Anyone seen the other half?
Trip Start
Jun 24, 2011
1
11
12
Trip End
Jul 16, 2011
Where I stayed
Istanbul, Turkey
Thursday, July 14, 2011
We left Bursa on Tuesday morning to head back to Istanbul, our final destination. On the way, we crossed the Sea of Marmara on a ferry and drove directly to the famous Grand Bazaar of Istanbul where there are 5,000 shops. The mood in the bus is positively giddy with shopping anticipation. As we approached the city, however, the streets started jamming up again and it was only 11 am. I think the streets will be jammed here no matter the time of day, there are after all 18 million people living here.
We finally got to the bazaar and we nearly had a stampede with all the women rushing to get out of the bus. Another bathroom break requiring deft squatting abilities and strong proficiency to avoid getting splattered (ie. another Turkish toilet) and off we go. The main street of the bazaar have shops that are numbered from 1 to 194. There are sides alleys running off the main street and passages running off the alleys. The shops in the passages and alleys are not numbered so you know when you're on main street and when you're not. The best way not to get lost is to always come back to the main street so you can get back to the main gate. Apparently, people get hopelessly lost in this place, we still don't understand why. There are jewellery, silk, ceramics, linen, souvenir, lamp, carpet and leather goods shops. And that's about it... 5,000 of them... they all look the same and they all sell the same stuff. Practically no product differentation. It's rather mind-numbing and dull after about 10 minutes. We're still wondering why the bazaar is so famous and what's the big deal? And though you are expected to and must haggle hard to get a decent deal, the deal is far from being cheap.
Some women in the tour thought that 2 hours weren't nearly enough shopping time in the bazaar and are considering extending their vacation by one more day just so they can shop. In this age of globalisation, I can tell you that EVERYTHING in that bazaar can be easily found at home. Wow, I'm glad I haven't been afflicted with the compulsive shopping virus.
We then went on a cruise tour on the Bosphorus, the strait that splits Istanbul into a European portion and an Asian portion. The view of the city from the water is magnificent, there are stately homes, mansions of sultans past, palaces and mosques peppering the waterfront. It's a nice break from the heat of the city. In the evening, we went for dinner with Gerrit and Gerrie, our favourite South African couple of all time, at a seafood restaurant close to the hotel. It was excellent food with great company and Gerrit talked Pierre into doing a little speech for the tour guide, the driver and his assistant at the farewell dinner on the following evening. The beer hunt after dinner proved once again to be unsuccessful only because it was too late and the supermarket was closed. I still have my faithful bottle of wine so I ended the evening definitely a lot happier than Gerrit.
The following day would be the last full day of the tour and we visited the main sites in Istanbul. First stop was Aya Sofya which got mistakenly translated into Latin as Sancta Sophia (Saint Sophia); it actually means Divine Wisdom, which has nothing to do with a lady named Sophia who got canonised for being saintly. It was built by Emperor Justinian as part of the effort to restore the greatness of the Roman empire and was completed in 537 AD. It remained the greatest Christian church until 1453 when Mehmet the Conqueror took hold of it and turned it into a mosque. It stayed that way until 1935 when Ataturk pronounced it must be turned into a museum for all to enjoy. Apparently, devout Muslims are still calling for it to be restored as a mosque and devout Christians still want it to be returned to the Vatican. However, the Turkish government will continue to keep is as a museum, many bravos to Ataturk and to the Turkish government.
The beauty of this place is really awe-inspiring. The dome is massive and is supported by 40 ribs from each side which are hidden in walls, giving the impression that the dome is unsupported. It really is sublime, Pierre and I both think this is the most splendid building we've seen and though we've only been to less than 40 countries each, it's still by far the most impressive we've beheld.
Walking from Aya Sofia to the Blue Mosque, which is literally around the corner, we actually lost two members of the group at the corner and had to wait for them; after half an hour, the guide had to abandon the search to get us into the mosque before prayer time. Again, an exquisite building, whose interior is decorated with around 30,000 blue tiles, hence its name. It was built between 1606 and 1616, a whole millenium after Aya Sofia. Sultan Ahmet I wanted a mosque that would dwarf its neighbour and commanded the architect to build a grand mosque with golden minarets. When the architect went to the vault to get the gold (called altin in Turkish), there was none to be had so the sly little guy played dumb and, instead, built six (alti in Turkish) minarets. You have to give the guy some credit for being pretty creative in his approach to problem solving. Although the mosque is resplendent, it smelled heavily of feet again and we had to leave fairly quickly. Maybe they should just remove all the carpeting; with that many visitors going through the place and the weather being so hot, that many sweating feet can not a Chanel 5 make.
After lunch at the famous Pudding Shop where Bill Clinton has eaten, we headed towards Topkapi Palace. The aforementionned Mehmet the Conqueror started building the palace in 1453 and a succession of sultans lived there until 1839, when they started building more European style palaces elsewhere on the shores of the Bosphorus and moved. There were many stories related to these sultans, like the one who drowned after drinking too much champagne or the one who went mad after being imprisoned by his own brother for 22 years. The palace is huge and very nice, there are four courtyards in all... except there are 3 cruise ships in the harbour and that means thousands of additional tourists roaming around Old Istanbul. It was extremely crowded. By this time, everyone is exhausted from the walking, the heat, and the smell of feet and underarms.
We tried to go look at the various displays of the sultans' clothes and his treasury (there was an 84-carat diamond that he used to wear on his hand... dummy) but there were just so many people it was unpleasant. There was also a room for the relics, which contained bones of John the Baptist and a piece of Mohammed's beard. There was a lineup outside and we patiently waited, except when the doors opened, all hell broke loose. These people were savages, you'd swear it was Louboutins on sale for 75% off. Good grief, it's just some bones and hair, relax people! We gave up and left and went to sit in the shade with Gerrie and Gerrit. I don't like crowds in the first place but crowds that are pushy and savage-like on top of smelling like a gutter, I can't bear.
In the evening, we had our group farewell dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Bosphorus, very pleasant. Pierre did a very nice speech and our touring team really appreciated it. On the way back to the hotel, we dropped a bunch of women off at a gigantic shopping mall while the rest of us got some much needed snooze.
Thursday morning at breakfast, we said goodbye to some of our fellow travellers and gave special big hugs to Gerrie and Gerrit who will return to their family in Holland later today. We took a cab to the Sultanahmet district and checked into a little hotel then went souvenir shopping at the Grand Bazaar. Man, it's annoying to have to haggle for everything, I feel like I'm getting ripped off all the time. We're both getting quite homesick and wish we were flying tomorrow instead of Saturday. But there's still lots to be seen in Istanbul so tomorrow, we'll visit the less major sites.
Comments
It's nice that you take the time to appreciate all those buildings. When we were there, the heat and the smell took so much out of me that Myls and I would just find a nice cool place to relax and let the rest of the gang do their visiting.
Don't go crazy shopping. Like you said, all those things can be found at your local Dollarama so don't bother... Unless there's a nice silver ring ;)))
Brings back a lot of memories since we visited practically all these places despite being in Istanbul for only one day. Don't bring back any souvenirs please. It'd be just a waste of money and space.
No worries, we don't souvenir shop anymore, only for the kiddies and a bit for the parents. Istanbul sure is a nice city but is it ever crowded! And people still throw their garbage all over, it's a bit discouraging.
Bon retour les voyageurs!