Day four was more of a chill out day for us. We had been going hard for three days in a row. We had already seen everything on our must see list and more and our list had been pretty long from the beginning. We’re history teachers and we’re in Istanbul. We decided to mostly relax for the day. It’s a holiday. We knew most places would be closed. I wanted to explore the empty streets to get photos. The husband had some other stuff he wanted to do. We split up for most of the day.

Today is the Muslim holiday of Eid al Adha and I was trying to ask the guy at the front desk of our hotel about any local traditions for the holiday but his English is poor and my Turkish is nonexistent so he didn’t understand what I was trying to ask. He thought I was trying to ask for suggestions of places to see in Istanbul. He kept saying you should go here and I would respond already been there, then he’d say you should go here, and I’d say already been there, then he’d say oh! you should go here! and I’d say already seen it. Then he asked how long have you been here???? And I said three days.

His eyes got really wide and he said THREE DAYS????? You’ve seen everything!!! You’ve seen more of Istanbul than me! And I’ve lived here ten years. He said most tourists come here, take one picture of the Hagia Sophia, spend the rest of the time shopping and drinking, then leave.

Yeah. That ain’t me.

But today was for chillin’.

The streets were mostly empty. When we were traveling in Uzbekistan at this time last year there were goats tied up outside almost every door just waiting to be slaughtered for the evening celebrations. I didn’t see any of that here. I’m assuming Istanbul must have ordinances against that type of thing. We have to protect the eyes of the precious tourists.

I saw these two buidlings with signs over their doors stating their opeing dates from the 1600’s!

 

So what’s this holiday all about anyway? I’m glad you asked. I love teaching religion, it is my favorite topic of study after all. This one’s a three-fer! The story is in all three Abrahamic religions but only one considers it a holiday and it’s the most major holiday at that. There are two official holidays in Islam Eid al Adha, this one, and Eid al Fitr. Non-Muslims tend to think the other Eid is the bigger holiday but they’ve got it the wrong way around. Eid al Adha is the HUGE holiday and Eid al Fitr is the smaller one. The reason they think that is because well, first, they can’t be bothered to take the time to ask or look it up and because Eid al Fitr is the celebration to end Ramadan they just assume it’s the biggest holiday of the year because they know close to nothing about Islam only that Ramadan is a thing and there’s a holiday after Ramadan so that must be the biggest holiday, right?

So, let’s move on the the true big holiday of Islam: Eid al Adha. It’s the celebration of the day Abraham almost killed his kid! Because everyone knows that’s totally a reason we should have a family celebration. So in case you don’t remember/never learned the weird ass religious story of Abraham and Isaac here’s your refresher: So the story goes approximately 4,000 years ago there lived a very devout man named Abraham. He had a son named Isaac. One day Abraham’s god told him to kill his son as a sacrifice to him, and instead of what any good father should say which is fuck you! No way! Abraham said totally yeah okay I’ll murder my kid. So he took his kid up to the ceremonial mountain and right before he was about to kill his own child a magical angel stops him and is like LOL! Just kidding!!!! ha ha ha! God  was kidding! You don’t really have to kill your kid! It was all a test. He just wanted to see if you’d really do it. But you really do have to kill a goat. Now kill a goat for your god. Kill a goat Abraham. Do it.

So this is supposed to be some kind of motivational story about faith or something. Bizarre. I mean what kind of a dick must this god be? When I look at my daughter and think about anyone suggesting I kill her even as a prank I simply get engraged. There’s no way in hell I’d kill my daughter and for anyone to suggest it is fucked up. And for someone to suggest it as.. what??? A joke? A dare? A prank? A test? I just wanted to see if you’d really do it or not? I wasn’t really gonna make you kill your daughter. That’s fucked up. It’s sick. What kind of god takes pleasure in convincing a man to almost murder his own child?

Yeah. Well. This is a cute motivational scripture story about potential child murder for two of the Abrahamic religions, Christianity and Judaism, that’s supposed to I dunno… I guess…inspire one to love their god more or something…and the Reason for the Season for the third of the religion’s biggest holiday of the year.

I am absolutely fascinated by the study of religion. Truly, I am, but how anyone can still believe this stuff in the modern age is almost beyond my comprehension.

To celebrate Eid al Adha there is much candy eaten, lots of gift giving to children, money given to women, and  the slaughtering of many goats. Many, many goats are slaughtered. In some regions if the world it’s tradition to dip your hands in the goat’s blood and then put your handprint on the outside of your house as a symbol of good luck for the following year. Did I mention all the slaughtered goats? There’s a lot of meat eaten on this holiday and Islamic law states the fortunate must share with the needy on Eid al Adha.

Oh! And while we’re on the topic that phrase Eid Mubarrak you hear a lot? It means something like Happy Holidays! Happy Eid! You can say it to your Muslim friends. I bet they tell you Merry Christmas and don’t worry about it. You can try to bend a little for them too. I promise no thunderbolts will strike you down for saying Eid Mubarrak.

While walking around taking pictures of the empty streets I ran into the same guy three times and he kept trying to talk to me. The last time he said “I am not danger.” Here’s a little lesson for those of you less traveled: if someone feels the need to introduce themselves as “not danger” it’s probably best to stay away from them. I know I made a big deal in my last post about how much I despise teaching Stranger Danger! and I encourage my child to talk to strangers but there’s a big difference in talking to random strangers in the coffee shop and talking to the random guy you’re pretty sure is following you on the empty streets of the city. Yeah. Don’t be dumb. Don’t do that. If someone introduces themselves as “I am not danger” walk the other way.

I had a salad in a restaurant that looked nice for lunch.

I ran into a guy for a second time who liked chatting with me about my tattoos. I have lots of them and they’re not very common in Turkiye. He has vicious scarring all over his right hand. If I had to guess I’d say a grease fire, but I ddin’t ask. He told me he plans to get the scarring covered with tattoos. I asked him when he’s going to do it then he told me he plans to try to make it to Italy but if they catch him on the way they’ll send him back to Afghanistan and in Afghanistan they’ll chop his hand off if he has tattoos on it so he has to wait until he’s safely in Italy to do it. I wished him luck and he was on his way. This was one of those cool stories about talking to strangers. Well…maybe not cool… but what a different world I live in. Here I am a woman, in a tank top, covered in tattoos, talking to a man that’s not my family, while on vacation in a foreign country about how he’s about to to illegally migrate to Italy and he can’t get his scars covered because if he does when he’s deported to Afghanistan they’ll chop his hand off. I love traveling.

In the evening we went for a stroll and found a hidden rooftop bar. If they were to bill it as a speakeasy it would probably become really popular since it’s nearly impossible to find, but as it is I’m not sure how well it will survive. The views were nice though and the manager was from Cameroon so he was thrilled to meet a couple who had lived in Benin recently.

Day 5: FOOD POISONING. I woke up feeling nausueous during the night of Day 4. Then the diarrhea and vomitting began. I didn’t get out of bed except to run to the toilet for 24+ hours.

It wasn’t as bad as I’ve had in the past. There was the time in Chiapas, Mexico when I literally slept on the bathroom floor in our hostel for a week. Then, of course, we lived in China for three years where I had to carry charcoal pills with me at all times. I had food poisoning there about every other week.

I’m actually typing this on day 6 and feeling 95% recovered. I’m sure it was the salad. Never eat healthy while on vacation. Lesson learned.