Ýstanbul
Trip Start
Jun 27, 2007
1
25
26
Trip End
Jun 2008
Istanbul, Turkey
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Having just spent a week in Istanbul, I can easily say it is one of the best cities Ý`ve ever travelled in. Ý timed it just about perfectly. Ý had time to hit all the major sights Ý wanted to see and not get bored. Ý took the overnight train to Ankara last night, am checked in at my hotel, but have yet to meet anyone from my new group. We are supposed to have our introductory meeting tonight, so hopefully there will be a note or some information when Ý get back.
Ýstanbul .... where to start? Ý guess wýth the Hagia Sophia, built in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian to be the greatest church the world had ever seen. When the Muslims took over Constantinople, it became a mosque, and now ýs a museum. For some reason, this particular building stood out in my memory of Art History 101 as a place Ý really wanted to see someday. It took me 35 years, but Ý finally saw it! There are a lot of renovation projects going on in Ýstanbul, and the enormous tower of scaffolding ýn the center of the nave doesn`t do anything for the atmosphere, but it is still an incredible building. Ýt was built to make the domed ceiling appear to float in heaven, and İ`d say they did a remarkable job.
The Blue Mosque, Suleiyman`s answer to the Hagia Sophia (build it bigger and better!) is at the other end of a big park with a fountain. It ıs also very beautıful and it filled the view from my hotel rooftop restaurant. Also in this immediate neighborhood is the Underground Cistern, cool and damp, dripping from the ceiling. Amazing it was built 1500 years ago and, of course, used to be full of water. That's a LOT of water! New Mexico should study this. Maybe we could build one to catch the monsoon rains. My hotel is right next to the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts. They have a very nice collection, some of which is startlingly old. There was a bronze spear from 4000 BC. Not 400, 4000! I checked the information tag twice to be sure. Your sense of history gets a jolt here as you begin to realize that many of the buildings you are walking past date back well over a thousand years and are still standing!
I also visited the Mosque of Suleiyman the Magnificent, altho it was mostly closed for renovations. The Rustem Pasha Mosque, just down the hill, is much smaller, but very lovely. Also braved the public bus and found my way out to the Chora Church, which is famous for its walls covered in Byzantine mosaics and frescoes. I went to the little Mosaics Museum near the Blue Mosque, which turned out to be really interesting and not what I had expected. It's one huge floor mosaic - or what's left of it - from a 6th century palace built by Emperor Justinian. It was discovered and people tried to preserve it back in the 1930s, but what they did only caused more damage. Finally, in the 1980s, the Turks and the Austrians got together to save it. They took it oout piece by piece, restored it with modern technology, and then put it back in situ, where you can now view it. There is a lot of detail left. I really enjoyed going there. I wandered thru the Spice Market a couple of times, and just made a quick pass thru the Grand Bazaar. The GB is so enormous, it would take days to see it all, and I tire quickly of the shopkeepers' fairly aggressive attempts to get you into their store. I spent an entire afternoon at the Archaeological Museum and still didn't see it all. The Topkapi Palace I saved until my final day in Istanbul and then spent several hours there. It served as the Ottoman sultans' official residence and administrative center for over 400 years until, in an attempt to appear more modern and European, they built the Dolmabache palace and moved.
Early on in the week, I met a French Canadian woman who was also travelling alone. We hit it off well and did a fair amount of sight-seeing together. We walked up and down Istiklal Cadessi, the main pedestrian only shopping street in the New District, had dinner, and wandered down the narrow, winding streets behind the Galata Tower back to the tram station below. We took a full day cruise on the public ferry up the Bosporus. It is very relaxing to just sit and watch the sights go by. The ferry stops on the Asian side up near the entrance to the Black Sea. You have almost 3 hours on shore, enough time to get a fish dinner and then hike up to Yoros Castle on a hill overlooking the water. It was blazing hot that day, but the view was good from the top. So I really saw a lot and kept busy, but had time to go slowly and savor the places I was visiting. It's good not to be rushed.
Istanbul is a city of cats. They are everywhere, in the alleys, on the rooftops, begging at outdoor restaurants, sleeping in any and every park, palace, church, cemetery, you name it. My hotel had a resident cat, who was well fed and spoiled and tended to ignore you. One night at a restaurant, I had a mama cat sit by my table begging and then she got tired of waiting and hooked her claw into the tablecloth and very nearly pulled my whole dinner (chicken kebab) onto the ground. If I hadn't been being attentive, she would have gotten it. I fed her a couple of bites and saved several chunks for later (it was a big plate of food), but she had disappeared. I managed to rescue the wrapped up chicken from the overzealous waiter twice, and took it over to the street alongside the Hagia Sophia where I had found a whole colony of feral cats. A man was feeding them, and he told me he puts out food and water every day and has had a few of them fixed. I went back there a couple of times with leftovers whenever I had them.
Something strange - a lot of Turkish people seem to think I look European. I have been asked repeatedly if I am from Spain, France, even Italy. Some people address me in French (just saying hello, how are you sort of thing as a preliminary to get you into their store), so I answer back in French and keep walking. I had quite a conversation in Spanish with a guy whose brother married a Mexican woman and they both lived there, doing business. Of course, he wanted to guide me around and then sell me a carpet, but I managed to avoid both.
I really enjoyed Istanbul, and I don't normally care for big cities. It reminds me a bit of San Francisco, being built on hills all surrounded by water. I'm glad I set aside the time to see all the sights, as my GAP trip only spends one day here at the end.
