National Day #4 - Aircraft

National Day #3 - Vehicles

National Day #2 - People

National Day #1 - Forces Parade

Catch up

Right playing catch up with a few bits and pieces. Some things could be a little out of order. National Day provided us with a day off to celebrate a little bit of patriotism. This was apparently the second time they had made an attempt to celebrate the day with a couple of big events. They bought in overseas expertise to support the day. First up a big parade. A parade displaying a range of the service and military groups that are critical to Qatar. So there is a series of images from the parade rather than using words to describe the event.

Yep did it again

Yep did it again..small cultural stuff up!. We were working on producing some certificates and cards and there was a discussion around the correct convention for writing Arabic names. A quick lesson.. first name your name, second fathers, third grandfathers and last family name. No changing names through marriage. Anyway the discussion was about should we capitalize these cards so I asked if I could see Sabeeka’s national ID card to see if it was capitalized. She fudged and fumbled around looking for the card…then I clicked… her photo would show her face uncovered. I apologized profusely for being so insensitive and luckily Hussan came to the rescue with his.

Conveying History in the Modern World.

This cracked me up at first and then I started to wonder if history is being distorted by contemporary media. Our guide at both Gallipoli and Troy used our experience of movies to explain our history. So he would say things like… You know in the movie when Mel Gibson……. (and we would all nod knowingly) Another great one was when he was explaining the change of the geography with the creation of an alluvial plain around Troy and he said, You know when Brad Pitt jumps off his boat and runs up the beach right into Troy in the movie well that was before the river brought all the soil down and pushed the beach out.

I wonder if history will be distorted by this.

Farewell to Istanbul

Really enjoyed my time. I saw a lot in my short time here but am pretty certain there is a lot more to see. May have to come back again

Images of Gallipoli

A Turkish View

We remember Chunik Bear as a valiant effort. The Turkish remember it as a great victory. It was strange spending time on top of the hilltop with more Turks than Kiwis.

Tin Man starts to Rust

The trip to Gallipoli is in some respects a little like the Kiwi Hajj. A form of pilgrimage. This was my main reason for coming to Turkey. It was a highlight as it brought my understanding of history to life. I don’t think you quite get it until you have been there and physically seen the geography that they were on a hiding to nothing . The scale, literally of what they needed to overcome was sobering. We started at the beach and worked our way up the hills to Chunik Bear, the strategic hilltop. I learnt more of the history which I appreciated. While I don’t have a direct family connection to Gallipoli that I’m aware of I must admit it was an emotional experience.

TheTrip

The trip to the Gallipoli is a round trip of 700kms. We did it over two days with the second day visiting Troy. I’m met at 6am and our tour group consists of Aussie sand Kiwis. There was the young couple on a quick trip to celebrate varsity graduation, another young couple doing a big trip before getting married early next year. The middle age couple who had a week in Turkey before back to London then returning home after 4 years away. The Aussie family of four doing a major tour of Europe. Then last but not least little old me. My little cultural sensitivity radar was on high alert after the young kiwi woman said that they had been in Istanbul for two days and she was sick of hearing Turkish as they hadn’t spoken to any English people for two days… I wondered how our English speaking Turkish tour guide took that.. There was only one other major time during the entire trip where we let ourselves down as countries. It was later in the day, admittedly we were all pretty tired. We were heading up to Chanock Bear and stopped off at the Turkish memorial. Some of the group didn’t even get out of the van and a couple of others did a quick oncer around the site. Now our guides are Turkish, they lost over a million people during the war, they are an incredibly proud and patriotic people so I was feeling a little uncomfortable about the lack of respect some of the others were showing. I don’t think it was intentional. So I lingered a bit, last one back to the van. I picked up a few common names on some of the graves and guessed that the alay (sp)and tabir (sp) were equivalent to oum and abu in Arabic (mother of..father of..) So was able to have a conversation with our guide as to whether I had picked it. Part of this was interest for myself and a part was to show that we did care about their history as much as ours.

