The Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, Basilica Cisterns, etc were incredible, but even just walking around the city streets, listening to the city, watching the people, and browsing the shops was great. We more or less ate, shopped, and walked our way around Istanbul with a few siteseeing trips on the side. It’s impossible not to absorb history in Istanbul. Anywhere that has been continuously inhabited for so long, just emanates a past. But, I didn’t find Istanbul to be one of those historic places that exists on its nostalgia alone, it still seemed a vibrant, cosmopolitan city.
Galata Tower as seen from Eminönü
On our first day in the city, we were dropped off at a bus station way outside of town. Snow and traffic delayed our arrival for 7 and a half ours…I ended up spending nearly 24 hours traveling by bus…Although the last bus was really fancy, it even had TVs in the back of every seat, it lacked toilets and was fully booked with the only available seats being in the back row without the ability to recline. Exhausted upon arrival, we were promptly scammed by a suit wearing taxi driver who charged us 50 Lira to drop us off on a side street in the general area of our hotel. We found the hostel, dropped off our bags, and headed out to explore the city, stopping for some strong Turkish coffee first.
The walk to the old area of Istanbul isn’t that far, but it took us a while. The trendy shops and music stores that line the steep hill beneath the Galata Tower were impossible to resist and when we finally made it to the bridge and could see the giant mosques, churches, fish markets, and just overall view, we stopped every few minutes for photos. The call to prayer, which began while we were crossing the bridge, the fisherman lining the railing, and the chestnuts roasting to kiosks everywhere only added to our sense of wonderment. We were far from the snowstorm in which our trip began.
Seeing the bazaar next to the Yeni Cami mosque, we assumed it must be the Grand Bazaar—it seemed large and we were tired. Turns out, it was the Egyptian Spice Bazaar. We figured this out after a very difficult lunch spent making sense of the low quality free maps from the hostel—It wasn’t until later that we went to the Tourist Information Center for the free, high quality maps and guide books it provides.
Yeni Cami
The Egyptian Bazaar (aka Spice Market) and the Yeni Cami mosque are in the Eminönü district, at the base of the hill to the Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque, and Aya Sofia. The Bazaar was originally made of wood in mid-17th century by the architect Kazim Aga, and got its final restorations during mid-forties. It is called the Egyptian Bazaar because it was here that Egyptians sold their spices and received income from taxes levied on Egypt.
Eminonu from the Galata Bridge
After wandering around Eminonu some more, we shopped our way back to Beyoğlu for dinner in the fish market area. Unlike the 0-10 foot distance between the water and the fish markets on either side of the Galata Bridge, the Beyoğlu one is presented as more upscale, filled with sit down restaurants offering similar menus with well-dressed men positioned outside to entice you (hassle, pester, bother) in German, English, Turkish to eat at their place. We were hungry and irritable so it took a while, and several disappointed ‘enticers’ to finally choose somewhere.
That's all we ordered, what you can see in the screen. Neysa and I are toasting with Raki. Turkish Raki, not to be confused with Bulgarian Rakia, is a clear beverage that is drank mixed with water, turning it a milky white. It tasted sort of like licorice, too sweet for me.
It was early and there were few other patrons. The staff was overwhelmingly attentive. When Cory asked for his jacket, (his cell phone was in the pocket, but it had been removed by the wait so quickly he hadn’t removed it) the wait staff thought he was cold and two of them returned with a giant tablecloth to wrap him in. With the wine costing 12 Lira and 3 wrapped grape leaves costing 5, we didn’t eat much and it was weird to have 6 waiters watching you talk and eat. Just appetizers and a drink before getting the check, which, to our dismay, included a ‘cover charge’ worth more than our food. It had been a while since I last ate at a restaurant…
Dinner part II: the baked potato
After the disappointing and pricey dinner, we went for real food: döner and baked, stuffed potatoes from a take out place. My potato was awesome: the inside was removed, mixed with butter and salt, replaced, and then smothered with 6 toppings of my choice for 6 Lira. This was quite cheap for the places we went to in Istanbul, but it’s hard when you can buy a giant döner for about 1 Lev (the exchange rate is roughly equal) in Bulgaria and a much smaller one in Turkey is 5 times the cost.
Fresh grilled fish sandwiches in Karaköy-these were delicious.
