Cooking A' La Turka

After a long year, my family and I were reunited in the city of the Ottomans. For one day, we sent the boys off for a transportation adventure and the ladies stayed behind for a lesson in Turkish cooking. We spent the morning chopping and dicing (which is much faster with a big knife, as Carey learned) and our efforts ended in a beautiful 5 course meal. We made some typical Turkish dishes such as lentil soup (my personal favorite) and zucchini pancakes. We also made "fainting imam"; this dish is a stuffed eggplant with a lot of oil and a story. The story goes that a stingy imam was watching his wife cook and saw how much of the precious and expensive olive oil she put into the eggplant dish and he fainted! At the end of the meal we undid out top pants button and waddled back to the hotel for a rest before more sightseeing.

Ankara: Turkey's Capital City

In July, at the end of the school year, some ladies from my department and I went to Ankara for an ESL teaching conference. We spent most of the time on the Bilkent campus, but we did get to use one day for sightseeing. Anaka is a much, much smaller city than Istanbul and is very different. Ankara is much quieter and much less edgy than Istanbul. Instead of high rise concrete buildings, Ankara's buildings are much more influenced by Anatolian style architecture.

Ankara's most impressive feature is the Anatolian Museum of Civilization, where Turkey stores it's amazing wealth of national treasures dating from the Paleolithic period to the Byzantine era. It is here that I began to fully understand the real depth and breadth of Turkish history and how is really is a crossroads for East and West (and other cultures). One of my favorite pieces was the cave paintings from Çatalhöyük-- the oldest known prehistoric cave paintings. Çatalhöyük is the site of the first known attempt of humankind at recording history. This sculpture above is from the Çatalhöyük; she is, Cybele, the mother goddess.

The museum's collection of Hittite reliefs (pictured below) and sculptures is truly incredible--an entire room.

The museum even has a reproduction of King Midas's tomb.

The rest are just pictures of things I found interesting.

Two boys playing tavla (backgammon)--a favorite pastime of most Turkish men.

An antique store display and bags of hena used in wedding ceremonies.

Berlin: Part Duex

I went on the best tour of my life in Berlin last June--"The 3rd Reich in Berlin". The guide was incredibly knowledgeable and a good story-teller--better than any college professor I ever had. Everyone in the group was spellbound and before long I started taking notes on scraps of paper (the back of receipts, fliers, etc) because I didn't want to forget everything we had been told. I've hesitated writing this blog post because I don't want to sound like a textbook, however I do want to share the information. (This isn't particularly fun or easy reading, so if you want something more cheerful you might want to skip one.)

"Those who start by burning books will end by burning people."

The scene is set by the ravages of the Great Depression and the aftermath of WWI. In 15 years Germany had 20 governments, an average of 4 months a piece. Germany was the worst hit industrial country and this economic depression combined with the restrictions and the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles is what many people believe to be the final blow to Germany's Parliamentary government.

There was what is called the "Grab for power". In the elections the Social Democrats and the Communists combined got 14 millions votes while the Nazi party got 12 million; however, unfortunately the social democrats and the communists were unable to come together and form a left wing government. Then, February 27, 1933, the Reichstag (Germany's building of Parliament) burned down and as it burned Hilter gave a speech blaming the Communist Revolution for Germany's current situation domestically as well as it's lower status on the world scene. During the speech he unleashed 25,000 members of his private police force into the crowd to murder the opposition; his troops are commanded by generals that Hitler bribed with promises of getting back the land and respect that Germany last in WWI.

Hilter then takes the Parliament by force and surrounds the politicians with Nazi thugs while they vote on the "Enabling Act"

("special power allowed by the Weimer Constitution" to give the Chancellor the power to pass laws by decree without the involvement of the Reichstag" (wikipedia). Out of 230 members of Parliament, 96 voted against Hilter and they were all subsequently killed. (to right: monument at the top of the rebuilt Reichstag--the glass is to represent the effort of government at transparency in laws)

Although only 20% of the country joined the Nazi party people loved Hilter because he was charismatically promising to regain Germany's former stature and most importantly, Hilter promised to get rid of communism and find jobs for the 20% of the population that was unemployed. After Hitler takes control he immediately set about spreading the Nazi philosophy. Teachers were required to educate students about the Nazi world view so that students close to the age of 18 would be ready for Hilter's military tactics before the war begins. Also, a boy scout-esque organization called Hitler's Youth was formed for educational purposes.

