Istanbul

So Benito had made it across the border into Turkey with his items, which he would later leave scattered around the city, but more on that later! For now, Benito was happy to see the sights and sounds and get settled into his hotel room, which the cabbie had recommended to him and taken him there at 3 AM in the morning. He had been nice enough, saying, "World Youth Hostel, problem... Good hotel, no problem." And it was as simple as that. The cabbie drove Benito to a nice hotel with nice views overlooking Aya Sophia. At first, he could not really see much from his hotel window, but then when he went upstairs in the morning, he could see all: the Bosphorus, the little garden in the book, the older mosque from the time of Justinian, and of course, Aya Sophia! What a sight it was, indeed, as he sipped his coffee and waxed lyrical about the sights and the sea gulls. He was glad that he had come to Istanbul and especially glad to be in Sultanehmet. What adventures waited behind the next corner? The world was now at his fingertips; it was his oyster and he, Benito, was the clam. (MMMmmmm... clam chowder. Hopefully Benito would be getting a lot of it, as his sister was headed to college in the northeast. Oh, yeah. Near Boston and York, ME, holla!)

Benito collected himself, took one last longing look at the structure that is Aya Sophia, then departed, asking how to get to Kadikoy... first, he thought to go and take a walk around, so he departed, leaving out the front door, which was really more like a side alley, and of course it had been raining, but Benito had a nice coat which he had obtained in Aachen, along with a backpack from Germany (I know, redundant.), but in any case, these girls were going to lunch in that fabulous restaurant and Benito was headed to see the sights near Sophia, Istanbul that is. So cool. He walked along the sidewalk as the chanting from the nearby mosques rose to a din, and gave Istanbul a certain ambiance this early afternoon here in Sultanehmet! He walked past the police station and then across the street to that hallowed ground. No sooner had he stepped near the entrance and inquired as to where he might enter, then a man stopped him on the street and asked, "Hello, my friend, where are you from? You don't look very American!", he said. "Have you ever heard of Turkish handicrafts?" And so, Benito followed him to the shop, which was back where his hotel had been, and that was that. Benito found himself sipping tea and chatting it up with a Turkish merchant, who seemed alright at the time. But no matter, for Benito was in Istanbul, and thought he could judge a character when he encountered it, and this man seemed decent and respectable, but Benito had had no idea, for no sooner had he sat down, but then rug after rug were placed in front of him for all to see, and it was like a dance and the carpets were spinning and Benito was getting dizzy, nay, hynotized by the very act! It was as though he had been drugged with something in his drink and could not say no, but instead selected a carpet with a red design and the "Tree of Life", which was not a prayer rug, for that rug had no design in the center, as it was explained to Benito by the rug merchant, but had an empty space for the devotee to kneel and praise Allah. But this rug had that special design in the center, and that is why Benito favored that particular rug, for he thought how he might hang it on his wall in Washington, but no rug did Benito receive for his money, for no sooner had Benito signed on the dotted line, but then he was being directed to come to the second floor where he would be escorted yet again into the chef's office to sign the official papers and receive his rug, but no, that was not to be.

The credit card which Benito had on hand did not work, for it had been stopped by his bank with fraud protection on it, and so was Benito saved, or so it seemed for the moment. For no sooner had the patrone walked in, but then the environment changed and with gold ring on his finger and cigar in hand, he made Benito call his bank and authorize the transaction to take place between the two parties. And this is how the Turkish delight went down Benito's throat along with the warm apple sweet tea, which was customary in the Turkish custom, but made Benito feel as though he must sign; he must do this. Well, what could he do? He answered some questions in a mock trial of his true identity, confirming, for instance, that yes, his sister owned a house in Washington? Well, that much is true, or so it seemed. The other choices had been silly, like Indiana for instance, but enough of that! For Benito was under certain circumstances and this was how the cookie crumbled. But what can we say of that hour? It was indeed a tense moment, for they were hoping to extract funds from Benito's account and Benito was feeling a tad bit uncomfortable, but in any event, he did sign and they had wrapped the rug up for him as he had seen, and now what that transaction indicated to the boss was that they should sell Benito another rug! Haha. Well, we can all laugh about it now, but then it was something else indeed.

