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Published: January 2nd 2008
The view from the breakfast terrace
That's the Blue Mosque in the background!We sang that song the entire trip so I thought it would be a fitting title for this entry 😊 Sorry it's taken SOOOO long for me to post this! Between my new job and the holidays there hasn't been much time for blogging...but I'm getting caught up now 😊
So we were very excited about our Istanbul trip but even after reading about it in preparation for the trip, we still didn't expect what we found there. First of all, let me start by pointing out that part of Istanbul is actually in Europe while the other half is in Asia. Even so, we (for some reason) were expecting it to be much more like Morocco was (even though Morocco is in Africa) than a large European city (maybe because Turkey is 98% Muslim and Morocco is Muslim as well?). Istanbul is NOTHING like Morocco. It's like a regular big city, with skyscrapers and high-end shops but with the old town having mosques built in 500 A.D. and little privately owned stores. We stayed in the old part of the city, which is called Sultahnamet, in the Nena Hotel. The hotel was 63 Euros per night, included breakfast buffet,
transportation to and from the airport, and was only a few minutes walk from the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, the Grand Bazaar, and the Palace. Matt says I totally outdid myself on this hotel 😊 What was really cool is that they guy that came to pick us up at the hotel had a little sign with my name on it when we made it through Customs!
We left on November 9th early in the morning flying out of Stuttgart via Swiss Air (which is an awesome airline by the way). We had a layover in Zurich, which meant Matt had to buy a t-shirt in the airport with the Swiss flag on it. We went with one other couple, Egan and Erin (two of the people that we went to Morocco with) and ended up meeting up with a friend of theirs (Brian) once we got there. The first day we spent walking around familiarizing ourselves with the city. We also went to the Blue Mosque which was my first time in a Mosque. We had to take off our shoes before going in and they had a bin full of plastic bags with handles to put your
shoes in so you could carry them around. That was really the only thing they enforced. It's considered a sign of respect for women to cover their heads when they enter the mosque and Erin and I both had brought scarves with us for this purpose. It really made me mad to see how many women didn't cover their heads though. This is someone else's place of worship...we expect others to respect our place of worship and they shouldn't expect less, but that's my opinion. Anyways, the mosque itself was amazing with the sheer size of it and all of the details painted on the walls.
We found a cool little hookah backpacker's bar where we sat and hung out for a while. They had pillows on the floor for seating and we had a great time sitting and talking and meeting some of the other people coming through. One of the guys that worked at the backpacker's bar recommended that we go to a restaurant called Doy Doy for good, cheap, traditional Turkish food for dinner (this restaurant is also listed in my Rick Steves Istanbul book). The food was okay...not the greatest but I'm not sure if
Matt in the Blue Mosque
Look at the details in the ceiling and column paintings! it's because we don't like Turkish food or if we just didn't like their food. Our server was really nice though and he had a really sweet five year old daughter that was fascinated with us and kept coming over. I pulled out my Turkish phrase book and somehow managed to ask her how old she was and a few other questions. Later that night after dinner we went to the new part of the city (still on the European side) to Taksim square and spent most of the night at a jazz club chatting and making friends. I had a very interesting (and very political by the end of it) conversation with a Major in the Netherlands Navy who was sitting at the table next to us.
Saturday, November 10 Egan, Erin, and Brian all slept in but Matt and I got up in time to eat the really great, and free, breakfast buffet on the top floor of the hotel. The view from up there was gorgeous! Then, because they still weren't up, Matt and I went to a little nearby bazaar and looked around. We saw a fantastic chess table that they wanted way too much
money for but Matt really had his heart set on (we found it later in the trip for about $1000 less though!). We picked up a few other things as well and sat in a rug shop and drank tea while we learned how Turkish rugs are made. I'm sure that the salesman was hoping we'd buy one but the break from the rain (have I mentioned the terrible weather?), the hot tea, and all the great information was enough for us. We've been spoiled on Moroccan rugs...they cost SO much less than Turkish rugs!
So the sleepyheads finally woke up and got moving and we spent the day walking around. We saw the underground cistern, which was built in the sixth century A.D. and used as the water reserve for the city of Istanbul. There are 336 columns and most of those columns are recycled from other structures so it was really interesting to see the different designs on them all. There are also two Medusa heads that apparently were just the right height and are used as column bases. My guide book talks about them being put in the very back of the cistern (and under all
that water) because the Christians were the ones that put them there and did it as an insult to the Romans and their gods. There's no way to know if that's true or not but it certainly was a nice little form of revenge 😊 It used to hold 27 million gallons of water but today only has a foot or so along the bottom with fish and various coins in it. It was absolutely amazing to walk through.
We also strolled through the grounds of the Topkapı Palace (pronounced top-kop-uh) and have a million pictures of the Hagia Sophia. The Hagia Sophia was originally built as a Byzantine church in the first century A.D. and remained a church until 1453 when the Ottomans conquered Constantinople and Sultan Mehmed II turned it into a mosque. It remained a mosque until 1935 when it was turned into a museum diplays both Islamic and Christian artifacts. According to my guidebook, it's the first building to have been built with a domed ceiling. So, all those mosques with domes are actually copying a church!
