Turkiye: Now It's Istanbul, Not Constantinople

From the moment we stepped off the bus in Istanbul, I started singing this song. I even had a kicky dance to go with it. Entertainer of the Year-caliber stuff, I'm telling you. But the fact that I only knew the one line started to wear on hubby's nerves after a while. I can't imagine why...

For your musical enlightenment (and to feed the mental picture I know you're working on), I present: The Four Lads.

Ok, now that's out of the way.

We had an exciting first morning in Istanbul. We took the metro from the airport and found our hotel with relative ease. It was probably the nicest hotel of our trip. It had hot water and heat and everything!

After we checked in, we showered and went to sleep. And slept until mid-afternoon.

Basically, instead of sleeping all night in a hotel and spending all day on a bus, we sat up on a bus all night and spent all day sleeping in a hotel. But let's not split hairs.

Once we finally ventured out of the hotel, we discovered that Istanbul is a beautiful, incredible city.

The Blue Mosque is probably the most famous of all of Istanbul's attractions, and is so named (unofficially) because of the tens of thousands of blue mosaic tiles that decorate the interior. There are also 260 windows. I'm not exaggerating either, those are legit numbers. So you can imagine how huge the place is.

Because of its fame, you might expect the Blue Mosque to be mostly hype, as so many attractions are. You would be wrong. The place is so exceptionally beautiful, and photos come no where close to doing it justice, that I would honestly recommend visitors see it even if they see nothing else.

Please excuse the ridiculous number of photos. Though they don't do the beauty of the place justice, I still can't choose any fewer than this.

The dome

Courtyard

Blue Mosque at night

From there we moved to the Basilica Cistern, which was used to store water for the Great Palace and surrounding buildings during the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine period was apparently a great time for architecture, as many of the most impressive places were built during that time.

Due to the dim lighting in the underground cistern, photos were difficult. But here's a few that turned out well.

Note the reflection of the pillars in the water

It's Medusa's head! Upside down!

Next up was the Küçük Aya Sofya, or Little Aya Sofya. Built just before the Aya Sofya, I have no idea why they share a name as they look completely different. Anyway, it's a quaint little church turned mosque.

I should probably break this post up. These photos alone will probably crash Blogger, and this was only less than half a day! But I'll be optimistic (about both the website and your ability to take in so much in one sitting) and carry on.


Day 2 in Istanbul!


After a breakfast of the usual bread, jam, cheese and tea (which never failed to launch me into a rendition of  "tea, a drink with jam and bread"...every single morning), we hopped back onto the public transportation system to head to the "new city" on the other side of the Golden Horn (don't ask me why the waterway is called that, it just is).


This is when we discovered the complexity of the transit system. Going from the airport to the otogar at the beginning of the trip, and again from the otogar to the hotel, we stayed on one line of the metro. This time, however, we had to transfer from the metro to the tram. The stations are a block apart. You have to exit one system and walk over to the other, meaning you have to pay twice. There's a third system called the funicular, but we never found out what exactly that is. We just had fun saying the name at the most random times.


We took the tram north, then walked back south through the new city. This is where the locals are. There aren't many sights to see, but it's a cool little neighborhood and the tourists don't get in the way. Of course, the locals will mow your ass down if you don't watch out, but I'll take that over flocks of tourists any day.

Walking across the Galata Bridge:

Next up was Aya Sofya, not to be confused with Little Aya Sofya because that is frowned upon. Not really, but seriously, why do they share a name? Oh and Aya Sofya is also known as Sancta Sophia, Haghia Sofia, or the Church of Divine Wisdom. Complicated, no?


Completed in 537, it was the "greatest church in Christendom" until it was converted to a mosque in 1453. In 1935 it was declared a museum, and therefore legally able to charge visitor's a ridiculous amount. But I must say that it is worth it.

Our final stop of the day was Topkapı Palace, which was built by Mehmet the Conqueror after the Conquest in 1453. The palace is made up of four courtyards: the first court was open to the public; the second only to people on imperial business; and the third and fourth only to the imperial family, VIPs and palace staff.

Contrary to popular belief, the Harem was not a place designated for hanky panky, but was actually the imperial family quarters. 

An interesting fact for you: the women of the Harem had to be foreigners, as Islam forbade enslaving Muslims. There is an endless list of things I can say about that, so I'm just going to let you mull it over for a while.

Another interesting fact: all men who worked in the Harem were castrated so as to not, shall we say, mingle with the women. How's that for job benefits?

