The Last Post

I like the irony of the title of this entry.  Perhaps I should have used it a couple of days ago.   It has been an interesting last couple of days.  Despite the fact that we have been here almost three weeks I’m not sure if I leave Turkey fully understanding what makes this country work.  There are many differences in the way people live from day to day and how they view the world that it’s been a difficult task to process it all and come to a definitive answer on why.  Quite simply, it works.  To say how it works,however, is hard to pinpoint…

We had a very interesting experience the other day.  With some free time up our sleeves, Garth (my NZ room-mate) and I thought we might catch a suburban train and tour some of the outer suburbs and try to immerse ourselves in a little more of the culture of the city.  Having boarded we were pleased to find the train relatively empty and were able to sit.  It was amazing to see how parts of the city had morphed from one time period to another.  The old city wall, which is hundreds of years old, snakes along the line which at times is broken by the presence  tenements and apartment and provides retaining walls for all manner of structures old and new.  Some of these ‘new’ apartment buildings look like demolitions waiting to happen and when you think that it has been condemned you are then surprised to find inhabitants in the second or third storeys…

Past a stop named Yedikule we saw what we initially thought was a enormous football crowd heading to a game.  Scarves flying, banners waving, fists in the air, etc.  As we scanned the crowd we noticed that this was not a sporting event but an organised protest of some kind for at each perimeter of the thronging mass we saw rows upon rows of riot police.  I said to myself “I’m glad I’m on this train and not down there in that crowd.  It didn’t matter because the crowd came to us.  At the next station the overflow of that particular demonstration piled onto the train and within seconds the train was packed like a sardine tin with chanting, fist waving rock throwing crowds made up mostly of men.  I’m not embarrassed to say that my sphincter shrunk to the size of a poppy seed.  Garth who I had seen only seconds earlier was lost to me on the other side of the train.  I felt quite vulnerable for only the first time whilst in Istandbul and wanted out.  At the next station I took the plunge, stood up and found my way to Garth.  I gave him a quick nod and said “We’re getting off”.  We shopped around at the mall that was nearby long enough to feel comfortable that the danger had abated and went home.  We later found out that we had found ourselves in the middle of one of the biggest Kurdish protests that is held every year.  When Metin found out where we had been his eyes popped out of his head.  We were told that these protests can get very dangerous with cars being torched, banks being broken into, etc.  All in all, an interesting story to tell people but if I had known what was in store I might have made another decision on our travel plans.

So, that’s it.  I hope you enjoyed the reports.  This has been a great life experience but next time I’ll be taking my wife.