After visiting my friends in Yalova, it was back on the road towards the end of my journey. Actually it was back on the ferry to Istanbul. I recently found a poem that I had composed sometime during that time frame.
The Ferry
There is a girl
Very pretty and quite sincere.
Every week
We ride together
Her and I
Side by Side
When she sees me
She waves and smiles
And I do the same
On the last ride
She cried
As she and I left the boat
Each into our own worlds
Both speaking a different language
Missing my friends in Yalova, I found myself once again back in Istanbul. I went up and got a bed at Yucel hostel in Istanbul across the street from the Aya Sophia Mosque. This is a place I stayed at many times. I was in the military and stationed for a few years in Turkey prior to this trip. We would go into Istanbul, get our room at the hostel, then rush over to the Hilton hotel where all the rich tourists stayed. We would go to the restaurant and order the cheapest meal we could find on the menu, and then sit and listen to the tables around us until we located one where the patrons spoke english. Once we located one, we would introduce ourselves telling them it was a pleasure to finally hear someone speaking english after being in Turkey so long, and could we show them around to some of our favorite shops in the Grand Bazaar, where we knew the owners were honest, had good prices, and would not take advantage of them. Usually It ended up being a good day showing the people parts of Istanbul they would not normally see. At the Bazaar when the people were bargaining with the owners, we would confess to the tourist that we normally did get a percentage of their sale but that we enjoyed being with them so much that we would give up our share of the sale and that would usually be enough to seal the sale. The tourist did feel good because they got a good deal, and they did get a good deal, the owner felt good because he made a good sale, and we would still go back to visit the owner later to get our percentage of the sale and usually have enough spending money for the rest of our visit in Istanbul .
The Saint Anthony of Padua Church is a Minor Basilica located on Istiklal Ave in the
Beyoglu section of Istanbul.. This was built by the Italian community in 1725 and rebuilt and expanded around 1906-12. Pope John XXIII was posted here from 1934-44, and said Mass in this Basilica as a priest and was appointed Apostolic Delegate to Turkey and Greece and titular archbishop of Mesembria, Bulgaria. He took up his post in 1935 and used his office to
help the Jewish underground in saving thousands of refugees in Europe from 1934 through the Holocaust. The Basilica allows visitors but is still quite active locally. Saturday Mass is in Italian, Sunday has three Masses, one in Polish, one in English and one in Turkish, weekday Masses are in English and Tuesday Late Morning Mass is in
Turkish.
Another favorite place was Rejan's
restaurant that was around the corner of the Basilica at the end of an alley named Olivya Geçidi. It was opened in 1931 by the White Russians fleeing the Bolshevik Revolution. They were famous for their traditional Russian fare such as roast duck, chicken kiev, beef strogonof, and a fantastic borscht.
The restaurant walls were surrounded with dark oak wainscoting five foot high and walls that went up another fifteen feet with a balcony at one end. The service was fantastic. They actually had little old ladies dressed in black with white ruffled collars who prided themselves on speaking and taking your order in the language they were addressed.
Very pretty and quite sincere.
Every week
Her and I
Side by Side
When she sees me
She waves and smiles
And I do the same
On the last ride
She cried
As she and I left the boat
Each into our own worlds
Both speaking a different language
Missing my friends in Yalova, I found myself once again back in Istanbul. I went up and got a bed at Yucel hostel in Istanbul across the street from the Aya Sophia Mosque. This is a place I stayed at many times. I was in the military and stationed for a few years in Turkey prior to this trip. We would go into Istanbul, get our room at the hostel, then rush over to the Hilton hotel where all the rich tourists stayed. We would go to the restaurant and order the cheapest meal we could find on the menu, and then sit and listen to the tables around us until we located one where the patrons spoke english. Once we located one, we would introduce ourselves telling them it was a pleasure to finally hear someone speaking english after being in Turkey so long, and could we show them around to some of our favorite shops in the Grand Bazaar, where we knew the owners were honest, had good prices, and would not take advantage of them. Usually It ended up being a good day showing the people parts of Istanbul they would not normally see. At the Bazaar when the people were bargaining with the owners, we would confess to the tourist that we normally did get a percentage of their sale but that we enjoyed being with them so much that we would give up our share of the sale and that would usually be enough to seal the sale. The tourist did feel good because they got a good deal, and they did get a good deal, the owner felt good because he made a good sale, and we would still go back to visit the owner later to get our percentage of the sale and usually have enough spending money for the rest of our visit in Istanbul .
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| Linda Booth 1970 |
Gulhane
Another time, we (a group of American military friends and I) were in Istanbul looking to visit the NCO (Non Commissioned Officers) club for dinner. They had just changed their by-laws to allow us lower ranked individuals and our families to use the club. The problem was that they had a dress code. One of our friends, Linda Bradbury (now Linda Booth) was a woman and was not wearing a dress or skirt. What did we do? We went back outside and around the corner. One of us men took off a tee shirt. He had on two layers. We surrounded Linda as she put on the large tee shirt and took off her jeans, tied a ribbon or something around her waist and we walked back in the club and were seated because Linda was now wearing a "dress"!  |
| Saint Anthony of Padua Church |
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| Rejans |
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| Rejans |
SO funny! I don't remember that--just a bunch of crazy kids. That shirt was probably the longest miniskirt I wore all year, considering it was 1970.
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