The rest is well known history. Hitler begins by rounding up the "lebensunwertes" (the life unworthy of life), cripples, homosexuals, mental deranged, etc and ordering doctors to use them for a series of cruel medical experimentations called T4 (the program was named after the street on which the building was located--pictured below). Then the "Mishlinger" (mixed blood- in this case meaning the Jews) are sent to ghettos; the ghettos were close to train stations so that they could be transported more easily to the concentration and work camps in eastern European cities (Prague, Warsaw, Krakow, etc). The cruelty to these populations is unfathomable and I'll only include two details that I found the most disgusting. Many soldiers found executions to be good entertainment for their families during picnics and female hair was found woven in some of the SS uniforms.

Of course, there were revolutionaries who tried to take Hitler out of power, but all attempts were unsuccessful. On July 20th, 1943, one group of senior level officers in Hilter's Army tried to assassinate him with a bomb during a meeting. When Ludwig Beck, the leader of the assassination plot, was discovered he was sent into a room with a gun and ordered to commit suicide; however, Beck only succeeded in wounding himself and another officer had to finish off the wounded general. Another group of insurgents were hung with a piano wire (middle c, to be exact, because Hitler found after extensive testing on humans that the middle c wire kept victims alive the longest while not breaking during the hanging).

(Memorial for the "middle c" hangings)

Eventually, Russia was able to invade the city and every single remaining German was ordered to fight--man, women or child. School children were armed and anyone thought to be deserting the effort was hung on lampposts to serve as a warning to others. People however, were not able to go outside because of the constant shelling and nearly the entire population of the city moved permanently into the underground train tunnels-if a German didn't die for desertion, or by enemy gunfire their chances in the tunnels were still slim due to starvation and disease. Even after Hitler's death when a defeated people emerged from the tunnels they weren't safe from the sex starved and angry Russians who raped and killed thousands of Germans; this is known as "The Rape of Berlin"

(to left: bombed out church left as a reminder of the ravages of war)

By the end of the war Hitler, the murderer of hundreds of thousands of people, was a drooling 56 year old drug addicted stoke victim whose left side was completely dead. He lived entirely in his bunker and was only seen, dragging his left foot behind him, when meeting with his military council. Eventually, when all hope was lost for the Nazi army he married his mistress, Eva Braun, and passed out cyanide tablets to all the guests. The attendees' bodies were burned in the garden. Since then Hitler's bunker has been completely destroyed and there isn't even a sign posted in it's location for fear of Neo-Nazi uprisings.

(to right: the only swastika legally allowed to be displayed in Germany. It is in the floor boards of the Ministry of Propaganda building and remains for historical reasons).

(Below: the Jewish memorial--based on a Jewish tradition and designed to look like the pebbles left by loved ones on headstones)

Produce Markets



After many months of peppers and eggplant in the winter season, I am very much enjoying the fruit and vegetable variety that comes with the advent of spring. 2 kilos of cherries for 5 ytl (about $3.50). Beautiful tomatoes for about 1 ytl per kilo. Giant artichokes hearts that are prepared by eager salesmen. Watermelon at .90 kurus a kilo. Whatever is in season is cheap and delicious and always ripe enough to eat that day. Strawberry season was amazing. I've also been introduced to erik by the kids--a hard, green, sour plum which they eat by the kilo (pictured below).

The other fun thing about the markets is that you never know what non-food items will also be sold. Sometimes strawberries and pantyhose. Sometimes apples and shoes or toys or household appliances.

The Decadence of Dolmabache

Finally getting around to some of the less important tourist sites in Istanbul, I went to Dolmabache Palace. Decorated in the elaborate western style of the 19th C, the palace was the Sultan's showpiece to the west. The palace has hundreds of rooms and quite a few Turkish baths. Everything in the palace is symmetrical, so gifts had to be given in twos so that it didn't throw off the balance of a room. The only thing that is in traditional Ottoman style is the Harem (which is actually just a building for all the wives and children... not as exciting as I had hoped) and the gated windows above the main hall where the women could watch the parties below without being seen. Many Turks feel that Dolmabache is not as beautiful as the more traditional Topkapi Palace and I have to admit that it looks out of sorts surrounded by mosques on the streets of Istanbul.

I did enjoy that this guard looked like he might stab you at a moment's notice.

Bus Trip to the Heartland of Classical Civilization

I'm not quite sure what possessed us, but Elizabeth and I decided to pack up and go on a 4 day tour with the 4th graders from our school. The morning we left we were a little nervous as the little ones tore themselves away from crying parents and we embarked on our 9 hour journey south. However the kids turned out to be lovely and were, by far, the best part of the trip. Since we weren't their actual teachers, we had celebrity status and the kids loved us--fun was had by all. Unfortunately the tour (the music (we had lots of dance parties on the bus) and the movies on the bus) were all in Turkish, so we didn't learn a lot about the places we went to see, but I did walk away with some tidbits, more Turkish vocabulary and a different view of Turkish culture.

There were two things about the kids that I thought was really endearing. The first is that they love their teachers. The kids all had huge bags full of candy and would always offer us food--they would be sad if you turned it down because they really wanted you to have it. It was my birthday on the trip and the kids all made cards and some even bought presents. They even put a candle in a little cake and sang to me. I thought it was really sweet considering they had only met me 3 days before. The second thing that I loved was their respect for the "bus boys". The school hires a tour company and two young men in their early 20s come along on each bus and give out snacks, help chaperone and organize evening activities (a super sweet deal for the teachers because we basically didn't have to do anything). In Turkish culture, it is polite to call a person who is older than you (but not a teacher or family member) Ağabey or Abla which roughly translates to Uncle or Aunt. Whenever they kids needed something they would say Ağabey and it was really fun to watch them with these guys who were great fun (one Ağabey is pictured below on a Roman toilet in Efes).

On the trip, we got to see Efes, Didem, Pergammon, Sart and the house that Mary supposedly lived in after Jesus was killed. I will have to go back and take a tour in my native language before I can give historical information, but for now here is some of what I saw:

Efes- which is a huge, fairly well preserved Roman city. Lots of statues and columns and even a sign on the marble walkway leading young sailors to the brothel (ancient advertising).

Mary's House- There is a wishing wall (pictured below) and 3 fountains that run from a spring. Each fountain stands for something--Sağlık (Health), Aşk (Love) and Para (Abundance). I drank from all three--figured it can't hurt. Although, it was actually a bit jarring to be at such an important Christian site in a Muslim country.

In the Efes Museum we saw several interesting sculptures, including this one of Artemis (the patron goddess of Efes). She symbolizes abundance, which is fairy obvious as she has quite the "abundant" chest herself.

My next favorite is the god of fertility, Beş. The best part about this piece is that he is behind darkened glass and you can push a red button for a 10 second viewing. Nothing like a peep show in a museum--and what a show it is, ladies!

Can you imagine how much fun we had trying to get sixty 4th grade boys through a museum with the fertility god brandishing this about?

Two Battles = Twice the Fun


Elizabeth and I took a weekend trip through the Asian continent of Turkey and down south to
Çanakkale. This region houses both Gallipoli and Troy, where two famous battles took place thousands of years apart. The most recent was the battle at Gallipoli where the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) made a name for themselves and finally broke free of their ties to "Mother England". In 1914, the objective at Gallipoli was to capture the Dardanelle Straights and create an ice free sea route to Russia. Fighting nearly face to face in trenches that were just across the road from each other, the two warring nations were up close and personal with their enemies. Eventually, they started swapping food by throwing canned "bully beef" in return for milk and other supplies. The battle was 8 months long and over that period of time the ANZACs won the respect of their Turkish adversaries. Unfortunately, after thousands of deaths on both sides, the campaign failed and the ANZACs left.



Coincedentally, this military campaign was where the future leader of Turkey established himself as well. The Turks are very proud of Ataturk and his famous quote from this battle--"I'm not asking you to fight. I'm asking you to die."


As we pulled out of the dock to head to Troy (honestly, pretty glad that we didn't have to look at another memorial or graveyard in the hot, hot sun), we saw a huge sign painted onto the cliffs. It read, "Dur Yolcu" (stop, travelers), "try to hear the beating heart of a nation". Although, I'm not much for battlefields and military history, it was difficult not to be moved by two nations having such a profound respect for one another.


The second, or rather first and much older, battle is the one immortalized in Homer's Iliad. You all know the details, "the face that launched a thousand ships", the Trojan horse and all the jazz. There isn't much left of the city thanks to Scliemann, a German "archeologist", who destroyed the the land in an attempt to find the treasury (he did and stole all of the goods). However, I must say that, although quite tacky, the replica Trojan horse inside the city made the whole trip worth our money.

