istanbul not constantinople

Istanbul inspired within me a craving for the past, more to know it than to live in it...a city so rich in history that 3 major empires have held it.
It is my custom to go to cities and look for the heart of it...
"Where is it?" I always ask,"How do I really experience it?"
We drank apple tea (which is more like apple cider) on the banks of the Bosphorus Straight, which separates the European part of Istanbul from the Asian part.

We stayed in the 3-bedroom apartment of my classmate Ipek's family, drinking Turkish coffee every morning and conversing with Ipek's mother through smiles and thank yous.
Ipek's mom, whose Mother's name is Betty (but probably spelled in a more Turkish way) just like my mum's.

Our personal Istanbuli guide shuffled us from place to place, pushing us onto taxis (or taksi in Turkish) and mini buses with a much command as a woman of 5'0 can muster. (and daily showing us more inner-strength than I've seen in any woman of 25.)
My friends Ipek, Alessia (Italian), and I on our daily "commute" across the Bosphorous.

We visited Mosques (a first for me)...having to cover our shoulders and heads with the provided cloaks to enter.

We ate lunch at a famous restaurant that has been serving the same exact meal to every customer since it opened in 1907. (Turkish meatballs, bean salad, bread, and a nut-based cake for dessert.)
We stopped in the covered market where one can buy anything "Turkish"
with salesman standing in front of their stands trying to get our attention...
"Hello. Do you speak English? We are here." Their pronunciation and rhythm straight from "Teach Yourself English" cassettes.


We went to the Turkish bath and were clothed in towels like picnic blankets...I received the exfoliation scrub from a woman three times my width. I had precisely the reaction I predicted...silly laughter, which is my kneejerk reaction to all things that cause me minor pain. The same occurred during the filling of my 1st (and only) cavity and my first leg wax.
What I looked like in the Turkish Bath

A shot Post-bath, smoother than a baby's bum.

With the urging of Ipek, Alessia, and the man in charge, I danced in the center of a 20-person drum core on one of the busiest shopping streets of Istanbul. Perhaps beginning my career as a street performer. I felt at ease with home videos recording, pictures snapping, and hands clapping as danced. My friends were very pleased.

We dined in a restaurant that felt more like a TGIFriday's than anything Turkish. It was the most American restaraunt I've been in in the last 8-months (besides McDonald's). I had fajitas and a magarita just because I could.
Afterwards we went to see Ipek's friend play in a band at a bar. The band's songs were 100% covers of nearly 100% American bands. Each song, sung in near perfect English, was followed by a break of a few Turkish sentences, a transition that always caught me off guard.
Even with all of these experiences, as with most cities I merely visit and don't live in, I didn't capture the heart of the city. What's crazy about Istanbul is that to get to know it, one would have to go much deeper than a couple of centuries of history...and that would take longer than 3 days.