I initially planned on having this cover our first few days in Istanbul until we left for Cappadocia. However, this thing just kept growing and growing so I'm leaving this at our first night into the first full day. My plan for 5 posts may end up being 6-7.
I left off with Mila and I arriving in Istanbul after roughly 42 hours of travel. In that time, I probably slept about 6 hours. We were tired. But, it was only late afternoon, the sun was still out, and we "needed" to do something vacay productive. Istanbul's main international airport is about 45 minutes northwest of the city on the European side. On the drive in, we commented on how many pines there were and watched the surrounding go from rural to suburbs to huge city.
Istanbul, originally Byzantion and later Constantinople, has been one of the most important cities in the world for roughly 1700 years. Founded in the 7th century BC, it didn't rise to global prominence until roughly 1000 years later. Previously it was a trading post along the Silk Road and an important regional port. The Roman Emperor Constantine saw the potential for a great city and took at his capital, renaming it Constantinople in the process. The city, which sits astride Europe and Asia, has access to the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea by way of the Bosphorus Strait, Sea of Marmara, and Dardenelles Strait. With the Bosphorus Strait and Golden Horn slicing up the city into peninsulas, it was easily defensible against invaders and also a crossroads for trade. As the center of the late Roman empire, it was an extremely important city in early Christendom with some of the foundational ecumenical councils taking place there. In 1453, the previously impregnable cities walls were brought down by Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror's basilic cannon, able to fire a Smart Car sized cannon. (yes, the city was sacked in 1204 by Christian armies, but Mehmed brought a change in empire from the Roman/Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Turks). The Ottomans were THE world superpower for roughly 100 years and stayed internationally relevant through the end of the 18th century. Eventually refusal to adapt and iron-fisted governance opened up fissures in the country, allowing for formerly conquered territories like Greece to regain independence. By the time World War I came around, the Ottoman Empire was known as "the sick man of Europe" and the Germans had to bail them out at every turn during the war. In 1923 Mustafa Kemal Ataturk led the charge for revolution and the modern-day Republic was born.
There you go, 2800 years of history in a paragraph. What we saw was the sunset.
These pictures were taken while crossing the Galata Bridge, a popular foot and local vehicle traffic bridge that spans the Golden Horn and has had multiple versions and constructions in the past 180 years.
We stayed at Erten Konak hotel, which would be referred to as "boutique" here and is located in the Sultanahmet, which houses many of the city's most popular tourist attractions. It's called the Old City by locals and it's evident why. The streets are roughly 1.5 vehicles wide and we found out on our first night that taxi drivers aren't scared to hop out of the car and fight someone. Our dude didn't, but he got out to officiate an ongoing fight that was holding up traffic. From what we could glean, neither vehicle wanted to back up and allow the other to pass so a shouting then shoving match ensued.
Since we had missed our check-in by a day (and the hotel staff ignored multiple e-mails I sent using their "contact us" feature), our specific room was taken. Luckily for us, they simply upgraded us. Unlucky for us, it was on the 3rd floor. This included going up 2 flights of incredibly tight spiral stairs. We found out then that Istanbul is not designed for large or handicapped people.
Since the hotel is in the center of a tourist area, we had our pick of good restaurants within a 2 minute walk. For our first meal, we went to Carlos' Terrace, and it was great. I can't remember the name of the dish I had, but it was the best I had in the entire trip. The view of the Golden Horn was partially obscured but not bad. We were introduced to the hallmarks of dining in Turkish restaurants - multiple friendly waiters, free baklava and apple tea to finish the meal off, and good food.
 |
| this picture was supposed to look so much cooler |
We also encountered the same type of tight, tiny spiral staircase and our first "ugly American" of the trip. The food was cheapish, not quite as expensive as a mid-range restaurant here but not what I'd call cheap.
The next day was chilly and rainy. However, the plan is the plan and we were going to attempt to hit many of Istanbul's "greatest hits."
We started with our "accidentally free" (our room had been upgraded to a free breakfast room, but wasn't on the free list.) breakfast, a first look at what a traditional Turkish breakfast looks like.
The first stop on my plan was the Blue Mosque, traditionally known as the Sultan Ahmet mosque. It was a short walk from the hotel past multiple restaurants and, thankfully, little corner markets selling cheap umbrellas. According to Rick Steve's (yes, I quoted EuroTrip with "here's a fun fact!") Turkish salesmen are pushy but not aggressive. They are used to being ignored, so it won't exactly hurt their feelings. They will try and strike up a conversation about anything they can and/or hang out around popular landmarks offering helpful suggestions in an effort to get you to "befriend" them and eventually make a sale. Mila, as is well documented, doesn't listen to me. So within 5 minutes of getting close to the Blue Mosque, we were sitting in a rug store sipping the ubiquitous apple tea with a dozen rugs displayed at our feet and a man, his brother, and his young son doing their best to try and convince us to buy and ship a rug. After saying we weren't going to buy anything multiple times, we left. The Blue Mosque was closed for some work that day, so we skipped straight to the Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofia in Turkish).
