The Rugs, Jellyfish and Cats of Istanbul

Istanbul is one giant city spread across two continents. With a population of over fifteen million people, the city extends for miles both east and west of the narrow Bosphorus Straight, the dividing line between Europe and Asia.

Sultanahmet is old Istanbul, the walled city that existed here since the time the city was named Constantinople and we quickly got lost driving our car back and forth through the narrow one-way streets. The address for the apartment we rented didn’t list a number and the map listing led to a shuttered Turkish delight shop. Finally, I parked the car halfway up onto a sidewalk and got out to search for the place on foot.

The Sultanahmet neighborhood is one in which a lost looking tourist will not be left alone for more than twenty seconds. There is no need to knock on doors or look at maps as there is always someone loitering around just waiting for for an opportunity to help out. And afterwards, of course, they will ask the lost tourist take a quick peek at their uncle’s rug shop.

As a tourist, whatever you do, do not look at the rug shop because if you do the uncle will serve you hot apple tea and maybe a selection of sweets while he shows you rug after rug, all the while telling you what a wonderful and nice person you are. They will talk with you without pause and you will either purchase a rug that you don’t want or you will interrupt them mid-sentence and walk out, proving to yourself that you are not the nice person they made you out to be.

On this occasion the friendly stranger called the host of our apartment who soon arrived and brought us to the place which happened to be almost directly in front of the spot where I parked the car. We also eventually ended up in the rug shop where the uncle showed me rug after rug. It’s not possible to get away with telling him that you don’t want a rug because every rug shop uncle and tout nephew is prepared to interrupt this sentiment with the answer: “No one comes to Istanbul to buy a rug, but everybody leaves with one.”

The Islamic pattern art on some of the carpets is kind of attractive, although not enough for me to want one. The seller switched to showing me Christian-themed carpets such as a carpet Virgin Mary and carpet St. John’s Basilica. These were quite tacky, but they gave me an idea.

“I want a carpet Artemis,” I told him, remembering the great temple of Artemis located near St. John’s Basilica in Ephesus and the amazing statue of the Ephesian Artemis.

The seller looked kind of sad. “I don’t have that,” he said. “How about baby Jesus?”

“No,” I answered. “Only Artemis.” This was my escape route.

As impressed as Tola was with the massive, rug filled souvenir shops, she didn’t seem to like the city very much at first.

“I thought you said this was a big city,” she said, looking at the decaying city walls of Sultanahmet. This old part of the city is a mix of tourist accommodations, ruins and run down residential neighborhoods. There’s a lot of history here, but not so much the feel of a big city, especially during the weekend lock down when most people are staying at home.

The nearby seaside was busy though with cargo ships, seagulls and cats. Hundreds of cats live in the crevices of the rock barrier beyond the seawall along the miles-long stretch of sea and poke their heads out if they hear the correct cat-call which I found through trial and error is a friendly sounding psst-psst. Like many cities in Turkey, Istanbul is a city of cats. Some are friendly and run over to receive a pet, others are scared and run and hide. They live in every corner of the city and it seems people regularly leave bowls of food or milk out for them.

Beyond the cats of the rocks, the sea is teeming with life as well. Jellyfish by the thousands float amidst trash and sea foam. Sea gulls circle and dive between jellies at schools of small fish. Beyond this a fog of yellow smog extends out from the city over the Sea of Marmara, hiding the distant islands in a soft haze.

Something extraordinary is happening in the sea here so that it is becoming overrun with jellyfish. It seems that warming water temperatures due to climate change have resulted in a migration of jellyfish from the Red Sea across the Suez canal as well as in ship bilge waters. All the ship traffic through Istanbul brings in more varieties of jellyfish, but also it is the perfect place for an explosion in jelly populations because all the seawalls of the city and hard surface revetments provide the perfect place for baby polyps to cling to while they develop. Additionally, over fishing takes away the competition so that the jellyfish become the rulers of the sea here.

So while in Istanbul we plan to spend our time with the cats while staying clear of the rugs and jellyfish.