It has been a few days since my last post - I've been a bit busy over here, but hopefully I can make up for it now. I took some decent notes on my phone to fall back on, so in sha Allah I won't miss too many good details.
Turkey celebrated Eid, or Bayram in Turkish, on Tuesday, September 29. It was announced ahead of time, per my coworkers - I guess they must do some kind of calculation. I did not know for certain however, until I went to pray Isha on Monday night at the mosque near my house (this mosque is called Konyalı H.Tevfik Ağazade Camii by the way, so I will call it Konyali from now on). When there was no taraweeh after Isha and instead everyone broke out for sunnah and witr, I figured Ramadan at ended. However, I did stumble a bit when I was walking back home and saw through a window that the second jamat in the basement was still going on and they were still praying! I couldn't figure out what was going on - for a second, I thought that they were praying taraweeh and I thought to myself, sheesh, at least in America, each masjid does Eid on one day - here in Turkey they were going to have two Eids in the same mosque! - but, thankfully, I was wrong. After watching for a few minutes, it became clear they were praying salat ut tasbeeh in jamat. I haven't figured out yet if this second jamat will continue throughout the year - if so, that would be pretty wierd. So alhamdulillah, Eid for everyone on Tuesday in Turkey.
Another wierd thing about this mosque I've noticed a couple of times - when the iqamah is said, the imam starts the prayer as the muezzin says qad qamat as salah. I haven't seen that in other mosques here, but just Konyali so far.
On a side note, right next to the masjid, there is a cafeteria type setup underneath a larger building - it says iftar salonu or something like that. There are always a bunch of guys in there just hanging out. I wonder what the deal is behind that place and if it is affiliated with the masjid somehow, like the social hall or something.
Also, I don't remember if I've mentioned it before, but I had read about drummers going around and waking people up for sahoor. I didn't hear it for the first week or two. I figured maybe they were only in the old city and not in the business area. However, in the last few days of Ramadan, I think I heard them making noise around 3 am, or about two hours before suhoor.
Speaking of suhoor time, I'm no longer sure when that was exactly. After Ramadan (I think it was eid day actually, the adhan was given over at least a twenty minute time span by the different mosques, all significantly later than when they gave it for suhoor. I haven't found a prayer schedule yet either (I'm not really sure what to make of the online ones, since I never know if they consider daylight savings, etc.).
Anyways, I woke up pretty early on Eid day, about 5:30, so I could get ready and get down to the Blue Mosque on time. Unlike in America, I don't think I could have lucked into a second, third, or fourth jamat if I missed the first one. I boiled the milk, added the sheer korma mix, and cooked it until it was ready. After I shut the stove, I took a shower and got ready. Alas, I didn't have any of my preferred eid outfits, so I took out my nicer looking kurta pajama, added a relatively new black sweater vest, and went out like that at about 6:30 after having a bit of sheer korma (it came out pretty good).
I walked over to the Mecidiyeykoy metro station and took what must have been the second train to go that morning down (the trains don't start before 6:30, I think). Alhamdulillah, it only took about 45 minutes, but I was still worried I might be late. I didn't leave the subway system this time - after taking a close look at the map, and consulting with the tram token guy, I figured I could just stay on the rail system the whole way. There is something called the Funicular Subway that takes me to the same tram I would have hit had I taken the Aksaray dolmus, so I just took that. It comes out to the same price in the end almost, but a bit more efficient perhaps. Unfortunately, Erkut's tip about the free rides on Bayram had proven to be inaccurate. At Kabatas, I hit the tram that goes to Sultanahmet from the other end. See below.
There was very little traffic on Eid. Indeed, looking at the few people who were on the trains, I couldn't tell it was any sort of holiday at all. I heard the "allahu akbar, allahu akbar..." chant through the windows at one point, but that was it. As I got off the tram, my fears about missing the Eid prayer intensified a bit, because it seemed like another mosque on the way was already giving the khutbah. I made my way through an empty plaza that had been completely full for iftars. That seemed a bit wierd. There was a truck-full of police to keep the peace just standing around.
When I finally reached the Blue Mosque, it also sounded like they were giving the sermon. However, it was just like jumuah - a pre-prayer lecture in Turkish. The bottom floor was already full by the time I got there, and I really couldn't have made it much earlier than I had. I followed the flow and made my way up some narrow, winding tower to the second floor. Alhamdulillah, there was relatively more room up there. Alas, I think the men crowded out the women again for the most part - a few small areas had women. I coudn't tell how many people prayed outside, but at least a few did. Be careful if you go up there though - the guard rails are quite, quite low.
