19. Fruits and veggies from the Rumeli hisarüstü pazar

20. Kissing on both cheeks as a greeting

21. The guys who try to convince drunks that a bunny can tell their fortune

22. Feeling no guilt about laying on the south campus lawn all day

23. Drinking beers on south campus overlooking the Bosphorus

24. Friends dancing around trees to traditional songs

25. Students with accordions and fiddles who play traditional Turkish songs as well as "Oh, Susana (Don't You Cry for Me)" by the economics building in the middle of the night

26. Turkish waffles (covered in nutella, fresh fruit, nuts, folded in half and eaten like a sandwich)

27. Classes with 15 minute breaks every hour because both the prof and the students need çay and a cigarette.

28. The following as common snacks: grilled corn, dried apricots, roasted chestnuts, almonds, chickpeas, pumpkin seeds, white grape raisins

29. Araf, Jazz Stop, Babylon, 360, Machine, The Secret Garden

30. Beyti Sarma at Urfam

31. Finding portraits, busts and statues of Mustafa Kemal Atutürk ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE

32. Watching the sunrise over the Bosphorus from south campus

Things I will not miss about Istanbul:

1. Creepers on the metro who stand too close to me

2. People who don't wear deodorant

3. Having to keep buying more and more kontör for my phone

4. The way a crowded bus smells in the summer

5. Random places not having A/C

6. Shopkeepers in Ottoman Disneyworld (Sultanahmet/Grand Bazaar/Spice Bazaar)

7. #6 cont'd: "Lady, you dropped something... my heart."

8. #6 cont'd: "Please, let me help you spend your money"

9. #6 cont'd: "You so beautiful. For you, everything in my shop free."

10. Guys in a club who can't take a hint

11. The general lack of limes

12. Lemons with tequila shots

13. People, places and class operating on "Turkish time" (x1.5)

14. Sweatpants as a fashion statement

15. Having to buy bottled water

16. Guys who don't understand that I don't want to go into their club

17. Paving stones that aren't mortared into the ground and splash me

18. Guys who think it looks good to spike the hair on the crown of their heads and push everything else forward, while leaving a mullet in the back.

19. The moment of panic: "We're on a bridge. Why are we on a bridge?"

More will be added to these lists before the night is through.

Balkan Adventure

Back in May I got a message from my buddy Kevin saying he’d be in the Balkans in late June. After a little bit of rearranging my flights to Belfast and back to America, I agreed to meet him in the resort town of Budva, Montenegro for a few days and booked a hostel. That’s about where the plans that worked ended.

Thursday afternoon I left Deniz’s apartment with what I thought would be enough time to get down to Taksim Square and catch the Havaş bus to the airport. Much to my dismay, I missed the bus that would have put me in the airport on time. I said goodbye to Deniz (continuing what seemed to have been a full week of saying goodbye to friends), and waited for the next bus. I totally forgot about rush hour traffic and ended up getting to the airport with only an hr before takeoff. It was at this moment when my plans began to unravel. The people at the check-in counter said that my name wasn’t on the list. I later confirmed that my card was never charged for the plane ticket I bought, despite the fact that I got a confirmation email. So I went over to the ticket office, bought a last minute ticket, checked my bag, rushed thru security and got on the plane with a little bit of time to spare (though not enough to pick up some duty free goodies for the weekend).

My flight transfer was in Belgrade, which is where I discovered that my return flight was booked 5 days after I had asked (and 3 days after I was supposed to be in Belfast). Ended up getting that worked out tho. Met up with the only other Anglophones on the flight from Belgrade to Podgorica, who happened to be from Tasmania. They were staying in the same place as me so I just kinda tagged along with them for about 24 hrs.

Podgorica, though it’s the capital of Montenegro, isn’t much to see. People are generally nice tho, and it’s quite cheap despite the euro. Anyway, I wandered around with the Tazzies in the morning and then hopped on a bus to Budva after watching yet another World Cup match. In case anyone was wondering, Montenegrins root for Serbia.

Got down to Budva in about an hr and a half, took a taxi to the old town and then wandered around asking shop keepers where my hostel was. The owner of the local Irish pub, a nice fellow from County Kildare, helped me find it. Felt like a nice little transition in my travels. I had forgotten how calming the Irish accent can be when you’re really stressed. As it was kind of late in the afternoon, I went inside the hostel, chatted with the other travelers and just kind of chilled out. This was the theme of the weekend more or less. Went out with the hostel crowd that night. Had a pretty good time, though I discovered that Budva is a hub for Russian tourists, who incidentally do not dance very well. And love the bad techno that plays at the clubs we usually shun in Istanbul.

Spent the next day wandering around trying to find the good beaches. In the afternoon, some Swedish girls showed up and said they knew where the best one was, so we went down this tiny little path around a rockface, which after a few minutes’ walk reveals a beach and bar next to a cliff. Went swimming and tanned for several hours. Came back with this odd feeling that Kevin was in town. The guy at the front desk said he was supposed to be in at 5. I got back around 4:45 and figured I probably had time to shower. Got out of the shower and there was Kevin sitting on his bunk just as relieved to see me as I was to see him. Apparently he had been wandering around trying to find the hostel for hours.

We spent the rest of the weekend catching up, laying on the beach, and dealing with the fiasco of doing laundry (long story that’s not really worth telling). It was an absolutely fantastic weekend. Incredibly relaxing. I think it’s just the transition I needed between Istanbul and Belfast. No one really hassles you in Budva. The streets aren’t swarming with people. There’s a club scene but it’s pretty tame compared to the intensity of Istanbul clubbing. Unfortunately, there’s a general lack of healthy food and cheap fruits and veggies.

