Istanbul - mosques and all

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Istanbul at last. It had been a long hard journey getting here, and we were more than ready to find somewhere to sleep!! So far we had been organising our accommodation ahead of time, but for the first time, we decided that we were going to get there and figure it all out!! Had been recommended a few places by others, and so, armed with our knowledge, we clambered out of our buses, hefted our backpacks and set forth!!

9am, peak hour just settling, call to prayer blaring from minarets. Two lonely travellers far from home wander the streets of Istanbul trying to find a place that they can call home for the next two days. With the backpacks getting heavier by the minute, and the sun getting hotter, tempers start to arise, and blame starts to get allocated. Did you check the map? Are you sure that this is the way? I think we should turn right. No it's definitely straight ahead. Maybe we should stop and take a taxi. To where? We don't even know where we are. I'm tired. I want a drink. I want to sit for a bit. I want to go home.

It's times like this that we really get to stretch our relationship and grow as individuals. It's also times like this that you wish you had booked to stay at the Sheraton and taken a taxi there 😊

Needless to say, we got there eventually!! Yay! Score one for intrepid travellers doing it alone in Istanbul.

Istanbul was a bit of a shock to me. This was the first Muslim country that I was coming to. Was expecting a large city with hundreds of onion shaped domes towering in the skyline, and maybe one extremely large dome in the centre. Seen Agrabah in Disney's 'Aladdin'? Well - Istanbul on the surface looks to be this incredibly modern city, that looks similar to our western cities, with lots of highways, excellent road signs, crowded streets, and tall buildings! We were staying in the Sultanahmet area, which is where the tourist area is... this area was very prettily done up, with a gorgeous colonnade, lots of tourist facilities (internet, travel agencies, ATMs, etc). Mosques around every corner... and not at all looking like what I expected them to look like!! Every other shop was trying to sell carpets/turkish delight/apple tea etc, and all the shop owners hung on the pavement and called out cute niceties like 'how can I help you spend your money' and 'how much for your wife?' as we walked by.

However, take a walk into the back streets, and you get to see the real Istanbul. The city is incredibly crowded!! Far worse than anywhere else we have been. Imagine lots of really narrow, pothole'd streets, with worn pavements. Throw in several cars parked along the sides, on the pavement, in the middle of the road, etc... now add lots of slow-moving cars, and hundreds of people walking amidst them, on the pavement, off the pavement. To make it really fun, now put shops along the sides of the road, with overflowing wares on the pavement. As you walk past, the smell of different spices, rotting garbage, not-so-fresh meat, and exhaust fumes all add up to give you a unique Istanbul experience. And let's not forget the heat!! Mr Sun was doing his job full time to make sure that everyone who was walking along was sweating profusely!

It was quite chaotic but also fun (in a bizarre way) to try and get through this!! You have to basically push through people, walk in front of cars and expect them to stop, and if you're a girl, protect yourself from guys who accidentally bump into you, poke you, pinch you, etc. These Turkish men are rather careless with their hands 😊 Could really give someone the wrong impression...

So - rested, refreshed, guidebook in bag, we headed out to see the sights. First up was the Grand Bazaar, which is a large large large market area, some of it undercover (think of Paddy's markets but 15 times as big!). The whole place is sold out to tourists, and is a shopper's paradise!! We were quite suitably impressed with the number of different ways you could buy a pashmina (all genuine of course), apple tea (made in the shop owner's backyard!), glassware (made by his cousin) and of course, Turkish delight!! Thankfully (for our budget at least), Catherine doesn't really like markets, and after walking around and around, we left with just a few pashminas and some souvenirs.

For those of you who were wondering, I couldn't get a good price, so I decided to keep Catherine after all. Plus, who was going to carry the other backpack, and nurse me to health when I was feeling down?? 😊 So Mum and Dad, relax, I won't be coming back with a herd of camels, and your daughter won't end up in some old guy's harem.

Next up, we thought we'd go for a cruise up the Bosphorus. Istanbul holds the unique position of being the bridge between the European continent and the Asian continent. There is a bridge connecting the two, and as you go over, you get signs welcoming you to Europe/Asia depending on which direction you're going, of course. (There's a really good book called 'Connections that work' by Robert Fergusson that talks about the bridge!) The Bosphorus is the river that separates the two continents.