The Blue Mosque was built in the early 17th century at the direction of Sultan Ahmed I. It seems to be basically a PR move as his armies had just lost two major battles. He wanted to show that the Ottomans were still powerful and so commissioned one of the largest mosques in the world to be built. The area of the city is named after him.
 |
| The tomb of Sultan Ahmed and some of his family members is part of the Blue Mosque compound or kulliye |
 |
| Our first view of Hagia Sophia |
As both mosques are still in use, they are occasionally closed throughout the day for prayer, everyone must remove their shoes upon entry, a dress code of pants and no tank tops was enforced, and all women must cover their heads. They had scarves there at the door for use but Mila had a couple scarves that she brought with her as well as buying a new one at the bazaar.
I first heard of the Hagia Sophia while reading Dan Brown's Inferno. Part of the book and movie takes place in Istanbul and the Hagia Sophia plays an important role. Robin Pierson also talked about its construction in one of
his episodes as well.
It was originally built as a church by the Roman Emperor Justinian. Again, it was PR move as Rome itself had fairly recently fallen and he wanted to show that the Empire was still going strong. It was the largest building in the world upon completion, and the largest cathedral for nearly 1,000 years. Its first service was held on Christmas Day 537 and was the heart of the empire. It was also the site of the 1054 excommunication of the Byzantine Patriarch that led to the Great Schism. After Mehmed's Conquest in 1453, he converted it to a mosque and it stood as the central mosque of the empire until the construction of the Blue Mosque roughly 150 years later. After the country became a republic in the 20th century, it was closed for four years before becoming a museum in 1935. I can remember the public outcry when it was converted back into a working mosque in 2020 and I must admit, I was worried then that visitors would not be allowed in.
The crowd was pretty big, so I can't imagine what it would be like in the high season. Plenty of tour groups shuffled in together, crowding around their guide sharing the history of the place.
 |
| The outer narthex |
 |
| The inner narthex with mosaics dating back to the 6th century |
We took off our shoes, put them in the boxes that were supplied, Mila put on her head covering, and we went inside to the nave
 |
| Above Mila is the "floating dome" |
As with any old, important building, there have been natural disasters and human disasters that have damaged original paintings and architecture as well as several reconstruction and renovation projects. What I find most surprising is that there are still Christian mosaics from the 6th century not only surviving, but on display in a still-active mosque. In fact, we saw a few worshippers off to the side praying (there are different sections for men and women). Most people spoke in hushed voices, many groups sitting in a circle on the ground just taking it all in. Of course, we saw Ugly American #2 challenging their tour guide and scoffing when she fell short of his expectations. 🙄
Visiting Hagia Sophia brought back memories of when we visited Notre Dame in 2014. They're both not only important buildings in terms of religious history, but also cultural and political history as well. Just waiting on that Disney movie featuring Hagia Sophia.
 |
| I was glad I brought our guide book along for this one as there's no sort of placard explaining this roped-off area. This is the omphalion, the Byzantine's reserved spot in the church. It is also where they were coronated |
 |
| You can just see those giant discs up on the wall behind us. There all honor different important figures in Islamic history. |
 |
| How awesome would it have looked back when all those lights were candles? |
 |
| Mary, Justinian and Constantine mosaic dating from 1000, another artifact from Christian times still on display |
 |
| It's funny how this Christian church has had such an influence on mosque architecture since the Ottoman takeover in 1453 |
After leaving the mosque, we took the short walk over to the Basilica Cistern. If you've seen "Inferno" the latest Robert Langdon (think DaVinci Code) movie with Tom Hanks, it's where the climax takes place. The cistern was one of around 100 in the city when it was rebuilt and enlarged in the 6th century. Justinian also ordered its reconstruction and it served his palace complex. The system of cisterns, supplied the city with clean drinking water, something that even today they don't quite have. (we were told to brush our teeth with bottled water) It was also showcased in the 1963 James Bond movie
From Russia with Love but they claim that Constantine had it built without mentioning Justinian AND it was underneath the Soviet embassy. What is cool to see in that clip is that back then, tourists could get a boat tour through the cistern. Today the water is much lower, only a few inches deep, and there are walkways throughout for tourists to walk through. Furthermore, the place is an art gallery with a dozen or so modern sculptures on display.
 |
| You'll notice that the lights changed colors. Our favorite was orange |
After leaving the Basilica Cistern, we headed to another cultural landmark, the Grand Bazaar. The bazaar opened in the 1450s, shortly after the Conquest. Today it covers roughly 8 acres, all under a roof. The neighborhoods surrounding are a warren of small shops as well and I honestly didn't know until reading up on it afterward if they were counted as part of it. They are not, in case you were wondering. Instead of hallways, there are "streets." The shops are very small, there are roughly 4,000 in total, and are mostly organized by wares.