My way back was also a bit of a hassle. I got my flight rearranged the correct way without having to pay a fee, thankfully. Woke up at 4:40am this morning and packed up my still semi-damp clothes. They were hanging up in the floor below me, where no one had been sleeping all weekend. Of course, I flipped the light on to look for my clothes and there were people sleeping in there. Pretty sure I forgot a pair of socks when I gathered up my laundry in the dark. I said goodbye to Kevin, who was still asleep. Didn’t have the heart to wake him up. Took a taxi over to the bus station, hopped on the 5:55am bus to Podgorica, where I caught another taxi to the airport and hopped on my flight.

I once again had a connection in Belgrade, which proved to be quite frustrating. Somehow travel between Turkey and the Balkans is just disastrous for me (see earlier post on Plovdiv, Bulgaria). So I get to the international terminal around 10am local time, haven’t had anything to eat all day. All I wanted was a cup of coffee and maybe a muffin. I go over to the café and they say they don’t take euros. Only Serbian dinara. I say to myself, that’s kinda strange for an international terminal, but alright I’ll just find an exchange office. Problem: there isn’t one. No exchange office. No ATM. That wasn’t gonna work for me because I had a 7 hr layover. So I go over to information and a guy about my age who looks like he hates his job says “yeah, this airport sucks. You have to go downstairs, legally enter the country, then you can exchange money. There’s free internet and cafés in the departure area.” Thus, I legally entered Serbia just to get a cup of coffee.

Anyway, now I’m on the plane back to Istanbul. I have no idea who is still there. A lot of people have left on holiday or have returned to their hometowns for the summer. The rest are probably working. I’ve got a few things that I’d like to do in my final full day there, including pick up Ryan’s birthday present as tomorrow, June 23^rd, is his 23^rd birthday.

I’m leaving Istanbul permanently early Thursday morning. I think my little Balkan adventure has prepared me to say goodbye. I made sure to say goodbye to my close friends before I went to Montenegro, so I don’t think I’ll have to put myself through that emotional mess again unless some of them are in town and want to live it up in Taksim one last time with me. I’ll be sad to leave, but all good things must come to an end. I’m sure I’ll return to the city again at some point. It might be just after I graduate or it might be in ten years, but regardless I’m not going to say goodbye to it forever on Thursday. It’s an extended, yet temporary, leave of absence.

Tamam. Hamam.

During spring break I made a list of everything I wanted to do before I left Istanbul and could feasibly do. Of the 13 tasks on this list, I have now completed 5. I have plans to complete the rest in the next few weeks.

So yesterday was girls day at the hamam (Turkish bath). When we walked in we were all sort of a little timid and confused about what we were supposed to do and where we were supposed to go. The woman unlocked a cabin door and gave us linens roughly the size of towels. Some of the girls were confused as to how much clothing we were supposed to take off. I just kinda said "what the hell" and got naked. We wrapped ourselves in the linen and the woman led us into the main part of the hamam. It's really hot and steamy in there, so first you sit on the marble and douse yourself in water while chatting and adjusting to the idea of everyone walking around naked.

There's essentially two parts to the hamam experience: the scrubbing and the soap massage. The scrubbing kinda hurts, but kinda feels nice. You lay on the marble while this big woman scrapes a few layers of dead skin off of your whole body. This is where my tan from laying on the campus lawn went bye-bye. You go back to the little sink seating area and rinse the dead skin off. Sit down and chat for a while longer. Then when it's your turn, you go back to the middle and get soaped and massaged. Once again nice and relaxing but somewhat painful. They fill a soft pillow case with suds and then lather you with it. The massage was wonderful, except for a few spots where I was still kinda sore from a few days ago. Then back to the other area, rinse, shampoo/scented hair oil, chill for a while, towel and back to the cabin.

By the end of it, sitting around completely naked seemed totally normal. It's really funny how quickly we all became comfortable with it. In the span of about 2 hours we went from shy and confused to sitting around naked in what felt like a sauna talking about our love lives and making jokes. It was a really wonderful, relaxing experience. I don't know why I didn't do that sooner.

I haven't been sleeping very well for the last month or so except for one or two nights, but last night was the best sleep I've had in a long time. One more task off of the to-do list. So glad I didn't leave without going to the hamam.

What's still on the list: (some of this is kind of embarrassing)

Go inside the Blue Mosque

Harem of Topkapi Palace

Eyüp

Izmir

Ephesus

Trinket shopping in the Grand Bazaar

Büyükada (Princes' Islands)

One more trip to the Asian side of Istanbul

Sadly, because I'm taking a few more side trips I've only got 14 days left in Istanbul. Three of those days involve taking final exams. I'm going to make the most of my time left here. I sincerely hope that at least 7 of the other 11 days involve nights out in Taksim. I have to say farewell to Istiklal Caddesi. I really don't want to leave and am still sort of in denial of the fact that I am going to have to leave sooner than later. I know my friends and family want me home, but I really have no desire to return to America at the moment. I am having a hard time even thinking about the fact that I'm going to be in Ireland for three weeks, and that part of that time will be spent doing academic research. Every time that I've left Turkey I've had problems with culture-shock. I can't even imagine what that'll be like when I leave for good.