The real beauty of this place is in the tiny details...unfortunately those tiny details in photo form can be kinda dull. So here's some "big picture" shots.

Don't panic, they're just mannequins

And so beings Day 3 in Istanbul, our final opportunity for sightseeing.

We set out early in the morning hoping to get to the famous Grand Bazaar before the crowds. We had put off buying anything earlier in the trip so that we didn't have to cram anything else into our bags, so we had big plans to stock up on souvenirs in Istanbul. 

And the Grand Bazaar was...closed. For the holiday. Not reopening until Thursday. Our flight was on Tuesday. Well how bout them apples.

So we hop on the ferry across the Bosphorus to the Asian Side. I'm not kidding, that's what it's called. 

The Asian side is home to some incredible markets. Fresh fish, veggies, and nuts filled every street, interspersed with little shops and incredible restaurants. We had the best meal of the entire trip here at Çiya Sofrası. Look it up if you ever find yourself in Istanbul.

On the shore of the Old City, the only way to get from the docks (ferry landings and Galata Bridge) is to cross under the busy road via a tunnel packed to the gills with people and lined with stalls selling sunglasses, bags and "real fake rolexes" (whatever that means).

The only way to or from the docks. Underground. And cue panic attack.

Once back in our neck of the woods, we spent the evening wandering the streets. We saw Istanbul University, two more mosques, and attempted to haggle at many many shops (vendors are NOT willing to bargain).

Before I forget, a few random tidbits from the trip.

When I was in India, both on my first trip in 2009 and again this summer, any time I was expected to respond to something in Hindi, all my brain could come up with was Spanish. In Turkey, every time I attempted to come up with a word in Turkish, all I had was Hindi. Maybe in Sri Lanka I'll be able to speak Turkish?

Wake-up calls in Turkey are completely unreliable. They either don't come at all or they come at the wrong time. Like 3am. Or an hour late. 

Animals are the be-all and end-all. People daily feed the pigeons. And not just some leftover bread they happen to have either. Bread and crackers bought for the sole purpose of feeding the pigeons. Same goes for stray cats. Stray cats are absolutely everywhere and are extremely friendly. This is because everyone feeds them. People buy cat food and leave it strewn across ledges. Or buy sardines and leave them outside their door. Stray cats in Turkey are treated better than my cat at home.

The morning of Day 4 was our flight home. That provided almost as many interesting experiences as any other day of our trip.

We were picked up from our hotel by a shuttle. We drove around in what seemed like circles picking up more people before arriving right back at the road of our hotel. We could see our hotel from the shuttle. You mean we could have slept an extra half hour?

Immediately upon entering the international airport in Istanbul, you must send your luggage through a scanner and walk through a metal detector. Then you better check the monitor that lists flights and gate numbers, because what line you stand in depends on what gate you're going to. Someone checked our passports and reservation while waiting in line, and grilled my husband for about 5 minutes on how many years he's lived in the U.S., where he works, what his job is, etc. He has a green card and you're not immigration so what's it to you?

Once you get to the front of the line, your passports are checked again. Then you get to a desk to check in.

Next stop is "passport control", also known as "immigration" (but if you call it that, people get snippy). Apparently they're checking to make sure we had the appropriate visa stamp to be in Turkey. Although since we're on our way out, why exactly does it matter?

Once we reached the gate, our passports were checked again (fourth time, including check-in, in case you're counting). Then we moved through the line to the window side of the gate, and our passports were checked again. Security checked our tickets, then we did the part of security where you remove your shoes and baggy of liquids (did I mention we were at the gate and could see the airplane?). Someone again checks the stamp in our passports and we enter the waiting area for our flight, basically a walled-off section of the typical gate area. It is then that I realize there is no bathroom. I could leave the gate to use the bathroom since there's still quite a while before boarding, but then I would have to have my passport checked four times within a 10 square foot area again. No thanks.

11 hours later, we land in DC. Unloading the plane, riding the "people mover" from the random spot the plane had been parked to the terminal, getting through immigration and customs, and getting outside to the bus stop all took approximately 40 minutes. Riding the bus to the metro and the metro to home took an hour and a half. Damn you Virginia. But I did learn that I can ride the train standing up with a heavy pack on my back completely exhausted with my eyes closed and not fall down. Silver lining I suppose?

All in all it was an incredible trip. I will probably never get to return because I'm not a millionaire and there are so many other places I want to visit with the funds that I have. But if I could, I would. In a heartbeat.