After a quick nap we left for the whirling dirvish show at 7--because it is Ramadaan it started later, so it didnt start until 745. I need to read up on Ramadaan. I think theres a bunch of food restrictions that the peeps have to follow, but I know there's probably other stuff too. I will look up that stuff and get back to you. Anyhoo--when we got there the place was pretty full, but we were able to find chairs on the side right near the "band." The cool thing was that the performance was being held at Sirkeci Station which is where the Orient Express used to depart from back in the days of luxury train travel. The room is pretty plain, but there are some nice stained glass windows near the ceiling.
The show begins with this sufi band playing all these ancient looking instruments. There are 4 musicians and 2 dudes just hanging out in the second row. I was surprised that they even had a female musician. For some reason, I thought the dirvish order were all men...like most everything else in Turkey. Anyway, they start playing this new agey sounding music and the two dudes in the back start singing. It's all very churchy at this point, and then i realize...duh, the dirvishes are a religious order. Perhaps it would be like that one band...was it Enigma(?) that had all that churchy sounding music? Regardless...finally after like 30 minutes the dirvishes come out. The performance is really just a ceremony, and they tell you to remain silent, but you know i was bursting at the seams to talk about it while it was going on.
(as an aside, I am watching the news, and how is it that Jack Bauer got arrested for drunk driving?? Oh Keifer...don't drink and drive. Now they are talking about the Halo 3 Midnight openings....curious. Oh how I've missed my Mornings on 2 news...)
I digress...so the dirvishes emerge in these black robes but you can see their little white gowns peeking out underneath. They have this long ass ceremony...seriously can you just start the spinning. I am impatient. Finally the spinning part starts. Dude, it is weird. Fascinating but weird. And they dont just spin kind of hippie in the field like....they are full speed ahead spinning like tops. There were 5 of them all together....and they each had their own spinning technique. If I were a dirvish, I would definitely keep my eyes closed because the ones who kept their eyes open were just loco looking. They had like crazy eye when they would spin because they were spinning so fast. However they were spinning for quite awhile. It actually made ME a little bit dizzy. So I figured they would just spin and it would be done. But turned out there were actually four spinning sessions, I think each one represented the seasons. I have the pamphlet--i should really bring it out so I can get the facts right, but really...no one cares here, I know that. I am just writing this for my own narcissistic tendencies. And so I will remember what the heck we did on vacation before I attempt to do my scrapbook!
After the show was over, I totally thought there would be a meet and greet photo session....but that was not to be. They came, they spun, they left. And thats pretty much how it went.
Rachel and I got back on the Tram and then headed to our hotel for dinner at the bar. We were the other table there eating. There were some German dudes eating at the only other table that had diners. I ordered tomato soup and some fresh fruit, and it was just mediocre.
After that, we checked the Turkish "office" out. They had a brand new computer that ran Vista, but they had this monitor that was old as dust. It was a huge case with a small screen. Um if you spent the money on the new machine why didnt you get the new monitor??? Splurge a little guys. We tried to log in, but I was having issues since their "i" was some other letter and my email programs were not letting me log in properly. I don't know what was up with the I key this trip. The Hermes in Santorini had a tough time with the I as well. While we were in the office checking our mail, someone went into the adjacent room which was large and totally dark and got his pray on. I dont know if he had a prayer mat, but I did see him bowing towards mecca. Sweet!
Anywho....that's day one of Turkey in a nutshell.
Back soon to talk about days 2 and 3. They are filled with tours, friends and clay shards.
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