Istanbul Installment #2

On Saturday we decided to devote the day to mosques so we could be appropriately dressed (knees and shoulders covered at minimum plus a head covering for me and socks since we had to take our shoes off).  We walked across town to see the Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent which is supposed be better then the Blue Mosque but it was basically closed for renovations.  So we wandered into the Spice Market, which is very similar to the Grand Bazaar but much smaller and they have a larger spice section.  I got some nice kebab spice and Iranian saffron. 

After that we went to the Hagia Sofia – which was originally built as an Eastern Orthodox Church in 537 but was turned into a mosque in 1453 and then into a museum in the 1930’s.  It is something I have wanted to see since I took art history (and considering majoring in it) during college.  It lived up to my expectations but was also different then I expected.  First of all it is HUGE- the entire Notre Dame cathedral can fit inside it!  It is not quite as spectacular from the outside as the Blue Mosque but it very beautiful inside.  From an art history perceptive the best part is the construction and the mosaics.  The mosaics are very beautiful but were all covered over when it was turned into a mosque – for some mosaics this was a great way to preserve them but for others it ruined them.  The nave of the Hagia Sofia has scaffolding set up since they have been resorting the building for over 30 years and have at least another 10 years to go.  The scaffolding is 20 stories high!  You can see from the photos that Hagia Sofia still has many elements of the mosque period including many Arabic medallions and the mimber but also has many Christian aspects like an apse and the uncovered art and mosaics.  It was definitely a sight to be seen.

After lunch at the Lale Shop famous for hippies in the sixties we headed to the Blue Mosque.  After waiting in a short line to take off our shoes and getting a once over for dress code of the mosque officials we headed inside.  It was very beautiful with a delicate blue and white tile on everything.  The prayer area was quite large but that space is only for men – women have to prayer at the back behind a screen and I was surprised how small that area was.  The Blue Mosque was pretty neat inside but I was somewhat disappointed with their lighting system that was suspended from the dome with 100’s of small cables – it really took away from the vastness and beauty of the dome but I guess you have to light the place.  The mosque is very large and is still very well maintained today considering it was built in 1609 – and only took 6 years to build!  The defining feature of the mosque is the 6 minarets – at the time it was built it rivaled Mecca in number of minarets but Mecca built another one to make sure they were the best.  I was pretty frustrated with the lack of respect many tourists had inside the mosque- many women didn’t wear head scarves or cover their shoulders even though there were provided a large scarf before they entered- it blows my mind why people are so disrespectful.

Tangent - I forgot to mention a few things from yesterday.  In the afternoon we walked around the Hippodrome which was a chariot racing venue from old times, it is basically a park now.  It does contain the Egyptian Obelisk and Column of Constantine which used to be covered in bronze but was looted during the Fourth Crusade. After that we had a great simple dinner next to our hotel of Pitta, which are basically Turkish pizza on a pita type crust- they were great and we had some nice (cheap) beer.  Plus our server was the cutest old man.

Tonight we had dinner at a rooftop restaurant that had an amazing view of the Blue Mosque.  The food was also excellent – I had a great homemade pasta dish with lamb kebab meat.  After dinner we wandered around for awhile and then got great dessert of baklava- one of my favorites!

Istanbul Installment #1

We arrived in Istanbul with some knowledge of the process for getting our visa and entering the country, which was helpful. As US citizen we had to “buy” a visa at the airport for $20 US dollars – they only accept dollars and Euros so you had to be prepared. Then we stood in the long immigration line and passed through an infrared camera to make sure we didn’t have a fever and in turn swine flu (we already filled out a questionnaire on the plane about it).

Once in the country we were greeted with sunshine and warmth! We arrived at our cute little hotel in the old town area, called Sultanahmet, our room was great and air conditioned (which is very important!). We headed out to see some sights. We walked across town to the Galata Bridge, which connects the “new” and “old” side of European Istanbul. Istanbul is huge – 15 million people separated by two main bodies of water so the port is very busy with commuter ferries. Istanbul is also on two continents – Europe and Asia- most of the tourist’s stuff is in Europe but we do get to Asia at the end of our trip. Back to the bridge – locals fish off the bridge to earn extra money so we saw lots of fisherman mostly catching little fish like sardines, anchovies and herring. After the bridge we hiked up a huge hill to Galata Tower. It was built in the 14^th century to help protect the city but is now a tourist view point and restaurant. We saw some nice views but the city was polluted that day so the pictures are not great. We noticed a lot of pollution the first two days but the last two days were crystal clear. Next we walked up Istiklal Street, which is in the new part of the city and is a big outdoor shopping street. Most people were Turkish and we wandered for quite awhile taking in the sights and smells. Finally we found a place for dinner (kebab of course) and then walked back to the hotel.

