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Published: December 31st 2006
We arrived in Istanbul in early morning and were dropped somewhere in the biggest bus station I've ever seen, and the most confusing. There's no central schedule, there are about 180 companies, all with their own offices and schedule and no one share the information. Crazy. We had some general direction to the hostel we wanted to go to but no guidebook. It was too early for money changing but we eventually found a cornerstore guy who was willing to exchange some euros. We eventually found the way through 2 metro ride to Sultanahmet, the tourist district of Istanbul. We found the hostel which we had been told was good but it was full so we opted for the Big Apple, another one just in front.
Istanbul, the city at the junction of 2 continent. The city is built on the Bosphorous, the tiny water link between the Mediteranean and the Black Sea. Part of the city is in Europe and the other is in Asia and in a bizarre twist of fate, the historical heart of the sultan's city is in Europe while Asia is a endless boring suburb.
The city was built first by the emperor Constantine
Nobody allowed to be in sight of the Pope
Police kicking people who attempted to get too close to the place where the Pope was visiting.(hence the name Constantinople) in the early 4th century and remained under Roman hands more or under Roman hands (first the Roman Empire, then the Byzantine Romans) until 1455 when the Ottomans turks finally conquered the city. For nearly 500 years afterwards, the city was the heart of the Ottoman empire, ruling from Algeria to Iraq and from Hungary to Yemen. It was an extremely powerful empire until the 17th century where it became weaker and weaker until it became so weak in the 19th century that the european powers called it "the Sick Man of Europe" (probably in a very early position for the inclusion of Turkey in the EU). It was a problem because Russia was eating it away and England and France were scared it would become too powerful so they kept the empire alive until the end of WW1 where they separated it among the allies.
But a turk wouldn't have any of it: Mustafa Kemal. He had made a name for himself massacring the aussie and kiwis who had tried to take the Dardanelles at Gallipoli when everybody thought Turkey was doomed. This time he decided to gather his army in the heartland and
The crazy brothers
3 crazy turks that had just opened a shop and managed to sell something to Mic even though he had no intention of buying anything. kick the greek who had a part of the peninsula. He won the war quite easily and kicked all the greeks out of the country, literaly. There was huge population exchange between Greece and Turkey so that no turks would remain in Greece and no greeks in Turkey.
But Kemal had bigger plans, he wanted to "cure" Turkey of it's backwardness so he made sweeping changes to europeanize it. He imposed secularism, changed the alphabet to a latin one, changed the government to something more similar to democracy, banned headscarf and united the country with the US politically. He moved the capital from Istanbul to Ankara to signal a total change from the era of sultans. He is seen today as the father of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk (the father of turks). He managed to make the transition from Empire of the muslim world to turkey in a way that makes turks proud, or at least feel they didn't lose face. But he also insisted on everyone being turk in Turkey, which left no room for other minorities such as the kurds and led to resentment.
Nowadays Turkey is moving toward more islamic governments, albeit islamism in Turkey
Taksim square
Center of Istanbul is more like the right to wear headscarf and is nowhere near as radical as islamists in Yemen or Afghanistan. Indeed the current government is islamist and they're still trying to join the EU, albeit no one in Turkey really believes that they'll ever be accepted anymore.
I had a few objectives in Istanbul but the first one was to get my syrian visa. It was a Sunday so not a very good day to do that since no embsasy was open so I decided to give myself a day off. My second goal was to score a Middle East guidebook, hopefully second-hand. I spent a while going around second-hand bookstore, or hostel bookshelfs but didn't find anything. I was a bit angry but not surprised so decided to fork up the 40$ and buy it at one of the expansive bookshop. I was too lazy to go there so figured I'd wait another day.
For those who might remember Istanbul of another time, the new metropolis is firmly in the 21st century. The place could be easily mistaken for any other european capital were it not for the minaret and the frequent call to prayer. McDonald is
Istikal street
The heart of Istanbul. Amazing place. on almost every corner and most people look very western. In fact I was told repeatadly that I looked turk. I even had an old babushka ask me for direction in turkish. In one way it is very different from europe: people try to rip you off. They have no shame in overcharging you for everything so you always have to be on your guard and know the price of stuff.
