Not Constantinople

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Tuesday 4-12
Fly Cape Town to Jo’burg, to Abu Dhabi, to Istanbul in 24 hours. A VERY long day of flying, sitting, eating airline food and having to sit next to some very smelly people. At least it gives me some time to work on the blog, right? ;o)

Wednesday 4-13 to Tuesday 4-19
I love Turkey! And not just the poultry kind! We arrived in Istanbul and were immediately smitten with the city. It’s cool to think that we’re straddling both Europe and Asia right now. Istanbul is really a beautiful city with tons of history and gorgeous architecture. Our first truly European city and it’s a welcomed sight. After driving around South Africa, moving from city to city, it’s nice to be in spot for a while to really get to know and enjoy the place. Since we’re nearing the homestretch now (only 6 more weeks to go!), we won’t be able to spend a lot of time in the different European countries. Whereas we spent weeks in other countries, visiting various cities to get a real feel for the country, we’ll now be hitting one major city in 8 different countries on a mad dash to the Atlantic. Not a bad thing; just a different phase of the trip. It should be good though, and so far Turkey has not disappointed!

The only down side so far has been the weather: cold and rainy, which we were not prepared for wardrobe wise. But we managed. In an effort to look nicer (i.e. not appear as if we just walked off a hiking trail), we went shopping for new clothes. Nick bought a whole new outfit and it was startling to see him in street clothes again! Ha, ha, ha. It was funny how much it took me aback to see him in normal clothes and not outfitted in hiking gear.

We found the place we’re staying at in Istanbul through a website called AirBnB.com (totally check it out if you’re looking for a nice alternative to expensive hotels the next time you travel). So we’re staying in a 3 bedroom apartment with two roommates who rent out their 3rd bedroom to travelers. It’s great to have our own room, access to a kitchen, full bathroom and a communal space just to hang out. Not to mention, it’s in a great location; we really lucked out with this place. Our roommates, Fatih and Pinar, have been awesome – truly generous and welcoming people. They took us for a personal tour through the streets of Istanbul (European side) to see the bazaars (beautiful textiles, mosaic glassware and spice shops everywhere – a real sight to see!) and visit an old medieval market square, now run down but with great views of the city from its rooftop.
We ended several evenings just hanging out in their kitchen, talking Turkish politics, watching a Champions League game and sharing a delicious Turkish meal. We even went speed walking along the Golden Horn one night – man, are we out of shape! We were very fortunate to have such amazing hosts.

Our first day in Istanbul was spent mostly shopping, which worked out well since (thanks to Rick Steves) we were armed with a historic walking tour right through the center of the shopping district. Nick commented that he could tell we were in Europe by all the people dressed in black ;o) The crowds in the shopping district were huge – a sea of stylishly dressed people, all decked out with cell phones and cigarettes. It sounds funny to comment on it, but after being in SE Asia for so long and in India and South Africa for almost a month, it takes you aback to see such a different style of affluent people. We also found time to stop for some famous Turkish delights; the walnut one is by far my favorite! Turks must LOVE their sweets because candy stores are everywhere and the window designs are deliciously beautiful. And I must say, rightly so – they Turkish sweets and pastries we had were amazing! Even the simple chocolate bar I shared with Pinar was out of this world (Agi, you HAVE to try some Turkish dark chocolate!).

We headed out the next day in horribly cold, rainy weather determined to make the most of it (sadly, Nick got a cold from it). We visited the Hagia Sophia, which was stunning! I had no idea how big it was! Apparently, the dome is so tall that the Statue of Liberty would fit inside it, as would the cathedral of Notre Dame. This place was huge! Built in 360 CE as a cathedral, then converted into a mosque in 1453, it was turned into a secular museum in the 1930s. The juxtaposition of ancient Christian art overlaid by medieval Islamic art was beautiful. Towering above the Islamic member are the remains of ancient Christian mosaics of Eastern European saints. The tiny painted tiles and detailed work of the mosaics was impressive. One of the mosaics was of a former king and queen of Constantinople (before it was Istanbul). The king, however, died and the queen, not wanting to lose her crown, just had her husband’s face in the mosaic changed to match the new husband. When this got to be too burdensome by the third husband, she just had the name above the mosaic changed instead of the face. Saves time. In her old age, though, I guess she felt the need to update her own mosaic and made had her face remade to look even younger. Must be nice to be queen!

We also visited two more historic mosques: the Blue Mosque (or Sultan Ahmed Mosque), so named for the beautiful blue tiles that cover the interior, and the Mosque of Süleyman the Magnificent. I had never been inside a mosque before visiting Turkey and they are beautiful. The mosques in Istanbul all had giant, low hanging chandeliers and richly decorated carpets. Most of them date back to the 16th century and the architecture is absolutely stunning, especially the way the domes and minarets tower over the city, creating a beautiful skyline.

We continued to seek out the remains of the Byzantine Empire by visiting ancient aqueducts (which here, seem to be no big deal, but to a tourist, seeing them just tower of the everyday traffic was mindboggling), the hippodrome and the various captured obelisks scattered around the city. We also went inside the Basilica Cistern, which was cool! No longer in use, this giant underground reservoir was built back in the 6th century and continued to supply the city’s water throughout the Ottoman Empire a millennia later. (Mom, you would recognize the place from the James Bond movie “From Russia with Love.”) Sadly, the water is only 6” deep now (no more cistern boat rides for tourists) but this gives you the opportunity to see some cool Medusa column bases that used to be completely underwater. Many of the stone columns were just reused ones pillaged from ancient buildings. Two of these columns have a base with Medusa’s head carved into them. No one really knows why or where they came from, but they look cool!