The cost of food and remembering how to shake your head for yes and no where the biggest challenges of the trip. Food in Bulgaria is almost always cheap and delicious. In Turkey, it was harder to find cheap food and the expensive stuff we had wasn’t all that great. To be fair, I had extremely high expectations and my exposure was limited to a few places in very touristy area. I am still convinced the cheap, delicious stuff is there somewhere.
The Turkish coffee, sweets, foods from nuts and dried fruit, and fish sandwiches served from boats in the Golden Horn to on the Eminönü side of the Galata Bridge were awesome. Also good was the spinach and cheese gözleme, sort of like a more refined quesadilla; kaymak, a super rich buffalo yogurt/cream, with honey; börek, basically the same as banitsa; and the churchkhela, walnuts sewn on a string dipped in thickened fruit (usually grape) puree and then dried. I first tried the walnut sticks when I was in Georgia in ’04 and ’05, they were sold on the sides of the road outside of Tbilisi, but hadn’t seen them since. I must have been trying to make up for lost time because I ate entirely too many during my few days in Istanbul.
A woman making gözleme at a restaurant in Sultanhamet
Beyoğlu (previously Pera), where we stayed, was a base for Ventian and Genoese trading after the 4th crusade in the 1200s and became a Genoese property in the 1300s until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. They built the Galata Tower in 1348, which still stands and gives and amazing view of the city. Under Ottoman rule, ties with Venice were strengthened early on and Pera continued to grow as an attractive community for diplomats and European traders. In the 1800s Istiklal was home to many of the foreign embassies and schools. The embassies moved when the Turkish capital switched to Ankara, but many of the consulates are located nearby. We didn’t see most of Beyoğlu, staying along Istiklal towards Galata, so my opinion is limited. It was pretty awesome though to have street vendors speak in several languages, overhear conversations in another, talk to street musicians from California, and watch a live band play in one of the historic trolley cars going between Tunel and Taksim.
From the top of the Galata Tower you can see tons. Most obvious are from L-R: Topkapi Palace, Aya Sofia, Blue Mosque, Yeni Cami, and the Galata Bridge
From the middle of Istiklal, heading away from Takism towards Karaköy and the Galata Bridge is Tünel, an underground rail that takes passengers up the super steep hill from Karaköy to the center of Beyoğlu. It’s not that far, around 1,800 feet, during which time it ascends 200 feet. It’s a nice walk down—the steep streets, built with steps, are full of trendy music shops and artsy clothing stores—but at the end of a long day, Tünel took us closer to ‘home’ much faster than our feet. Also interesting: Tünel, built in 1875, is the second oldest underground rail in the world, second only to the London underground.
Inside Tünel
Karaköy (previously Galata) is a neighborhood in the Beyoğlu district. An ancient part of Istanbul, it houses a ton of old buildings, mosques, churches, and synagogues. Now, it is a busy commercial place, serving as a transport hub for intercity and international traffic. It's what we walked through on our way to the sites from our hotel.
This is a street in Karaköy, better walking down than up...
Besides using Tünel and walking a lot, we also took the above ground tram several times. It was super easy to figure out, fast, and clean. The public transport was awesome. Istanbul also has water ferries which we took for 2.5 Lira to go to ‘Asia’ for a day. These were slightly less easy for us to figure out and we went back and forth across the Bosphorus a few times when we tried to return. It didn’t matter though, the ferries, mostly used by commuters, not tourists, were lovely. They had indoor or outdoor seating, snacks and drinks, and, on one, was a waiter who served us tea in a glass—for about two dollars per ride, I did not expect this sort of service. Oh, and a funny side note: the entire time I was in Turkey I did not see a single Turkish toilet. Perhaps it was because I was in a big, vibrant city, but I don’t know. Not that it matters, as far as public toilets go, I actually think they are more hygienic. Also, they’re healthier for your body, but I won’t go into that…
The ‘Asia Side,’ was a nice day trip. After getting off the ferry at Üsküdar and following the main flow of people we came across the Üsküdar Ahmet III Fountain, built in 1728 to serve passengers disembarking from across the quay. Decorated with calligraphy, flower motifs, and poetry verses, it is still used today. We came across several other beautiful buildings before finding what we seemed to locate everywhere: a shopping area. It was a giant food market with people calling out prices and running around. I picked up some apples and tea. I liked that here, the prices were listed and cheaper than the European side. Haggling was a bit of a drag for me. The people here were super friendly, but didn’t try to hassle us in to buying anything.
