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A few exhausting days
Aug. 27th, 2004 07:48 pmLivejournal
This will be a kind of long post. I browbeat the guy at this internet point into letting me hook up my computer (him: It won’t work” me: Yes it will. Him: It’s not safe. Me: Yes it is. Him: My IP is secret. Me: Tell me, I just want to give you my money! Anyway…)
I arrived in Istanbul at about 2:00 in the afternoon on Tuesday, about as exhausted as one might expect. Not only were my bags both missing, but about half the plane had lost at least one bag. I dashed to the lost and found office, got to near the front of the queue, and filled out my lost and found form.
Then to the hotel. Cleverly, I had packed my hotel and conference information in one of my checked bags … and so had only the name: The Baron Hotel. I got their phone number and address, and set off with a crazed, rude, Turkish cab driver to find it. And find it we did not. I knew it was near Istanbul University, so he took me there, drove around, got irate, kicked me out, and charged me 15 million! (NB: 15 million is about 10 dollars). But since I didn’t have any luggage, I figured that strolling about and asking people would be easy enough, and it was. The Baron Hotel is an ugly 7 floor 2-star hotel. The rooms are fine, but not luxurious. Still, there’s a decent bed, AC, a working shower, Olympics on EuroSport on the TV, and a wonderful roof-top bar/restaurant area. It’s quite high up, and we’re on the top of the hill. The walls are windows, and so you have a wonderful view of the harbor as ships come along the sea of Marmara. If you can ignore the constant reek of smoke almost everywhere, it’s just fine. And cheap. Cheap is key.
The district in which I am staying is the ‘old city,’ but not the heart of the tourist area (though its easily walkable, or there’s a cheap tram). We’re surrounded by clothing stores, most of which work in wholesale and sell to Russians. For centuries, fur flowed from the north down the Russian and Ukranian rivers to Constantinople. Well, the fur still does, and the finished good still go back up to the rich north. They don’t really need fur here, afterall. Sable is soft. Fur is kind of gross, but … sable is soft.
So the first day, with one set of clothes, I mostly just bought a few things and collapsed. The second day began with breakfast at 7 (in the pretty room on top), and then a tour of the city beginning at 8. This is all stuff I’ve seen before – The Hippodrome, the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya, the Grand Bazaar – and it’s just as amazing as it was the last time. Our guide was terrible, filled with propaganda about her own country, completely unprepared to talk to a busload of academics (flocks of birds, prides of lions, murder of crows, and ..…… of historians?). But the mosque, covered on the inside with blue tiles, is a wonderful Turkish sacred space. The Grand Bazaar is a lot of fun, still (I’ll go back on Monday for gift-shopping purposes). – it’s this giant covered space with 5000 shops, most of them selling crappy trinkets, some selling expensive trinkets, and a very few with filled with wonder. Like the little corner of quality sword and metalwork shops, where I can gaze longingly at old Damascus steel. The Hagia Sophia is still the fourth largest church in the world (well, church into mosque into museum), and its rivals were all built at least 900 years later. Lunch was great. The real treat, though, is the companionship. We’re all a bunch of historians of the crusades from all over Europe, the Middle East and the States, all informing each other of new things constantly. It’s a great group to wander around with.
We were back on the hotel by about 3:45, and on the bus by 4:00. One of my bags arrived, so I got to change my shirt.
The University of the Bosphorus is astounding, and the site of our conference. It’s perched on the ridge about the Bosphorus, and was originally built by an American, but given over to the Turks in 1971. The views of the waterway are incredible, the facilities modern, the people friendly and competent, and the rooms air-conditioned. Thomas Madden, a colleague of my parents, a mentor of sorts to me (along with all my other mentors), and really “the guy” on the Fourth Crusade gave a plenary lecture, and then we all went to a scrumptious dinner provided by the University.
The Fourth Crusade: So, I am here at the Sixth Conference for the Society of the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East (SSCLE). 800 years ago, last April, the city was sacked. We’re here to talk about it (and other crusades). This society holds conferences about every 5 years, on interesting anniversaries in the places they happened (1999 was in Jerusalem, cause in 1099 it fell to the Crusaders), and create international gatherings of a large chunk of the best scholars of the Crusades. It’s the place where you get the Arabists, the Israelies, the French, German, Italian, English, Greek, and American scholars, along with the occasional Turk, Russian, Hungarian, etc. As a gathering, it has been a real privilege to participate, I’ve learned a lot, and every day has great, great, interesting papers.
Every day. We’ve finished day 2. We start at 8:00 in the morning to take the bus to the University. Sessions are at 9:30, 11:30, 2:30, and 4:30. By the time we reach the end of the day, I’ve been just exhausted (as I am now). Last night, though, eight of us walked down through a rough gypsy area of town to the Sea of Marmara where they have a fish market and seafood restaurants. I took charge (by default), and started negotiating with various restaurants, driving the barkers to calling ever lower prices after my retreating back, until I had a good idea of prices. They we chose one that looked semi-full, and negotiated a great dinner for 15 million (10 bucks) a piece. 2 drinks, mezzes (mixed appetizers), a fish a piece, salad, sweet, tea/coffee, bread. Further negotiation over the types of fish we could order took place during the meal, but it was all worth it.
Today I gave my paper to, I must say, pretty rave reviews. I’ve had a few requests for copies, so I’m going to sort it out one last time and I’ll be happy to send it to any of y’all who want it (a couple of folks said they did). It’s a pretty funny story, and it’s a new source, which is very rare for the crusades.