Saturday evening was cold and rainy and, since it was closed on Sunday, we went to the
Asking for directions
Egan and Brian asking for directions from a really nice Turkish man. He invited us for tea afterwards :) Grand Bazaar and did some shopping. Wow! This is apparently on of the world's first shopping malls, with over 4,000 shops inside. It's literally a maze so if you think you're just going to "run in" think again! The Grand Bazaar didn't have the high pressure sales that Morocco did. There, if you even looked at at item the store owner pounced. Here you're welcome to look and they just make sure you know that they're there and willing to bargain if you're interested in something they have. But, if you're interested, be prepared to bargain! Matt and I spent some time in a rug shop and it became pretty heated. We somehow managed to walk out of there without spending $1500 on a rug...I'm still not sure how lol. We did buy that chess table that I mentioned earlier though and for about $1000 less than what we had seen it for at the smaller bazaar!
After heading back to the hotel we made arrangements for all of us to visit a hamam...a Turkish bath. We went to the Suleymaniye Bath, which was built for Sultan Suleyman. It's the only mixed bath in Istanbul, which means there are
The Underground Cistern (Yerebatan Sarayi)
It's amazing how beautiful it is for something that no one ever got to see. no separate sections for men and women like in other hamams. You're given shorts (like boxer shorts) and towels that are more like sarongs and the women are given bikini tops. Everyone wears sandals. You're first led into a large room with a huge slab of marble in the center. There are sinks off on the sides of the room with metal bowls to dump water over yourself. You wet yourself down and lay down on the marble slab (which is heated) and hang out for a while. I got up several times to cool myself down with some water from the sinks.
For dinner...we couldn't resist...we ate at Dominos Pizza! Normally I would totally be against this since we can eat American food any time but we hadn't had, or even seen, Dominos Pizza since leaving the States in April so we gave in and had some. Wow was it good! The pizza tasted the same but the breadsticks and cinnasticks weren't great. We didn't care though...we ate all of it.
Have I mentioned the stray cats and dogs yet? I don't think I have. Istanbul has a serious stray problem but it was very interesting to
The Medusa Head
Matt and I posing in front of one of the Medusa heads used to hold up a cistern column see how the Turkish people treated these animals that wandered their streets. Many of the dogs had tags in their ears which I later learned meant that they had been spayed or neutered and re-released back into the city. You saw many citizens feeding the cats and dogs or stopping to pet them. They were also very watchful when we approached any of the animals. I'm sure they just wanted to make sure that the strange foreigners weren't going to hurt them. One of the five pillars of Islam requires Muslims to be kind and helpful to travelers, homeless, and the poor...I guess the dogs and cats fit in as poor and homeless in their eyes. As for being helpful to travelers, boy were they! Everyone was extremely friendly and hospitable and we were invited for tea more times than we can count. It's apparently part of their culture to invite others for tea. You're offered tea (either apple...yum!...or Moroccan tea, which is more like a strong Earl Grey) in the shops, especially the rug shops, and we were invited for tea by a man that we stopped to ask directions from too 😊
Sunday, November 11 Sunday
we tried to find the Spice Market and discovered once we got down there and found the location that it's closed on Sundays. We did walk through some of the back streets though and found a wonderful little string of shops that normal people (not just tourists) shopped at. Egan bought some great fresh roasted pistachios and we snacked on those for the afternoon. We walked down to the pier and decided to take the ferry boat (which was really cheap, by the way) over the Asia side. It was a very spur-of-the-moment decision and once we got over to Asia we discovered that if we wanted things to do and see we were at the wrong port! So we had some tea to warm up and then took the ferry back to the other side. We found a great restaurant on the water and it looked warm and not too expensive so we stopped there for dinner. They were absolutely wonderful! They brought out a huge platter of every appetizer they offered and we picked from the platter what we wanted. Then they brought out our dinner. Since we were right on the water the majority of what was
Grand Bazaar
Mandi and Erin in the Grand Bazaar on the menu was seafood. Erin ordered a baked fish but didn't want the bones so the server deboned it for her when it came to the table! There was a band playing traditional Turkish music and some of the ladies would get up and dance next to their tables. It was really wonderful. Today was also Brian's birthday and we managed to ask for a cake for him without him knowing. When they brought out the cake they turned out all the lights in the restaurant and brought the cake with the candles lit to the table. The band, which had been singing in Turkish all night, sang Happy Birthday in English (which really surprised me!) and everyone clapped when Brian blew out his candles.
Monday, November 12 Today was the day to leave, unfortunately. We passed many travel offices during our walks around Istanbul and many of them advertised other places to go in Turkey...and all of them looked like great trips so I know we'll be back. Our hotel dropped us off at the airport with plenty of time to spare and we went through 3 (yes, THREE!) security checks before we could actually get
on our plane. We felt very safe. Also, we found a gorgeous Turkish tea set in the airport gift shop that we decided to get as a birthday present for a friend of ours but it was a little bit more than we wanted to spend. Turns out you can bargain for prices even in the airport so we were able to get the price down to about where we wanted it. I'm sure they still made a killing but at least we were able to save some money.
Matt and I felt so comfortable traveling here we could definitely do this again just the two of us or I would even feel completely safe traveling by myself here. Unlike Morocco, a woman could totally come here and feel just as safe as in any other large European city.
What a wonderful experience this was!
By the way, make sure you check out the video that I loaded. It's hard to hear everything perfectly because it was taken outside and we were walking, but it's the call to prayer. You can at least hear how loud it is 😊
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