Visit to the Greek Orthodox Church
Sunday, November 24, 1991
What a way to end a wonderful trip. Coskun and Sema, along with Cavit, took us to a Greek Orthodox Church on the Asian side. The Patriarch or head leader of the Greek Orthodox religion resides in Istanbul, Turkey an dis on the same level of rule as the Pope is in the Catholic religion. Today was a special celebration of the appointing of a new Patriarch. - and we were there! Can’t say we understood any of the Greek chanting, but we did finally grasp the word “Amen”.
A beautiful old Church with as well a beautiful, formal celebration. Very ceremonial. A drive on the Asian side of the Bosphorous Sea for tea and pastry at Hidiv Kastl, and old castle restored as a hotel overlooking the Bosphorous. Departure for Paris on Air France was a show in itself. The plane was packed. People with huge carry on luggage were trying to stuff them in overhead compartments. As compartments were opened looking for space, things would fall out.
One gentleman, who looked Greek, was carrying on his shoulder about a 5 foot artificial plant, and one young man was so loud and obnoxious that the ground supervisors came on board to settle him down. Actually he was kind of frightening. But he settled down and was allowed to stay on the plane. David sensed my nervousness but, of course, he was used to it.
We were body searched twice and our carry-ons opened and the contents checked. Air France did not make everyone sit down before the plane left the gate and if an empty seat was next to you, people were putting their carry ons loosely in those seats. We arrived Paris, loaded our suitcases in the car, began to back out of the parking lot and realized we had a flat tire. Luckily, David had familiarized himself with the tire tool and location of the tire. That’ snot to say it was easy to get to. So, it’s unload the cases and change the tire while I added on another layer of clothing for warmth.
Sleeping Until Noon in Turkey
Friday, November 22, 1991
David goes to work and I slept until noon. I venture to the Taksim area shops in the afternoon. In the evening, more business to conduct but it was an early business evening. We settled into the excitement of watching English movies on the TV.
Editors Note:
This has been one crazy week. I know that yesterday’s post had some typo’s and I haven’t re-read it yet, so, I appologize, it wasn’t Georgia who did that, she who tell me that for sure. Some of the craziness this week has come from the sudden death of a friend of ours at church, Cindy Wall who worked in the Auburn Athletics for 17 years. You can see her post on my blog at Scott Fillmer Photography, just scroll down a few posts or click on her name above. Some of the preparations for her “celebration service” today reminded me a lot of Georgia and how she wanted her life celebrated as well.
Grand Bazaar was Really Grand
Thursday, November 21, 1991
I accompanied Sema, the wife of another one of David’s distributors on a tour of the city. She is driving. Traffic is heavy and there are people everywhere. They run in front of you crossing the street expecting you to stop. There are lanes on the streets but everyone ignores them.
A 3 lane road quickly becomes a 5 lane, and they blow their horns at everything. The tuck drivers are especially hazardous as they get paid on how quickly they move goods across the continent and not for what they are carrying; therefore, a lot of them drive without much sleep.
Our first stop was the Grand Bazaar - a shopping area with over 2,000 small shops. The parking lot was full, so a man approaches and says we can park across the street. He had 2 sports on the street that “sort of” belong to him and he charged for them. Sema gave him money and her keys and asked others around if they knew him and they said “yes”.
The Grand Bazzar was really grand. We entered one of the many Mosques in the city, taking off our shoes at the door. The Mosques are very beautiful, large, old buildings, stained glass windows, with only a carpet and maybe a few kneelers inside. The praying is done on the floor. We returned to find her car still there and glad the man was one of the honest ones.
After a delightful lunch at the Sultan Pub we drove to the Bosphorous Sea, stopping at the Grand Hotel Tarabya for afternoon tea. Again, we parked, paying the man responsible for those “few parking spots” on the road. We watched fisherman throwing their hooks in (without bait) and catching minnows.