The next day was Friday so we decided to avoid the mosques since this is an important and busy day in Islam and instead headed to Topkapi Palace. It is in a prime location in the old town – it was built in 1470 by Sultan Mehmet as an administrative center and palace. It is well preserved (and cost us a small fortune to tour) and very impressive. It is beautifully landscaped and includes the Sultan’s Harem. The Harem was really interesting on many levels- it was where the Sultan lived so it was really pretty with tons of tile work and wood inlay. But the story of the harem was also really interesting – different then I expected – the Sultan wasn’t allowed to pick the women he had relations with – his mother (who lived with him) choose them. The had up to four wives and his mother could choose four “favorites” of the concubines which he could “know better” but he had no say in this. There were hundreds of concubines, which were there to serve the wives and mother – basically slaves unless the mother chooses them as a favorite. The children also lived and were educated in the Harem – the whole Harem was protected by what they called the “Black Eunuchs” which were slaves from North Africa trained to serve in the Harem and by the way were castrated so there wouldn’t be any issues. Other then the Harem Topkapi has some beautiful buildings and great views. The most famous stuff though includes the Topkapi Dagger and the Spoonmaker’s Diamond that is 86-carets. Another interesting area was the Hall of Holy Relics, which included some of the most significant holy items in Islam including the footprint of Muhammad and his hair and tooth.

As we wandered to lunch we were treated to one of the many “calls to prayer” – this was Friday midday worship which is the most important. I can’t quite explain how neat the call to prayer is – it is beautiful and eerie at the same time. In the old town there must be 8 mosques within view so you hear the call from each minaret and it almost seems like they are calling and answering each other. I was very taken with it and loved to hear it every time (5 times a day).

We had lunch at a famous Turkish meatball place – it was good! Then we headed to the Grand Bazaar. The Grand Bazaar is HUGE- it was a first mall ever and now has 4,000 stores. It is a bit intimidating since all the vendors want to sell to you and talk to you. We wandered for a long time before we had the nerve to try to buy anything. We ended up with a small Turkish rug that we will hand on the wall thanks to two dogs. The rug is silk and really pretty- we did bargain but in the end who knows if we got a deal or not – but it was quite an experience.

Some observations after the first two days:

• The city is much greener then expected and every green space is well landscaped
  
• The food is good and reasonably priced!
  
• The Turkish people are nice and inviting – they want to share their city and culture with you – they say hello and smile at you. They also want to sell you things but when you say “no thanks” they are very nice still.
  
• The city is pretty clean but there are lots of stray cats
  
• Experiencing a Muslim culture/city is a great experience – it is nice to see the culture in it’s own setting and within it’s own norms. I knew I was out of place but at the same time I never felt out of place- I never got weird looks which I am sure most Muslim women in traditional dress cannot say in America.
  

Pictures and more stories still to come!

Russ

So I promised in my last post (which was too long ago!) I would tell you about the Norwegian phenomenon called “Russ”.  It is essentially a 3-week party by the graduation seniors in high school celebrating finishing school and their freedom.  Russ officially starts on May 1 and ends on May 17 (Norwegian Independence Day) but many “Russers” start earlier then May 1.  It is easy to pick Russers out because they all wear the same outfit everyday for 17 days.  The outfit is either red, green, black, or blue overalls that say Russ 09 on the leg that are covered in patches and drawing.  They also wear funny hats in the color matching their pants and lab coats.  The lab coats have all kinds of drawings on them as well.  The color of their overalls denotes their major (red is general studies, black is technical studies, blue is business and economics and green is agriculture).  There is also an official Russ sweatshirt.  The tradition is they don’t wash their outfit for the duration of Russ (gross!).  The also hand out “Russ Cards” which are basically business cards with their picture, name, school and a funny joke or quote.  The children in town collect them like baseball cards – I swear I saw a kid one day who was about 7 who had probably 400 cards! 