Üsküdar Ahmet III Fountain
We stopped for coffee and dessert at a small café, there were fewer restaurants, especially big ones in this area. The café was full, and we headed out to leave, but the manager was excited about our presence and had some current customers double up to free us a table We felt bad, we had already eaten and weren’t at all hungry, just looking to sit and relax a bit. We ordered a cheese bread in addition to dessert. I wish we had been hungrier. After our food came out, which was delicious, the cook brought different food for us to try. It was neat, they weren’t overbearing nor did they try to put a tablecloth on any of us, just friendly and helpful and pleased with our “teşekkürle”s (thanks). Also, the food was way cheaper.
Next time I go to Istanbul, the Asia side is where I’d like to stay.
We spent parts of most days in the Sultanahmet area of Eminönü visiting the ‘must see’ sites of Istanbul. My favorite was the Basilica Cistern. Built in 532 by Justinian near Aya Sofia, the underground cisterns provided a water filtration system for the palace of Constantinople and, later, watered the gardens at the Topkapi Palace.
Basilica Cistern
Columns from earlier monuments were used in its construction. There is a strange wishing column, but even weirder are the two Medusa heads on the bases of two pillars in the back of the hall. One head is sideways, the other upside down. Medusa, according to Greek mythology, was one of the three Gorgons with snakes for hair that could turn anyone who looked at her into stone. It is a beautiful and peaceful place, so strange that it was constructed as nothing more than a water filter system.
Medusa
Water was carried to the cistern from with aqueducts from 19 km away in the Belgrade forest. Use of the cistern fell out of favor during the Ottomon era, they preferred running water to still, and, built their own supply systems. The Cistern is about 210 feet by 450 feet and can hold about 21,000,000 million gallons of water. There are 336 columns, each about 30 feet high, supporting the ceiling.
Nearby is the Grand Bazaar. Going there on day 2 was overwhelming, especially since I’d already done a good deal of shopping at the Egyptian Bazaar. I also had some super interesting conversations with some carpet sellers about different designs/motifs that I recognized from Chiprovtsi. But it’s difficult just to browse when you’re waiting for friends, you end up getting hassled and leaving with a spice grinder and a stack of heat plates… It was helpful though to be able to switch to Bulgarian to say something we didn’t want the vendor to hear.
Shopping at the Grand Bazaar was a good experience and its tight organization, despite the chaos and vastness, impressed me. The Grand Bazaar isn’t just big, it’s HUGE. Built in the 1450s and later rebuilt and expanded, the Grand Bazaar is has 5,000 shops, 2 mosques, 4 fountains, 2 Turkish bath houses, 60 streets, and hosts between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily.
The Sultan Ahmet Mosque, aka the Blue Mosque was lovely. It was built between 1609 and 1616 across a courtyard from the Aya Sofia, which was also a mosque at the time. It is commonly known as the Blue Mosque thanks to the blue paint used on many of the 21,043 hand painted tiles used to decorate the interior. The scope of the work put into it and the Aya Sofia is absolutely amazing.
Sultan Ahmet Mosque
Up the road from the Sultan Ahmet Mosque is the Hippodrome, now more of a square or park, it was built in 203 AD by Roman Emperor Septimus Severus. Later enlarged by Constantine, it could hold 100,000 spectators. It is also home to the Obelisk of Theodosius and the Serpant Column, and has free wifi.
The Obelisk of Theodosius was originally erected in 15th century BC by Thutmose III at the Karnak Temple Complex 500km south of Cairo. It was moved to Alexandria in 357 AD and later brought to Istanbul in 390 AD by the Roman Emperor Theodosius. Another Obelisk from Karnak, the Lantern Obelisk can be found in Rome.
The Serpent Column was originally erected in 479 BC at the Temple of Apollo in Greece to commemorate the Greek victory over the Persians. It was brought to Istanbul in the 4th century AD by Constantine I. At one time, the column had three intertwining snakes supporting a golden urn. The Crusaders removed the urn and melted it for coins, leaving just the base that stands today.
I know I’ve left out things, like the full Turkish bath experience at Çemberlitas and the fantastic train ride Raf and I had back to the Sofia, but I’m tired and so much more is happening. I plan to go back to Istanbul. It’s way to big to see enough in one trip.
