Boozin' in Istanbul

Anne and Mark had never been to a predominantly Muslim country before their visit to Turkey, so there were a few new experiences.  The call to prayer was the most obvious and most difficult to miss.  But there were others, including some experiences that are unlikely to have occurred in a more secular country.  Two interesting experiences, both involving alcohol come to mind.

First, Anne and Mark were looking for an authentic, local place to eat.  Sometimes these types of places can be difficult to find because enterprising restauranteurs will make great efforts to make a place look authentic for the location, and then serve hamburgers and fries.  It is not clear why they do this, but Anne and Mark are determined to avoid it.  One rule of thumb to finding good, local fare at reasonable prices is to eat at places recommended by Rick Steves.  Rick Steves writes travel guides.  Anne is a big fan of Mr. Steves.  Mark, on the other hand, never trusts a person with two first names (even if one of them is disguised by making it into the plural form - yes, this includes you, Roy Rogers).  On this trip, Anne and Mark were basically flying blind, as they had not secured a Rick Steves guide to Istanbul prior to leaving home.  You can imagine their relief when this sign appeared on the sidewalk:

Although the soup of the day being "mixed salad" is a bit troubling, Anne and Mark decided to give this place a try.  Once inside, they saw some of the other Rick Steves disciples who had met up at this restaurant on this night.

This man is bald.

The food Anne and Mark ate at this place was phenomenal (as was pretty much everything they ate the entire trip - love them kabobs).  It also became apparent that the Rick Steves phenomena was not limited to Americans.  Anne and Mark noticed a decent sized Korean tour group at the restaurant, as well as a German couple who sat at the table next to where Anne and Mark were sitting.

After taking off their jackets, the Germans looked through the menu.  Then they looked through it again. And a third time.  When the waiter came to their table, they asked him where the drink menu was.  The waiter replied that the soft drinks and teas were listed on the back.  The Germans replied that they were looking for the DRINK menu, not the drink menu.  You know - to have some beers with dinner.  The waiter informed them that the restaurant was within 500 meters of a mosque, and therefore would not serve alcohol.  The Germans stared at the waiter as if his head had turned into a turnip.  No beer with dinner?  How do you eat it?  The waiter might as well have told them that there would be no food with dinner.  It would have been no more nor less sensical to this couple.  So.... they left.  Just put their jackets back on, asked where 500 meters from the mosque ended and headed in that direction.

Later that night, Anne and Mark were sitting in their hotel room and Mark was flipping through the channels.  First, he found the Turkish version of American's Got Talent.  A comedian was the first act.  He did well with the crowd, but Mark found his humor to be somewhat inaccessible (mainly because it was in Turkish).  Then there was a guy doing tricks on a bike.  Both the crowd and judges hated him.  Third, was a man singing Whitney Houston songs.  Poorly.  It wasn't just that he did not speak English and was singing the words phonetically ("I will ow-waze luv u, I-eh-I will ow-waze luv u" etc.), but he was terrible.  Did not sound at all like Whitney.  When that song was over, he started on some Lady Gaga.  The crowd loved it, but the judges did not and he did not move on to the next round.

Disappointed by the injustice of this result, Mark switched the channels until he found a movie.  Again, it was in Turkish and appeared to be a comedy/action/drama set in either the 1920s or 1960s.  The interesting thing about the movie from where we were sitting was how they treated the booze.

"I shall have a sip of this tasty drink"

When a character had a glass of a libation in his hand, there was no problem showing it.  They did digitize some of the bottles of alcohol, but not the glass in the character's hand.

But when the characters actually drank some of the booze...

...or will I????

Completely blocked out.  The drink in his hand, the bottle it came from, all of it.  Anne and Mark noticed that some of the characters got this treatment, but not all of them (maybe only the Turkish or Muslim characters could not be shown throwing one back?).

In any event, it was a sobering experience.

Ha.  Sobering.  I get it.

Anyway, just treatments of booze Anne and Mark found interesting....



Also, a view of the city: