Food & Protest in Istanbul
Last weekend i went to Istanbul for a Grudtvig project meeting with our Turkish and French partners. My hotel was located half a block from Taksim Square, the site of the initial protest against the redevelopment of Gezi Park. I arrived Thursday at midnight, the day before the protest. To make a long (and interesting) story short, my hotel was behind police lines for the rest of my visit and we wound up spending the next two nights sleeping in hospital gurneys in the intensive care ward of our partner's orphanage school. Not that we were sick -- but we couldn't get to the hotel! For more on the story, you can click on this link.
All along we were offered the warmest support and hospitality. Our partners could not have been more helpful, especially given all the uncertainties (the 'fog of war'). I was left with the overwhelming impression of a warm, decent people, middle class, urban and quite European, who were embarrassed but proud of the response of their fellow countrymen.
At any rate, this blog post is about food, although protest comes into it too. This is because my experience was a surreal juxtaposition of war zone elements (tear gas, water cannons) and absolutely calm interludes filled with delicious food!
The most extreme example came after we got our luggage from the hotel on Saturday. Fleeing tear gas and water cannons, we were pretty scared, despite the ridiculousness of running with our wheeled luggage through streets full of water, glass, tear-gas canisters, armed police and masked protesters. In the end we commandeered a taxi who took us down to the harbourside at Galata Bridge. There, our host stated "Turkish people think that sweets are good for you in situations like this", so we popped into "the original baklava kafe" and settled in for a broad variety of sweets and the ubiquitous 'chai'! It was surreal, as if there was no protest going on streets away. We were surrounded by shoppers, young people, etc., all tucking in to variations on baklava as if it was any normal Saturday afternoon!
And the sweets were great! Crispy, chewy in the middle, whether filled with walnuts or pistachio. There were dozens of varieties from little birds nests of threaded pastry to classic baklava. More than we could eat! Suitably refreshed and refurbished, we headed for a ferry to take us back in the direction of Darussufaka.
All along we were offered the warmest support and hospitality. Our partners could not have been more helpful, especially given all the uncertainties (the 'fog of war'). I was left with the overwhelming impression of a warm, decent people, middle class, urban and quite European, who were embarrassed but proud of the response of their fellow countrymen.
At any rate, this blog post is about food, although protest comes into it too. This is because my experience was a surreal juxtaposition of war zone elements (tear gas, water cannons) and absolutely calm interludes filled with delicious food!
The most extreme example came after we got our luggage from the hotel on Saturday. Fleeing tear gas and water cannons, we were pretty scared, despite the ridiculousness of running with our wheeled luggage through streets full of water, glass, tear-gas canisters, armed police and masked protesters. In the end we commandeered a taxi who took us down to the harbourside at Galata Bridge. There, our host stated "Turkish people think that sweets are good for you in situations like this", so we popped into "the original baklava kafe" and settled in for a broad variety of sweets and the ubiquitous 'chai'! It was surreal, as if there was no protest going on streets away. We were surrounded by shoppers, young people, etc., all tucking in to variations on baklava as if it was any normal Saturday afternoon!
And the sweets were great! Crispy, chewy in the middle, whether filled with walnuts or pistachio. There were dozens of varieties from little birds nests of threaded pastry to classic baklava. More than we could eat! Suitably refreshed and refurbished, we headed for a ferry to take us back in the direction of Darussufaka.
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