During the evening we asked the guy at the hostel where to get good kebab and after we had brought one from the street stall he showed us, which was quite good it must be said, Amelie came in the hostel and said hi. Amelie was that french canadian girl I met in Athens and who recognized my french-canadianness without even hearing me speak. I hadn't expected to see her here so I was happy to catch up with what had happened. After Athens she had been in the Greek Islands which she didn't like so she decided to go to Istanbul and she had been here for a week and a half and she was loving it.
She had to go as she had someone to
Istikal street 2
The old embassies are on this street for when Istanbul used to be the capital of the Ottomans. meet so me and Mic decided to hit the pubs nearby. After a very elaborate decision making scheme to decide in which bar we'd ended up, we ended up in the one with the cheapest beer which turns out to be Sultan hostel's pub. Soon enough we joined a irish girl who had her Powerbook with her (it reminded me of my own, so far away now 😞 ) and an ozie guy. Within minutes of starting to talk to them, I mentioned I was gonna be heading south toward Syria. The irish girl said: you want a Middle East guidebook? Of course! After spending half the day looking for it, there it was! Sometimes it pays to drink! I thanked her profusely and she gave me the guidebook! We drank and had fun the remaining of the night, so much that Mic and I decided to move here the next day.
After having the free included breakfast at our hostel we moved to Sultan, after which I immediately tried to reach the Syrian embassy. It was hard to find the place but I eventually managed to get there, but 15 minutes too late. In the end it was
no problem because I needed to get a letter of recommendation from my consulate. I knew that they might ask for it but figured I could try to sweettalk my way in. No chance.
I managed to realize that my embassy was in Taksim, the "real" center of Istanbul. I walked all the way there, stopping at a cafe on the way. I left the cafe without paying for my cai! I didn't realize it until 30 minutes lates. I just left, and didn't pay! I tried to rationalize it by saying that I had been stolen by a bunch of turks already but it didn't work, I still felt guilty... Just not enough to walk 30 minutes back and forth to spend 30 euro cents.
I walked around Taksim and ate in a small alley before getting my letter of recommandation from the friendly lady at the Canadian Consulate. Took 10 minutes and a little sermon on how I should be careful with my passport. I walked all the way back to the hostel, hanging out with the people fishing on the Galata bridge on the way and shopping a bit in the Spice Market. I ended
Men fishing
Theyre fishing there all day. up getting lost in the Spice Market and ended up in the Grand Bazaar but eventually found my way back to the guesthouse. I also went to see the Blue Mosque and Haghia Sophia. Haghia Sophia used to be the seat of the Greek Orthodox Church but was converted to a Mosque by the Ottomans when they conquered the city and finally to a museum by Ataturk. Had a beer with Amelie to catch up on what had happened and then relaxed in the hostel's pub before heading to bed.
The next day I was up early to the Syrian embassy. Everything went pretty well considering Syria's ranking on corruption scale. We were told to come back in the afternoon. I didn't do much in the few hours I had to wait before I had to pick up my passport, I just found an internet cafe and had some kebab. I went at 3PM but of course they just started ending passport an hour later, but all was well in the end.
I befriended the 2 other foreigners who were there, a british guy cycling to Egypt and a slovenian guy walking from Slovenia to Jerusalem with absolutely
A little mosque
By world standard this mosque is huge and magnificient. In Istanbul it hardly deserve the name mosque. no money, except what he managed to get by selling a gold chain, and that's only for visa. We decided to go chat over tea and swapped stories. That slovenian guy had to be the most hardcore traveller I've ever seen. He went in Iraq in 1991 just before they invaded Kuwait, but didn't make it past the border post. Military men arrived and kicked him out of the country before he had the chance to do so. He didn't know why and only realized it after he got back in Turkey. And now on this trip he had some pretty crazy story about squatting in house that looked deserted but they weren't always so.
