Amazing Grace

7/8/11

- Blue Mosque

- Hagia Sophia

- Pudding Shop

-Topkapi Palace

- Bazaar

- Boat Ride up the Bosphorus

Today was an extremely long day where we met at 8:45 in the morning and did not return to our rooms until midnight.  We toured Sultanahmet for most of today which is where the old Roman hippodrome was as well as the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and Topkapi Palace are located.  Next we went to the Bazaar which has over 44 streets of shops that are all enclosed in one building that looks very oriental with cobblestone walkways and storefronts that are cloth over hangings coming out of the stone walls.  Sultanahmet and the area around the Bazaar were very touristy and were much more expensive than the places around where we are staying are, although you could haggle at the Bazaar and reminded me of Chinatown in NYC.

The last (and quite possibly the longest) event we had today was the boat ride up the Bosphorus.  We arrived on the Bosphorus after figuring out how to use the Turkish light rail system (which was pretty neat because the tracks are right on the main road and cars sometimes use the same lanes that the light rails use) around 6:30.  Our boat was supposed to leave at 7 so we had plenty of time to make sure we got there ok and didn’t get lost.  The boat was late, however, and we had to until a little after 8 before we could get on.  We were supposed to have dinner onboard as well so we were very hungry and tired and hated having to wait so long for the boat.  We also repeatedly walked about a half mile up and down the port as the boat was having difficulty docking due to the tides and the position of other boats and kept changing which side of the port is was going to land on.  

So by the time we actually got on the boat we were tired, had walked until our bodies ached, and were extremely hungry.   Once we were on we realized that there were no tables to eat at, only a couple of rows of long benches that you could sit on and watch the Bosphorus as you traveled up the strait.  We sat down and after going to the Asian port of Istanbul we picked up about 200 passengers who sat down with us.

The boat was crowded and we were hungry and tired.  Our professors had picked this boat ride because Cemalnor, a famous Sufi teacher, was coming on this boat.  We had met her the  day before and she came and sat next to us on the boat.  Before she was able to come sit down everyone on the bus (except for us) stood up to greet her as she passed by them.   She walked around the whole boat and greeted every person taking their hands kissing them and then placing them on their heads.  The people on the boat treated her like royalty offering scarves and blankets to help keep her warm (which she always kindly turned down and then gave to a couple of the girls in our group who were shivering).  One lady even came and knelt on the ground (which was disgusting with seawater and dirt) and placed her palms up on Cemalnor’s knee to act as cup holder for her glass of tea.  People kept constantly coming up and offering food and drink to her.  People came to ask questions, she would sign their books, and she prayed with others who asked.

She told us to ask questions, and we did.  She had two analogies about Sufism she related to us.  In one, she compared Sufism to the periodic table and the other was the classic coal and diamond analogy.  What I thought was most interesting is when I asked her how important Rumi’s poetry was to Sufism, she said she considered Rumi’s poetry to be as of equal importance as the Quran is.  I could see how this could make many devout Muslims angry.

After traveling two hours up the Bosphorus we finally started to turn around to head back to port.  It was nearly 10pm and we knew it would take at least another two hours to get back to port and back to our dorm.  Our evening that was supposed to end at 9pm actually ended at midnight.  For many of us we thought the night couldn’t get worse than being tired, cold, and hungry but then one of Cemalnor’s disciples came down and asked our group to sing for the 250 Sufi Muslims that were on the top deck.  None of us wanted to sing and we couldn’t think of a song we all knew.  Eventually we decided on Don’t Stop Believing and hesitantly sung it the people.  Once we had handed the microphones back in they asked for another song.  One of the girls, who was from a Catholic all girls college suggested we sing Amazing Grace since we all knew it.  When she said it at first I thought she was joking, who would sing Amazing Grace to over 200 Sufi Muslims?  No one objected to her idea so we sung Amazing Grace to a boatful of Sufi’s while we were tired, cold, and hungry as we finally began the two hour trip back down the Bosphorus to end our day that started at 8:45 that morning.