Outings

Many of our outings are the memories that stay with us for ever. I remember we used to go on outings from Balat to Bostan İskelesi, to Kâğıthane, and even to Tuzla to drink a flat-tasting water that was said to fight tapeworm. To be able to drink this water we had to eat salted olives. We went to Yakacık, to Çırçır, to Hünkâr Suyu or Sultan Suyu, spending the whole day in these places. The custom was to spread a sheet or a thin piqué cover on the ground where we ate. To prepare the food for these days, one cooked the whole week. These outings had existed for centuries. I remember that when we went to these picnic places, we went together with many families who knew each other; the men formed a separate group and the women another. Groups also formed according to the language spoken and the social level one belonged to.

Kâğıthane and its surroundings were called 'the Sweet Waters of Europe'. Göksu and Küçüksu were called 'the Sweet Waters of Asia'. I remember we went to Küçüksu to eat corn (mısır). There was a heap of cauldrons where they served the corn, and they put salt on the corn husks and the hot corn inside. That way we did not burn our hands eating the corn. Travellers alluded to London's Hyde Park, saying that 'the Sweet Waters of Asia' resembled this park. Imagination, as we know, has no limit. To reach these places there were carts drawn by oxen. I also remember that we went to Polonezköy in these carts — carts where we sat sideways, and my mother complained that her behind hurt. Another way to reach these places was by boat. In these places each minority gathered with its own group. The Jews formed one group, the Greeks another, the Armenians yet another. It was quite rare to see them mixed, and each group spoke its own language, and the flavours of the food were different. The powerful families had their own boats, and so they went to Kâğıthane or Küçüksu in their boats. There were boats which only men or only women entered. This separation could be seen even in places of gathering like the picnics.

Apart from the Turks/Muslims, who preferred to go out on Friday, the minorities went on their outings on Sunday. Certain families came to these outings with their servants, so as not to work and tire themselves there. The traveller Wittman, in 1803, said that humble families did not have a great separation of men and women. Julia Pardoe, in 1837, writes: 'In these places of outing, and more so on feast days, the mixing of poor and rich does no harm to society. The rich man sits next to the boatman (kayıkçı), the master next to the fisherman (balıkçı).' The traveller Smith remarks in 1850 that one particularity of the Turkish man is to play with worry beads (tespih). Rich or poor, it makes no difference. They lean against a tree and amuse themselves for hours with the tespih. Turkish/Muslim women, like all the women of the different minorities, also held tespihs in their hands.

Among the sporting activities it was wrestling (güreş) that pleased everyone. Only the traveller Frankland, in 1830, writes thus: 'At Fenerbahçe, when we were among the pines, there were certain women swimming with the help of their black servants.' J. Pardoe adds that the nargile was in fashion for women as well as men, and they brought charcoal (kömür) to revive the nargile. Another pastime was the acrobats, and the gypsy women who played and danced. The observations about women were more accurate from the women travellers who had the chance to be invited, being close to ambassadors or foreign diplomats, and who could sit among the women, unlike the men, who had to stay among the men. To travel, to see and to know is always a privilege, in every era. Adapted and adjusted from a study by Zofie Uçar.