There was a few nasheed mixed in here or there. A little of the khutbah was in Arabic - when he said, "kabbirullah," the crowd broke out into the takbeer. It happened a couple of times. The takbeer was a little different from what I am used to - "allahu akbar, allahu akbar, la ilaha illa allah, hu allahu akbar, allahu akbar wa lilla hil hamd" instead of "allahu akbar, allahu akbar, allahu akbar, la ilaha illa allah, allahu akbar, allahu akbar wa lillahil hamd." The eid prayer itself had three takbeers at the start, and three more before the second ruku.
I think within an hour or so, everything had wrapped up, so by 8:30 or so, or maybe even a bit earlier, I could leave. I hung out for a few minutes to see what would happen and look around. The mosque emptied pretty quickly. I didn't see too much random hugging going on - mostly just between parties, I think. I only hugged maybe one or two people. One group did want to take pictures with me, given my clothing I think. I haven't seen two many people wear this type of clothing. Just one or two. I was really happy when I saw someone wear "Islamic" loose type clothing for the first time that wasn't an Imam. There was this really old guy wearing a kurta type top - must have been Ottoman era by the looks of him, ma sha Allah. Coincidentally, I met desis for the first time today, at the Astoria mall - some brother from New Delhi working for Coca Cola up here.
I made my way down and out. The municipality was serving some refreshments. Initially, I thought there were coffee, tea, and dates. Closer inspection showed it to be soup, so I helped myself. It wasn't bad, or maybe I was just hungry.
I decided to walk back, at least to Taksim. It took almost a couple of hours. I pretty much followed the tram tracks back. About 75% of the stores were closed, even in the tourist areas. I noticed quite a few tourists walking towards the Blue Mosque as I went out. They seemed oblivious that it was Bayram, but I guess the attractions were open, and that is what counted.
When I finally reached Taksim, I decided I wanted more breakfast. Burger King didn't appear to have a breakfast menu, so I went over to McD's - even though they still had the breakfast menu out, at 10:35 or so, they decided time was over. I saw a place called "Waffle" something, but it was closed. I was a bit bummed out. I took the metro back home, saw Starbucks, and decided, what the heck. I'm usually not a Starbucks guy, but I was hungry. I had some kind of tart for YTL 4, and a hot chocolate for YTL 4.5 I think.
I went home and went to sleep for a few hours.
Istanbul as a whole did seem emptier than normal over Bayram. My colleagues had told me it would be like this. There were a few interesting articles in the Turkish Daily News about the split between traditional Muslims (Bayram of Ramadan) and the more secular ones (Bayram of Sweets). Erdogan is a Bayram of Ramadan guy. The secular ones treat Bayram kind of like how we treat Winter/Christmas break in America - sometimes, we see family (Thanksgiving is more of the family break though, in my view), and sometimes we go on vacation. A lot of people left town for vacation.
I went to the office after I woke up and spent most of the next 48 hours sending out a few hundred Eid greetings. In sha Allah, I reached just about everyone. I hope I didn't miss you if you are reading this. I need to figure out a better way. I think I might have to start making drafts ahead of time so on Eid I can just hit send.
In other notes, I noticed that the barber shop next to my house was packed and open late the night before Eid. The hair salon, of which there seem to be way to many, was closed. Odd.
I will have to make a separate post about the Malls in the area. Also, about food, now that Ramadan is over.
I finally bought a fan today (YTL 19.9). It is a cheap Chinese make, very poor quality, low powered. It is also a heater though. Hopefully, in sha Allah it will help me dry my clothes at least. I don't know how effective the heater is though. I think I smell burning plastic whenever I put it on that mode. It vibrates on a flat surface too. I got it from a nearby mall. The problem was, I couldn't find fans easily. The store that used to have somewhat cheaper fans in my building had apparently sold out when I went down today. They had two in use, but none for sale. I found that a lot. Lots of store used fans, but few sold them.
Alas, I saw my first cockroach the other day. At least, I think it was a cockroach. I haven't gone close enough to the dead body to be sure. It was a bit rounder than the varieties I know from Damascus. At least it didn't appear to be equipped for aerial assault. I try to have a soap solution spray ready so I can safely blast them from far away until they are dead. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any spray bottles for sale. Luckily, or ominously, the previous tenant had left a bunch of stuff, including some Raid (and some Raid Plug-in type things), so I used that to smoke it out from under the fridge and then knock it out. I will brush it out the balcony in a day or two, in sha Allah. I hope that was it.
I'm not quite sure where it came from. There is a very poor ventilation system in the bathroom - the air has nowhere to go but a side room. That side room has no ventilation, unless I open a window that has no mesh. I opened it a tiny crack the other day, so it may have entered through there. I won't make that mistake again, even though the bathroom starts to smell really swampish otherwise (no evaporation). Another possibility is the massive renovation effort that appears to be happening in the flat below me. Lots of construction and upheaval could make a nice entry point for the wretched roaches. We'll see. I am now on my guard!
