Istanbul October 2003

ISTANBUL OCTOBER 2003

Day 1.. 6.30am - Leave home by taxi to Thirsk railway station, for train to Manchester airport. Very long walk from train to terminal 1 for myself, dragging very heavy large suitcase.

Met the other members of the group at the check in desk. Easy to guess the bellydancers!

Good flight with Turkish airlines, straight through to Ataturk. Bit of a problem understanding the 'new' visa control! however we all got our luggage and faculties together within half an hour of landing. We were met by my good friend Bulent's representative and taken on a hair-raising trip to the Hali (Ha-eye) hotel in the Sultanahmet district of the amazing city of Istanbul.

Bulent met us in the hotel lobby and the usual Turkish greetings were observed. (Loads of hugs) we were all shown our very nice rooms and how to open them! Everyone was pretty hungry after the in flight meal... so we decided to sample the delights of a nearby Turkish street café. In this particular eatery the cooked food is displayed in the window, to entice hungry passers by. On entry you can discuss the merits of each dish and make your decision. Your choice is brought to the assigned table in a friendly and courteous manner. Some of the drinks are interesting, lovely juices in cans and breeds of Fanta just not seen in the UK. All we ever see is orange or lemon!

After our meal we all thought a little fresh air would be conducive to a good nights sleep. So down to the Hippodrome we went, checked out the various sights by the moonlight sharing it'self with the illuminated monuments from ages past and finished our atmospheric stroll in a Turkish tea house, listening to some very good live music. Not bad for a few pence!

This still wasn't enough for everyone, so it was off to Roz's amazing Raki bar for a final nightcap and a bit of zilling and spooning. Everyone was most considerate and pissed off when they realised I was a bit knackered.

We were joined on this trip by the amazing Yuki a Chinese Singapore dancer has several passions, bellydancing of course is at the top of her list, Followed quite closely by Mustafa Sandal. (famous Turkish pop star) Yuki has so much energy, she makes me feel tired all the time. However to sustain all this her greatest passion of all is food. Your dinner is not safe with Yuki around, however she does look pretty good on it and dances like a real professional.


Also with us for the second time was Graelin Cameron. Graelin hails from North Carolina, where she also teaches bellydance. We had prearranged to share the teaching between us. Classes were to be daily at 5.00pm. As there were so few people on this trip we had decided to avoid the rooftop. I did not wish to make anyone feel self conscious, there is some safety in a crowd. We also soon discovered several workmen on the next roof. I'm sure we would have put them off their work...

So each day I moved the beds round in my room to make enough space for dancing. It worked quite well and we were able to use the large mirror to full advantage.

Tuesday: Arose late to breakfast on the hotel roof. Fabulous views over the Bosphorus, Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. Wonderful. The weather is promising. We are off to inspect the Grand Bazaar, just in case they have sold everything to previous tourists... Maybe one day when Turkey finally gets accepted into the EU they will turn the Grand Bazaar into a European shopping precinct with Tesco's and Marks and Spencer. (Heaven forbid!)

8.30pm we are picked up at the hotel by a shuttle mini bus, which takes us round and round the hotel picking up waifs and strays from other hotels, one which had spontaneously combusted when they heard of our arrival! This caused even more detours round the back of beyond before we reached our destination of 'GAR', a renowned nightclub where we were to be dined and entertained by an assortment of Turkish talent. First was a colourful folk troupe, four of each sex, very lively and cheerful. Next we had a 'pink' bellydancer. She was rather slow to get into first gear but did improve with time. Later she was to make a special appearance as a super model for the 'annoying photographer' who always thinks he's David Bailey and never sells any photo's. GET A JOB. We've all got cameras!

More folk dancers, then a duo in turquoise who had some interesting aspects to their performance, which for me was ruined by the irritating habit of inviting men from the audience to 'have a go'. Humiliating and unnecessarily degrading for the dance. However I have seen much worse. Why do they imagine it is the only way to get audience participation. I can think of many others. They must think it is what the tourists want!

The belly folk: these guys are a little short of body and big of heart, they have floppy arms and face each other belly up. Very handy hats too!


The boys from the black sea: WOW! Exciting, entertaining, yes. Seen it before, hope to see similar many times more. GREAT.

The last bellydancer, didn't quite catch her name... She had some nice combination moves and danced well. A little dour, but entertaining. She did not humiliate anyone and was worth seeing. Anyway it's just a job...

