When I left for Istanbul I was reading this wonderful book (written by a former Peace Corps Volunteer in '76) called Bright Sun, Hot Tea. I chose my trip to Turkey partly because the $180 roundtrip fare on the bus fit my budget. But also I hoped to store up some warm memories in my body for the upcoming 6 months of Armenian winter. There were some doubts before our departure as the previous weekend 26 people drowned in Istanbul from a flash flood. But my wallet was already committed with fare paid for in advance. My Armenian tutor was concerned. Although half my age, she was acting like a good Armenian mother and asked me not to go. I showed her the 5 Day Forecast: it didn't say “torrential downpour” but just “rain-rain-rain-overcast-rain. So with some doubts tucked away in my back pack I climbed the steps for my 32 hour bus ride.
The long trip was also more bearable as we were lucky enough to have some fun people on the bus. Their interactions made for good theater and the time passed more quickly. When asked by one man now living in Moscow what I was doing in the country, I gave him my card that explains in Armenian what are the goals of the Peace Corps. It usually satisfies the curiosity of the recipient. Instead it started a long debate about the role America played in his home country’s current financial crisis. He was convinced that all the problems in Armenia resulted when Russia went bankrupt form its Cold War with the US and the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Empire. (Ronald Reagan would have smiled from his grave.) Fortunately a couple young Armenian men behind me, that had just completed their military service and were returning to Bulgaria, disagreed with his rather sweeping generalization. I am not sure what all was said as my command of the language is still rather basic. But I could appreciate his point of view for Armenia has lost more than it has gained since the USSR collapsed in 1992. The country's economy still has not recovered from the lost revenue and jobs when Russia's military factories closed. And the benefits of increased freedoms are “still a work in progress” as Democracy stumbles into the future. Hopefully in another 20 years the scales will balance out and folks will see what they gained in the process. But for now, some older Armenians can only see the current reality of more unemployment and fewer drams in their pockets. Less drams have a way of stirring up old dreams.... of the Communist Society, the New Society that never came.
By Sunday night we were pulling into Istanbul in a light drizzle. The city was still rather subdued as there was another two days left in the religious holiday of Ramadan. The next morning I awoke to a slight drizzle, a cup of hot tea, and my 64th birthday. I was ready for a quiet relaxing day. My traveling companions were in a very different mood as one of them was flying back to America the next day. They had created a very aggressive tourist plan: See Everything in Istanbul in 1 Day! Not exactly what I wanted to do on my birthday. I still had 10 days to see the sights. I was going to take it slow. I declined their offer to go along and ordered another hot tea. As a result, my Istanbul vacation got off on the perfect note: doing nothing. This actually set the tone for the rest of my vacation, where I seldom left the table in front of the Old City Hostel until the afternoon. (Later in the trip, another tourist asked my friend why she never took me with her in the morning. Her response was: "Because he's worthless in the morning!" For me that was a compliment.) My good fortune of having the right people around on this trip continued at The Old City Hostel where we stay in Istanbul for the whole time. Meeting two Brits that first day was wonderful and dispelled my fears that I would be Lost in Translation as I often am during my service in Armenia. Samantha, whose son worked at the hostel, was the very first person I met when I asked about the closest money exchange office. She was kind enough to walk me there and over the next 10 days became my “traveling angel”. Her ability to speak with the locals as well her sweet spirit was a wonderful birthday gift for my vacation in Turkey. The other Brit who also showed up at the hostel was Colin. He was a plant manager of a local factory and used the weekends at our hostel to de-compress. His company had a very nice hotel on the factory grounds but he wisely chose to leave the work environment over his weekends. Thanks to the long Ramadan weekend, Colin was around to show me his favorite bakery for breakfast. Afterwards I would sometimes return to “my table” and other times tagged along on his explorations of undiscovered streets and sites in Istanbul. His secret desire was to have lived in an earlier time when British sailors still explored the high seas and new lands.
Whatever I did in the morning was always relaxed and accompanied by hot tea and new friends. And so my morning routine slowly developed. I would just sit and read about the experiences of my fellow Volunteer who came here 40 years earlier. (The Peace Corps presence in Turkey was discontinued after a number of years when the political climate was deemed too turbulent for Volunteer safety. The author ironically stayed on in the tourism business and became one of the leading authorities on Turkey when Lonely Planet was just getting started.) On previous vacations when I was still working in Corporate America, I usually needed a swimming pool, a stack of detective novels and an occasional cold Mexican beer in order to sit still. This time all I needed was "my table" in front of the hostel and an occasional tea from Ali the Tea Boy who literally ran by all day juggling a full tray of tea, which cost 1 Lira (about 70 cents). One morning I did get adventurous and walked 5 minutes down the street to one of the historic Turkish Baths. At $35 it was my most extravagant purchase of the trip. But my slow walk back to the hostel two hours later confirmed it had been an excellent decision .
