Turkey -The Bridge between the East & West
A journey from the Bosphorus to Turkish Aerospace
Run, Canman, Run (Berlin → Istanbul, June 11)
Every sojourner learns lessons in airports, and this one came courtesy of Berlin. I breezed through security with time for a leisurely coffee, then walked into a customs queue I hadn't planned for. With an hour to go and only one stall open, my Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul was suddenly in doubt. A few more stalls opened, and I cleared customs with ten minutes to spare. Then I ran eight minutes to the gate and made it. Whew.
Lesson learned: in Europe, budget for the customs line, not just security.
The Odyssey to Karaköy
Landing at Istanbul Airport, I decided to travel like a local: metro, tram, and bus, no taxis. The first leg went smoothly. Then, switching trains in the city, a kindly gentleman, seeing me trying to understand the signs and process to board the next train, told me the money on my metro card only worked outside the city. He helped me add money to a new metro card, and then offered to carry my bags up the station stairs. I wondered whether it was a scam, but at the bus stop he cheerfully let me go. It was the first of several times strangers jumped in to help despite very little shared English, and I was never entirely sure their recommendations to buy yet another metro card were right. I still refused to take a taxi. So after multiple buses and trams through crowded, hot Istanbul, I arrived at my home for the next three nights, the Ada Karaköy Hotel in the old Karaköy district.
On the hotel clerk's tip, I walked two blocks to the Altura rooftop restaurant with a window table over the Bosphorus, the strait that flows out of the Black Sea and divides Europe from Asia. Turkish tea, a whole grilled fish with greens, and a squash-or-pumpkin dessert (I'm still not sure which) with the lights coming on over the water. Not a bad reward for the day's odyssey. I returned to my hotel as the evening call to prayers sounded.
Altura rooftop restaurant with tea and bread, the grilled fish, the window view over the Golden Horn
Günaydın, Old Istanbul (June 12)
I took the tram across the Golden Horn Inlet to the old city for a guided walking tour. I learned a lot. Our guide held up a map of the city's highlights, and we climbed to a rooftop where the Bosphorus glittered beyond a sea of lead-gray domes. From another vantage, I could see the Galata Tower and the bridges stitching Europe to Asia. We walked around the Hippodrome of Constantinople, which was amazingly well preserved compared to Greek and Roman places I have visited. The Grand Bazaar is still there, selling gold, rugs, and so many other things. In the age of online trading, I was surprised to see how big it remains
Things I took from the tour:
- I better realized how this location was and is so strategic.
- The great mosque (behind the guide) that became the model for so many others began in the 6th century as a Byzantine Greek cathedral. It was briefly Catholic during the Crusader period, then Orthodox again, then a mosque, then a museum, then a mosque again. The "truth" as each era's believers perceived it only lasted a few centuries. To me, it's more evidence that religion is a cultural phenomenon, and a very layered one.
- Our guide also told us that Turkish coffee and baklava may not have originated in Turkey at all. Ask five people, and you'll get five origin stories.
That night I dined on a rooftop enjoying the sights, periodically punctuated by lasers beaming out to a bridge across the straits and the wailing call to prayer from a nearby tower the yin and yang of the new age and old tradition. Istanbul is a city of layers, with institutions and monuments redone to fit each age that claimed them. The question is which way it's headed next. And with the call to prayer echoing from mosques on every hill, there's no mistaking that we aren't in Kansas anymore, at least for now.
Across the Water to Asia (June 13)
The next morning I caught a ferry to Kadıköy on the Asian side. Past the Yeni Cami, framed through a rainy ferry window, the day unfolded in a few stops:
- Kadıköy Market: fish, olives, spices, and sweets stacked everywhere
- Bahariye Caddesi: the lively pedestrian street
- Moda: a seaside walk, a better local feel, and Turkish coffee near the shore (with a café cat who decided my lap was the best seat in the house)
By late afternoon I rode the ferry back toward Karaköy. A stop at Şef Baklavaları, where Hülya proudly showed me a tray of pistachio-green baklava. It was amazing!
That evening I took a Bosphorus boat tour and met Belen from Santiago, Chile, a true solo adventurer who sojourns through cities and the peaks of the Andes. And the end of the ride a storm cleared at sunset and left a perfect rainbow arcing over the waterfront. That evening Belen and I shared a lovely dinner and made a promise to meet again someday in Chile. After dinner, we walked around Sultanahmet; and saw the most amazing sight: birds circling in the night sky above the lit minarets of the Blue Mosque as the evening call to prayer wailed, a fitting end to a day that kept giving.
By Rail to Ankara (June 14)
Next came a subway-and-train combination to Ankara, which, to my relief, went exactly according to plan. At the station, my Turkish Aerospace colleague Kaan Emre met me and gave me a tour of Ankara's sights with a vantage point above the city from an ancient fortress
The highlight was the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, which chronicles the Hittites. I had only vaguely heard of them from the Bible, where they play the "bad guys." The museum gave me a far richer picture of a sophisticated people with a political and judicial system that complemented their aristocracy and real mastery of metalwork. Among the treasures was a 4,000+-year-old bronze sun disk from Alacahöyük with bulls at its center, dated to roughly 2500–2250 B.C.
Turkish Aerospace: Non-Stop from Morning to Past Midnight (June 15)
Amazing place. The company now goes by Turkish Aerospace, and my hosts were generous with their time. We visited the Flight Test Center (TUTEM) for a group photo with the flight test team, sat in the cockpit of a Turkish Aerospace attack helicopter (with Arif standing guard), and traded gifts, including an ANKA-3 model. I got to fly the 5th Gen KAAN fighter in the sim. It was a mix of F-16 and F-35 so I felt comfortable There was a long working lunch with the pilots and engineers and a wonderful social dinner. My full meeting and tour are chronicled here: SFTE News Archive
Last Night in Türkiye
An evening flight carried me back to Istanbul Airport for an overnight at the İstport Garden Hotel in Arnavutköy. It was tiny, but all I needed. I wandered the streets of a small town near the airport on a pharmacy errand, and the local food was excellent once again.
Next stop: Los Angeles for the NTPS meeting, with a connection through London Heathrow.
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