Holy Tourism Batman! Part 1: In Search of Church

I need to start this post two days ago to get a running start at all I have saved up to say. I have been a crazy tourist, acting as if I have just three days in Istanbul instead of two years. I will try to include a lot of pictures, first, because I took a lot of pictures, and second because this is probably going to be a pretty boring list of half remembered facts and it is ok if you just scroll through and skip the text.

Last time I wrote it was Tuesday and I was on my way to dinner with John and Tania. While there I mentioned that I wanted to go in search of the Catholic Church just to gauge where it was and how long it would take me to get there. I am not Catholic, but as far as I could tell from searching on line, it was the only church in Istanbul that had an English language service and I find that the Catholics and Lutherans have a lot in common liturgically if not politically. I am glad I mentioned it* because all of a sudden I had three choices instead of one! All three were along the same pedestrian walk way down town about a 20 minute bus ride from school, better yet, John offered to show me where they were. We set a date for Wednesday.

 I had wanted to get an early start given my frustration with the traffic of Tuesday afternoon, but when it was finally arranged, 1pm was agreed upon. He drove down and we got on the bus to Kabitas. I had taken that bus before and from there the tram, but this time we got on the funicular, a small, single purpose train that goes from Kabitas to Taksim square. 

Taksim square is not very interesting, surrounded by hotels and commercial buildings in fairly recent buildings.  It is a big open space where a lot of busses come, and John says, it is the site of protests from time to time. 

 We headed from there down Istiklal Street which is a wide pedestrian walkway with shops, restaurants, consulates and churches along it. 

 As we walked down the street John pointed some things out to me, ‘turn right at the metal star burst to get to the Pera museum,’ ‘go in this alley way to have a choice of outdoor dining,’ ‘this is the British consulate which was bombed a few years back,’ ‘these are the best bookstores for English language books,’ etc. 

 

We found the Catholic Church first, St. Antoine.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Anthony_of_Padua_Church_in_Istanbul
It was right off the street, with a gate, a small courtyard and then an impressive building.  They have a service in English at 8am each morning and at 10am on Sundays.  If I miss that one, I can go to the Polish service at 11.  We went inside to scope it out and it is clearly a tourist destination. 

Continuing down the road we found the Dutch Reform Church, well, maybe.  İt was not marked and the gate was locked, but John assures me that it was down there behind the sign that says Union Han. 

When I looked it up on line, it does go by Union Church, so I guess that really is it.  http://www.unionchurchofistanbul.org/ Their website says they have an English language service at 9:30 and 11 and a bilingual English/Turkish at 1:30 in the afternoon, which may be worth checking out to improve my church Turkish after a while.  The third church I never would have found without help.  Going down the hill you turn left at the German High school, turn left at the end of that road and follow it down and to the right and you get to the Crimean Memorial Church, home of an Anglican congregation.  http://anglicansistanbul.blogspot.com/

The gate on this building was also locked, but the garden looked very nice and their website says they have a service at 10am. 

Ok, major mission accomplished and it was just after 3pm.  I had agreed to meet Lizzy and Shirin at 6:30 outside the Galatalesei for dinner.  Perhaps I should have pushed back the start of this adventure.  John and I walked down to the end of Istiklal and saw the Galata tower and then went all the way to the bridge which would take us to the Golden Horn and Sultanahmet if we wanted.  Instead we took the Tunel, the older funicular back up to Galata near the bottom of Istiklal, the old Genoese part of town. 

 I walked with him as far as the metro station and then went to see about climbing the tower. 

There was a long line to go in, and then about 5 stories worth of steps that I just couldn’t face, so I let gravity take me down hill again, where I got back on the tunel, and from there the trolley that goes up the center of Istiklal. 

 All of this public transportation is accessed with an Istanbul card.  I put money on the card and then hold it in front of the sensor as I get on the bus, tram, metro, funicular, tunel, trolley, even ferries!  The best part (after not having to figure out fares or talk to anyone) is that it knows if you are transferring from one to another and charges you a reduced fare.  Pretty slick.  I am not sure what it thought of my public transit overload, but it didn’t matter. 

I found the meeting place again, but didn’t want to stand there for an hour, so I went back towards the Pera meuseum

where there was an outdoor café with a beautiful view where I got a lemonade and played plants vs. zombies for a little bit while waiting. 

 I met Shirin at 6:30, but Lizzy was no where to be found.  Was she lost? Hurt? Stuck on the bus?  Fortunately it was just the last and she arrived safely at 7:20.  Shirin had a specific restaurant in mind for us, but it was closed for bayram, and so was the second one, and the third one…so we ended up at a random restaurant that none of us had been to before.  Her husband, James, met us there and we had a lovely dinner.  After a stop for gelato, Lizzy and I headed back up to Taksim square to catch a bus back to Robert College. 

 James had suggested that our bus would not be up at the square with the others, but on the road by the Marmara hotel headed down the hill.  We found that bus stop, but had no way of knowing if it was the right bus stop – not all stops indicate which busses use them.  There were some dolmus (a cross between a bus and a shared cab) there and we debated taking one of them, but neither of ever had and it was a bit too scary (I don’t think they take the Istanbul card).  The first bus that came was going near the top of campus, but neither of us was sure we could get from the Armerkez mall to the upper gate.  The second bus was going to Besiktas, which was about half way home and we knew we could get a bus home from there, so we got on.  After successfully transferring at Besiktas, we spent the requisite hour on the shore road sitting in traffic for the last 3-4 miles to campus and got home at 11:30, 90 minutes in transit.

These are the busses that stop just outside my building.

*My personal beliefs aside, I find that when people find out I go to church they act differently around me and I don’t like that. I try hard not to judge people and I think that some Christians give the rest of us a bad name in that regard. It is almost like when some folks find out that I am a Christian they judge themselves on my behalf and modify their behavior. They talk less freely; they act more conservatively, and put on their 'Sunday' best manners. In general it seems to make people uncomfortable. This effect was magnified when I didn't drink at all, although that was a choice wholely unrelated to my religous beliefs, which was also frustrating. I wasn't sure how being a Christian in a Muslim country would go down, so I hesitated to bring it up.