So, as Benito was an important customer, they escorted him to have his lunch nearby and promised a special historical presentation of something quite interesting indeed. So he went into that place, and Benito thought, "What a lovely introduction to Turkish culture!" As the lady sat down next to them and watched as they ate their lunch in the third floor of a building on the same street, only a block away. A man with a mustache picked up the conversation where they had left off, and informed Benito about the history of the Turkish people, saying that yes, indeed, the picture on the wall had depicted Mehmet and that glorious invasion of Constantinople and that when the crescent moon and a star shown brightly in the sky and was reflected in the waters that ran dark red with blood, that this is how the Turkish flag came to be! And that was some history indeed. For now, Benito was content to sip on his soup and enjoy the company, even though he did feel a little bit odd about the whole situation in which he found himself now at that time. But no matter, it was snowing and this was how he was experiencing it. There was spaghetti on hand as well, but Benito did not touch it, for he was afraid it might be contaminated but instead said, "Mangia, mangia!" which is an Italian expression which the rug merchant could not understand, but enjoyed it nonetheless, and so they departed back to the rug store for to drink some more tea and talk about rugs.

The man with the mustache introduced Benito at that time to another part of the store, also upstairs, where they had many fine rugs for sale. Again, the same huff and fuss surrounding the rugs and their histories. Apparently, the Turkish peoples were spread throughout the world, including Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and many other regions, and so they were like the gypsies in certain ways, and this whole experience with the rug merchants confirmed that, as well. But now Benito had been with these merchants for quite some time and he was beginning to wonder how he was going to meet his friends in Kadikoy>?! But they continued their discussions of the rugs, and how they would be able to accomplish a sale, but indeed, the man said that he was not trying to sell Benito any rugs, just trying to gauge a sense of taste. Well, Benito thought, I could write a play or short story on this whole affair! And so he will, and so he will, but for now Benito was beginning to worry himself over the whole affair with the rugs. "Where do you have to be?" they inquired. "You are on vacation!" And so Benito was, or so he thought.

After they had selected two of the 'champion rugs', he was escorted back into the patrone's office, where he had been playing a game of backgammon on the computer and was also offered cigarettes, which is quite the sign that you are about to get ripped off, the same in Belgrade, the same in Sofia, and that was how the Turkish muffins began to crumble and get all messy on the floor. So Benito found himself back in the office, discussing now the sale of the 200 k dollar rug! Indeed, the historical museum could not get a figure less than that should it go to sale in the States, and indeed they did go to Seattle to do some business and the man with the mustache had supposedly travelled far and wide like any good nomadic Turk! But now, it came for Benito to decided, for he was given "an offer which he could not refuse", for he was being treated as a 'brother'. "We see you as a brother!" said the patrone. " You don't know how mad I can be!" To offer you a 200 k dollar rug for only a two thousand dollar downpayment. A rug is an investment, they assured him, as Benito smoked, and Benito agreed that it would be an investment in his future to buy this very expensive rug, even as the rug for 5 million turkish lira was hanging on the wall. Did Benito belive their stories? Yes and no, for Benito had not had this experience before and had not read about it in the guidebooks, at least as far as he could recall, and so did they call him a 'funny asshole'...

"Come along now," said the patrone, "What can you offer?" Benito did not accept cigarettes at this time. " perhaps he does it out of respect?" said the man with mustache, and so he had been correct, but Benito was not about to let them get the better of him, so he gave the boss his credit card once again in the hope that yes, he could indeed get this great offer and bring the 'silk-on-silk' rug back to the States. "I was hoping you would pull your super secret card out of your back pocket!" said the patrone. I am being dead serious, he said. And so he was, and so was Benito starting to feel uncomfortable, as though this would not be a game, even after he had gone to the bathroom to relieve himself, and even after talking to Irem on the phone, he could not seem to escape. They told him that he could indeed go into the next room to make a phone call and call his 'agents' or 'sponsor' or whatever. But that was not to be, for Benito could not reach his parents on the other line, so he called Kalin, who did not quite understand the situation which Benito had gotten himself into at that point but instead assured him that he could not indeed afford a rug, and so he should get the hell out of there and meet up with his friends in Istanbul, which is what Benito had thought himself was the best decision, that he could not afford this rug, yet was still thinking about how he might obtain it, for indeed when it was shown to him in the dark room under the lights like a stain-glass window, he had been impressed. " You will fall in love with this rug", said the man with the mustache. And so had Benito begun already to fall under their spell, the spell of the Turkish rug merchant!!

