Turkey...Remembered
All this talk about traveling, Greece and saving money, made me remember Turkey and I realized I haven't really written anything of substance about it.Previous posts(1,2,3) were a bit trivial and bitter because I've just gotten back and I was like "Why wasn't I born in Turkey?90% of Turkey are Muslims, I could have been one of those 90%. Why did we drive the Ottomans away?we could have been like Turkey "
You get my point.
This was my favorite restaurant(Central restaurant) there, It had one hell of a mushroom soup. Heaven!! In this restaurant, there was a waiter who was half Syrian, or of Syrian parents, but he didn't like to say that he was Syrian and that he knew Arabic. The other waiters kept pushing him to talk Arabic with us, because they couldn't talk English very well and they wanted us to relate. The guy was so pressured from his colleagues (he looked very upset), that we actually told him we don't want him to speak Arabic. He was nice afterwards and gave us complementary apple tea.
He must have been really traumatized once or sth, because he really HATED acknowledging his Arabic descent. I really pitied him, because it's a terrible feeling to be ashamed of your origin.
Even though my parents actually are from Upper Egypt and I was born in Cairo, I am always really proud to say that I actually have origins in Upper Egypt. I like to have roots.
There was also a very cute waiter there, who didn't speak a word of English, but he really tried, I give him A for the effort :D
The basilica Cistern:
Romans built this underground to benefit from the water and store it as the demands of the city grew. It 's very slippery down there, but it was also very serene. I loved it, I can stay there for hours on end; the sound of the water, the humidity of the air (not hot humid, but cool nice humid) and they also play some kind of relaxing music down there that really helps. My sister thought it was creepy, but I really liked it. There are two main things you have to see when you go there:
the column of tears(Disclaimer: the head in the photo has nothing to do with me or my family.)
and the head of Medusa Columns(there were two, one was on its side, the other one upside down)
Ahh, I really have to share this, Medusa(in roman culture) was a woman who had snakes for hair and if you look at her, you turn into stone and usually the conquering of Medusa requires a mirror. I have a theory about Medusa, that she was a woman who had bad hair and people made this story about her and it became a myth. Somehow, we should be proud that an ugly(by societal standards) woman made it into history(vile history, but history none the less. Take this Helen of Troy).
You can read more about the cistern at wiki
God, everything is coming back to me and now I really want to blog about it, but I have to go. I will, later.
You get my point.
This was my favorite restaurant(Central restaurant) there, It had one hell of a mushroom soup. Heaven!! In this restaurant, there was a waiter who was half Syrian, or of Syrian parents, but he didn't like to say that he was Syrian and that he knew Arabic. The other waiters kept pushing him to talk Arabic with us, because they couldn't talk English very well and they wanted us to relate. The guy was so pressured from his colleagues (he looked very upset), that we actually told him we don't want him to speak Arabic. He was nice afterwards and gave us complementary apple tea.
He must have been really traumatized once or sth, because he really HATED acknowledging his Arabic descent. I really pitied him, because it's a terrible feeling to be ashamed of your origin.
Even though my parents actually are from Upper Egypt and I was born in Cairo, I am always really proud to say that I actually have origins in Upper Egypt. I like to have roots.
There was also a very cute waiter there, who didn't speak a word of English, but he really tried, I give him A for the effort :D
The basilica Cistern:
Romans built this underground to benefit from the water and store it as the demands of the city grew. It 's very slippery down there, but it was also very serene. I loved it, I can stay there for hours on end; the sound of the water, the humidity of the air (not hot humid, but cool nice humid) and they also play some kind of relaxing music down there that really helps. My sister thought it was creepy, but I really liked it. There are two main things you have to see when you go there:
the column of tears(Disclaimer: the head in the photo has nothing to do with me or my family.)
and the head of Medusa Columns(there were two, one was on its side, the other one upside down)
Ahh, I really have to share this, Medusa(in roman culture) was a woman who had snakes for hair and if you look at her, you turn into stone and usually the conquering of Medusa requires a mirror. I have a theory about Medusa, that she was a woman who had bad hair and people made this story about her and it became a myth. Somehow, we should be proud that an ugly(by societal standards) woman made it into history(vile history, but history none the less. Take this Helen of Troy).
You can read more about the cistern at wiki
God, everything is coming back to me and now I really want to blog about it, but I have to go. I will, later.
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