So - up and down the Bosphorus. We had been told that from the distance, we would be able to appreciate the skyline. Tip for future travellers - don't bother. The Topkapi Sarayi (king's palace), Aya Sofia, and Blue Mosque (see below) feature prominently on the skyline, but it's not really that picturesque. Still, was nice to get out of the crowds for a while!!

Ended our day at the spice markets. These were basically the same as the Grand Bazaar but also sold - you guessed it - spices! Yum!! I don't really understand why spice salesmen try to hassle tourists. It's not like I'm going to buy a few kilos of cummin, tumeric, cardamon, etc and take it with me on my travels!! Still, was nice to see them all. I hunted around trying to find a good picture (like you see in all the mags) of spices sitting in brown sacks, but no luck there 😞 Maybe India.

The next day we headed off to Topkapi Sarayi. This used to be the palace where all the Sultans lived, until one of them (I forget which one) decided he wanted to live somewhere else. It now serves as a museum. Basically this large palace had been all cleared out, but the original structure remained, and some of the rooms contained interesting pots, weapons, holy items, paintings, etc. Most exciting was the harem!! We've all seen 1001 Arabian Nights right? So here's where you've got a whole bunch of women who sit around in practically nothing and scheme and manipulate their way to becoming the sultan's favourite right?? Well - there's another fantasy ruined. Turns out the harem was just where they lived, and there wasn't anything particularly glamorous about them either. Bathrooms, bedrooms, sitting rooms, yawn. It was the best bit of the museum though - beautiful tiled walls everywhere. The floors were originally carpeted, but those were long gone. I guess in their heyday these would have looked stunning, but today they just look tired and reasonably unimpressive.

Another tip for future forayers to Topkapi Sarayi - get there EARLY. Before the gates open. the queues are quite long. Once you get in, don't start looking around, but go straight to the Harem, and buy your tickets to enter in there, and finish it off first. It's the best part anyway. The rest is basically a whole lot of gardens, with lots of buildings that you're not allowed into anyway, but get to peer into through dirty small windows that are covered by grilles. Yay.

Next in line was the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque. The Aya Sofia was built by Emperor Justinian 1500 years ago, when Istanbul was under Roman rule. This is a HUGE church, and when it was completed, he was so impressed with it, when he first saw it, he declared 'Glory to God that I should have made this. Solomon, today I have outdone you!'. Probably a bit full of himself, but nonetheless it was pretty impressive. The church was converted to a Mosque when the Muslims got their city back, and all the crosses and paintings were removed. Now of course, it is just open for tourists and is no longer a functioning mosque. I think they have enough in Istanbul anyway.

Directly across from the Aya Sofia was the Blue Mosque. Basically a very very large mosque, it was quite impressive from the outside! I peeked inside, however, and it was a bit disappointing. The Muslims don't really go overboard inside the way the Christians do.

It's pretty hard to put a place like Istanbul down on paper. You can talk about the sights, and the sounds, but when it boils down to it, it just has a great atmosphere about it!! People are very friendly, heplful, and nice, although sometimes you're not sure if the motive is to get money out of you. While it is a muslim country, the Turks aren't overly religious, and fairly open to other ways of thinking, and don't seem to have problems with alcohol, etc. It is fascinating to be walking along one of those streets, and suddenly hear all the mosques issue their call to prayer. With all the mosques issuing their calls at slightly different times, and all saying (singing) different things, the reverberations along the street were quite something! I think it would take several weeks to get the vibe of Istanbul, but we certainly enjoyed it!

So finally our time came to leave Turkey. Turkey had been an afterthought that we had added into our itinerary because we had about 7 days to kill. Glad we did it, but Turkey will have to be revisited at some point, because there is certainly a lot to see here!! With some regrets, we arranged for our transport to the airport. We waved goodbye to the riduculously crowded streets, said our farewell to the mosques, and headed down the road, listening to our driver sing a Turkish song to himself. It was one of those moments where you are caught between the regret of leaving a place that you have enjoyed and the excitement of the next place that you were going to.

So next stop - Tunisia!! Stay tuned all.

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Photos

Aya Sofia
The Aya Sofia and Blue Mosque face each other. Notice the similarity between them.

Changing symbols
Here's what the removed crosses look like inside the Aya Sofia.

Cemetery
Notice the tombstones - very different to our Christian ones!

Sultan Suleiman Mosque
Yet another mosque. This one is on very high ground and can be seen for miles around.

Pammukale
We didn't include any pictures of Pammukale from our previous blog. Looks like a snowfield huh? By the way, I since found out that the white stuff is limestone (thanks Paul!)