Because Muffinman constantly complains to me that I don't talk enough about my feelings in my travel posts, I will try to put a little more emphasis on them in this one.
As soon as we had gotten to the Sultan's Palace that morning, the fellow Turkish tourist above motioned to us that she would like a picture. We didn't know what she wanted a picture of -- we thought she wanted one of herself -- but it turned out she wanted a picture with Sam, a fellow Korean. In retrospect, I should have known. She kept asking us what our "origin" was (Europeans seem to place heavy emphasis on this) and when she found out Sam was Korean, she looked like she had hit the jackpot.
I also remember my own picture experience, although it was a bit more sketch than Sam's experience. I was in the Basilica Cistern, where it is almost pitch black, when these four Turkish men start talking with me. Of course, they didn't know English and I didn't know Turkish, but I ended up taking a picture with one of them and giving him a high-five. It also surprised me that there were a number of shops with Korean written on the windows, and that a lot of Turkish people would ask if we were Chinese or Korean over Japanese. Is it common for Turks to love Koreans so much that they take pictures with them randomly?
After finishing Spring Break and reflecting back on all the cities I visited, I would have to say Istanbul was one of my favourite ones. There was just something about the city -- the mosques dotting the city line, the calm water flowing through the two parts of the city, or the sheer history and beauty of the city -- that attracted me to it. Maybe it was just the hookah we smoked that night (I think that deserves a small post of its own), but Turkey was fun.
Compared to most of the cities we have been to in Europe, Istanbul definitely felt more religious. Not only were the towering minarets an indication of that but the Salah daily ritual prayers, five times a day, were a constant reminder that this is an Islamic nation. Although I do not think I cannot eat doner kebab everyday, or for a while now for that matter, learning about the history of the country from the inside-out rather than the outside-in made Istanbul a great experience.
You really do have to go to Istanbul to truly appreciate it -- the prayers they blasted through the mosques sent chills down my spine.
4 COMMENTS:
This is the kind of post I want. There's feeling and personality in it that I have been missing.
- muffinman
i always like his posts the way it is/was. it's always informative in some way. (:
HI..nice blog..:) i'm a turkish girl and can answer to your question about turkish people loving koreans..Turkey sent almost 15000 soldiers to help Korea in the Korean war..so the turks consider koreans as somehow brothers :)and since the war we have good relations with the koreans..but it doesn't mean that we dislike others :D and, korean movies and dramas might also play a role for the admiration of the koreans.. :))
Ah the same Betul from answers.yahoo.
I am a turkish girl and since a couple of years i am also a fan of korean people. Don't ask me why:) I just feel connected to them somehow. I was just doing some research on the internet, if there were other people like me and thats how i found about your blog:)
Its nice to hear that you loved istanbul so much:)
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