Went into the Topkapi (sp) palace. Wonderful set of buildings which were a major part of the Ottoman Empire. Wonderful exhibitions..83 carat diamond… a harem. What really took my fancy was the building in the back corner of the complex. It held a series of religious relics. Included in this were the swords of significant figures of Islam.. Mohammed’s and Abu Bakers were a couple. They even had pieces of Mohammed’s beard kept in containers. The oldest relic they had was Moses’ staff. It was funny walking through the exhibits and coming across such a relic. It wasn’t what I had expected . I think I expected something longer than a man as per the movies and imagery as opposed to the short walking stick it was.

Preparing for Prayer

On the outside wall of one of the large mosques in the middle of town the men clean themselves before praying. It isn’t a simple washing of hands. It appears to involve face, hands and feet. It is fascinating to watch this occurring right in the middle of the town with thousands of people milling around.

Karpali Carsi – the Grand Bazaar

If you can’t read the date on the door it says 1491 I think. This is a major tourist attraction with around 4000 shops trading in all sorts. It is probably just as exciting in the streets surrounding the bazaar. Their appear to be more locals trading here. The prices are better. Copyright is not part of the vocab with so much genuine imitation product. Great experience

Traders

Another chance photo. Was just about to walk into another mosque and could hear this noise from over the railing. Looked down in into the side street the local traders were selling their wares. While this picture doesn’t capture it selling is a family business. I was amazed to see the number of young boys doing lots of the trading / selling on behalf of their families.

Pigeon Feeder

This is a picture of one of the old ladies who sell food for the pigeons in the middle of town

The Church

One of the Aussie team was dealing with the anniversary of the death of her brother while I was away so I’d said that I’d pop into a mosque as a sign of support. Now normally it would be a church but wasn’t expecting to find any of these. It was a damp morning so had caught the tram across town and decided to walk up the hill to Taksim Square and then spend an hour or two walking home. As I was walking down the main street I looked over to one side and thought the building was a strange looking mosque. It was St Anthony’s Catholic Church. It was right in the middle of town. Must admit wasn’t expecting to find a catholic church in the middle of Istanbul.

The Turkish Bath

If this is the last post you see then there is a slight problem with my blog. Click on December over on theh right hand side under the flicker pics and hopefullyit will show you later blog entires.


Was staying in a lovely little boutique hotel just below the main tourist area of Istanbul. After a day of walking the city I was knackered. Spoke to Borcu the lady at the front desk about having a nap. She suggested a Turkish bath first. So she organized for me to have one in the Spa facilities in the hotel. This was down in the basement. So off I head downstairs in the bowels of the building. I meet this big Turkish bloke, can’t remember his name, just his smile and enthusiasm for his job. So he goes through what’s on offer. I take the basic sauna, steam room Turkish bath option and at this point in time no massage thanks. I’m not the massage sort of bloke and when he showed me the facilities with the Turkish bath being down this long dark corridor. The bath area is covered in white tiles from floor to ceiling all I could think of was the scene with a similar setting in the movie Midnight Express. A quick look and I could see any coat hooks which I would need to save myself (you need to know the movie). So the sauna was great, the steam room just about killed me. The Turkish bath was fantastic. My Turkish friend would pop in every ten minutes and remind me that it wasn’t too late for him to work me over with a massage. I survived with a commitment I would come back for the full treatment the following day which I then spent out on the streets and then locked in my room. The photo isn't the basement its a view of the 1500 yr old underground cistern/

Duh

Staying at a hotel in Escabet after having spent the day on the Gallipoli Peninsula. There’s me and a kiwi couple. Yep crowded house, after the kiwi band. There is some kiwi ownership involved somewhere. And.. as I’m typing this blog entry having a quiet efes in the lounge downstairs Crowded House are playing on the CD player. There is a bit of kiwi and Aussie ‘ana about. Anyway.. we both going hammer and tongs at trying to get inot our rooms after a long day touring. It took a while before we worked out that we were trying to unlock each other’s rooms. No wonder the handles wouldn’t turn

Secular but 99% Muslim?

Don't quite get it ... the secular nature given the high levle of the population who identify with one religion. Here are the gates to the university where the issue over wearing head scarfs has played out.

Sharing lentil soup during Eid

Happened to visit the blue mosque (viewable but working mosque so to speak) on the first day of the Eid festivities. I mingled with the crowd of men who were coming out after morning prayers. Was offered a cup of lentil soup to share with the worshippers. No hostility, quite accepting. Fascintating to see the large police pressence. Stopped and chatted to one of the polici about why. It was a religous festival, precautionary more than anything else. I'd forgotton about the bombings earlier in the year.

