The Grand Hustle

The Grand Bazaar is one the worlds oldest and largest covered markets with 61 covered streets and 3,000 shops. So of course, knowing this and being the history freak that I am, I had to make a visit to this famed market.

I don't really have much to say about it other than the fact that I was 100% unimpressed -- I think its because I'm not a traditional tourist and so I know that the majority of the stuff in there is a straight rip off. Everything in there is extremely over priced and gimmicky. If you ever make your way to Istanbul, its worth taking a look around just to say that you've been, but I pity the fool who opens up their wallet to drop dollars on some trinket that was actually made in China or India.  

In short -- See the sights, save your money.

The Grand Bazaar... More like

The Grand Hustle

A Natural Abroad

Being natural in the Sates is hard enough --  At least for me it is. Constantly being pumped with images of women with long, luxurious sew ins and flat ironed tresses. So when I moved to Istanbul a month ago, I thought the pressure to straighten my hair would be even greater. However, to my surprise, my prediction has been proven wrong. In fact, the reception my hair has received here in Turkey is the exact opposite of what I was expecting. People find my hair fascinating, exotic, and drum roll... beautiful. Now its not that I don't love my own hair, I'm just not used to other people overwhelmingly admiring and taking such a genuine interest in it . Its actually quite a bizarre feeling.

 On any given day, (and quite frequently I might add) I'll be walking down the street and some random person will come to me and begin to touch my hair and say "Cok guzel!" which means "Very pretty" in Turkish. My students love to ask questions about how I style my hair, how long it takes, what kinds of products I put in my hair etc. A whole lesson down the drain because of an impromptu natural hair Q&A session. One time I told my students that my braids were not my real hair and bless their little hearts, they couldn't wrap their heads around the idea. So at the end of class I gave them a little braiding tutorial -- Their minds were 100% blown. BLOWN, I tell you. 

That being said, there is a downside to being a natural abroad in this side of the world.Turkey's Black population is EXTREMELY low and as a result, the demand for Black hair products is damn near non existent. I knew that before coming here and made sure I had my hair in a protective style and that I had fully stocked up on hair supplies -- Dropping dollars at the beauty store before I left. I must say, too, that I'm so happy I stocked up because I've been in beauty supply stores here and A.) There's no Black hair products in sight and B.) The prices of hair products here are out of control. The struggle would be so real out here for a sister without a protective style,  no products from home, and no hair salon to go to. Being a DIY natural with a degree from  the esteemed YouTube University has really come in handy. And as my arsenal runs out, I'll probably have to ask my people back home to send me hair care packages. 

Despite the product issues, its nice to be able to feel like other people like your hair as much as you do -- A great confidence boost. Its something that I don't feel much of back home (which is part of the reason why I sometimes have periods of excessive flat iron relapse). Since being here, I haven't felt that urge once - Not that I feel there's something wrong with flat ironed or permed hair, I just know that I use heat to the point where my hair is unhealthy.

 Going abroad is one of the best decisions I've made in my life thus far and being able to feel comfortable with my self image has mad it all the more easier to settle in. 

So for all you naturals who aren't getting shown any love back in the States, buy a ticket to Istanbul and I'll take you around and help you get your mind right! 

                            

Cave of Seven Sleepers

Following my tour of Ephesus, I took a little detour to a less frequented site in Selcuk. Its called the Cave of the Seven Sleepers. As I mentioned before, Selcuk is home to a lot of early Christian historical sites and stories. This one is quite interesting, so I thought I would travel off the beaten path and check it out. 

After I exited through upper Ephesus, I walked down a long road for about 20-25 minutes. From there, I banged left on this gravel road and walked for another 20 minutes or so. While walking, there was literally no one or any cars on the road. Just me -- Quite eerie. I've seen too many horror movies to be doing shit like that, but I was determined. So I walk down this second road and I come to a few small houses with old Turkish women sitting around drinking tea. And right outside the houses, there was a sign for the cave.  I walked up a steep hill for about a minute and bam, there it was. 

AND IT GOES A LITTLE SOMETHING LIKE THIS...  

During the 3rd century AD, the epic beef between the Roman State and the early Christians was still raging. This was, of course, because the Christians refused to worship and make sacrifices to the Roman gods and goddesses. When the Emperor Decius was due to come to Ephesus, seven young Christian men escaped the city to avoid persecution for defying the Roman State. They hid in a cave up in the mountains where they fell asleep. When the Roman soldiers found their hide out, the emperor ordered the cave sealed.