We didn't want to get sucked into too much, (I was getting hungry and was disappointed to see that there were no street food stands to be found) so we only took a couple jaunts down smaller "streets." The salesmen here are, of course, aggressive in their attempts to get your attention. Most often they would shout where they thought we were from and try both English and Spanish. The weirdest one I got was the guy asking me if I was Pakistani. Mila generally got asked if she's Mexican or Colombian, but both of us together were thought to be Spaniards almost as much as American. It must have been the Barca jacket.
 |
| they do love their flag |
The bazaar today is a very touristy spot. Most of the shops we saw were tailored to tourists and many of the other shoppers weren't locals. We went into a spice shop after they lured Mila in with more apple tea. There was an insane amount of great-smelling teas and spices packed into the little shop and their free apple and pomegranate tea worked as we walked away with a couple bags of tea and a set of tea cups.
 |
| two of our new tea cups |
As we were walking out of the store they ran up with another box of tea for free. Although the salesmen can be pushy and get on my nerves, they were generally very friendly and generous. We found this out when we stopped into a scarf shop. After selling Mila a scarf, we ended up sitting and talking (and drinking more apple tea) with the worker from that shop as well as one from the shop next door for about 20-30 minutes. We talked about soccer, Turkish telenovelas, and even pork in English and Spanish. They were genuinely nice people that seemed just happy to spend time chatting. While there, a lady tried to come in and drive a hard bargain. "I don't want to waste your time or my time..." It didn't work out well for her.
We worked our way through the bazaar, through the thousands of shops on the outside streets and almost accidentally ended up in the spice bazaar. We had planned on going to the spice bazaar later in the week, but since we were there anyway, why not take a look around?
Also known as the Egyptian bazaar, it is the second largest bazaar in the city and the revenues form the rent actually go to the upkeep of the nearby New Mosque. They were both built in the 1560s, but we didn't go visit the mosque. Since we had just bought teas and tea cups, we didn't stop at any of the shops. One guy did toss some Turkish Delight at Mila though. At the northern end of the bazaar, we found
Pandeli, one of the restaurants that the Michelin guide mentions but doesn't grant a star.
We ventured back out into the rain to cross the Galata Bridge on our way to Galata Tower. If it wasn't so rainy and cold, we would have tried to appreciate the views of the Golden Horn and into the Bosphorus. Instead, we hunkered down and walked as quickly as we could. From the bridge, it's a steep uphill slog to the tower.
As the Byzantine Empire was losing its standing in the world, Constantinople's population dropped and foreign powers started to take pieces of the city as their own. The 1204 siege and invasion of the city accelerated the process and Venetian and Genoese traders took over portions of the northern section of the city across the Golden Horn. One of those areas is known as Galata and here in 1348 they constructed this tower. At the time it was the tallest building in the city, and it was one of the few structures in Galata that Sultan Mehmed left standing after the Conquest. Today, it is a museum and observation tower and an easy to spot landmark of the old city.
 |
| views from the observation decks |
You take an elevator most of the way up but the only way down is a small, cramped staircase.
 |
| A recreation of Hezarfen Ahmed Celebi's historic 1638 intercontinental glide. I was sure she was going to crash |
 |
| Just a couple of parakeets taking advantage of holes in the tower |
From there we stopped at a cafe to grab some coffee and Wi-Fi. We found that you need to take advantage of free bathrooms and Wi-Fi where you could. It wasn't until later that we started using public transport and this rainy day ended up being the one where we likely walked the most. We averaged about 17,000 steps per day, so 8ish miles but this day we went well over 20,000.
To cap off the night, we went to Istiklal street, the modern day answer the Grand Bazaar. Although its origins aren't exactly modern, dating back a few centuries. With the area having a heavy European influence dating back to 1204, the feeling of the area is different. The stores on the street house known high-end international brands and there are also a few embassies located on the road as well.
 |
| Luckily, the rain abated by this time |
 |
| I keep saying street, but the only vehicles allowed are police cars and the tram that runs the length of the street |
The road ends in historic Taksim square, a popular meeting place for protests and celebrations. As I'm reading up on it now, there have also been a couple of terrorist attacks on the street in recent years and an anti-Greek pogrom that took place in the 1950s. Luckily for us, both times we visited the street, everyone was well-behaved.
 |
| The square is surrounded by 5-star hotels and Taksim Mosque |
 |
| You can just barely make out that there's a message in lights above the mosque. We were told that these were special messages displayed at night during Ramadan generally sharing parts of the Koran or reminding people to be good Muslims |
We were tired. So tired that we just grabbed the nearest taxi. While crossing back over Galata bridge, our driver got out to join a fight involving taxi drivers and a bus driver. We got back to Sultanahmet and stopped at pretty much the first restaurant that attempted to get us in their doors. All the restaurants in the neighborhood were similar in options, price, and service and you really couldn't go wrong with any of them. Part 2 will come later!
Comments
Post a Comment