Istanbul was the only port where we stayed two days, and we were happy about that, because there’s so much to see. We were anxious to see Topkapi Palace today, but there was something else on the itinerary: “Tour includes a carpet presentation.” We were going to a carpet store. That’s the reality of ship excursions; they always take you to “preferred” vendors where you can get “very special prices,” and somebody gets kickbacks.
So, our first stop was the carpet store, and they were ready for us. It was a very nice store with three stories and in an interesting neighborhood. They had a very nice roof deck with views, and the store was built over an ancient cistern (it was nothing like the Basilica Cistern, but more like a large basement.) But first we were herded into a large showroom.
We were first offered refreshments: Pastries, Turkish coffee, tea, and something called “Lion’s Milk.” A few of us opted for it. More formally, the drink is known as raki and is the Turkish national drink. There was no milk in this. Raki is an anise- flavored spirit that’s distilled twice. It’s usually “cut” with water. It’s doubtful that the Turks drink this in the morning themselves, but they had some tourists (and wallets) to loosen up.
Then the carpets started to roll. They were of various sizes, colors, fabrics and age (some over 50 years old). All were hand woven; not one in the store was machine-made. The owner carefully explained to us the difference in quality and appearance between handmade and machine products. It was actually quite impressive.
A couple of 5’x7’ carpets caught Julie and Terry’s eyes, and the owner caught their eyes. Before they knew it, they were whisked off to a “private” showroom, where the carpets flew almost magically and landed at their feet (maybe it was the Lion’s Milk). It became a bit bewildering, a kaleidoscope of fabrics, with one flying atop another. J&T inquired about one and the price brought them back down to earth, Lion’s Milk notwithstanding.
Of course, prices were negotiable, but still, nothing impressed either of them that much. Besides, they had to conserve their money because Terry still had more T-shirts to buy and add to his growing collection. J&T finally managed to escape this magical chamber by going to the restroom, and explaining that they really weren’t interested.
After the restroom stop, J&T tried to make their break, but were ambushed outside another private showroom right by the stairs, where the owner was lying in wait. “How about this one? No, this one then? Wait, we have more...” Terry assumed the role of the bad guy and kept saying no. Finally, the owner, clearly exasperated, told his employees to stop. “He’s going to say no to everything,” the owner said with an accusatory glance at Terry. Our escape route now clear, we went downstairs.
But someone was still upstairs. Carol told Julie that Sheila was very close to buying a very expensive carpet. Julie bravely reentered the Lion’s Milk den. She somehow persuaded Sheila to come downstairs and talk about it with Terry and her. They helped convince her to resist the temptation, and Terry got the Evil Eye from the owner. Fortunately, Terry was girded with his Evil Eye T-Shirt that he bought the day before (which wards off the Evil Eye).
We all managed to escape unscathed except for Carol, who found a beautiful carpet that she just had to have.
Now we were on to our final stop, Topkapi Palace, the grand palace of the Ottoman sultans. Sultan Mehmed II, who conquered Constantinople, constructed Topkapi between 1460 and 1478 CE. It was both the residence of the sultans and their administrative center for over 400 years. Topkapi consists of courtyards, gardens, palaces, and other buildings. Over the four centuries of use, each sultan added to the palace, becoming bigger and grander and something of a maze. Three main gates were developed.
The first, the Imperial Gate, was built as the main entrance, and leads into the First Courtyard. The largest of all the courtyards, various ceremonies were held here and it was the only one open to the public during the sultan days. In the First Courtyard, Grumpy Guy manifested himself again. Manny, our guide, stopped and said that someone had complained about the fast pace he was taking, and looked squarely at Grumpy Guy, who reacted with a smirk on is face. "Victory," GG must have thought.
But Manny explained that he could stop at every obvious location identified by the tourist books, exclaiming, "Look at this," and "Look at that!" But, Manny explained, "You can read about this on your own; you can pull it all up on the Internet. But you don't need me for that. I want to get you to the things that the other tourists don't flock to; I want you to see the subtleties, the beauty and to understand the lesser-known things that you won't take away on your own."
Foiled, GG's smirk faded, then his face morphed back to its natural grimace. He was unhappy again, partly because he couldn't suck the rest of us into his misery. Manny's point was well made and understood by the rest of us; we continued at our brisk pace and although we didn't know it at the time, that would be the last we heard or saw of Grumpy Guy for the duration of the trip. With all these gods around us on the trip, one of them was finally looking out for us!
