Birnici Gun

---

---

Pronounced Beer-in-chee Goon – Translation : First Day
I landed in Istanbul at 6:00 am local time after 23 hours of travel from Brisbane, with very little sleep (but that’s the price you pay for a cheap ticket!). After disembarking I went to find the Visa counter in which to buy my Turkish Visa. When I was researching for my trip I learned that only Australia and Turkey needed Visa’s from US citizens traveling there, I had also read about how to send off for Visa’s and that you needed to apply for with enough time so the Visa can get processed and you can have your passport back before you leave. I looked into the Australian one and found out that it was all done electronically and I didn’t need to send anything anywhere! (Yay one down, one to go.) I started filling out all the paperwork for the Turkish Visa and got all the way to the end and the website told me that it would be $160 USD to process it and get it back to me, What?! I thought that there had to be a better and less expensive way to do this, so (luckily!) I went to the US governments website on travel information and I looked up travel info to Turkey (what I should have done in the first place) and they told me that all I needed to do was show up after disembarking the plane in Turkey and pay $20 USD and they would give me a Visa on the spot. Too easy! (I wonder how many people pay the $160 unknowingly) And yes as I was walking through the airport there was a clear as day sign saying Visa’s this way and I went to the counter (there wasn’t anyone in line) and pulled out my twenty dollar bill and they put a stamp in my passport, it took about 30 seconds (it would have taken less time, but they were all confused as to why I had so many names). After standing in line for “customs” (I say this because you don’t have to fill out a form, your bags are not checked, and in the “anything to declare” line the 3 guards look like you would seriously be disturbing the good conversation they have going on between themselves if you went up to them) and as I was waiting there I heard my name come over the loud speaker to go to information. Hmmmm, so I get out of line and go up to one of the attendants who was just standing there and I told him that my name was called, he motions over to a guard who looks like he doesn’t want to be bothered (and he didn’t) after trying to explain myself the guard gets fed up and just takes out his stamp and stamps my passport and I am through! I grab my bag (which when I put it on the plane it was in a mesh bag to keep all the straps intact, and now the mesh netting is gone ) and I walk out and find Dad waiting for me!
It was so nice to see a familiar face, I walked around the rope and gave Dad a big hug! Dad had done a lot of research on Turkey with where we were staying and what we were going to do. Istanbul has changed a lot since Dad was here 17 years ago and a lot of things are much better. Overall he says the city is much cleaner and the amount of public transportation is wonderful. Gone are the days where you had to take a taxi, now you can take the tram, a bus, or the metro!
Our hotel is in the Sultanhament district of Istanbul, it is the Old city and it is mainly made up of hotels and restaurants now. These tall buildings line the narrow cobble stone streets where one way streets aren’t always one way in the Turks mind and we have seen plenty a showdown on who is going to be the one to back their car up. The streets wind their way through Sultanhament and Dad and I have gotten lost many times finding our room, but if you just keep on walking you eventually make your way to where you want to go, but in the end not knowing how you got there. I have talked about my severe lacking in the sense of direction department, well I get it from my Dad! So for the most part we kind of know where we want to go, but no idea how to get there so we just start walking and eventually we make it! Dad actually went to go buy a map of Istanbul but then trashed the idea because getting lost was fun!
I say we get lost going to our room because our room is not attached to the main hotel itself, The Apricot Hotel, rather it is tucked away about a quarter mile from the main hotel (well most days it’s a quarter mile walk, but there have been a few where” oh my! What way did we go to get us here so fast?!”, so I guess its really not that far, we just don’t know where we are going) through the very narrow, windy, cobble stone roads, which by the way it is a real danger to be hit by cars here, as it happens all the time! (luckily you can only get up to about 25mpg on these streets)
So back to the first day – we make our way to our room, which is tucked away at the end of a street (they aren’t big on signs) and it is a lovely room that is simple yet very functional, with a nice balcony that faces the water. Also the train is right outside our balcony, this might bother some people but Dad and I find it quite soothing (Dad finds it soothing most of the time, one night he fell asleep out on the balcony and after dodging cars all day your senses get quite attuned to hearing thing come up behind you, so as he was falling asleep the train went by and he thought something was out to get him and he almost fell out of his chair!) I set all my stuff down and say ok what are going to do today? Dad was hesitant when planning the first day since he didn’t know how I would be feeling with the time difference and flying for so long, but I was here and I couldn’t let myself go to sleep until later so he suggested we go to the Topkapi Palace.