Sometime in the early afternoon, my Peace Corps companion would return from her morning excursions. We would grab a sandwich for 3 Liras from a sidewalk vendor and head out to some new site she’d read about in her travel book. Without her I am not sure if I ever would have made it to the Asia side of Istanbul. One day we took the very modern tram facing our street (Turkey does understand how to attract tourists) down to the port and then walked across one of the bridges spanning Bosphorus Straits. Another time she had read about this little very old village of Fener that was a mix Greek and Turkish residents. And it was only a 10 or 15 minute bus ride on the Asia side. We went there and I felt like I had gone back in time a 100 years as I walked amidst a very traditional way of life. It reminded me of an earlier trip to Crete with its winding hillside streets. Vehicle traffic was almost non-existent and the grade school kids ruled the streets. And when the call to prayer came, there was a sudden flow of men heading for the mosques with their religous hats in hand. I later learned that only Hajis could wear the hat, those that had completed the trip to Mecca required of all practicing Muslims.
The evenings were very relaxed as well. Sometimes Colin would take me to his favorite sisha bar which was populated not just by curious tourists but was a regular event for many locals as well. It was fun not just to be part of Istanbul's night life but also it was a venue well-suited to my meager entertainment funds for the trip. One evening a group of us spent an hour and a half there and the bill for the pipe, fruit-flavored tobacco and delicious hot tea came to only 5 Lira each, or $3 for the hour and a half. That would put most American bar owners out of business.
My other connection with Colin was in the area of business. Not only was he in charge of Business Development (my last position in the business world) but like my father he had started in his late teens as a pattern-maker. I remember most people thinking my dad made dress patterns when I mentioned his profession. Patterns, molds, castings are all part of the critical design phase for manufacturing any engines but are off the radar screen and seldom seen. One might compare it to Intel's plant in Folsom. We all rely on the quality and accuracy of those computer chips for our PC's and laptops but few of us have any idea how they are made. My exposure to the pattern business came to a halt in the 70's when the American automobile makers suddenly had to deal with the more gas-efficient and less expensive competition from Japan. The Big Three started cutting costs and many union shops like my fathers soon found themselves out of business. It was great talking to Colin was and learning how the pattern business was now operating in the 21st century.
We also had another common ground that was much more rooted in the present for as Westerners we both struggled to share our business knowledge with those from another culture. His struggles to increase productivity in his plant were echoes of my past year where I had hoped to create some collaboration in the Tourism Industry. In both cultures social relationships are given top billing to the extent that efficiency often goes out the window.
His business meetings with a dozen key personnel back in England were in sharp contrast to his current ones in Istanbul. Here the participants would all sit with at least one cell phone turned on in front of them. Nobody turned their phones off and thought nothing of taking personal calls during the meeting. The meetings could drag on for 3 to 4 hours and he was still not sure anything had been accomplished. If Colin had not already shaved his head, I just imagined that he would have pulled all his hair out by now in frustration.
But most of the time I just sat at the table in front of our hostel and enjoyed the camaraderie of the restaurant staff and the sun that showed up after a couple days. It wasn't until the 3rd day that I realized it wasn't "my" table but "their" table as the hostel owner had given the restaurant the additional space in exchange for free meals. Such was the connection with the two business owners who were both Kurdish. It took me a couple Google searches to understand more about what the papers called "The Kurdish Question." Apparently there was a treaty after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922 that gave the Kurds their own land. But the ruling powers reneged on the treaty and instead split up the land with adjacent countries. Apparently President of Turkey was rightly concerned about the fragile nature of his new Republic and feared ethnic divisiveness. He even forbad the teaching of their language and books written in Kurdish. His decision seemed a little harsh to me until I thought about the current chaos in Iraq where the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds continue to split the country. In addition to the friendship of the restaurant staff, I was able to enjoy meeting many young visitors who came every couple days to our hostel. Since there were 10 beds to a dorm room, it attracted young people who found the $17 a night (that included breakfast) fit their slender budget as it did mine. I got to hear about life in Germany, Holland, Brazil, Portugal, and Sweden. I got to travel around the world without ever leaving the "comforts of home" and the hot tea from Ali. Toward the end of the first week, when I gave him the 1Lira, he gave me a half Lira back. I was confused and asked the hostel staff about it. I guess he had one price for tourists and another for those who lived there. The 35 cents really didn't mean much to my wallet but made me feel like I was now a member of The Old City Family.
For a fella who decided to spend his 64th birthday in a strange country, I felt I had received a wonderful gift. And no doubt during the upcoming 6 months of Armenian winter, I will be returning to my photos and the warm memories of Istanbul. I was a little embarrassed when I left that I still hadn't gone inside the Blue Mosque or the Cisterns which many said were the most impressive sights there. So I guess I will just have to follow the example of my fellow Volunteer who saved almost $400 by flying home from there instead of Yerevan. Next time I doubt if I will See Everything in Istanbul in One Day. I had way too much fun being worthless.
PS If any of you ever pick Turkey as a travel destination, you will find much useful information at the website of the former Peace Corps Volunteer:
www.turkeytravelplanner.com
