Another Saturday?
A week passes so quickly -- I am surprised and dismayed at how little I sometimes accomplish in the span of a week. Ah well.
Currently I am drinking "apple tea", a curiosity I found in Turkey when I was there about a year ago. It was offered in most tea places, and sold in the spice markets. Although I still don't really know if that's because it's a popular drink or that it's considered exotic and expensive, and thus good for foisting upon unsuspecting tourists. Regardless of the origins, it's pretty damn good and I recommend it.
Istanbul is certainly one of my favorite cities. It straddles the crossroads between Asia and Europe, and was of huge strategic value to pretty much every empire to have existed in that area since before the time of Christ. As such, the number of wars, treaties, religions, cultures, and peoples that have claimed the city at one point or another is astounding. And they have all left their mark. I suppose that's what fascinates me so much -- you can actually feel the history closing in around you, the confluence of beliefs and cultures is apparent in a million different ways, all straining against each other and yet in a strange sort of harmony.
Point in case, when I was there I received a tour of one of the old palaces that housed the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. It was beautiful, and absolutely enormous. My tour guide was a pretty young Armenian girl. I found it amazing that after what the Ottomans did during WW1 there is still vibrant Armenian community in Istanbul. Not only that, but it was ironic that one of them was showing me the fallen majesty of the Ottoman sultans, who were the symbols of the wealth and degenerative excess that ultimately brought it down. Although I kind of wished I had, I did not ask her about it. It would have been, I thought, a little rude.
Turkey is struggling to get into the Eurpean Union, and yet still considered by many to be part of the Arab world. It's a country that lies at the heart of what is to be the main force of change over the next hundred years -- the emergence of what has formerly been known as the "third world", and how they integrate (or don't) with existing power structures. Istanbul is at the heart of Turkey, and as such exemplifies a lot of this struggle. Modern malls exist on top of (literally) underground markets that have existed for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. What's more, they are both thriving as they specialize in different products and sell to different clientele. How this is all going to play out I don't know, but it's great to watch and think, especially as you sip some apple tea.
That's another thing I like about teas. They generally make me reminisce about other times, although to be honest I probably do that far too often than is healthy. Speaking of which, I should go and see about getting some food.
A week passes so quickly -- I am surprised and dismayed at how little I sometimes accomplish in the span of a week. Ah well.
Currently I am drinking "apple tea", a curiosity I found in Turkey when I was there about a year ago. It was offered in most tea places, and sold in the spice markets. Although I still don't really know if that's because it's a popular drink or that it's considered exotic and expensive, and thus good for foisting upon unsuspecting tourists. Regardless of the origins, it's pretty damn good and I recommend it.
Istanbul is certainly one of my favorite cities. It straddles the crossroads between Asia and Europe, and was of huge strategic value to pretty much every empire to have existed in that area since before the time of Christ. As such, the number of wars, treaties, religions, cultures, and peoples that have claimed the city at one point or another is astounding. And they have all left their mark. I suppose that's what fascinates me so much -- you can actually feel the history closing in around you, the confluence of beliefs and cultures is apparent in a million different ways, all straining against each other and yet in a strange sort of harmony.
Point in case, when I was there I received a tour of one of the old palaces that housed the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. It was beautiful, and absolutely enormous. My tour guide was a pretty young Armenian girl. I found it amazing that after what the Ottomans did during WW1 there is still vibrant Armenian community in Istanbul. Not only that, but it was ironic that one of them was showing me the fallen majesty of the Ottoman sultans, who were the symbols of the wealth and degenerative excess that ultimately brought it down. Although I kind of wished I had, I did not ask her about it. It would have been, I thought, a little rude.
Turkey is struggling to get into the Eurpean Union, and yet still considered by many to be part of the Arab world. It's a country that lies at the heart of what is to be the main force of change over the next hundred years -- the emergence of what has formerly been known as the "third world", and how they integrate (or don't) with existing power structures. Istanbul is at the heart of Turkey, and as such exemplifies a lot of this struggle. Modern malls exist on top of (literally) underground markets that have existed for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. What's more, they are both thriving as they specialize in different products and sell to different clientele. How this is all going to play out I don't know, but it's great to watch and think, especially as you sip some apple tea.
That's another thing I like about teas. They generally make me reminisce about other times, although to be honest I probably do that far too often than is healthy. Speaking of which, I should go and see about getting some food.
posted by slithytoves at 8:44 PM
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