Istanbul is a dynamic city. The interplay between European, Asian, and Muslim cultures left me awestruck and sweaty. I was most recently there to escape London snow and get some quality time with my friend John and someone literally named Michael Caine.I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across this bookshop where a very nice older man explained to me that he recently had to close shop in protest of a police booth stationing itself next door (in front of the Dutch embassy no less), and sold me loads of starcharts for cheap because I knew a little bit about the Ottoman Empire. When I stepped outside it was raining, so I shoved the priceless (45 lira) mounted maps into my jacket. I looked like a big pregnant robot. Also I figured it might stop Turkish guys from staring at my boobs. It did not.About an hour later it was still raining hard, and we stumbled across a building with a star of David on it, and, having been the only Jewey thing I saw in a country which I know used to sort of have a Jewish population, it drew my attention. Then I noticed that it had a huge police van parked out in front. So I decided to get a picture of myself in front making a worried face. Comedy gold!Then I heard running, and then the expression on John's face was that of some complex hideous joke coming together, and in a few seconds following this picture being taken several things happened at once. I realized that I was standing in front of a synagogue. With a police van. With what looked like a box-ey thing under my jacket. Some Turkish cops came out and spoke in their native tongue very quickly, and I tried to show them that the bomb-shaped lump I had under my jacket was not a bomb, but they made the universal "STOP DOING WHAT YOU'RE DOING" signal and kept speaking loudly for a long time, but DURRR I don't speak Turkish guys! So I said that, which I think helped, because after that there was significantly less gun-touching, for which I was grateful. Finally they signaled for me to unzip my jacket, looked through my maps, and waved us along.I think they were just trying to look at my boobs.ARIANNA
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