We experienced the more ‘modern’ Istanbul by visiting Topkapi Palace. Residence of the sultan, his harem and meeting place of the grand viziers and other political advisors during the Ottoman Empire, Topkapi Palace rivals the ornate fort palaces of Rajasthan in India – they were so opulent! The best part of the palace was the harem. I’m sure the hundreds of women that passed through those halls had a very hard, competitive and stressful life, but man did they have a stunningly beautiful place to spend that life! I could NOT get over how gorgeous and varied all of the Turkish tiles were; the walls were simply covered floor to ceiling in the most ornately designed and vibrantly colored tiles I have ever seen! And the stained windows only added to the grandeur! You’ll have to check out the Flickr set to really appreciate it (and realize how obsessed I was with the tiles). The palace also held a large collection of rare jewel encrusted artifacts and medieval weaponry, but the architecture and tile designs were bay far the most interesting thing there. There was also a mosque within the palace walls and a very important one for all the religious relics it held. Or rather presumed religious relics, because honestly, was this really the staff Moses used to part the Red Sea? Were those two strands of short black hair really Mohammed’s beard? Can they really prove Abraham used this cooking pot? They did have some old door locks from the Kabaa, which was cool to see.

We took in more Turkish culture by going to a traditional dance show with belly dancers, fire throwers, and sword fighting Caucasians! It was awesome and the live music was amazing (Tiffany, you would have LOVED it!). We also caught a sightseeing cruise up the Bosphorus Strait to see the Asian side of Istanbul and to get a glimpse of the Black Sea. We stopped in a small fishing village on the Asian side, Anadolu Kavagi, for lunch. We climbed up to Yoros Castle and took the requisite Europe vs. Asian photos ;o) Back on the European side, we treated ourselves to a break at a traditional Turkish tea house, where I tried Turkish coffee – key word being “tried.” That stuff is way too concentrated and bitter for me; after half a cup of milk and six packets of sugar, I still couldn’t appreciate it. We were able to appreciate the universal culture of soccer, though. We went to see a local Besitkas game and it was actually a really good game, even though it ended in a tie. Watching the local fans was a riot! They had two sections of fan clubs that didn’t stop singing and chanting the entire time and the stadium floor was littered with sunflower seeds (in US baseball it’s peanuts; in Turkish soccer it’s sunflowers). [Nick Note: We sat next to an older woman, maybe in her 50’s and it was the perfect seat at she would throw sunflower seed shells and tell the people in front of us to sit down.]

The parts of Turkish culture that we weren’t expecting were the cats everywhere – especially near the fish markets, but also just all over the city, which is OK with me b/c it’s better than stray dogs everywhere – and the bodies in the street. For some strange reason, we witnessed two huge accidents in the street. One man was hit by an oncoming tram (the city has great public transport, by the way; we hopped on a tram and just cruised around to see the city one day!) and another man, on a different day, was being zipped into a body bag as we rounded a corner. In Nepal, we were told that seeing a dead body was good luck but to our Turkish hosts, not so much. They joked about not wanting to walk around the city with us since we kept seeing so many dead bodies…they didn’t want us spreading the bad luck ;o)

The BEST day in Istanbul was probably our day spent soaking up the experience of a real Turkish bath! According to Rick Steves (one of our best friends now), women had the ability to divorce their husbands if they did not provide enough funds to allow the women to go to the baths at least twice a week. This was a law! I told Nick we need to institute a law like that in CA. Everyone should come to Istanbul and experience the steamy indulgence that is the Turkish hamami (bath)! We went to Süleymaniye Hamami (the same Sultan Süleyman that built the mosque), which is over 500 years old and still running. Not as traditional as it used to be, they now allow co-ed baths for couples instead of separating males & females. First things first, we were given a cup of apple tea, then taken to our own private dressing room to change into the required bikini for me and waist towel for Nick. On to the steam room! We walked into this marble chamber with all the other bathers, where you sit next to ornately carved marble fountain to douse yourself in hot water for about 30 minutes. After you’re sufficiently warm, you then layout on a heated marble slab to sweat out all the toxins and left over moisture in your body. You’re then called into a side room by the masseur who shocks the f’ing life out of you by splashing you with ice cold water! (Ladies: all the masseurs are young, ripped men wearing nothing but a soaking wet waist cloth. Just so you know.) He scrubs you down with a rough sponge to slough off all the dead skin cells that have boiled off your body. Then he lays you on a marble table and covers you in soap lather to give you the speediest massage you’ve ever had. It’s short but it’s good. He drenches you in cold water afterwards and even washes your hair! You’re then sent to change into dry towels and revive yourself with more tea in a slightly cooler steam room. The whole thing takes about 2 hours and it’s absolutely heaven! I wish we could have stayed in Istanbul longer just to keep going back to the baths!!!

Our final day had come, however, and we were very sad to leave. Istanbul is an amazing city and we could totally see ourselves living here. We were really sad to leave our two roommates as well; they really made it an unforgettable experience. Our last stop before the airport was to have some freshly made baklava at a venerable café overlooking the Golden Horn. The baklava was indeed delicious and sugary sweet but clearly I ate too much on an empty stomach (surprise, surprise) and had a stomach ache all the way to the airport. Just another great memory in an incredibly amazing city! We will DEFINITELY be coming back to Istanbul!

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