Minnows are eaten here as common as any other fish. A fantastic evening with Sema and her husband Coskun. They took us on a private yacht across the sea to the Asian side to a seafood restaurant. For starters we had selery salad, lettuce salad, celery pate, fried calamari, muscle relish, calamari and tomato salad, egg plant salad, bread, stuffed grape leaves, pastry puff and wine. The main coarse was fish, and desserts consisting of figs and numerous Turkish delights. Really a wonderful place.
Turkish Dinner and Some Bible Study
Wednesday, November 20, 1991
I visited the stores in the hotel and concluded my Bible Study work while enjoying the beautiful view of the sea. For dinner we were taken to a very Turkish restaurant called “Hanedan”, meaning Dynasty. For starters we had shrimp, egg plant, salad, red peppers, split peas, egg rolls, something that tasted like a Mexican pizza, goat cheese, hot sauce, green leaf stuffed with rice, large loaf of bread fresh out of the oven, and of course, Turkish wine.
The comes the main course. Lamb prepared in several ways along with skewed chicken. WOW!
Departure for Istanbul Turkey and Some History
November 19, 1991
Early AM departure on Air France for Istanbul, Turkey. We arrived Istanbul about 1:20PM on the European side. (The city, previously called Constantinople, is divided by the Marmara, Bosphorous and Black Sea with 1/2 of it being on the European continent and the other on the Asia side.) Staying at the Sheraton Hotel - overlooking the Sea of Marmara - absolutely beautiful! The language is Turkish and English. The money is Turkish Lira - $1 USD = a 5,000 Lira bill. One begins to feel rich with a 50,000 Lira bill in his hand (only $10 USD).
David goes to work and I took to the streets, being extra cautious as he had told me to be. I walk about 2 blocks from the Sheraton, am waiting for the stop light to change and realize a young man is staring at me. I walk a little farther and, yes, he was following me. I tried to lose him in the midst of all the people but did not succeed. He approached and began to make conversation. We talked for a moment and he helped me locate a small grocery store and walked me back to the hotel. He was intrigued by my “beautiful eye”??? and wanted to see me again but disappointingly left me at the hotel when I said “no”.
In the evening we were entertained by one of David’s distributors at a Russian restaurant, served lime Vodka, good egg rolls, salad, broiled fish, potatoes, Turkish wine, and dessert. Istanbul is a very old city, very crowded, with 10 million people. French people smoke a lot, but in Turkey it seems worse. Most of the people are very poor, selling all kinds of goods in the streets, and some are very rich. The middle class people are virtually non-existent.
A Lot of people arrive on the Asian side, especially from Yugoslavia, and take “shared taksi’s”, as they call them, (mini buses) to the European side to work. Istanbul receives approximately 5,000 immigrants per day. The seas dividing the city are the only passage Russia and some other countries have to the ocean. Large ships are continually passing thru.
The religion is Moslem and many, many Mosques are located throughout. Five times a day, from the towers of the Mosques a man chants a call to the people in summoning them for prayer. It can be heard all throughout the city. Some enter the Mosques for prayer. The woman are not usually allowed to pray beside the man. If they do, they must face in a backward direction as opposed to the man facing the front of the Mosque.
Most of the time the woman pray on the second floor. If a man touches a woman in the Mosque, he must wash himself in the water basins provided outside. The women wear the full dress with only exposing their face. They believe if a man looks at them with desire or lust, he will go to Hell and it would be her fault if she was not covered. (Definitely not a woman’s world here.) Heavy pollution this time of year because of the leather factories and heating with coal. Natural gas is slowly being brought to Istanbul from Russian.
Editor’s Notes:
Wow, she had a history lesson today, that was really interesting for me to read anyway. On an different topic, yesterday being September 11, I posted on my own blog what we were doing that day in 2001, and during that time we were traveling with David and Georgia to a show, so I posted several photos of Georgia yesterday on that blog if you were interested. Just see Where Were You on September 11, 2001 // 7 Years Later for details.
Tomorrow’s post is very short, then the following day Georgia goes into more detail about her trip.