Days before our ship, the MSC Divina, docked in Istanbul there had been anti-American demonstrations in the city and elsewhere in the country. A State Department memo cautioned American visitors to beware.
As fate would have it on the very day of our arrival, Oct. 3, five persons were killed by Syrian forces’ gunfire in a Turkish border town, touching off cries for revenge and adding fuel to the Mideast tinderbox.
The reaction wasn’t immediately apparent, though.
We learned of the incident after returning to the Divina (Italian for “divine”) from the legendary Grand Bazaar.
Strolling in and around the 2,600-shop, covered bazaar, my wife and I found only beckoning smiles, a few spirited sales pitches and thousands of other curious tourists like us. No real bargains or apparent anti-American feeling, though.
Near the bazaar we accepted a seemingly pleasant street merchant’s invitation to get a panoramic view of the city and take photos from the roof of his four-story furniture and art objects emporium. There was no buying pressure. Up we went in the elevator, and what you mostly saw was a sea of dark, weathered roofs and a faraway mosque dome.
A smoky, carbon-smelling haze hung over the congested, vehicle-packed city of 13.5 million residents and nearly 3,000 active mosques.
Unfortunately, of all the 20,000 taxis in the city, we got into one with an overly aggressive driver. After handing him the agreed 20 euros ($27 at $1.35 per euro) for the 20-minute drive from the bazaar to the port, he demanded more money and tried to snatch some bills from my wallet. Pushing away his hand, I quickly folded and pocketed the wallet, flung open the cab door and we made a fast exit.
Driving off, he muttered words we couldn’t understand. Didn’t sound like a thank-you, though.
Istanbul was the fourth of five major cities in four countries we visited during the seven-day Mediterranean cruise. Earlier, we had taken in Venice and Bari in Italy; the Greek island of Katakolon, where the first Olympic games are believed to have originated; and Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city which has an active Jewish community of 2,600 and seven synagogues.
via Istanbul by sea | The Asbury Park Press NJ | app.com.
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