Oil Wrestling...manly or strange?

Last week an oil wrestling competition almost 650 years old continued in the city of Edirne, Turkey. Men from all over the country (and this year even a few Sumo wrestlers from Japan) come to this city west of Istanbul, cover themselves with olive oil and wrestle in a pavilion in front of thousands of people (of which I was 1 of about 5 women that I counted in the crowd). There's also a big fair with food, music, rugs, and tractors for sale. It's almost like a small state fair but no fried Snickers bars.

During the match we watched, about 50 men who were probably in the heavy weight division came out to the field and were introduced. Then they all walked and jumped around the field and chose their match ups on their own while the band beat drums and played horns.

Each match up had a judge standing by them. The match began and for most, it was very difficult to see who might be "winning." Most of the matches lasted about 20-30 minutes and then at some point the judge would raise one of the two men's arms as the winner. I had to come home and read the rules afterwards. Some of the ways a wrestler can win are: "Submission" where a fight is so long and difficult in the hot weather that one of the wrestlers simply signals his submission; also, one of the most decisive ways to win is if one of the wrestlers is able to gain the upper hand by reaching down the other wrestler's leather pants to gain leverage. It sounds very strange, I know. There are other ways to win, but none of them are necessarily ways we would think of winning in wrestling. No one gets knocked out or anything like that.

There are 13 categories each with a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place winner. the ultimate goal is to win 3 years in a row and win a gold champion belt.

I can say that I've been...

My Turkish Bath

I've been avoiding the Turkish bath experience because of some of the horror stories I've heard about them as well as some of the youtube videos I've seen where a big burly Turk is manhandling some poor tourist.  But I finally gave in and went to a Turkish bath, and I must say...........it was great.

The first thing you do after you enter is see a list of services provided.  Everything from just sitting in the bath, to the traditional soaping, to a massage, etc.  I wanted the traditional Turkish bath experience, so I signed up for the soaping.

After you pay, they take you to a locker room of sorts, where you undress and put a towel around your waist.  Then they take you to the main bath, which is a large room almost as hot as a sauna.  In the middle of the room is a giant stone circular slab that is heated.  On the outside walls of the bath are basins with hot and cold water taps running to them.  They leave you in this room, laying on the heated stone slab, for about 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes or so, the guy comes in the room who is going to soap you. (Most of the guys in the bath don't speak English, but I knew enough Turkish and sign language to get by.  The only English word my guy knew was:  Obama!) The first thing he does is put a semi-rough mit on his hand and rubs it over your body.  The mit takes off all your dead skin, which is surprisingly a lot.  After that begins the soaping process.  He brings over a big bowl filled with soap suds and a rag.  Laying on your back, he starts to lather you up with soap, then he rubs in the soap/massages you.  After that he makes you turn over on your stomach and does the same thing to your back.  After he's done soaping, he has you go sit by the outer walls by one of the water basins, where he proceeds to dump buckets of water over your head.  Then he gets out the shampoo and starts to vigorously (and I do mean vigorously) rub the shampoo in.  After he thinks its sufficiently rubbed in, he again dumps buckets of water on your head.  Then he slaps me on the back, says Obama!, and leaves.  The entire process from start to finish takes about 15 minutes.

I really enjoyed the Turkish bath experience and will be going  back.  If you're ever in Turkey, a Turkish bath should be on your on list of things to do. 

Children's' Day

The founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk once said, "Children are the new beginning of tomorrow." He dedicated April 23rd to the children of the country to emphasize that they are the future of the new nation. It is celebrated every year with children's parades, marching bands, school performances, and other events.

UNICEF recognizes this day as International Children's Day now.

The monument in the picture behind the children is the Republic Monument in Taksim Square in Istanbul. During the Ottoman Empire, public monuments were not allowed and forbidden as idolatry. Under Ataturk, and the new Turkish Republic however, he wanted to show that Turkey was now a secular republic with division of state and religion. Italian sculptor Pietro Canonica was commissioned to make a work honoring the leaders of the struggle for independence and the formation of the republic in 1923. It was just restored and unveiled for the start of Friday's events.

Meşhur Sur Tatlısı ("Famous Walls of Dessert")

We were in a part of the city called Fatih today and ate at a restaurant that specializes in a dessert we had never seen or heard of before. We chose the restaurant because it was crowded and that's usually a good sign and now we know why. They have a dessert that if translated into English I think would mean the "famous walls of dessert." The outside is made of semolina halva - a kind of course wheat flour - with honey and cinnamon. The texture is almost like sweet chewy grits. Then inside is vanilla ice cream and strawberries. All I can say is I will be going back to have this again. Super delicious.

Happy April Fools' Day

An article from the ISTANBUL Hürriyet Daily News

Istanbul's Istiklal Avenue witnessed an unusual event today as many people popped 100,000 balloons thrown from rooftops. The April Fools' Day event, was planned by a tourism firm to make people smile for a day and play like children, and seen by many as a way to relax as well.

Cat Showdown

There are constant street sounds in Istanbul that are very audible from inside our apartment. Everything from car horns, to street salesmen, to calls of prayer, etc. This evening was no exception, as we were trying to watch tv and were interrupted by arguing cats. The video shows the last 20 seconds of a 3 minutes long very loud cat conversation.

Spring is here!

This week, the weather has been gorgeous, so yesterday we went to Gulhane Park right next to Topkapi Palace. It's the oldest and one of the largest public parks in Istanbul. It is a lovely place. There are so many flowers that have bloomed recently and we're still waiting for a lot of the tulips to show their faces. Here's a few pictures we took.