The cleaner

Sitting in quiet reflection in the blue mosque..well as much as you can with 3-400 other visitors. I sat against a pillar and faced Mecca. I heard this sound which sounded mechanical in nature in this 1500 year old building.. it was the cleaner. Now I can’t remember the exact number of square metres of carpet. Let just say it was considerable. Here was this guy working his way across the mosque with this little household vacuum cleaner.

The Carpet Salesman

It was only a matter of time before I was captured by a carpet salesman. I had read to watch out for them but he caught me off guard. I sort of knew what to expect so thought I would go through the experience as an exercise of Istanbul culture. His “guy” caught me outside one of the mosque, hey where are you from? New Zealand… kia ora and a handshake..he had made the connection. Where are you heading? I’m off to the bazaar… Ah it is closed today but how about you come and have look at my carpet shop. .. I’m not here to buy a carpet…well how about if you come and get a brochure… So I walk with him to his shop. I am taken into the back end of the shop , away from direct viewiong of the street and offered an apple tea.. He leaves me and then the guy in the slick grey suit goes to work… a little lesson in what makes a quality Turkish carpet as opposed to others.. it’s all in the double knotting. A quick demo by his sister on a carpet to show me the technique… and as you are here let’s have a look at a couple of these quality pieces. Nice carpet how much? Ahh sir you have not seen it at its best. Let us go upstairs and put it in a frame with the light behind, then you’ll see it’s true value. So ff we go , past the safe where the most valuable carpets are kept..he grabs one of these. So now I’m completely out of view of anything. The door is closed and he goes to work showing me the carpets. They do look good. Which one do you like best sir?? This one .. Aah you have good taste. That one sir is 12000 euros. It’s lucky I’m not buying one then. After 15 minutes or so I start to head for the door. Sir as you are my first customer and it is Eid and if..if you were to buy this carpet what would you offer… After 10 minutes of trying to negotiate my way out of offering a price I finally cave and say if I was buying a carpet I would not spend more than 1500 euros. I slight step back from the man. A quick recovery. If you had said 2500 we could be making a deal. Sorry if I was to buy a carpet I would not pay more than 1500 euros. As I walk out the door.. if you could add 500 more to this offer I think we could make a sale… offer… I hadn’t offered.

I could have been home

Early morning on the ferry from Escalabet (sp) to Cannakale (sp). Looked across the water and it was a bit like being on the hills over Pukerua Bay, seeinfg the radio mast up behind home and colonial Knob in the background.

Countryside

The countryside was wonderful..Green lush and dotted with little villages. This was after the city of Istanbul which was huge. No green just hills and hills of buildings. I suppose with 18 million people they need space to live somewhere. Anyway there were lots of these villages in the countryside. You would see them in the distance with the mosque tower standing out from everything else. I know we have churches in the West but they don’t appear to have the same visual prominence

More history

I spent time in the Sophia Mosque today.. fascinating. A tale of conquerors and the process of the elimination of the Roman empire. The Ottoman Empire, the loss of Christianity and the establishment of Islam in a country. The plastering over of Christian mosaics, replacing with Arabic script. Many of these artworks are being restored so it is interesting to walk into this truly beautiful building and to view the artifacts of both religions side by side.

City of Cats

This is a city of cats. They appear to be everywhere, roaming freely through the city. Not sure how this works (who feeds them etc) but they look healthy compared to the moggy’s around Al Hitmi.

Culture

I have spoken to a couple of people who rate Istanbul as the best city in the world to visit. That it is rich in culture. I’m beginning to see what they mean. I marveled recently at the artifacts that were in the Islamic museum in Doha. The 10th century Koran. Istanbul drags you further back in time. Buildings which are 1500+ years old. It is a country which has a wonderful history which is proudly displayed. Patriotism is alive and well here.

A different set of rules

Turkey is 99% Muslim. Bu he rules they adhere to are different. A little confused. It could just be a more liberal interpretation. Examples... tend to cover heads only...... while the older generation were seperate gender wise that can't be said for the younger generation. Efes... golden amber...lovely drop...drunk by many...