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Published: November 21st 2009
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Merhaba (good morning) from ISTANBUL, Turkey !
We are in Istanbul, the gateway between Europe and Asia…the only CITY in the world spanning 2 continents…no wonder it’s a place of such extreme contrasts---- the ancient and the modern; the secular and the religious; the mystery of the dark and the splendour of the light......As you can tell, on our second visit to this fascinating place, I am still captivated.
We arrived on a beautiful Sunday morning to perfect glorious weather ….crisp, sunny and clear for our easy landing.
No airport issues and arrived at the W Hotel to find our room ready and waiting. (what a pleasant surprise)
We dropped the luggage and ventured out for our first delightful day.
Having visited the major sites last time, we decided to take a leisurely Sunday stroll to find much of Istanbul’s 17 million people also out enjoying weekend activities. Strolling on the main boulevards in our area, we drank in the sights and sounds of the city…families on lunch outings; couples walking arm in arm; lots of cats (well fed and robust, since feeding strays is a common activity of the residents) ; stylishly attired ginger-haired 20 year olds,
(still a popular hair colour here) . Most older women, as well as many girls wear the head scarf covering (known here as a “Turban”---emphasis on the last syllable).
Lots of smoking everywhere .
But, …stop right here a moment….If you enjoy hearing about little historical details, please carry on reading….if not, just skip to the personal comments and the pictures….(don’t say I didn’t warn you….I’ve been known to ramble before )
We first visited the small but jewel like “Yildiz Palace”. Now a museum, the four buildings, set in a magnificent park, were constructed in the 1600’s by Sultan Ahmed the First, and continuously occupied by the royal families until the mid 1900’s, ( even after formation of the Republic of Turkey) .
The last Sultan had a love of furniture, and employed 60 furniture artisans in a “factory” at the palace. (Somewhat like the Braemore Furniture days on Ossington Ave.???) Quite a treat for Harvey to enjoy the examples of the wood carving methods.
BTW this Sultan also had a slew of porcelain artisans too, so the palace contained a most impressive collection of porcelain treasures as well.
Lots of wars
and conquerors in Turkey, from the Greeks to the Romans to the Crusaders to the Ottomans to practically every dynasty throughout the long history of Istanbul….formerly called Byzantium ------(named after King Byzos, whose mythological father was Poseidon, god of the sea). Then along came the Emperor Constantine in 325 A.D., who renamed the city Constantinople. His reign was responsible for the vast 6500 metre long city walls surrounding the old city, well preserved and restored--- very imposing.
A Military Museum was built to describe and commemorate all of these wars, On a recommendation from the hotel concierge, we were fortunate to visit this museum during a Concert Presentation…..An authentic original forerunner of the renowned musical “Call to Battle “. While seated in a tiered auditorium, (which opened by means of a sliding door, to an outside park), we were regaled with the sights and sounds of quite a spectacle. Lots of pageantry with the resplendent costumed standard bearers, alongside musicians playing drums, horns, cymbals, and bells, as well as a “chanters” singing and calling out the beat for the battle call, provided quite a show. In present day, formal musical presentations are performed during special holidays such as Ramadan.
This musical Battle Call, employing exactly 24 sounds, is known as a Mehfter (and kinda sounds like a Shabbat “Maftir” but without the Torah and the Bimah). This unique sound was so powerful, that it apparently influenced Russian, French, Polish, British, Austrian and American Military Bands as well as the later works of Beethoven and Mozart. ….who knew?. And……because the horse was considered the most precious and useful animal, the battle standards were decorated with horse tails, I suppose, taken from the poor animals bravely fallen in battle.
Enough history for day one….don’t want to bore you with just the first blog entry.
We returned to the hotel around 5:30pm. What a great little gem. An edgy, small boutique hotel, it’s well located on a trendy little shopping street, (think Yorkville Ave in Toronto) with a view of the Bosphorous River. It has all the clever little “W” hotel touches, where an opportunity to play on the letter W is never missed. Example-----the concierge desk is called “Whatever, Whenever”, and the reception desk is “Welcome” and the giveaways are called “Whisk me away “…etc etc,….. all terribly cute. Best of all, the amenities box is filled with Bliss
(NY) Spa products….The appointments are all modern/trendy, but the décor has nicely captured a definite Turkish flavour (see the pix).
Dinner was at the “W Kitchen” (formerly known as the Spice Market -thanks Pauline !) , conveniently located in our hotel. Being a Jean Georges restaurant, it was fabulous.
Afterward we enjoyed an evening walk and window-shopped the trendy boutiques, and then surrendered to a bit of jet lag.
Next morning, we enjoyed our breakfast at a nearby café. (Italian—with the yummiest aromatic coffee), then continued our sightseeing on a double-decker bus, which toured all the important city sites…..the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia Museum, The Basilica Cisterns (very cool underground old Roman water system), Dolmbahce (pron. dolmbachee) Palace and Mosque (close to our hotel on this trip), the Archeology Museum, Suleyman Mosque, Galata Bridge, etc, etc.. Most impressive were the well-restored ancient as well as the more recent Ottoman era sites.
But, of course no city is complete without a shopping experience, so off we went to the famous Grand Bazaar with our Turkish Lira in hand, in search of treasures. Managed to find a few baubles (thanks to Aimee , Fran K. and
Sharon L.L. ). As I enjoyed one of my favourite activities, Harvey was a very patient shopper/waiter for at least an hour.
Then back to the hotel and out for dinner at a yummy seafood restaurant called Parc Fora. Great find, situated on a pretty park right on the Boshorous River, serving freshly caught seafood…(and with three fishing coastlines here in Istanbul, the fish was very fresh !)
Alas, only one more day in Istanbul (time has flown by in an instant). We did a little more sightseeing, starting in Taksim Square, the main transportation hub of the city, as we enjoyed comparing the many types of architecture in this modern/ancient city—Roman, Ottoman, Byzantine to Victorian, with a little Art Deco thrown in too !
Ending with a visit to the restored small Synagogue in the Ortakoy area (we went to the larger one last time ), it was time to head to our ship.
So….I’ve gone on at great length and will leave you here.
"Mersi" (thanks in Arabic) for reading. You are receiving these transmissions ‘cause we thought you might be interested in following our RTW experience. (which as we mentioned in our last
transmission, we now refer to as the “Noah” Voyage---forty days and forty nights on the boat and 10 days on dry land)
But just pick and choose what you’d like to read, as we send you the links,…. and we won’t mind if you don’t read it all !)
Hope all is well with you. Let us know if you are receiving the email notice of the blog.
“Gule- Gule” for now !
PS...Keep scrolling---- there are 4 more pages of pictures to view
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