Before heading back to the hostel I decided to copy my pictures to a CD. When I was in the shop that was doing it, I realized that the sky was all pink and orange. I told the guy to hurry up and paid and then ran toward the Blue Mosque to get a few shots. Omg I don't think my pictures showed how magnificient it was. Wow is all I can say. I had never seen a sky like this, except maybe in
El Nido, Palawan in the beginning of my trip.
The next day I decided to go see Topkapi palace with Mic and Amelie. This was the palace of the Ottoman Sultan for several hundred years, as well as where the harem was. Unfortunately it is quite expansive to go there (as are all tourist site in Turkey) and harem required an extra so we decided not to go there. Topkapi was lovely, it is no grand palace but is full of little rooms with superb ornementation. It was really all lovely. There was also a "weapon room" which Mic and I found totally awesome. They had amazing weapons from all the countries around and some of the best of the turks. Cool stuff. Amelie stayed in the room around 15 seconds and greeted us with a "You guys!" when we emerged 20 minutes later.
After Topkapi we decided to go have a meal in a little amazingly cheap and good restaurant that only Amelie knew where to find. So good. You should go there if you visit Istanbul. I have no idea how to find it though. After the meal, Mic and I decided to go to Asia,
for no good reason. So we went in the harbour and took a ferry to Asia. We walked around, ate some baklava in a cafe and headed back to Europe. It was so crazy to walk in Asia Istanbul, it felt like Tokyo (well, not really, but was still a fun walk).
The people at the guesthouse decided to go out that night so we went somewhere in Taksim with quite a few people I had befriended in the last few days. Amelie didn't come as she had other people to meet. The nightlife was alright but we always had to be weary of those ripoff club with natashas (russian prostitute) where lots of people get ripped off out of several hundred euros (basically forced to pay or beat up).
We ended up spending the majority of the night in a Irish pub and had quite a good time.
Next day the pope was visiting the city and I had decided to stay just to look and hope for trouble. They basically baricaded the whole area of Haghia Sophia/Blue Mosque off for mr B and no one was allowed to go anywhere close. Apparently from what I
saw on TV there were some protest but I didn't see any. The police kicked the people a bit farther away but aside from that it was calm.
When I was walking randomly in the street, I heard Mic calling from a side alley. I saw him stuck in a carpet shop because he was too nice to say no and leave, and the carpetsalesman seeing his weakness kept the attacks coming: "But we just opened this shop, you are first customer, you need to buy because it means good luck, if you don't we'll be unlucky forever", "Oh I love England", "Think about your parents back home", "This carpet is worth 1000YTL but I'll sell it to you for friend's price! 950!!!" and the most surprising line, "I fucked your sister" (he did actually say that, in a humorous kinda way). Eventually the 2 other brothers joined in the fray and after more than an hour of good-humoured conversation and several teas later, Mic bought some little cushion cover. Anyway I loved these guys I thought they were a blast, especially after I made it clear that I wasn't interested.
There was an interesting encouter in the
Blue Mosque
Plus a bird! side alley also later in the day. I saw Amelie talking to a turkish man and when I got nearer she started calling for help subtily. I stuck around until the turkish man gave me the evil eye and then suddenly left, looking extremely angry. Apparently Amelie had a beer with him because she was introduced to him through some turkish man she knew. After a beer together he thought they were gonna get married and was started to get highly jealous whenever she talked to anyone else and had warned her that he might get violent... Well I'm glad he didn't. Anyway I told her she should just make it clear to the man who had introduced him to her that she didn't want to talk to him.
After saying goodbye to everyone, I made my way to the bus station and hopped on a bus to Selcuk, the little city close to Ephesus, the best preserved roman city in asia.
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Helene V
non-member comment
Bonne annee
Coucou victor, ca faisait longtemps que je n'ai pas visite ton blog, j'arrive pas a croire que tu sois deja en Europe!! j'adore tes photos!! Amuse toi bien en Europe et prends bien soin de toi. Fais moi signe quand tu reviens a MTL. A bientot.