Istanbul

Few places have ever effected me in such a way as Istanbul. It's been more than a year since I went, yet I still can't quite put my finger on what it was about that city that pulled me in. I'm not sure if it was noisy, cobblestone streets, maze like bazaars, or spices stacked so high that if they toppled, you would die smelling heaven. It could have been the stray cats that napped in the shade, or the big old dog that sat watching everyone in the park. Maybe it was the conjuncture of new and ancient, towering minarets and a mysterious underground Medusa head. It might have been all the families crowded into the park, breaking their Ramadan fasts, or street vendors selling roasted corn or the children eating cotton candy and shooting light up toys into the sky. Whatever it may have been, something about Istanbul drew me close, and made me feel as if I could live there my whole life. 

Perhaps the reason Istanbul had such an effect on me was the same reason I was so enthralled with India: I didn't know much about it. My knowledge of Istanbul before I went was this: it used to be called Constantinople, and before that it was Byzantium. And it had some pretty buildings. And that was it. I didn't know, for instance, that the streets were so winding and narrow in the part of town that we were staying in, that our cab driver wouldn't even know where we were going, even though we were staying next to the biggest landmark in the city. I didn't know that the fountain in Sultanahmet park lit up with different colors (at least during Ramadan) or that you could get almost any flavor of Turkish delight that you could think of. I certainly didn't know how much I would love ayasofya (Hagia Sofia). Being inside that building was the closest thing that I have ever had to a truly religious experience. The scale of it was beyond anything I could have dreamed of; it's sheer size left me in speechless wonder for more than a few 

minutes. Originally it served as the Greek Patriarchal cathedral of Constantinople, except for a short period when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral. It was then converted into a mosque. Now, it's a museum. The walls of the building have beautiful mosaics depicting religious scenes. When it was converted into a mosque, they were painted over which ironically preserved them. Standing in the middle of the massive building, I was humbled. Its size and its beauty were enough to nearly bring me to tears. The upstairs balcony held a special surprise for me, other than the beautiful mosaics being restored there. On one wall, there were holes where it was obvious that ornate crosses were once there. There was something about ayasofya that could have kept me there forever. I was fascinated and enthralled by its massiveness and its history, overwhelmed by the myriad of emotions that standing in the middle of it all brought down on me. Being there brought to me the realization of  the inevitability of change and the idea that we are surrounded constantly by layers and layers of history. This was something that I kept coming back to throughout my trip, and throughout Istanbul. 
Basilica Cistern was another place that, like ayasofya, had a great effect on me. It wasn't to the extent that I had felt from ayasofya, and maybe in a slightly different way, but Basilica Cistern was one of the weirdest and most interesting places that I've been. I can't really remember the history of it, or why it was built, but I can tell you this: it is one strange place. Underground, it is an enormous cavern with hundreds  pillars and platforms that suspend you above the water it is filled with. It's dark and cool and damp and a little creepy. The platforms are slippery and it smells a bit (not too bad though). The pillars have dim lights on them and the entire time I was there, I was writing the climactic chase scene of a movie in my head. Maybe the strangest things of all in the Basilica Cistern were the Medusa column bases.  No one is sure of their origin, or what they might have been used for previously. They stare at you menacingly, striking into you a fear that perhaps they will turn you to stone and you will be trapped underground forever. Fresh air was a relief when we resurfaced.
While the grandeur of places like Blue Mosque, ayasofya, or Topkapi Palace were surely a reason that I loved the city, what I think may have caused me to fall in love with it was not the architecture (amazing), but the atmosphere. As began to set, families spilled onto the streets and into the parks, toting picnic baskets and coolers. As they spread their things out and set up their meal, lights strung between the minarets of Blue Mosque flickered on, and the official band of the night set up on stage in Sultanahmet park. Leaning against a fence and eating a big, juicy slice of watermelon that I had bought from a street vendor, I was reminded vaguely of the 4th of July. Children were running around laughing and screaming, the aroma of wonderful, wonderful food filled the air and music played on. Wandering away from the park and on down the main roads, hosts beckoned you into their restaurants while cars and the occasional streetcar (tram/train/trolley?) whizzed by. Looping back around and walking up a quieter street, the shops were closed for the evening, and through the windows you could see people eating at higher end restaurants. There was almost no one on this quieter street, and at first I thought my ears were playing tricks on me. But the noise grew louder as we approached an outdoor restaurant down the block from our hotel. Floating gently through the Istanbul night was the theme for the Godfather, being played mournfully by the live entertainment for the night. As the song played on and I returned to my hotel, I thought to myself that perhaps one day I would return to Istanbul, but the tune was carrying me to Italy, and as sad as I was to leave, you can't complain if your next destination is Venice. 

ok I didn't plan on doing this but I will because I know I won't ever get around to a super detailed post about India.

sorry for that long title.  but it summarizes what i am about to do. which is try to compress India into a post.  i am wishing myself luck.  (BTW sorry that the pictures are bad quality-- i dragged them off my album on facebook :D)

Still in New Delhi, we went to Humayun's tomb.  It was soooooooooooooooooooooo sooo sooo beautiful. The Taj Mahal was in part based off it's design.  The first double dome (i think that's what it's called) in India.  It's really beautiful place, sandstone, with a garden.  Also, we went to the National Museum. and the Craft Museum, which I like more than the National Museum.  A couple carpet shops (ergg) and of course, Professor Butt, who ensured that I will never forget that hand knotted carpets are in fact NOT the same as hand made.  We went to the Gandhi Museum, on the location of his martyrdom.  The stuff downstairs was really interesting, and the stuff upstairs was too.  But th

e stuff upstairs was a little trippy.  Like something from a sixties movie...but still interesting.  It was odd to be in such a peaceful place in the middle of New Delhi.

