“Tea Sugar a Dream” and “Your Shoes”

Turkish, according to my friend Kenen, who hosted me on my first day in Istanbul, is an almost unique language. The only other tongue on the planet that it is related to is Mongolian.

I am trying to pick up a few phrases and learned these two. When I asked the hotel concierge how to say thank you he told me that an easy way to remember the Turkish is to say the English words, “Tea Sugar a Dream.” And when I asked my friend Kenen how to say, “Wee you later, his reply sounded just like the American expression, “Your Shoes.”

After Kenen and Fatih picked me up at Istanbul Airport on Wednesday, I was given the opportunity to rest for a couple of hours at the place I have stayed the last two nights: Hotel Eris (pronounced air-esh). The hotel only costs about $35 per night, and it is Spartan (pun intended) with two single beds, a tiny bathroom, a TV and a phone. But is located in a wonderful locus within walking distance of the main cultural sites in the city. I am literally a five minute walk from the Topkapi Palace, and an additional five minutes from the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia (pronounced eye-uh soaf-yuh). From my room, as I said before, I look out over a train station to the “Golden Horn” and to the old international center of the city across the water.

On Thursday, after a traditional breakfast (bread, cheese, olives, tomatoes, boiled eggs, frit etc) in the hotel’s top floor small dining room I spent time blogging in the hotel lobby before being joined by Kenen and Hasan, both of whom will be our leaders on the formal portion of the trip. I blogged in the hotel lobby because even though the hotel has free Wi-Fi, the signal isn’t strong enough to connect tom netbook when I’m in my room on the 4th floor.

Kenen and Hasan met me about 10:30 and we walked to a commercial area about five blocks from my hotel. Kenen hadn’t had breakfast so we stopped at a Turkish fast-food restaurant that specializes in a savory pastry called “simit.” Interestingly this Turkish place for eating on the run was nestled between a MacDonald’s and a Burger King.

We ate pastry and drank tea for about an hour, and then Kenen went off to finish the details for our upcoming trip while Hasan guided me3 via light rail train across the Golden Horn and to the top of a hill in a section of the city called
Beyoglu (pronounced bay-oh-lou). This area, especially the neighborhood at the t op of the hill, was for much of the 19th century the international quarter.

We took the funicular train through a tunnel to the top of the hill and then walked the streets window shopping on our way to the Galata Tower, an historically significant building that rise3s two hundred feet above the hilltop, affording a few of all of Istanbul, Asian and European from its top floor observation windows.