Getting Used to It?

It's now 10:00 and my neighborhood is breaking fast. It's alive with restaurant noises and TV's blaring, and - of course - the calls to prayer. I just "broke fast" (in solidarity) and ate the best lentil soup on this continent, which would throw down in all intercontinental lentil soup contests.

And it's made right down the street, served by my new 20-something friend who is here on a Visa from Pakistan. (There, he is a Henna artist and an electrician. He loves America. He wishes our countries loved each other...).  Then Emre, my host who lives upstairs with his "conservative" parents (his words) brought me a selection of baklava and tea and discussed tips for negotiating Istanbul. (This fishing boat picture was taken just down the street from my house.)

So it feels like a good end to a mixed bag of a day, which, unfortunately, began at 2:00 am with the Ramadan Drummer. At 3:00 am, I heard a loud crashing noise, like breaking glass. Two guys had been breaking glass across the street (as a job, I guessed) all day long, so I thought, "Huh, weird that they would be breaking glass at 3 am." Then, at 3:45, the call to prayer. I keep thinking of Alfie's family living under the Thunderbolt rollercoaster at Coney Island in "Annie Hall." Will I just get used to this?

At 5 (with no more sleep), the sun was rising, so I went to the front bedroom to check the activity on the street. Turns out that those guys were not breaking glass after all. Turns out that when I told you that the wooden houses were "collapsing," that included the collapse of this house. The window just fell right out of its "socket." Of course, at first I considered that maybe someone was trying to break in, but the windows are all covered with bars. Needless to say, I could not get back to sleep, thinking about witnessing the collapse of Istanbul's wooden houses from the inside, hoping that the collapse will stop at the front bedroom window.

So I got up early again and hit the streets. Here is a quick run-down of what I did, because I really, really need to get some sleep in before my 2 am wake-up call.

1. Spent three hours at the Topkapi Palace and saw things like Muhammad's sword, Joseph's turban, the prophet John's golden arm. The Palace is really indescribable, with all of its mosaics and mother of pearl and biggest diamond in the world and balcony views, so I am not going to show you any of those pictures - not even of the Harem rooms (my favorites) - since they do not capture it at all.  Just this one, from the "circumcision room." There was no explanation given:

2. Emerged from the Palace to find a café with grilled eggplant displayed out front. Here is my lunch, chicken sliced from the "gyro wheel" (what do you call that?), eggplant, three fries and Turkish yogurt. Simple and wonderful.

3. Saw the Hagia Sofia - the "most important church in Istanbul's history." It was gorgeous, and you should recognize it from the background blog picture.

4. Got lost for about an hour. I was getting too confident about how easy it seemed to navigate this city, when I stumbled out of the Hagia Sofia toward the Sea of Marmara instead of the Bosphorus side. I walked for a couple of miles looking at the beauty of the water, kind of knowing that something was off because there were no bridges, but I kept going and going. And pretty soon, a guy ran across the street from the beach, went behind some ruins and emerged with no pants on and a little show for me. Now this has happened to me in Italy, Mexico, Green Lake and here. It is not an experience I seek.

5. Had a stand off with the taxi drivers of Istanbul. It's high tourist season, and I am demanding that they use the meter. They get really angry at this and drive away. So I kept walking. I walked about a thousand miles today. But I found a short-cut through a beautiful park, and stopped long enough to do this:

And to take a nap (to the horror of many of my friends). But what is the harm? Everyone else was doing it, and it was cool and breezy in the shade and I sleep with my bag secured under my arms. There was no longer a reason for me to go on living, anyway, since I had no sleep and swollen feet and refused dishonest taxi service. I woke up ready to be alive again.

6. Stopped at a fast-food gyro place. They have been calling to me. This one was fantastic... chicken, French fries, sauce and pickles wrapped up in flat bread for three dollars.

7. Made it home at 5. Slept for three hours. Ventured out to break Ramadan fast with my neighborhood.

The 10:30 call to prayer just ended, so I am going to quickly hop into bed and sleep until 2, when the drummer will prepare me for the next call to prayer at 3:45.

Oh, and Emre is going to fix the window tomorrow. "These houses are so old," he says.

Thanks for your comments and emails - they really, really mean a lot to me!