“Istanbul: The Final Days.” …Or something…

Programming Note: Now that it’s April, we thought it might be time to, you know, finish the epic saga of our Christmas holiday pilgrimages to Germany, Switzerland, and Turkey. Thus, below I will regal you with all the lovely insightful detail of our post-Turkish wedding adventures in Istanbul that only three months of time and space can bring. Since returning to simple Sheffield in January, we’ve both had birthdays, traveled to Amsterdam and all over Scotland, and my parents have come to visit in Sheffield. We do want to catch up with our writings, and this our promise to just cease doing exciting or noteworthy things until we do! Remember, we never promised this blog would be timely or entertaining!

When we last left our trepid adventurers, they were making their way back to Taksim Square after an opulent Turkish wedding….

The following day, we had a leisurely morning and a late start out the door down to the Ortaköy region of Istanbul, on the European banks of the Bosphorus, with the goal of taking in a relaxing lunch in the shadows of the Ortaköy Mosque before catching a boat tour of the Bosphorus between the First and Second Bridges that link the European and Asian sides of the city.

But, more importantly, allow me now to reveal the true nature of Ashley’s calling in Istanbul: Cat Whisperer. Already a city of strays, everywhere we went turned to scenes such as these:

Warning: Images contain many cats and may not be for the faint-of-heart.

As one can see, otherwise normal situations quickly got out-of-hand as cats spread the news of the arrival of the Cat Whisperer herself. Happily, we can report no known incidents of mass feline uprisings.

The following day, we ventured to Topkapı Palace, home of the Ottoman sultans from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. Vastly removed from European-style palaces, Topkapı was a unique experience that did a good job interpreting the lives and material culture of the Ottoman rulers the uninitiated. A unique and self-conscious blend of various cultural traditions, the Ottoman designs are beautifully stylized and gracefully executed to a level that was truly thought-provoking. In addition, just look at the tile-work:

Within the Palace, we stumbled across numerous fantastic artifacts, including the Piri Reis map. This map, presented to Selim I in Cairo in 1517, is the oldest known map that includes portions of eastern North, Central, and South America. At this point, I had a little geographer’s/archaeologist’s nerd-out. This then continued in the Chambers of the Sacred Relics where, accompanied by the continual chanting of the Koran over a loud-speaker, we came face-to-face with various relics of the prophet Muhammad. Despite the dubious provenance of some of the relics, it was humbling to study the chest that contained his shroud, as well as his swords, one of his teeth (in a both), and a supposed mould of his footprint, among other things.

In our last few days in Istanbul we found ourselves wandering the city, exploring various mosques and areas such as the spice market, which was itself a very cool and interesting corner of the city that allows one to experience the true nature of open-air markets in the tradition that one just doesn’t find in North America or Western Europe often enough. Large quantities of almost every imaginable good for sale, complete with people who are more than willing to bargain and barter with you. Maybe even more so if you look passably Western. Further above the spices themselves, the old and narrow streets are home to vendors of house wares, toys, and even tourist trinkets in bulk quantity. And just down the hill, towards the Golden Horn, fishermen stand stoically on bridges for hours and hours, pulling in numbers of fish while languidly watching for passing boats and reeling in their lines just in time.

We spent our last full day in Istanbul in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums; a treat we had both been waiting a few weeks for. Three separate museums in an historical compound house some extremely large and varied collections from Turkey, Anatolia, and surrounding areas including Cyprus. Having just completed various papers on the subsistence strategy of a large Neolithic site in central Anatolia a few weeks before, I was excited to make my way inside and study the actual artifacts. In addition to numerous artifacts that most readers will likely not find to be exceedingly intriguing, I personally enjoyed the collections on prehistoric Anatolia as well as the supposed chucks of the Ishtar Gate from Babylon on display, while Ashley enjoyed the ceramic museum (read: nothing but fantastic tile work).

Despite their fantastic collections, I was saddened by some of the Museum’s dubious open-storage techniques. Namely, fields of open trays of pottery sherds that formed a ceiling for an exhibit, and was then just too easily accessible from other portions of the museum. It made me sad. Also, with a museum this size, you’d think they would have a better location to stage what appears to be recently excavated and accessioned artifacts then a corner under the stairs in one of the main corridors. Further sadness.

And on the evening of January 5th, I proposed to Ashley in Taksim Square. After preparing for weeks, speaking to both her parents and mine, and carrying the ring around with me every day for two weeks through Germany, Switzerland, and Turkey, the stars finally aligned for a perfectly fitting evening for me to ask her to spend the rest of her life with me. I suppose the suspense is months past, but thankfully, she agreed. I’m not one for sappy stories, but suffice to say that it was a very special and emotional event for the both of us! We can’t wait to move back home and see our close family and friends in Lake Placid!