Someone should have told me! How else could I have known?
It's not right; it's just unfair. Do you remember my telling you about my ritual
for avoiding jet-lag when I travel overseas? It ensures that I get at least ten
hours sleep my first night and wake up refreshed for the balance of the journey.
The 5:30am call to prayer turned my plan on its head. Let me explain: The call
to prayer, or adhan , dates back over 2,000 years. There are
more mosques in Istanbul than in any other city in the world. Guess how many...
the are 2,972 mosques and each one has at least one minaret. Mounted on each
minaret are four powerful loudspeakers which all squelch out the call to prayer,
somehow in unison, summoning the faithful. During the day, against the
background din of the city, it does not seem so deafening; but when you are dead
to the world in dreamland, the first call to prayer is not only loud, but
frightening!
I stayed in the old town, Sultanahmet. Istanbul is made up
of 39 districts, but there is no doubt that only one can be considered its
heart. It is in Sultanahmet where you can bargain for almost anything you never
needed in the Grand Bazaar; where the famous, historical Topkapi Palace, Blue
Mosque and Hagıa Sophia await their daily parade of visiting tourists, each one
carrying a camera and guide book; where narrow cobble-stone streets lined
with crowded restaurants and bustling cafes, snake their way up and and down and
around into still-narrower laneways, always clean and inviting. Imagine yourself
at a kebab stand. On your left, a couple, where the woman is smartly dressed and
also wearing a headscarf; on your right, another couple, where the woman is
wearing a black abaya , only her eyes and nose are visible.
The rest of her is completely shrouded in black, her figure, her age, her
features, a mystery to all but one. You might think that you've gone back in
time, but you've observed this image repeatedly since your arrival. No matter
where you may find yourself in Sultanahmet, if you look skyward you will spot a
minaret or two. Each one somehow seems unique, different from the next.
Sometimes made of brick, sometimes of stone, often each square clearly visible
as the mortar is a different colour entirely, or, perhaps the whole minaret is
plastered over with a cement veneer. The shaft may have one, but often two,
intricately chiseled or carved turrets along its length, before tapering to a
point, and always topped off with a metal crescent moon. If you stop long enough
in one spot in Sultanahmet, any number of smiling merchants will boldly
approach you and ask what it is that you are searching, eager to help with
directions, sure that you are lost. Of course once he is reassured that you are
indeed familiar with your whereabouts how can you refuse an invitation to visit
his store?
In three weeks' time, the annual Istanbul Eurasian Marathon
will take place: It starts on the Asıan side of Istanbul and finishes on the
European side. In case you have forgotten your high school geography, Istanbul
is split in two by the Bosphorus River, the river that ultimately connects the
Black Sea to the North with the Aegean Sea to the Southwest, and separates
Europe from Asia. I would have liked to participate in that transcontinental
marathon (by running the half), but I settled for a transcontinental boat tour
which sails along the European riverside upstream and the Asian riverside
downstream, passing by dozens of stately mansions, both ancient and modern. The
more recently built tend to be painted in beautiful if not unusual pastel tones,
pinks, greens, blues and yellows with white window and door frames and terra
cotta roofs. Old or new, each manor has its windows delicately appointed with
wrought iron protection forged into various designs leaving me doubt that I am
not in Canada anymore. And many homes have long, plush lawns in front, some with
a swimming pool. I've been told that 1-1/2 million people cross the Bosphorus
each day to go to work, some by ferry but most by one of two impressive
suspension bridges. At rush hour the wait can be over one hour. Can you imagine
the traffic during a snow storm? Now running four years behind schedule, a 1.4km
long subway tunnel is almost completely built which will add a third means of
crossing the river. The reason for the delay? During construction, the workers
have unearthed the lost 4th century AD Byzantine port of Theodosius as well as
thirty-four 1000-year-old sunken ships. It makes me wonder what would be found
under the St-Lawrence?
From the city that never sleeps--past dawn, here's hoping
the current is flowing smoothly in your life.
Barry
