Ramadan & Dizzying Dancers (August 1)

Today was a bit of a bummer day. The girls came by in the morning to see if I wanted to join them in Istanbul, but I knew I really needed to stay on the ship in bed. Then they came back for lunch, and I joined them and ate some frozen yogurt, which wasn’t terrible on my stomach but still didn’t make it feel that great. I wasn’t feeling THAT bad and I really wanted to go to the spice market with the girls, but I decided it probably wasn’t a good idea. Who knows where the nearest bathroom was from the spice market. I did not want to be in public getting sick. So, I stayed on the ship. I stayed in bed all afternoon—well, and the bathroom—and tried to sleep some but couldn’t seem to sleep much. It was definitely a VERY good idea that I didn’t go with them, it turned out. While I was in bed, a little lady bug landed on me! SO random!! A lady bug on a ship, in my cabin? I don’t have any windows that open so I have no idea how it got in there, but it cheered me up a little. :)

The girls got back for dinner and a few of them had SAS trips to see Sufi Mystic Dancers, or Whirling Dervishes. It’s a religious dancing they do in Turkey. The rest of us really wanted to see it and decided to look for it on our own. I put a dress on, stuck a smile on my face, and we headed out.

So…we had no idea where to go. We took the tram to one of the main areas of Istanbul, then asked all around and finally were pointed in a direction. Well, we ended up not in the right place, and I guess it looked like it. A man came scurrying across the street and said we looked lost and asked if he could please help us find our way. At first we were a bit skeptical because he was so eager and we didn’t know if he was being weird. He called his friend over too, and we told them what we were looking for. They told us that we could go see it, but we’d have to pay $50 and have a dinner as well at all of the places they knew of. One of them pulled out his phone and said his good friend owns a restaurant/café with sufi dervish dancing, and that normally you have to get dinner but he would call and see if he could do us a special favor. “Okay, great, can you set a table up for us?” US…okay, so I guess he was joining us? It was 7:30 and it started at 8, so one of them insisted we come into his shop and look at his rugs. We had bad experiences with rug salesmen at the Grand Bazaar and apparently the girls had earlier that day too (they’d gone back to the Grand Bazaar) so we were worried he’d end up mad when we didn’t want to buy them, but we went into his store to look around anyway. He had some pretty jewelry and some nice dishes and lots of very nice and expensive rugs. He did try to show us some, but we made it clear that we couldn’t afford them. Then he insisted we sit down and have some apple tea. He brought it out for the 4 of us- Kelsey, Michelle, Brittany, and I. I didn’t eat dinner because I still didn’t feel well, so I didn’t want to risk drinking the apple tea and getting sick. So, Brittany slyly devised a secret plan so I didn’t seem rude—you couldn’t refuse apple tea, and I didn’t want to be rude and not drink it. So I played with the tea with the little spoon, blew on it because it was so hot, and did everything except drink it. I even sipped on an empty spoon. Then when the two guys weren’t looking, I’d put my cup down on Brittany’s platter and she’d put hers down on mine, and we’d continue doing the same thing. She’d actually drink it, and I’d fake it. So by the end, she had 2 cups! Thank you Brittany! Gosh, we’re so sly. :)

By then it was almost 8, so we decided to head over (he said it was about 5 minutes, walking). The shop owner had to stay, but the other guy, “Turkish Delight,” led us over. The guys were joking in the shop asking what we’ve done and what we’ve tried in Turkey, and asked about Turkish Delight and one guy said it was him…he was Turkish Delight. Then when we asked his name, all he told us was Turkish Delight. Alright, then. So anyway, we were walking with Turkish Delight and we ended up going right next to the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia to an outdoor café! We walked right in past the waiting area (and many people waiting) and they showed us to our table. They knew we didn’t want to eat dinner, but we did order a little something to be polite. The girls ordered chocolate crepes (I was so jealous!) and I just ordered a Sprite. Turkish Delight asked if I didn’t feel well and I told him I’d been sick all day and hadn’t really eaten all day. *What I didn’t mention yet is that today was the first day of Ramadan. And during Ramadan, the Muslim people don’t eat or drink at all from sunrise to sunset. So Turkish Delight joked that I participated in Ramadan. How was it?, he asked. Was it hard? How was my first day being Muslim? So yep, technically I participated in the first day of Ramadan!

We watched the dancer up on stage, and it was really cool! He was wearing all white and a flowy skirt. He would listen to the music for awhile, then slowly start to spin, then slowly put his arms up, tilt his head to the side, and close his head—while still spinning quickly! I don’t know HOW he did it. Watching his feet was fascinating. He was so peaceful. He just kept spinning and spinning…unfortunately making me very very dizzy. And nauseous. I really couldn’t watch at all because I was starting to feel so sick. Turkish Delight said he couldn’t watch very long the first time he watched too, and it took time to get used to it. We were all feeling dizzy! At that point, I knew I had to go back to the ship soon. I REALLY didn’t feel well. I didn’t make it obvious at all, though, because I didn’t want to be rude. While we were sitting there, crowds of people started flooding into the café, and around the mosques setting up picnics—ALL OVER! It was the breaking of the fast on the first day of Ramadan. In other words, a huge deal. A bunch of the mosques had “Welcome to Ramadan” written in Turkish with lights strung across the minarets. It was so pretty! The sky was darkening and the atmosphere was stirring with excitement. We left the café finally and were walking back to the tram, and Turkish Delight was telling us about how this first breaking of the fast was such a big deal. Everyone wanted to be out and celebrating.

Turkish Delight insisted that we go out with him because we HAD to see the nightlife in Istanbul, but I needed to go back, and the other girls didn’t really want to go out either. We all said we wanted to go back to the ship, over and over because he asked SO many times. He finally let us get on the tram and we thanked him for arranging the Dervish for us. He had been really nice and helpful. We got back to the ship and just took it easy for the rest of the night. I actually made something of today and got off the ship, yay!