The second gate, the Gate of Salutation, is distinguished by two grand towers and leads into the actual palace. Only official dignitaries were allowed to pass through this gate, where regal functions were held in the Second Courtyard.
The third gate, the Gate of Felicity, is the entrance to the Third Courtyard, and was the exclusive domain of the sultans, and only they could grant entrance to it. And, of course, there was the Harem Apartments, with over 400 rooms, originally. Here the sultans lived with their families, consorts, concubines and eunuchs to guard them.
Another highlight was the imperial Treasury, with priceless jewels and relics, such as the 86 carat Spoon Maker’s Diamond and the Topkapi Dagger. Adjacent to that is the Chamber of Holy Relics, containing objects of the Abrahamic traditions. Among these are the tray used by Abraham; the sword of David; the staff of Moses; the Mantle of the Prophet Muhammad, his beard, his footprint, and more.
Soon, it was time to leave these grand grounds. We thought about the gates we freely walked though, the rooms we entered, the grounds we walked on and the exclusive views of the Bosporus enjoyed by the sultans for four centuries.
We also thought about the people, not just the ancient ones, but also those around us. Turks, which make up 75% of the population, Kurds, Armenians and Greeks are seen everywhere. The predominant religion in Istanbul is, of course, Islam – practiced by 99% of the population – mostly Sunnis. There are small minorities of Greek Orthodox Christians, Armenian Christians, Catholic Levantines and Sephardic Jews.
But here we observed and experienced Muslims in their own environment, comfortably going about their daily lives trying to make a living, practice their religion faithfully and piously, raise their families, make friends, get educated and do everything else that people of other faiths and walks do every day.
We were always treated graciously and warmly. Our tour guide Manny told us at the beginning of our first day in Istanbul that while things would seem foreign to us, we would see by the end that we are all alike. It’s very difficult to travel to foreign lands and not appreciate how true this is.
Travel opens our minds, exposes us to cultures, beliefs and practices that we witness firsthand, rather than through the lenses of other people who get no closer to foreign lands than their flat screen TVs. It fosters tolerance. Mark Twain said it well:
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness."
Our excursion was over, and we were back on the ship in the early afternoon. Carol, Julie, Wande and Terry had signed up for a wine tasting session sponsored by Reidel, the exclusive wine glass company. The tasting was set for mid-afternoon in a beautiful wine bar, with leather chairs and sofas and dark woods. We learned that this was less about tasting wine than a hands-on (or mouth-on) education in experiencing wine in the right glasses.
Frankly, when we learned what this was all about, we were skeptical. For those readers who are wine connoisseurs, you already know better. Wine glasses come in a variety of shapes for specific reasons. Drinking a white varietal out of a glass designed for a red varietal greatly diminishes the taste and bouquet of the wine, even ruining it.
We went through the experiment, drinking a varietal out of the “right” glass, then out of the “wrong” glass. The results were dramatic. We could tell the difference, and unless they had laced the wine with Lion’s Milk, this was genuine and not imagined. After a wonderful hour, we all left with a set of Reidel glasses, feeling more sophisticated and armed for smarter wine drinking back home.
After a relaxing and leisurely afternoon, and our usual rendezvous on our balconies, it was dinnertime. We were all dying to see the configuration of the table after Terry’s “observation” (Julie may have used some foreign term, like faux pas) the previous evening. The Tones were not there. Were they avoiding us? Had they changed tables? Would they be back? Another evening would tell. Meanwhile, we enjoyed the entire table to ourselves.
After dinner, Julie and Sheila went to the casino and the rest of us went to our rooms. Ephesus was coming up the next day, so some of us were looking forward to a good night’s rest after such a full schedule the past two days. The course of events was soon about to change, however.
About 11:30 PM, Julie woke Terry up. After coming back from the casino she had tripped over the threshold to the bathroom and hit the sink with her shoulder. She was sure her arm was broken. Terry called for help and a staff person came with a wheelchair to take her to the medical office. Sheila accompanied them.
The doctor took an X-ray and, sure enough, she had broken her right arm, on the humerus. The doctor put her arm in a sling and said that she should see an orthopedic surgeon when she got back home. It was a clean enough break that nothing could really be done but to immobilize it and let it heal. She also broke a toe, and Sheila splinted it to another toe.
After getting back to the room Terry picked up a few things that Julie had dropped in her fall. One of them was a slot machine receipt. It had a 46-cent credit. Sigh.
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