Flash forward through the super nice domestic terminal in Delhi, to hopping off the plane in Varanasi, possibly my favorite place we went.  It's a holy Hindu city, and also a holy Buddhist city I think.  It's one of the worlds oldest living cities.  It's considered a "small" city.  Small being a population of about 4 million. :D  It's a lot different than New Delhi, which is much more urban.  Varanasi is located on the banks of the river Ganges. The monsoon this year was bad, so the river was kinda down, but not all the way.  While we were there, there were a lot of pilgrims, dressed in saffron clothing, which has a special meaning, that escapes my mind.  Might be sacrifice.  They walk from their homes, and take water from the river, because it is holy.  A lot of people are cremated in Varanasi, because of its h

oliness.  There are two main crematoriums, and one electrical one.  The two main ones have around 200 crem

ations a day.  We took a little boat out on the Ganges, and made our way over to the crematorium.  The people there don't mind if you watch, you just can't take pictures beyond a certain point.  It was really...I'm not sure the word to use...interesting? I'm not sure.  The atmosphere made it so that it was macabre or morbid at

all.  Death there is treated a lot differently than it is here, so the dead bodies wrapped in their cloth didn't seem scary or bad.  They seemed more peaceful.  We took the boat back in, and watched the evening ceremonies, which are to honor Mother Ganges.  Those were really cool.  We were on the banks of the river, seeing the moon rise over the Ganges.  It was really indescribable.  We went out on the river again the next day, at around 4 in the morning, which was no biggie, since I was already up.  We then went to temples, museums, and a couple historical locations.

Back to New Delhi.  Into the car.  Onto the road.  Holding onto my seat.  I was told on multiple occasions there, by multiple people, that there is a say

ing in India that goes "to drive in India, you need three things: brakes, a horn, and luck".  SOOSOSOSOSOSO true. All the way to Agra, there were cars coming down the other side of the road, animals and people in the street, yadayadayada.  I fell asleep, woke up in the middle of the night, looked up at the spedometer, and saw the number 100.  I flipped out for about 10 minutes before I realized that it was 100 kilometers per hour.  Not miles.  Whatever- it felt like it.

We checked into out hotel in Agra around 9 hours after we left New Delhi.  I deci

ded to order fried rice, and my dad ordered

 paneer.  I had had paneer in other restraunts and it was ok.  This stuff my dad got, I might have puked a little in my mouth when I saw it.  Too bad my dad has never mastered my technique of making it look like you loved the food you actually hated.  It really works.  He got a little sick.  But not too bad.  ANYWAYS.  The next morning, we got up, and went to the Taj Mahal.   WOAH.

So, everyone has seen pictures of the Taj Mahal, and heard of it's astounding beauty.  Ok. The pictures, the descriptions, they don't come anywhere near the truth.  I was literally left speechless by its beauty.  Me, speechless, that is qui

te a task.  It is such a beautiful building, with the gardens and reflecting pool.  Only bad thing was the breeze (that OH SO AMAZING breeze) rippled the water in the reflecting pool, so you couldn't see the reflection.  It's just amazing and wonderful and breathtaking and.... great.   After that, we went to Agra fort, which had some seriously cool stuff.  But my dad has a terrible fear of heights, and almost got a little sick in one

of the towers.  But that's ok, I liked it.  :D

Onto Jaipur, the pink city.  The hotel there was super nice.  Had a really big pool.  :D

First, we went to the Amber Fort.  My method of transportation: elephant! That was one awesome ride.  I really liked it.  But then, after, I felt bad for the elephant, because it was hot, they wanted to go sleep, and the elephant drivers or whatever they're called, kept hitting their heads with bars.   But still, it's an experience I'm glad I had.  In the Amber fort, there were some awesome rooms, especially the mirror room, where the walls had mirror on them.  I liked that.   City palace was also cool.  We ate lunch next to th

e Maharaja.  or he ate next to us, cuz' we were there first.  That was cool.  We also bought a bunch a pictures, which we got framed, and I might take pictures of the pictures and post them.  Maybe. If I'm not too lazy.  We went to another fort, possibly called Jagra (not sure-can't remember-don't feel like checking) fort, where there was a HUGE cannon, fired once, and a hella lot of monkeys. They were cuties (:  At some point in this huge fort, I lost my dad.  I spent about an hour walking around the fort, end to end, 3 times, in 100 degree heat + humidity, with no water because he had the bag, to look for him.  I swear I almost hit him when I found him.  We went to the monkey temple, which was SUPER DUPER cool. Because of the monkeys :D  I got to feed monkeys!! They took the food out of my ha

nds!!!!!!!!  We went to the Maharaja memorial, which was really cool, because it seemed kind of forgotten.  It was really beautiful, but seemed a  little abandoned.  I liked it.