To conclude, we had the singer supremo (not soprano) He was a universal vocalist, and managed to miss England much to the chagrin of two of the ladies in our group. I prefer to dance at the end of these things and missed that.

Wednesday dawned beautiful and fine yet again and after breakfast we go suitably decked out with head and torso coverage to visit the fabulous 'Blue Mosque'. Built just a few hundred yards from Hagia Sophia in the 15th century as a Muslim counterpoint to, one of the earliest Christian churches in existence. On entering the Mosque, women cover their heads and everyone removes their shoes. At least that's what's supposed to happen, however reality shows no respect and every year more and more women pour into the place in tight trousers, skimpy tops and naked heads. Whatever next?


Having carefully avoided the ubiquitous variety of salesmen that adorn the gardens and streets around the Mosque, posed for the inevitable photos, we adjourned for lunch in a typical Turkish 'café'. New for most of us was the Turkish soup, served with lemon juice. Delicious. Second course was a variety of platters to share. Cheesy and meaty Turkish very tasty pizza.

Afer all this food which costs next to nothing we all trouped off to the Spice Bazaar. This was originally the Egyptian market. The actual situation of this market is a continuation of the actual Grand Bazaar incorporated into Istanbul's marvellous collection of annoyingly wonderful shops from which a person can never ever get tired of looking round. Unless you are a Trappist Monk or a bloody pervert.

Time for a short rest at the hotel until the dance class at 5.00pm, today is Graelin's turn, she is working on posture, balance and hip drops. They have all come to realise the importance of knee movement and stance and using the arms to balance a movement.

The evening meal was at a Turkish tea house where crepes are the speciality. A couple of women sit in the central circular enclosure. They make the crepes. I can't remember what the meal was exactly. It was the 'special' and to drink was pomegranate juice. The Gypsies played and we danced. The high spot being the candle dance round the tables. They turn down the lights and we manoeuver our candles in each hand and dance in lines. This must look pretty spectacular from outside, many passers by stand and watch.

Thursday we visited Hagia Sophia (Hya Sofia) I have been here before, this place has an atmosphere you can almost reach out and touch. It is approximately 14 hundred years old, and how it was built can only be with the help of 'Himself'. With no giant cranes or hoists it has to be close to being one of the worlds wonders. Right now there is scaffolding from the floor to the top of the dome 56.5 mts high. Since I was last there, the metalwork has been moved in the process of restoration.

I am fascinated by the huge marble vessels originally used for storing oil for the many hundreds of lamps. To make something like this today a highly mechanised machine shop would be required, the right piece of marble would have to be carefully selected and precision cut to a fraction of an inch. However thinking back to 14 hundred years ago when only primitive tools were in existence, how the **** was this twice as high as me carved both inside and out, from a single piece of marble?

This evening we have decided to go to the KALAMARA fish restaurant in the Kumkapi district. Again a guaranteed excellent night out. Our guide is quite friendly with the Gypsy musicians and we all have a really great time and a chance to dance. The food is wonderful and served impeccably. At the end of the evening we were treated to a couple of dances by the gypsy musicians. This was specially for us, not the general public. A real honour.

Yuki goes back to Singapore today, we will all miss her, however she has agreed to come and join us on the Nile Cruise next year. I love the way the internet and our love of bellydancing has brought so many people together with a common interest. We are in a wonderful age with the greatest communication that has ever been. I do hope it can be used for the good and unity of all mankind and not as a weapon to screw up the world.

We are going to an area of Istanbul that supplies the CD sellers. This is quite a distance from the hotel so we take a 'taksi'. Everywhere is just so busy. I wonder do they have any driving tests here? Or are they just born with the extraordinary skill to be able to dodge other vehicles at a hairs breadth. This is a skill shared with the population of Cairo. Again the most important part of the car is the horn, the wheels simply will not turn without the horn being blasted at every other bright yellow four wheeled jalopy that 'speeds' along. After about 3 hours in the CD shop we all come away lighter of pocket and heavier of bags full of CD's. I managed to find some pretty rare stuff this time. Romantic male singers, that inspire lovely undulating body movements. Also found a couple of recent Sezen Aksu CD's. She is most highly respected by Turkophiles and dancers alike. How she manages to consitantly produce such wonderful songs is true talent. Havn't had time to fully explore all the music yet, however each one seems better than the one before. More surprising were the 2 VCD's, one shows the really gifted Haley. Anyone who slags off Turkish dancers should see her. A very classy dancer. The other VCD has 3 famous dancers: Firuze Sultan, Tulay Karaca and Ozel Turkbas. Good dancing but not the standard of Haley. Ozel Turkbas has acquired extra silicon since this was shot...

