Photos from Selçuk and Ephesus

Ok, I know its been a while, I have lots to say, but for now here are a few images from Selçuk and Ephesus from which I just returned from. captions soon

Yarin Çeşme'ye gittim

I went to Çeşme yesterday, about 60 miles south of Izmir, to swim in the Aegean Sea. Toured a Ottoman fortress in Çeşme. Then took a dolmuş, mini bus, to a beach about 10 miles away. The water was wonderful and crystal clear, see photos below, I had a great time spent most of the day at the beach, but got a little sun burned, which amazingly is the first time in Turkey I have gotten sun burned.

Ege Deniz (Aegean Sea)

Ege Deniz 

Ottoman fortress

View from Ottoman fortress

 Çeşme harbor shot form fortress with the fortress in the foreground  

School, saç, and stereotypes

School:

School is going well. I know I won’t get any sympathy for saying this: but this class is really a lot of work (which is a good thing), during the week its just like been a full time student.

Saç (hair):

I got a haircut today, my hair was much to long for this weather, and it looks great. The guy spent at least 45 minutes on it, like it was in a salon, not a barbershop. And it cost 7 Tl!

Stereotypes:

First of all I should make an observation about how I talk about Izmir, Istanbul, and western Turkey; it is like someone visiting San Francisco, Napa, and Portland in the USA. Just as one should not conclude that people in San Francisco and Portland are representative of people in the rest of America, neither should one conclude Istanbul and Izmir are representative of all of Turkey. 

With that in mind, yesterday was the start of Ramazan (Ramadan) in Turkey. Ramazan is a month of fasting (during the day) and reflection, it is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, which means that it is a requirement for all Muslims, although there are exceptions for those who are unable to fast for practical reasons, like pregnant women. So what did I do on the first day of this important religious holiday? Went drinking with Ozgun and a bunch of people from Dedam (the program I am in) in Alsancak, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Izmir which is next to the sea. There were of course lots of people observing Ramazan, but there were also many who were clearly not. Later we went to a club where a rock band played Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Gun’s and Roses, and Motley Crew among other American rock n roll. Being surrounded by a bunch of Turks passionately rockin’ out to American rock n roll was a very interesting experience. I had a great time, but in the back of my mind I could not help thinking about the idea of cultural imperialism, but is it really imperialism when people enjoy it so much? 

Coffee: a dangerous and revolutionary drink. Part 2

So Sunday at the coffeehouse listening to live music I thought about something my Ottoman history professor said about the introduction of Coffeehouses in the Ottoman Empire: he argued that the coffeehouses was a revolutionary institution in the Ottoman Empire. This was because they were a place were men (sorry history is rather sexists, a women in a coffeehouse or tavern in the pre-modern world was a prostitutes or considered a fallen women) of different social classes and identities sat around drinking, coffee, tea, and beer and discuses things while playing games, listening to music, and watching puppet shows, instead of working. Moreover, the coffeehouse was a new place for men to gather, and unlike a mosque, their conversations and actives were not under the moral roof of religion, or in a home with set traditions and customs. Which was why coffeehouse were so unpopular with conservative religious authorities. On a related note, I just read a chapter in Orhan Pumuk’s historical novel My name is Red, where one of the charters sits in an 16^th century Istanbul coffeehouse fearing that it will be attacked by the followers of a conservative preacher who denounced coffeehouses as dens of iniquity.

I had long understood and agreed with this argument on an intellectually level, but it really hit me as I sat Sunday, drink tea listening to music, and looking at all of the other people, men and women (let us be thankful we were born in the modern era), sitting around talking and drinking tea and beer, not doing anything productive just chilling out. And then I though about all the cafes in Turkey, and there are tons, more than you can possible imagine, where people sit around and drink and play backgammon and cards doing nothing “productive” just hanging out. And how revolutionary this most have been at the time, and why conservatives tried to ban coffeehouse in the Ottoman Empire. They were successfully a few times, however public popularity always overruled religious concerns in the long run. So think about it, it almost seems absurd, but café culture was a major social revolution in its day, today it so ordinary that we never stop to think about it. 

Coffee: a dangerous and revolutionary drink. Part 1

When coffee first came to the Ottoman Empire, from Yemen, some of the ulama (religious scholar, judges: the religious establishment) claimed that coffee should be banned. They reasoned that coffee was an intoxicant, and since intoxicants, wine, was forbidden by the Qur’an (the Qur’an was written before humans drank coffee) so to should coffee be forbidden. However, coffee was so popular with the masses, including less conservative ulama, that the opinions of religious scholars were ignored in favor the will of the people. With the advent of coffee came another institution, the coffeehouse.  

Izmir

I spent the weekend in Izmir, Saturday I went to Konak which is on the waterfront, walked along the sea, went to the House of Ataturk (which was were he stayed when he was in Izmir). 

Sunday I went to the also went to Konak, which was not my plan, I intended to go to the Agora, but after i looked though the fence I saw that there was not much to see, so i walked through Konak Bazzar where I stopped at a cafe a heard a live band which was headlined by a guy playing an electric saz.  Here are a two famous landmarks of Konak.

Konak Mosque 

Konak Mosque

Konak clock tower

Konak clock tower

A little more on Bergama

Bergama was very nice, I saw a lot of sites and played a lot of chess. There are three main sites in Bergama. The Acropolis, the Asklepion (an ancient medical complex / “day spa”), and the Red Basilica, which as originally built as a temple for Serapis (an Egyptian God / Hellenistic god), but was later a church and a mosque. So here are some more pictures, along with captions for the images a already posted. My final thought on Bergama, should have brought better shoes.

Theater at the Asklepion

Marble columns are so classic, here is a close up.

A friendly dog at the Asklepion