Right … I am falling over.
This will be a kind of long post. I browbeat the guy at this internet point into letting me hook up my computer (him: It won’t work” me: Yes it will. Him: It’s not safe. Me: Yes it is. Him: My IP is secret. Me: Tell me, I just want to give you my money! Anyway…)
I arrived in Istanbul at about 2:00 in the afternoon on Tuesday, about as exhausted as one might expect. Not only were my bags both missing, but about half the plane had lost at least one bag. I dashed to the lost and found office, got to near the front of the queue, and filled out my lost and found form.
Then to the hotel. Cleverly, I had packed my hotel and conference information in one of my checked bags … and so had only the name: The Baron Hotel. I got their phone number and address, and set off with a crazed, rude, Turkish cab driver to find it. And find it we did not. I knew it was near Istanbul University, so he took me there, drove around, got irate, kicked me out, and charged me 15 million! (NB: 15 million is about 10 dollars). But since I didn’t have any luggage, I figured that strolling about and asking people would be easy enough, and it was. The Baron Hotel is an ugly 7 floor 2-star hotel. The rooms are fine, but not luxurious. Still, there’s a decent bed, AC, a working shower, Olympics on EuroSport on the TV, and a wonderful roof-top bar/restaurant area. It’s quite high up, and we’re on the top of the hill. The walls are windows, and so you have a wonderful view of the harbor as ships come along the sea of Marmara. If you can ignore the constant reek of smoke almost everywhere, it’s just fine. And cheap. Cheap is key.
The district in which I am staying is the ‘old city,’ but not the heart of the tourist area (though its easily walkable, or there’s a cheap tram). We’re surrounded by clothing stores, most of which work in wholesale and sell to Russians. For centuries, fur flowed from the north down the Russian and Ukranian rivers to Constantinople. Well, the fur still does, and the finished good still go back up to the rich north. They don’t really need fur here, afterall. Sable is soft. Fur is kind of gross, but … sable is soft.
So the first day, with one set of clothes, I mostly just bought a few things and collapsed. The second day began with breakfast at 7 (in the pretty room on top), and then a tour of the city beginning at 8. This is all stuff I’ve seen before – The Hippodrome, the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya, the Grand Bazaar – and it’s just as amazing as it was the last time. Our guide was terrible, filled with propaganda about her own country, completely unprepared to talk to a busload of academics (flocks of birds, prides of lions, murder of crows, and ..…… of historians?). But the mosque, covered on the inside with blue tiles, is a wonderful Turkish sacred space. The Grand Bazaar is a lot of fun, still (I’ll go back on Monday for gift-shopping purposes). – it’s this giant covered space with 5000 shops, most of them selling crappy trinkets, some selling expensive trinkets, and a very few with filled with wonder. Like the little corner of quality sword and metalwork shops, where I can gaze longingly at old Damascus steel. The Hagia Sophia is still the fourth largest church in the world (well, church into mosque into museum), and its rivals were all built at least 900 years later. Lunch was great. The real treat, though, is the companionship. We’re all a bunch of historians of the crusades from all over Europe, the Middle East and the States, all informing each other of new things constantly. It’s a great group to wander around with.
We were back on the hotel by about 3:45, and on the bus by 4:00. One of my bags arrived, so I got to change my shirt.
The University of the Bosphorus is astounding, and the site of our conference. It’s perched on the ridge about the Bosphorus, and was originally built by an American, but given over to the Turks in 1971. The views of the waterway are incredible, the facilities modern, the people friendly and competent, and the rooms air-conditioned. Thomas Madden, a colleague of my parents, a mentor of sorts to me (along with all my other mentors), and really “the guy” on the Fourth Crusade gave a plenary lecture, and then we all went to a scrumptious dinner provided by the University.
The Fourth Crusade: So, I am here at the Sixth Conference for the Society of the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East (SSCLE). 800 years ago, last April, the city was sacked. We’re here to talk about it (and other crusades). This society holds conferences about every 5 years, on interesting anniversaries in the places they happened (1999 was in Jerusalem, cause in 1099 it fell to the Crusaders), and create international gatherings of a large chunk of the best scholars of the Crusades. It’s the place where you get the Arabists, the Israelies, the French, German, Italian, English, Greek, and American scholars, along with the occasional Turk, Russian, Hungarian, etc. As a gathering, it has been a real privilege to participate, I’ve learned a lot, and every day has great, great, interesting papers.
Every day. We’ve finished day 2. We start at 8:00 in the morning to take the bus to the University. Sessions are at 9:30, 11:30, 2:30, and 4:30. By the time we reach the end of the day, I’ve been just exhausted (as I am now). Last night, though, eight of us walked down through a rough gypsy area of town to the Sea of Marmara where they have a fish market and seafood restaurants. I took charge (by default), and started negotiating with various restaurants, driving the barkers to calling ever lower prices after my retreating back, until I had a good idea of prices. They we chose one that looked semi-full, and negotiated a great dinner for 15 million (10 bucks) a piece. 2 drinks, mezzes (mixed appetizers), a fish a piece, salad, sweet, tea/coffee, bread. Further negotiation over the types of fish we could order took place during the meal, but it was all worth it.
Today I gave my paper to, I must say, pretty rave reviews. I’ve had a few requests for copies, so I’m going to sort it out one last time and I’ll be happy to send it to any of y’all who want it (a couple of folks said they did). It’s a pretty funny story, and it’s a new source, which is very rare for the crusades.
Right … I am falling over.
