Istanbul for the soul
Istanbul is a great place for holiday, for neurotic
travellers like me. Nine years back, I was normal and interested in the history
of one of the most influential cities in the world and the culture of Orhan
Pamuk’s city. This time I was only interested in not dying – which, as you can
see, I have achieved.
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| 9 years back |
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| Now. Same shirt. |
The reason why the city works for me, are many. I stay in
Delhi so showing me a monument which is a 1000 years old, is not going to
impress me much -my metro station is next to a 14th century madrasa.
It’s the crazy, mildly flirtatious, trusting and trustworthy people of
Istanbul, who fill my heart with joy, rather than palpitations.
While everyone on the streets of Istanbul, is absolutely
mad, in the nicest way, and helpful and funny, these are my favourite people
from the trip –
1.
Engin – the hotel manager who was more involved
in our day plans than we were. ‘I will help you’ was the sentence I heard him
say the most. A large map was drawn up every morning and he would pore over it,
trying to make our day as enriching as possible. Engin loves his job as he
makes ‘friends’ from all over the world – though not romantic ones, as he
solemnly declared.
2.
Olrep- the boat cruise operator who gave us a 50
percent discount, because we were women. The tickets were handed over to us in
full trust, and no money was paid, as we didn’t have any right then. We finished
the cruise and had to hunt him down to make the payment. I had experienced this
9 years back too- when we given dervish dance tickets on the complete faith that we will pay sometime before leaving the city.
3.
Magnaura restaurant staff – we ate our first
lunch here and the last dinner. It’s a very popular restaurant on Akber Road
just next to the historic Sultanahmet, and has guests ordering zillions of
items, Raki and dessert. We ordered Shorba – lentil soup. The staff was as
affectionate to us, as to anyone else – and plied us with endless pita and
hummus – maybe because we had ordered so less. The restaurant was next to our
hotel and we were offered free teas and cheery hellos, every time we passed by.
4.
Bus drivers – because we were feeling less
neurotic, one night we decided to take a bus. Several people, including 2 bus
drivers, 3 police men and 1 pedestrian, had long conversations to get us back
to our hotel. The bus didn’t charge us anything while handing us safely over to
another bus driver, who also didn’t charge us anything. Though we finally took a taksi, we did go up
and down Istanbul, on 2 buses, for free and with the well-intentioned support
of many people.
Go to Istanbul for it’s borek and baklava, dervishes and
darbuka. Roam the streets, from where all other roads emerged, 1000 years back.
But mostly go to Istanbul to meet people, who have thrown caution to the wind, do
not follow any etiquette handbook or guidelines on how to behave properly with
strangers, and are genuinely happy to welcome you to their city.
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