We hopped a propeller plane (EEK I HATE FLYING SO MUCH) to Udaipur.

Udaipur was by far the smallest city we went to. Not even a million people.  Lazy little town.

We stayed at the Lake palace, which was the summer palace of the Maharana of Udaipur, now converted into a hotel.  A really nice hotel.  REALLY nice.  My favorite pictures of that hotel aren't on my computer at all, so I can't post them, but it was really beautiful and peaceful and relaxing.  It's in the middle of a lake, and you have to take a little boat to get out there. So cool.

We went to the Monsoon Palace, which is on top of a huge hill, and you have to take a really really windy road to get there.  I have no fear of heights, but that drive was a little scary.  Once you got to the top though, you got a great view.  We also went to the city palace, which was the Maharana's winter home, and where the Mah

arana currently lives.  That place was really cool, so great rooms with mirrors in the walls, stained glass, great views.  So beautiful.  By this time, the schalazium (it's a stye on the inside of your eye) in my eyes was really bad, so we had to go back to the hotel, where I moaned and groaned about it.  It was really bad.  Hurt.  Still hasn't quite gone away ):

I was sad to leave Udaipur, and even sadder to leave India.  But we had to, and took the long flight home from New Delhi to Chicago (we got delayed) and I watched Wolverine, 27 Dresses, and Star Trek.  I watched Star Trek 3 times.  We arrived in Chicago before customs opened, so we had to stay on the plane for half an hour, until 5 AM

.  We rushed through that, and ate fast, and then, the flight back to LA got delayed 2 hours.  Whoop-dee-doo.  Back to LA, that flight seemed a lot longer than the 4 and a half hours it was.  Got home.  Went to sleep, after over 48 hours awake.  Got up at odd hours, attempted to get back into the swing of things.  

It was an amazing trip, and if given the chance, I would definitely go back.

Have a great Sunday, and a wonderful week :)

~ molly (:

New Delhi Part 1

After around 24 hours of traveling, no sleep, and pretty bad airplane food (better than usual though...), my dad and I arrived in New Delhi, India.  I was ready to collapse the moment I stood up.  We exited the plane, and made our way through baggage claim, and found the man who was to take us to our hotel.  To do this, you exit the building, and go outside.  The first thing that hit me was the smell.  It just smells different there.  Not in a bad way, like even in clean places, the smell is just different.  It's kind of a thick smell, a crowded one.  The second thing that hit me was the heat.  It was around 9 at night, and oh my god, it was around 90 degrees farenhight.  Yipes.  The last thing that hit me was the pollution.  Coming from a pretty polluted city, I didn't think that the pollution would bother me, but right away, my eyes started watering.   I mean, I got used to it, but it was just a constant thing.

We went to out hotel, and after showering (I hate the feeling of not being clean....eww) I basically passed out on my bed.

Waking up at around 4 or 5 in the morning the next day, we were out of the hotel to explore at around 9.  Mistake.  Nothing is open til like 11, and we went walking without water.  I hardly ever sweat, like I can play a 2 and a half hour softball game at catcher in 100+ heat, and barely break a sweat, but within 10 minutes, I was dying.  Also, exhausted still from travel.  Back to our hotel we went, and back to bed I crawled.

The next day in New Delhi, we had a guide and a car.  We headed off to Lal Kila, the Red Fort.  This place was immense.  The walls towered above you, and once inside, gardens spread out in front of you.  I could just imagine what the Red Fort had been in its day, even grander than now.  I wish I could tell you more of the history that the guide explained to us, but I just can't remember.  I really, really wish I could, but I can't.

We left the Red Fort, and headed to  Jami Masjid, the largest mosque in India.  To get there, we walked through the market, Chandni Chowk.  It was fascinating.  I don't know if you have seen the Harry Potter movies, but it looked kind of like Diagon Alley.  The picture I put with this post is from there.  The movement, the life, it was just so full of it.  Once we got to the mosque, it was quite different.  It was quiet, peaceful.  As I don't wear a burka, I had to borrow one from the mosque, as did most/all western women.  It didn't have the head covering part, and the only reasons I detested wearing it, were that it was my three least favorite things in clothing : 1. Pink. 2. A dress. 3.  Flowery.  Aiaiaiaiai.  A nightmare come to life.  ANYWAYS. Jami Masjid is the largest mosque in India.  I can't remember the number of people that can pray there, but it is over 30,000 I think.  It is a really beautiful building.  I would post more pictures with this, but I just got a new computer (YAY) and I am not uploading all of my 2,000 some pictures from India onto it. But it was beautiful, set in Old Delhi.

I'm not one to write long posts, so I will end New Delhi here, and do a part II soon!

Have a cheery weekend!!

~molly