Istanbul

We ended up staying in the house of the taxi driver that gave us a ride the last little bit into the center of town. He offered to give us a tour of the town and marketplace and to take us to the Mosque. We took him up on his offer. His house was very nice. It had the walls covered in the little blue mosaic tiles with a complex design of offsetting white details. The floors too were covered in a geometric pattern of floor tiles. The bed in our room was a four poster one that I really liked. We quickly tried it out.

The next morning his wife made us Turkish coffee and breads for breakfast then we headed out to the market. I could not believe the size of the market. It must have been several miles in all directions. There was a maze of pathways through it that were all covered with the goods available in that section. It was divided up like a department store. We wandered aimlessly for the entire day. We didn't buy much just a couple of trinkets here and there. Then we came to the tailor made clothing area. Bingo! We had a bunch of clothes made for us, some shirts, pants, dresses and I bought a full leather suit just for the fun of it. We also bought some sheepskin coats to keep us warm and some sheepskin boots too. We had to go back the next day to pick them up and I would have never found the tailor again without our guide.

We pigged out on food. There was a food market that had all kinds of foods. I ate a bunch of different kinds of curry with rice. The roasted chicken was to die for. But my favorite food was a roasted eggplant sandwich on a flatbread with a soup and salad on the side. We also stopped and had quite a few cups of tea with various shopkeepers all of which wanted to trade me half their store for Kirsten. I respectfully declined their offers. I was tempted when the jeweler offered half of his gold and diamonds but in the end, I did not trade.

We went to the Mosque the next morning. We started out in Hagia Sophia, a massive one that was now a museum. The byzantine architecture was impressive for its size if nothing else. All the geometric patterned tile work everyplace made me feel like I was in a different world. Then we went to some other active mosques and watched people pray. It seemed to me like almost everybody was very serious about their religion. I have no idea what would happen to somebody here that rejected the religion. All the worship is so public that you would not be able to hide that you did not worship too. I asked our guide and he just said everybody knows how important religion is in their lives. Ok whatever that means.

I really wanted to smoke some hash here. Istanbul was the end point for the Orient Express Train. All travelers and stoners know about the Orient Express, Paris to Istanbul train ride. This town is famous for its hash I had been told. I quietly hinted to our guide what I wanted to do and he caught on right away and said sure it is not a problem here. He led us down through the market to a man that sold hash and opium right out in the open. I told him I wanted to try it before I bought it and he quickly closed a curtain and lit up a bowlful. I did not buy any because I did not want to go to jail for crossing a border with drugs. Turkish prisons have a bad reputation. I paid the guy for my little samples even though he told me I didn't have to pay him anything. We spent the rest of that day on a tour outside of town looking at some old ruins and at the waterfront which was interesting due to all the activity going on. I am sure there was some smuggling going on right in front of our eyes out there on those docks.

We ended our stay in Istanbul and packed up to hitchhike back to Athens and then on to Italy. I really enjoyed my stay in Turkey. The people were all friendly and hardworking. Nobody tried to rip us off or cheat us. I know there are problems there sometimes just like in all large cities of the world but we did not have a single bad experience in Turkey. The next morning our taxi driver friend took us out to the edge of town so we could catch a ride. We caught one before he even left.