But the best part, as you might have guessed, is the Russers are basically drunk for the entire 17 days.  The best way to describe it is a combination between senior week and Mardi Gras.  Russ is very organized with committees and officers so they are pretty smart and clean up their mess and have organized events but at its heart it is a drunken 17-day party.  But to their credit they are legally allowed to drink and in public as well.  They graduate a year after us so the kids are all 18 or 19.   It puts US high school parties and senior activities to shame and they are pretty proud of it.  We have spent many afternoons and evening laughing at the Russers.  Here you can see a picture of Jason and Kathryn talking to a group of them – they had to act like tourist to get a Russ card but it was well worth it.  Russ is specific to Norway and truly is a sight to be seen. 

17. Mai

May 17^th is Constitution Day in Norway, which basically celebrates their independence from Sweden. Though the constitution was signed on May 17, 1814 independence didn’t come until 1905.

It is a great day of celebration and culture in Norway with lots of tradition. We attended the festivities last year with Jason’s project leader and his family but I think we were still in shock from the move so this year we were able to enjoy it and absorb a little more. Most people go downtown to watch one or all of the three parades throughout the day and then usually have some sort of meal out at a restaurant in the afternoon. Everyone dresses up for the day….which is so anti-celebration to us but it is neat to see them all dressed up. The women all wear “traditional” dress, which is really neat and beautiful. You can see the images in the photo album but the outfit includes a long wool skirt, a white blouse, a wool vest and various other accessories depending on your area such as a cape or hat. The outfit is based on your local area so there are hundreds of different outfits and you can tell where someone is from based on the outfit. The Trondheim outfit is a blue and white patterned vest and blue skirt. The men’s traditional outfit includes short pants, wool knee socks, a wool vest and a neat jacket but you see far fewer men in the outfit- most just wear suits and ties. Either way the traditional dress is handmade for you and cost a fortune! We have been told that the traditional dress can cost between $3,400 to $10,000 USD…talk about loving your country! Most people get it once they are adults so they don’t have to size it too many times but it can also be bought as a teenager for your confirmation. The children also wear it but their outfits are reproductions are not too pricey since they are still growing. I guess the outfit lasts a lifetime as long as you don’t gain or lose too much weight but it still seems outrageously expensive for something you wear maybe once to twice year. Jason was frustrated because we were told by our Norwegian friends that we needed to dress up for the day otherwise we would “stick out as foreigners” but he bit the bullet and dressed up. I have to admit we wouldn’t have “stuck out” but almost everyone was dressed up- something we didn’t notice last year. We were also told that we should iron our flags – we thought that would be a bad idea since they are polyester so we didn’t follow that advice. When we did meet up with our Norwegian friends one of them had burned her flag while ironing it, which we thought, was pretty ironic!

Our day started with a 40-minute walk downtown since it is too crowded to drive or take the bus. Kathryn and I had the opportunity to walk with Birralee International School in the Barnetoget (Children’s Parade), which started at 10am. We had a nice time walking in that and seeing all the people lined up along the route. The kids parade is kind of boring since it is just all the schools walking through the town but the kids enjoy it. After that we had a traditional lunch of a hot dog wrapped in bacon- which is called Polse here. Then we headed over to meet our Norwegian friend Lena and some others to see the next parade. Lena was in her traditional dress so we got to hear all the stories about the dress and learn more about the costs etc. We then walked over and got a good spot to watch the 1pm parade which is the “People’s Parade”. It is all the organizations in town parading around which is slightly more interesting then the school kids. The highlight of the day was the “Trondheim Moustache Club” which is hilarious plus there were some nice bands and other groups. We didn’t watch the last parade that started at 4pm and is the Russ Parade. I will blog eventually about Russ, which is another really interesting Norwegian tradition.

