Cruising and Whirling

View from the breakfast room of our hotel

The second day in Istanbul, Anne and Mark decided to explore a bit of the city.  They embarked on a boat cruise that took them around the Bosporas Straits and the Sea of Marmara.  During this cruise the city of Istanbul will always be on either side of the boat, but it does take a good orientation and sense of direction to keep track of which side is Europe and which side is Asia.  Keeping track of this probably would have been easier had Anne and Mark been on an English tour.  However, for some reason, the charter service took the group (of mostly American students) on a guided boat tour in Bulgarian.  But do not fret, Anne and Mark were able to piece together much of the important information.  For example:

This was the Blue Mosque, as seen from the water.  But this is easy.  The Blue Mosque is one of the most iconic buildings of Istanbul.  Were Anne and Mark able to identify and appreciate some of the "lesser" landmarks?

Anne and Mark were able to conclude that this is the Turkish attempt at a Golden Gate Bridge.  Later, they figured out that this was the Turkish version of Buckingham Palace:

Apparently, in the analysis of Anne and Mark, Istanbul is a lot like Las Vegas - it has a series of recreations of famous buildings from other cities.

Ok, so maybe the guided tour would have added some value to our experience.  It was still a very nice boat tour, even though Mark and Anne were unable to get anything out of most of the guided portions.

I'm on a Boat!!

After landing back at the port, Anne and Mark observed some of the finest in Turkish commerce.  You have multiple ways to sell things in Istanbul.  There is the typical huge stack of breads carefully balanced on your head technique:

Taking the bread off the top is for losers.  Real Turks pull the bread from near the bottom in game similar to Jenga.

And they also have the 'bazaar' style of commerce, which entails taking about a thousand shops and salesmen and about 100,000 potential customers and just slamming them into the same general space.

The Spice Bazaar (also called the Egyptian Bazaar)

That evening, Anne and Mark decided to get all culturized, as they are want to do.  One thing you can see in Istanbul that you cannot see in most other places is the Mevlevi Sema Ceremony.  You may be more familiar with this when called by its more common name which has made its way into the English lexicon: the Whirling Dervishes.

The ceremony performed by the Dervishes is a religious ceremony for a particular group of Muslims.  The ceremony is loaded with symbolism and meaning, and Anne and Mark were curious as to what it was.  They had heard different things, such as that the point of the ceremony was for the participants to spin themselves into a trance, which would bring them closer to heaven.  This sounded interesting, so Anne and Mark headed over to the Hodjapasha Cultural Center.

The worst part about trying to find this was that whenever we asked directions, they acted like it was "right there."  Not helpful, fellas.

For those who are interested, this cultural center is next to impossible to find, hidden away on a side street, just off of the street on which it lists its address.  Anne and Mark planned ahead enough to track down the location earlier in the day, so as to avoid trouble closer to show time.  However, it was so difficult to find, it was nearly 4 pm before Anne and Mark hit paydirt in their search and were ready to head back to their hotel.  The cultural center was in the Sultanahmet neighborhood, while the hotel was past Laleli just off of Ordu Cadessi.  And you can imagine what the traffic is like on that road around 4! - Ok, well maybe you cannot not, but neither could Anne and Mark.  For future reference: traffic at that time of day (or at any other time in Istanbul) is a total mess.

Eventually, Anne, Mark and two Bulgarian friends (our cat sitter extraordinaire and her mother) made it to the performance.  The program said that the show would last one hour.  It also explained some of the symbolism, which was handy.  Finally, the program was very clear on two points: no photos and no applause.  The no applause rule was actually a relief, as this was a religious ceremony, so there would have been some pressure to not clap at the wrong time so as to avoid insulting the devoutly religious performers, but still pressure to applaud as appropriate so as to avoid insulting the devoutly religious performers.  A case of "reverse stage fright"?  The 'no photos' rule was a bummer, but Anne and Mark can report that the performers looked roughly like what other whirling dervishes look like:

The performers dressed like the men in the artwork above.  Anne and Mark had seen many pieces of artwork in Istanbul that seemed to celebrate the kinetic nature of these performances.  In the art, the gowns are always being swept into the air and spinning, indicating rapid motion.  But, just to be clear, the reality was much more a ceremony than a show.  The first 20-25 minutes were just the band (4 piece with a flute, percussion and two sitar-looking instruments accompanying three singers).  We did not see the first dervish until a full 25 minutes after taking our seats.  And then, when they did arrive in the performance area, the dervishes did several bows and prayers and other ceremonial type things.  After 31 minutes, we saw the first whirl by a dervish.  This created some excitement in the crowd.  There a total of five dervishes whirling.  They rotated around in a circle while whirling.  The choreography was impressive as they all had their eyes closed and still moved in synchronicity.

The one thing we did not expect, was that the whirling was very slow and never really became all that kinetic or rapid.   In fact, it might have been better described as 'smooth spinning.'  It kind of looked like they were standing on the infield of a Nascar track (one with no straightaways; just a big circle) and turning to keep their gaze fixed on the lead car.

The aspects of the performance that really impressed Anne and Mark were the discipline and endurance that the dervishes showed.  The spinning would go for five or ten minutes at a time and they never wavered or showed any sign of losing their balance or becoming dizzy.

After about 20 or 25 minutes of this, the dervishes did some other ceremonial-type things (knelt on the floor, bowed again) and then left.  For Anne and Mark, this was an interesting experience, although not what they had expected.