Two centuries later an earth quake broke down the wall and miraculously woke up the men who then re entered the city to find food. They returned to Ephesus to find that Christianity was now the accepted and official religion of the Roman Empire. The Emperor Theodosius was informed of this miracle and recognized it as proof of the doctrine of Resurrection -- which at the time was a major issue within the Church. 

When the young men eventually died, they were buried in the cave and a church was built over the resting place. 

I couldn't walk into the caves because it was fenced off but I snapped some pictures through the fence.

Nobody was up there but me, either. Kind of an uncanny feeling. 

Shit you don't hear about let alone see everyday, man. 

  

I Get Around Pt. 2

In one of my first posts I filled you guys in on the ins and outs of getting around the city of Istanbul. Well, I took my first intercity trip Sunday night to a little town on the Aegean called Selcuk to visit the Ancient ruins at Ephesus.The town is actually filled with a crazy amount of early Christian history but that's neither here nor there right now cause before I blog about that, I gotta tell yall about these dope inter city buses. 

I have to say that when I found out that the easiest way to make my way down there was by bus, I was very apprehensive. Cause if America can't get its life together between Megabus and Greyhound (Don't eem get me started) then how on God's green Earth is Turkey gonna have its long distance transport game right? I had visions of me riding on rusty, crusty bus the size of Big Worm's ice cream truck. And like so many things since I've been here, your girl was wrong yet again.  *Sigh* 

The buses here are 10 times better than any inter city American bus I've ever been on. And being from Rochester and living in Philly, I've been on countless bus trips for innumerable amounts of hours. I booked my ticket with the Kamil Koc bus company and I was so pleasantly surprised.

Firstly, these buses were extremely punctual. As a very impatient traveler, I truly appreciated that -- Don't have no time to be messing with Megabus and their CP Time nonsense.  So when you get on the bus the first thing you notice is that their Mercedes buses and each seat had a personal TV. You could watch anything from CNN to ridiculous melodramatic Turkish soap operas. The seats were so incredibly comfortable, too. This was such a relief because I had literally gone straight from teaching my evening class to the bus station with no time to rest in between. None of that funny business where your butt cheeks go numb from sitting on those God forsaken Greyhound seats. Oh, and lest we not forget the wifi. 

So just as I'm getting comfortable and settled into the ride, the man who clearly works on the bus come down the isle like a flight attended with drinks a snack tray -- "Oh word? Say no mas." is exactly what I said to myself when I saw that. Of course, like a creep and complete foreigner, I snapped a picture of this for your enjoyment:

So I got me a nice hot tea and this Turkish fruit cake. At any rate, this guy goes up and down the isle I think 3 times during the trip. On top of that, though, there is a button that you can press to request his services. WILD. I know, my mind was blown too. 

The trip took about 10/11 hours in total. I slept the entire time and it was a night bus so I can't really tell you about the scenery along the way. I can tell you however, that at one point the bus had to board a ferry boat for about an hour or so in order to cross the Dardenelles. I stepped out for a bit onto the ferry deck but I couldn't see anything in the dead of night and honestly I was just too tired. I got over trying to experience the Dardenelles real quick and went back to the bus to sleep -- I tried. 

Even now just thinking about the subpar bus service we are used to is making me want to foment revolution at Megabus headquarters. When I go back to the states and, no doubt, have to get back on a bus at one point in time, I just KNOW Imma be mad, marinating in my own saltiness cause the buses here are simply on another level. 

Sultanahmet Square: Basilica Cistern

I know my posts have been less frequent but that's because I officially started working 2 weeks ago. Making that paper. -- I'm sure I'll have posts about that in the future. For now, though I decided it would be nice for me to talk about all the places I've visited in and around the city. So these posts will be for all you uncultured heathens who asked me, "What's in Turkey? Why would you even want to there?" 

Well , guess what? Turkey got tourist traps on traps on traps. 

Don't belee me? Juh watch ... or read. 

First, I'm gonna break yall off with a piece of the historical peninsula in Istanbul. Locally, it is referred to as the Sultanahmet District. This district is home to Istanbul's biggest tourist attractions including the Hagia Sophia, the Basilica Cistern, the Blue Mosque, and Topkapi Palace. I'll be going in the order I visit/visited them which leads me to my first attraction, the Basilica Cistern. 

The Basilica Cistern or Yerebatan Sarayi ("Sunken Palace" in Turkish) is the largest of hundreds of ancient cisterns beneath Istanbul and was built in the 6th century under the Emperor Justinian. 

The people who settled around the cistern were provided with their daily water through various openings in the ceilings. 

 

In the western corner of the cistern, there are two column bases in the shape of a Medusa heads. Traditionally, the story goes that the Medusa heads were oriented sideways and inverted in order to negate the effects of Medusa's stone cold gaze. Apparently, however, archaeologists say it is most likely because  they needed them to be the proper size to support the column. -- That shit sounds super whack  to me so I'm gonna choose to subscribe to the traditional story. 

It took me about 10-15 minutes to tour the whole cistern. The fact that there's still water and fish in there was pretty awesome,. The architecture was beautiful  and the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism had the mood lighting on point. Had me feeling like I was at a spoken word joint. But I enjoyed the Medusa heads the most . So, without the Medusa heads I probably would have rated this attraction a 7.5 but instead I'm gonna give it an 8.5 -- I'm a Greek/Roman mythology freak what can I say? This shit really lights my fires. 

And just like the Black person I am, all I could do was repeat the Andre 3000 line from his feature on John Legend's "Green Light," "So I went hard like Medusa staring at me." 

SIDE NOTE:  If you fancy seeing the Basilica Cistern in one of it's theatrical appearances, take a looksie at The International with my man Clive Owen. Its a pretty good movie. 

  -

A Few Things I Learned On My Way To Istanbul

Well I made it safe and sound. I haven't really gotten to explore yet because by the time I got all settled into my flat it was already around 5:30 PM over here. So that being said, I figured I would just take the time to talk about my thoughts on the journey over here.

Shall we commence? ... Lets.

1. SOMETHING IS BOUND TO GO WRONG

    And I say this not only because of this one trip but because of previous traveling experience. Even when your travel plans are going relatively smooth, at least one bullshit thing will happen to you. In this case, while making my way from Rochester to Newark Airport, I realized I left my computer power cord at home two hours into the drive. WOMP. Had to stop in this middle of nowhere town and pay $80 for a universal power adapter. 

2. ROCHESTER'S AIRPORT IS ONLY CONSIDERED INTERNATIONAL BECAUSE IT FLIES TO CANADA

GAY. Hence the 5 hour drive to Newark.

3. YOU CAN BRIBE THE CHECK-IN EMPLOYEES

So although I did successfully pack everything in two bags to avoid paying $200 for each extra bag,  these fools were gonna try and charge me $400 because both of my bags were over the 50 lb limit by only about 4 lbs. Luckily for me, the young man working the check out was running a little side hustle. I gave him $60 dollars to overlook the weight of my bags -- Financial disaster successfully averted. Shout out to you, young man, where ever you are. Swiss Air should be proud of your entrepreneurial spirit. 

4. ZzzQuil WORKS

Took some ZzzQuil so that I could sleep the entire 7 hour flight from Newark to Zurich. Might as well have gotten shot with a tranquilizer gun, bruh. Your girl was GONE. Slept through dinner and breakfast on that flight. Not to mention in doing that I don't have to deal with jet lag cause homie don't play that sleeplessness nonsense. Gotta keep my circadian rhythm on point. Ya heard me?

5. LINDT CHOCOLATE TASTES THE SAME IN SWITZERLAND AS IT DOES IN THE U.S.

If you ever find yourself in Switzerland, standing in front of a Lindt Chocolatier shop, don't be a fool like me and buy it thinking its gonna taste different in its homeland. I'm not gonna tell you how many Euros I spent for a small bag but I will tell you to save your money. You can buy this shit at Rite Aid. 

6. YOU CAN SEE THE SWISS ALPS FROM AN AIRPLANE

I ate lunch while catching an aerial view of the Swiss Alps. What did you do today?

7. TURKISH AIR KNOWS HOW TO FEED YOU

I used to look forward to getting biscoffs on the plane -- Not anymore. Turkish Airlines really just changed the game in monumental ways here. For only a two and a half hour connecting flight, I was served a meal of marinated chicken breasts, tomato rice, green beans over olive oil, plum cake, followed by Turkish tea (çay) and dried apricots. 

But basically from this point on anybody tries to hand me some dry ass pretzels/peanuts, I'm taking it as blatant disrespect and I'm slapping you across your face.

So anyway, I know seven an odd number to end with but this basically what happened during the 12 hours I went off the grid. 

Also just wanna thank God for getting me here safely and making sure my baggage didn't get lost. Amen.