After even more shopping in the Grand Bazaar we return wearily to the hotel and spend the evening watching DVD's in my room on my laptop. The Raki bar was open and we had time to relax after the last 3 busy nights.

Saturday was the England/Turkey football match, up to now there had been no sign of any fans. However we were cautious on our travels. Today we visit Topkapi Palace, seat of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 400 years. This time we visited the Harem. The word 'harem' comes from the Arabic 'haram' meaning forbidden. There are about 300 rooms in the Topkapi harem and visitors only see about 10. How I would love to wander amongst those rooms alone and imagine what it was like to spend many years there. There were schools for the women to be educated. Many were quite young when they first came to the harem and never set eyes on the Sultan. I expect he had his hands full. Some say many were gay and kept all these wives as a status symbol... The mind boggles!


The Sultans 'sitting room', his throne, the carpet in front would have been used by entertainers, including dancers. You can't get furniture like that at IKEA! I must admit I did have a special moment of fantasy wondering if I dare hop over the rope and have a boogie! Tonight is the 'match'. For me football does nothing except annoy me. We had found a small street café for a very late lunch (4.30) and saw our first football fans. Turkish, however they looked just the same as the English ones, beer bellies, shaved heads and all. As they rolled along the street in their supporters strip, the first thought was 'another quiet night in'. This time Elaine and I bought cooked chicken, nuts, sweeties and dates to share. Out came the DVD's and we settled down for the night. After the match we were joined by Bulent and Graelin to watch Pirates of the Carribean. Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of Raki?

The last day, we had saved for the Bosphorus Cruise to relax before the flight home. In the morning I managed to look up a few Turkish friends frpm a previous visit. They were overjoyed to see me and that I had remembered them. Wherever you go in Turkey, the people make you welcome and treat you with respect. The carpet salesmen are a bit of a nuisance but you soon learn to avoid eye contact with them and not to lead them on. If they think you might be persuaded to buy they will try by any means they can come up with to entice you into their premises. Once you are in it is an insult not to buy, so DON'T GO IN. Unless you need a new carpet.

6.00am Monday, after a very speedy week we are on our way to Ataturk to fly home to Manchester.Immediately on entering the airport, your heavier than you thought suitcase has to be manhandled into the Xray machine. Mine was 35 Kilos...(all those glass beads) There are no trolleys and no porters here. Elaine had a broken arm and walks with a stick. You can imagine our difficulties. CAN'T YOU?

All week we have been fancying a cup of hot chocolate, so after we have finally dumped our cases and discovered the airport has sold out of duty free Raki, we find a suitable place and park ourselves with the required refreshment... Lovely. Off we go to our departure gate, or so we thought, as we go down the escalator to what can only be described as a nightmare from hell. The space we are being thrust into is about 20 feet wide and is already about 80 feet long with people. Babies are being held up above heads to protect them. Elaine is also diabetic and has broken out in a sweat, we have only had the hot chocolate!!!! Our flight is half an hour away. We have no choice but to endure this dreadful crushing crowd and look forward to getting home in one piece at sometime. Some people are beginning to panic and shouting out in many languages, babies are crying. I can't straighten or bend my legs at all. If I was to faint I would never reach the ground. The purpose of all this was extra security following the many Turkish people who had returned home for the 'match' (hate football more now)

Eventually we got through the security and had to actually wait for the bus to take us to the plane. We were over an hour late taking off, which meant I would miss my train at Manchester. By now I was well into a fully fledged cold, a special farewell gift from Bulent. I was short of tissues too. (So is the 737 we came home on)

Arrived home after 10 hours of travelling. Much longer than it should have taken. However I feel privileged to have had the experience. In days gone by we may not even have heard of Istanbul, let alone known of it's origins. Being built by the first Christian Roman Emperor Constantine as a rival to Rome itself. Now mainly a Muslim city, it holds great history and many wonderful buildings. The people of course are the most special.

Ataturk is usually OK and has the best airport shops I have ever seen.

Roz