and Istanbul

When I came back from Italy I had two days to unpack, wash, and repack :) I called Guillermo to ask if he had time to meet. We went to eat chinese. I invited him in a very good restaurant. I ordered for myself, and he ordered "a plate of vegetables with a glass of water". I was like "WHAT? we come to a very good restaurant and that's what you're gonna eat??? I don't want to tell you what to eat, but I told you I would invite you, so feel free to take what please you!" and he was "I don't want you to pay to much, are you sure? and I'm not sure if I should eat something too fat because I want to loose weight" and bla bla bla... For God sake, if you can't even allow a good meal once in a while... especially if you're invited! He was the one who proposed the chinese, so if he didn't want to eat something else than a plate of vegetables, it would have been better and cheaper to eat it at home! That's the kind of things that annoys me in him. Well, he finally changed his mind and took a real meal. I invited him to stay for the night, but he had to go home, so as he had missed his train, he went to wait the next one at mine.

I had my plane the day after. I met with Eysan (crazy girl) at the train station, and we went to the airport. Her parents welcomed us in Istanbul. His father is hell of a good driver, he found his way in the infernal traffic as if he were born on a circuit! There are so much cars on the road, and no rules at all! it is the one who is the fastest that goes forward, the most important part of the car being the horn if you want to "communicate" with the other drivers :P Her parents are divorced, his father drove us to her mothers flat in the south of Istanbul, on the asian side. I didn't see anything interesting during the drive "home". Her mother had made a welcome meal, and it was damn good! :P

The day after, we just chilled out around the house, we went to the seaside to have a walk, went to have some beers in a bar, to smoke a hooka, and that's all.

Smoking the Narguilé, my pleasure in the arab countries :)

The interesting things came the few following days. She brought me in the most interesting places. She is born in Istanbul, but never visited it :D so I had a to-do list, and she was bringing me where I wanted. It was great because she was also discovering her city at the same time, so she wasn't bored when I was looking around. The first thing we did was to have a turkish coffee in the Orient-express train station, wich was the point of arrival for the europeans until flying became affordable. I could imagine all these people, coming all the way from London, via Paris, Zürich, Budapest and Belgrad, crossing Europe, it was something! four days, whereas it took me 2 hours and a half :) I have kind of nostalgia (even if I never knew this era) for the time when travelling was not just a short formality. I like to take the train, the boat, or my little plane and make some stops on the travel. I dream to cross the atlantic by boat once, and to go to Istanbul with the orient-express. But I checked the prices, and it costs 7350 € (almost 10'000 $) for one person 0_0 I'll do it later if I really have nothing else to do with my money :P

The Orient-Express train station

Crossing the golden horn with the Aya-Sophia in the background

After that, we headed to the most know monument, the Aya-Sophia mosque. It tells all the story of Istanbul, and modern Turkey. Built on the site of the first cathedral ordered by Constantin (the roman emperor who converted to christinism), it was ordered by Justinian. This emperor is known by all the continental lawyers to be the one who compiled the main texts of the roman-laws, and his compilation is still studied by students today (I can testify!). After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it became a mosque, until 1935 or something like that, when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the fondator of the modern Turkey, decided to offer it to the humanity, and made it a museum. If there is one thing to see in Istanbul, it is this church! I heard about it when I was a kid and we were studying the history of the roman empire, and the story of this church as well as the history of Constantinople fascinated me! It stayed the biggest building in the world for centuries, it is really a masterpiece :) We also went to see Topkapi palace, the palace of the Sultans. I love the ottoman architecture, it is very delicate, with a lot of ornaments, arab calligraphy etc...