After the parade we headed to our lunch reservations for a meal. The place was overcrowded and we had a horrible customer service experience but the food was okay. The bad experience made us realize how much we take customer service for granted in the US and how many options you have to handle a bad experience. In this case we had already paid for the food and the manager basically came out and yelled at us in front of the whole place that we had ordered wrong and they were very busy and nothing was his fault. I waited 1.5 hours for my food even though everyone else had lunch within 40 minutes but that was only half the issue- the rest of our table had many other issues. But all in all it was okay – it gave us another story to tell. J After lunch Jason and I walked home and collapsed after a long day on our feet in the sun. It was a really nice Norway day.

Funny Dopler

For those of you who know Dopler you may know that he is a sensitive dog.  Small changes such as moving sofas around or packing luggage upsets him.  He also gets very scared of loud noises such as things falling off the wall etc.  When we first got him I made the mistake of using the hair dryer without warning and it scared him from coming in the bathroom for weeks.  We were worried about moving to Norway since we knew we would have to use the hair dryer on him to make sure he was dry after a bath.  Well, low and behold he has decided he loves the hair dryer.  Not only does he seem to more then tolerate the after bath hair dry he now comes searching me out whenever I turn the hair dryer on.  It is a funny sight – I am drying my hair and Dopler comes sneaking in to get his butt rubbed and hair dried.  I can only assume he likes the warmth of it and the massage is an added benefit.  Either way it makes us laugh to see how far he has come from the days when the hair dryer was a scary thing!

Norway-Versary

May 1^st was our one-year anniversary in Norway. It is also a national holiday (International Labor Day) – lucky for us. We had a great weekend in celebration. The Thursday before was a beautiful warm and sunny day so we did what all good Norwegians do and we spent a good part of the day outside (at least I did) and then we grilled in the evening. They have this great thing here called an “engangrill” which translates as one time grill. You light it with a match and let it sit for 20 minutes then you have about 30 minutes of grill time. It is not really big (see pictures) but it works great. They cost about $2.50 and on warm days everyone is out in the parks using them. So on Thursday we bought a few and had Matt and Kathryn over for hamburgers. It was pretty decent – we also made S’mores which was pretty exciting for us.

Then on Friday we spent a lazy day outside reading then went to the movies in the evening and then ate out at the first place we ate when we arrived – Pepe’s Pizza. The food is good and the service is horrible but we are used it by now. It is hard to think that we have been here for one-year already- in so many ways it has flown by and in many ways it feels like we have been here forever. But the reality is we think we are now in the home stretch – one year to go and we will be moving again. Of course you can’t hold me to that since relocations are always a moving target but that is the “expected” timeline. Overall I think it has been a great year – it is challenging at times (lots of times) but it makes me appreciate everything and it gives me such a better understanding of the world. I think when it is all said and done this experience will shape many of my beliefs and thoughts for a long, long time.

Recent Happenings

Two weeks ago Jason went on a fire-fighting course with his StatOil group. It was a half-day course where they got to put out a lot of different types of fires and in general play with fire. The best part was the course was taught completely in Norwegian even though StatOil specifically asked for it in English. Jason didn’t understand one word but somehow he got a certificate for passing the course! Jason was also pretty amused that all the fuel they used to start the fires ran into a drain that lead directly into the ocean.

Then on Saturday we took a road trip with Matt and Kathryn to Sweden! We had heard there were good prices on groceries and alcohol so we headed off bright and early Saturday morning. It took about 1.5 hours and it was a pretty drive. We also got to try out our brand new toll pass! It is the same concept as the States and works great. We were tired of finding $12 in coins for a round trip to the airport!

The town we went to in Sweden is called Storlien and it is literally just a border town for shopping. There were some cabins and a few restaurants but I think the main attraction is the grocery store. Busloads of Norwegians arrive every day to shop. Overall we were not very impressed but we were excited to find canned soda, which you can’t get in Norway (and I love cans!) so we stocked up on that. We also found some good deals on meat – bacon and chicken to be specific. In Sweden I could buy a kilo of chicken for about $9 USD – the same kilo would cost me $24 USD in Norway on a good day. Same goes for bacon – 1 kilo in Sweden is about $10 USD – in Norway about $30 USD. So we think we might be making some more trips to Sweden! Jason also discovered a great snack - chocolate covered banana chips.

We also had a fabulous lunch in a cute little restaurant in town. It was a buffet, which is rare, and the main course was a great venison, moose and reindeer stew.