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Wednesday, November 13, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Commentary...
Lost in Istanbul
By Chris Morin
Columnist
The occasional sound of
car tires ambling across the
one-lane cobbled street dur-
ing the night reverberates up
densely packed three- and
four-story walls of old stone
buildings, but this noise fails
to rouse us. We9re deep within
a substantial jet-lag slumber.
High-pitched citywide bull-
horns suddenly trumpeting an
old man9s pleading sing-song
voice, imploring the faithful
to come pray at the nearby
mosque at 6 a.m. absolutely
rousts us.
Two floors above our
room, upon the glass-walled
terrace, a cafeteria breakfast
will soon await. Along with
standard Western fare 4 egg
omelet, fried potato wedges,
and white bread, we9ll find
Turkish morning cuisine 4
simit, kasseri, sucuk, borek,
and meze. A thick carrot-dill
yogurt sauce on a bagel-like
sesame seed twist becomes
the a.m. favorite.
Sitting at one of the
solid wood tables and wak-
ing up with Turkish coffee,
we9ll look east across the
Bosphorus, the narrow strait
that separates the Sea of
Marmara from the Black Sea,
and gaze into the urban hill-
sides of Eastern Istanbul. That
portion of the city is the ter-
minus of the Asian continent,
on its western flank. Where
we sit in Western Istanbul,
it9s the boundary for Eastern
Europe.
Turning 180 degrees, we9ll
be visually stunned looking
upward into the towering
minarets, the expansive dome
of the Blue Mosque just 200
yards away, one of the most
ornately decorated and sump-
tuously gorgeous religious
sites on Earth. Just a day and
a half ago, we walked out the
front door of our home near
Sisters.
Now we9re planning the
first day9s self-designed
tour 4 The Mosque of
Suleiman the Magnificent, the
Muslim world9s equivalent
to Alexander the Great but
viewed as the great scourge
of the 1500s by southern
European Christianity; the
800-year-old Grand Bazaar
with its 3,852 shops; the Spice
Market, lying at the foot of
the Golden Horn-spanning
Galata Bridge.
Istanbul is where the
Orient Express concludes or
starts, depending on one9s
perspective. For nearly 2,500
years, this city either wel-
comed or unsuccessfully
fought to resist multitudes
of humanity from through-
out the Eastern Hemisphere
4Vikings made up a por-
tion of the Imperial Guard,
the Sultan9s Harem Eunuchs
typically came from Africa,
and Mongol hordes mixed
with the whole shebang dur-
ing 13th-century campaigns
in this region.
Known first as Byzantium,
later as Constantinople and
now by its present name,
Istanbul became the melting
pot of the world a full millen-
nium before Europeans first
settled New York City. At 15
million people, it continues
to be a destination for the
masses.
While this sort of travel
vacation might sound terribly
exotic, expensive, and fear-
less, in fact it represents only
the first of those qualities.
Arriving in early November,
during the shoulder season,
the cost of a round-trip ticket
from the Redmond Airport
to Istanbul9s new Ataturk
Airport cost $750, without
any travel deal.
The boutique, family hotel
with daily homemade brunch-
sized breakfast included is
less expensive than a budget
motel in Oregon. Exceptional
five-star, fresh-fish restau-
rants price out at less than a
sit-down chain in the U.S.
Offer expires
Nov. 15, 2019
The Blue Mosque dominates the ancient Istanbul skyline.
Some family and friends
were fairly aghast when we
told them about this portion
of our six-week trip, given
the political atmosphere that
has transpired over the past
few months. While reserva-
tions were made last winter,
the idea of not going wasn9t
even entertained.
Granted, we didn9t come
in waving the American
flag, nor were we seeking to
engage in discussions involv-
ing political drama, despite
being encouraged to do so by
a couple of the taxi drivers.
The immediate border with
Syria, a place that should be
avoided, offers little for trav-
elers anyway.
Turkey certainly does have
political, cultural, and war-
time issues, but the Turkish
people will be the ones to
address them, not us. In the
meantime, the local citizenry
welcomes Western visitors 4
provided we don9t find a need
to stick our noses into the sec-
tarian strife.
Now a few days into our
trip, what we have found in
Istanbul is a repeat of previ-
ous travels over the past 15
years. The perspectives, pol-
icy-making, and official posi-
tions taken by the upper crust
of power within a nation 4
government leaders, business
tycoons, the highest-ranking
of military brass, a few nota-
ble clergy4makes up the
bulk of what all media por-
trays a nation9s attitude to be.
It ain9t necessarily true, nor
does it have much to do with
the matters that the majority
of a society are concerned
about.
We9ve found the peoples of
Zimbabwe, India, Nicaragua,
Morocco, Vietnam, along
with those in the cities of
Helsinki, London, and Madrid
to be absorbed by the day-to-
day demands and small joys
in life, same as what occurs in
our United States. Most peo-
ple in this world are endeav-
oring to make their lives as
good as they might be, given
the circumstances in which
they find themselves.
As a whole, people we9ve
met everywhere have been
kind, curious, and helpful. It9s
incredibly reassuring, consid-
ering that we9re led to believe
otherwise.
So we9ve traveled across
the globe to Turkey, to
Istanbul, because it has been
one of the great cities of the
world since the beginning of
<great cities of the world.=
We9ve once again suspended
our egos and judgments
because our understanding
of what existence is or can
be just never quite fits how
another culture has come to
understand it.
I9d like to think that my
American forebears and the
ancestors of people every-
where, in part, endeavored,
fought, and sacrificed to the
extent that they did so one
day there could be this oppor-
tunity 4 to sit down beside
others around the world with-
out sensing a need to fear or
dominate each other. Bread
could be broken, tales of
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