So I changed out of my grubby clothes because I knew Dad was going to be taking a lot of pictures and that he likes people to be in them and since I am the only one around I am the lucky chosen one!
But first we stop at the main hotel for breakfast (that starts at 8, so we had about an hour to kill after we got to our room) and boy I can die happy now. This is the best breakfast ever. Everything is fresh, local, and made by some old guy or two down the road. The Turkish yogurt, fresh comb honey, rose hip jelly, feta cheese, tomato, cucumber, olives and more olives, hazelnut butter (watch out nutella!) dried persimmons, dried figs, fresh squeezed orange juice, all the cay (tea) and coffee you could want, aaannndddd bananas (ok ok, maybe not everyone is excited about this as me but it’s a big deal when you haven’t had them in a while). It’s just a magnificent spread of colors and flavors and it is one of my favorite parts of the day, I literally wake up and do a countdown until we can leave (on hour 2 min to 10 min walk – maybe we should get that map . .) for breakfast.
I meet Lynn, the part owner of the hotel and she is so sweet and welcoming I look forward to seeing her and chatting with her over breakfast each morning and telling her what we did the day before and what is on our agenda for the day. As well as the staff in the hotel, what service! I have never been waited on that attentively in my life, and they are all so nice and gracious, they make the experience that much better (there is one gal, I believe her name is Ayse, she is so sweet and she gets us our coffee and cay every morning and sets it on one of the tables for us as soon as we get there, she remembers what we like and is just so sweet, I wish I spoke more Turkish so I could talk to her, but for now I settle with my limited vocabulary of yes, no, thank you, please, your welcome, and Dad has bad gas problems so that stench you are smelling is him (ok you got me, I don’t know that last one but it would be handy since I know he is talking about me to the Turkish people and I don’t know what he is saying!) ).
We finish breakfast and head to the Topkapi Palace which is the palace in the administrative center for the Ottoman Emperors for over 400 years. They now showcase a lot of the period dress pieces as well as a wealth of jewels from mother of pearl inlay’s, to rubies, to emeralds, and the biggest diamonds you have ever seen! From head dresses, to tea cups, everything was adorned with at least 2 of the items listed above. We saw 2 candle sticks that were made of gold that weighed almost 100lbs and stood about 6 feet tall. Of course everything is behind glass now, but 17 years ago this stuff was sitting in the middle of the room with only ropes to keep people away. We went into a room that showcased all of the religious relics and there we got to see Moses’s staff . . . . . really?! Moses’s staff . . . . it’s not disintegrated? Or old looking at all . . . .. . hmmmm . . . and it kind of looks like some bloke took a stick and polyurethaned it a put it up there. I am going with the last idea. They also had Josephs turban (are we talking about the same religious icon Joseph, because this turban looks brand new and doesn’t have a stain on it or anything . . hmmmm) So in a Palace full of old things that are indeed old, these two thing popped out at Dad and I (as we like to say) “not so much.” So now the running joke is Moses’s stick!
We also got to see the Harem where all of the concubines lived and it was a pretty nice joint back in the day. Overall with the buildings and the gardens the Palace was very beautiful and well worth the visit (even if I was running on fumes).
We then headed to the Archaeological Museum, I had last been here when I was 5 years old and Dad took a picture of me standing in front of a statue of a lion back then, and we got another picture 20 years later in front of the same lion! We saw a lot of old statues, carvings, pottery, and Alexander the Great’s Sarcophagus, there is no end to the amount of old stuff in Istanbul!
Once we left we saw street vendors selling Nar Suyu (Pomegranate juice) and this is as fresh as it gets, they cut the pomegranate in half then placed in on a press and squeeze the juice out of it, strain it and that was that! No water, sugar, or anything added. We also had a smit (Turkish bread ring). We then walked back to the hotel room and got back at 4:30, Dad had said earlier that I was doing really well, and I told him that once I stop I am done, so as long as we keep going I am good, well 4:30 we had stopped and I was kidding myself when I told Dad that all I needed was a half hour nap and I would be good to go. HA! I went to sleep and the next thing I remember is this strange man standing over me, I am in a strange place, and I can’t even think of my own name, this man asks me if I want to sleep for a little longer and yes I do. I then wake up the next morning at 4:30 am (slept 12 hours) and remembered how disoriented I felt when Dad tried to wake me up. I felt so much better after sleeping and I had figured it out that I was basically up for 34 hours before I crashed at 4:30 pm. Dad told me the next morning that he could tell no one was at the wheel when he tried to wake me. All in all it was a great first day and it only gets better! We have been going non-stop since we got in and I absolutely love Istanbul and the people here, I have a lot to report so stay tuned!
B

---

Photos

The streets of Sultanhamet
Watch out for cars!

At the Archalogical Museum
Thats one huge statue!

An ancient plunger
haha, no, but it sure does look like one!

Comments

[Marcus Diehl]

Totally Jealous
All I can say is that I'm totally jealous and wish I was there.