At that point, Benito was already considering the ways in which he might escape, whether or not he could indeed slip down behind the rugs like 007 and escape to the bottom level where people were coming in and out of the store. "Your sale, we believe, will be good luck towards the rest of the day and will encourage more sales in Allah's sight!" had said the first rug merchant. "You like girls or boys?" had said the man with the mustache. "I thought that was illegal," had responded Benito. They had all just laughed. Benito had bowed at the offer of the 200 k dollar rug and confirmed that it was indeed an offer which he could not refuse. So that was that. Then, after receiving a call from Irem, Benito got the hell out of there! "Ok, piss off!" said the patrone.

Benito rushed back to his hotel and asked for his stuff, but the dude at the desk was playing some game on the computer and did not readily respond, so after a time, Benito was like the hell with this! And went out into the night, another employee wishing him a pleasant evening. He went in search of the tram and asked some fellows across the street where exactly that might be... they directed him in the correct direction and off he went to seek his fortune in stranger climbs. It was now dark and snowing out. Benito wandered past some more mosques, buying some cola along the way, and made his way onto the tram, after buying some postcards and a tramway token, called 'jedon'. So did Benito find his way, past Karikoy to Serkeci station where he could take the 'feribot'. That was all well and good, but where to go from there? He could make out the feribot station from the train and made for it, after considering a map for some time, not bothering to ask the lady at the window, but instead hurrying along, for he had a ferry to catch, which indeed he did catch in the knick of time, leaving from that place, after being directed yet again by a man who asked if Benito had any money. "Yes!" Benito had responded and rushed off in the appointed direction to catch the ferry.

It was a pleasant ride across the Bosphorus in any case by night, and the lights on the other side shown brightly as the snow came down all around. There were lots of people to say the least, and as Benito got off there were shouts rising up from people selling umbrellas which seemed to go in unison, or rather, in harmony with the chanting from the mosque on the shore. Then Benito waited for a time there on the docks before Irem's mom showed up to direct him to his host. What a fabulous time he would have! At first, and indeed, upon arriving at his host's, Benito seemed sad, for it did not possess the pleasant views of Aya Sofia like back at the 'AND Hotel', but at least he had his own bed on this, the Asian side of Istanbul. They drank some coffee; Benito had a shower, as they told him to relax, even though he had had no supper, and then went to bed.

The next morning, Benito went in search of a cafe. He went up toward the 'Golden Bull', then took another street up a shoppping district, coming to Starbucks and another cafe upstairs called "Nostradamus". Benito elected for the familiar setting of Starbucks and proceeded to buy a 'Cafe Mocha', which he knew his sister enjoyed back in the States. "Where are you from?" This was an innocent question, but you remember that Benito had just been dealing with the rug merchants only the day before, so he had to be cautious. He took his coffee up the stairs and went on the porch outside. "Brrrrr", said Benito. But it was nice enough, and his jotted down some postcards on the Turkish flag postcard. There were a couple of girls sitting nearby, and after a time, Benito decided to try out some of his Turkish on them. "Do you know where I can find a leather store?" he asked. They just laughed and ran out. Hmmmm... Well, Benito would find a Turkish girl... somewhere.... well, not until the airport and he was flying home, but that's another story. Now, as for Kadikoy, it was nice enough with shops and fish markets selling fresh fish and all assortment of cell phone stores where Benito bought another charger, as his other one was back with the rug merchants. Then he continued along to find a man selling perfume.

Ah, well, a man again asking where Benito is from...