Aya Sophia (the holy wisdom of God) mosque, built in the 6th century, christian church, muslim mosque, and laic museum through the centuries

One of the beautiful byzantine mosaics, the Christ, Maria and St-John Baptist

Ottoman architecture. One of the Sultans mausoleum

The courtyard of the Blue Mosque

One of the thing that also fascinated me when I learned about Istanbul at school is that it is the only city to be built onto two continents, between Europe and Asia. Crossing the Bosphorus had been an obsession of mine for a long time. Actually, there is nothing special, it is just a three km wide passage, crowded with tankers, fishing boats and passenger ships. But it is a symbol, a crossroad. For me, it represent the center of the occidental world, a strategic and cultural point. It is what separates Europe from Asia, but it is also what links the Mediterranean sea and the Black sea. It is a fascinating place. We crossed the Bosphorus several times, as we were living on the asian side, and that the historical center is located on the european side. We also took the boat and went all the way until the Black sea.

The Bosphorus with a super-tanker full of petrol coming from the Black sea

The Black Sea and the end of the Bosphorus. Europe on the left, Asia on the right

Her mother took us to one of the three islands a few miles out on the sea. A friend of hers had a house there, and we spent the day there. I got to say, Beverly hills seems crap compared to some places there :P Her friend was one of these "nouveau riche", who has a lot of money since recently, buys everything expensive but has no idea of how to behave or what "good" means. They buy things only because it's expensive. I mean... she served us wine, and told us that it was one of the most expensive wine of Turkey. So I figured that it was good. But it had been stored in the living room, exposed at the sunlight, during a few years I guess. When she poured the wine, and I noticed the color, I knew that something was wrong, even if I'm far to be an expert! I smelled it, and I immediatly noticed the caracteristic smell of the cork. I looked at her, and she was drinking it, she said she thought it was perfect :S she asked me what I was thinking about it, so I just agreed with a big smile to be polite, but it was so bad! Eysan and I looked at each other and there was no need to speak :P

On the Prince's island

The house I want to buy :) 15 million $$... hum...

The rest of the week was spent on seing other historical remainings, shopping in the Bazar like a real tourist, and most of all eating and drinking :) The food was soooooooo good!! with that and the italian one, I put on some weight! I urgently need to go back to gym :) I ate a lot of seafood from both seas, and a lot of ottoman specialities, like stuffed-eggplant etc... It is a spicy and perfumed cuisine. The last day, we were invited by Eysan's father in a very posh restaurant along the Bosphorus. It was soooo beautiful! I have been spoiled during this week, I can tell you! :)

I went back to Switzerland alone, Eysan is still there for one week more. I was a bit affraid to go with her, after all that happened between us. I was a bit relieved when I arrived to see that we were not going to sleep in the same room. Everything went fine actually. We had an incredibly nice week together. We got drunk once, and we started flirting together a bit, but we managed to stop on time. You know, I realised how much I like her there. I almost love her in a way, I don't know how to say. I'm not sexually attracted to her, but we have such a strong connection... it's weird. It's definitely more than friendship. It's kind of sad for both of us, because I think that if I were not gay, I might already have found the girl of my dreams. It's all the sadder that she's in love with me. Sometimes life is just unfair...

On another topic, this trip was very interesting. I observed the people, talked with some young guys, and older people, about everything. When you're there, going out in the center, you can't tell that you're not in europe. Appart from the faces, they live the same life than in every modern country. Yet, you can feel the heritage of the Kemalism. Most of the people are strong nationalists, and the state is still not that far of a dictatorial power. There are some touchy subjects, wich have a strong influence on the freedom of speech. I was surprised to see that some sites are forbidden on the internet. You can't access youtube for instance. If you dare speak about the Kurds, you better not say to much about it. The same about Armenia. The mediatic space is totally occupied by the prime minister, he's everywhere, newpapers, television, internet... The childrens all learn poems written by Atatürk, and there is a cult of his personnality. It is maybe gonna be part of the european union one day, yet, there is a lot of work to do...

Well, this is long enough :) Thanks for reading if you had the courage!

From the Topkapi's garden, holy Irene church

The Blue Mosque, one of the most beautiful mosque in Istanbul, seen from Aya Sophia