Walking in the City

A couple of weekends ago, a bunch of teachers from Koc got together and took a walking tour of the hans in Istanbul. Hans, a relic of the Ottoman empire, were an old-time gated communities for travelers. The structure is built around the center court-yard and hans were the place of bustling activity. The animals were kept in barns under the ground, while the travellers and dwellers slept upstairs in small rooms where they rolled their mats out at night. The ground level was used for commerce and travelers could pick up spices, silk or anything else that struck their fancy. The hans have huge iron covered doors that were locked at night to keep out unwanted visitors. Now the hans are mostly shopping centers (one han housed the Russian immigrant population) or workshops for the Kapalı Çarşı (Grand Bazar). We got to see guys melting gold, putting diamonds in settings and making the silver teapots and trays for which Turkey is famous. At the end of the tour, Edda (our guide) took us on top of one of the oldest hans in the city (built in the 18th century)A great way to spend the morning and to discover more of Istanbul's secrets.


A borekci (man who sells borek). My favorite is basically an apple turnover.

A woman selling birdseed in the square.

The Blue Mosque



Mosque lamps in a shop

Cologne

Elizabeth and I went to Cologne for the weekend (another one of those super cheap but crazy 36 hour trips). We stepped off the metro at the ungodly hour of 7 am (we had already been up for 5 hours) and were greeted by the sight of the Cologne Dom, this beautiful Gothic cathedral. The dom, which was began in 1248 and finished about 600 years later, houses the gifts of the magi. More importantly it houses 550 spiral steps which Elizabeth and I climbed up to get to the top of the tallest spire.

Other than the Dom and the Rhine, on which the city is built, there is not a lot of sightseeing to do, which was a nice change of pace. We enjoyed shopping in one of the 50-some H&M's in the city and eating lots of ethnic foods that we can't get in Turkey. Although, I have to admit, it was a bit strange to hear church bells instead of the call to prayer.

Bursa

We had a long weekend for Children's Day, a national holiday in Turkey, so Elizabeth, Allana and I took a short ferry trip to a bus to another bus to Bursa--about 3 hours outside of Istanbul. Bursa is famous for silk, skiing (there is a large ski place there called, Uludağ), Iskander (a Turkish dish with slices of lamb laid over squares of bread smothered in tomato sauce and yogurt) and for being the birthplace of Turkish shadow puppetry. We found Bursa to be a complete and welcome change of pace from Istanbul-- it is clean, modern and organized.

My favorite things from this weekend?

Stumbling upon a Children's Day show and watching these young men do ceremonial dances with sabres and shields.

Spending 2 hours in a shop in the market with one of the few people who still know how to do traditional shadow puppetry. They did a show just for the 3 of us in our honor. One man did 3 or 4 puppets at a time while another man sang and played tambourine during the scene changes and the belly dancer show.

Going to a traditional Ottoman village outside of Bursa called Cumalıkız, which was like stepping back 150 years in time. We felt really out of place in our tennis shoes and with cameras attached to our hands.

Naxos



The last stop on our island tour was Naxos. Everything that was magical about Santorini was wild and natural in Naxos. There was still a small town, laid back atmosphere, but unlike Santorini, Naxos isn't an really an island of romance- Lys and I were glad. On the ferry over, we met some young ladies who were studying abroad for the year and joined forces. One day we rented ATV's and drove around the whole island. We stopped in little towns, at ruins in local markets for snacks and picnic lunches. The locals were friendly and glad to see tourists. We blew through one town as passed a lady who jumped up, waved her hat around and shouted greetings as we passed. We stopped at an artichoke farm and a generous farmer gave us all fresh artichokes. We made a fantastic lunch out of them the next day.


One morning, Alyssa and I went to a local museum and saw pottery and figures from the Cycladic period--all found on the island. As we left the museum, an amazing smell of bread yeast wafted through the air and we went in search of the person responsible for such deliciousness. We stumbled upon this fire-oven bakery.

We watched the sunset. We ate mezes. We saw churches on cliffs and fallen statues. We met George, our villa owner, who was the self-proclaimed best "washer and ironer" in all of Greece. We chatted with locals. We walked along the beach. We saw fishermen and ate fresh fish. At the end of it all, we were immensely sad to leave our island haven.