Take me To Istanbul

It would have been so easy to begin this post with lots of clichés about Istanbul as it is A Curious Mix of East and West, The Crossroad of Religion and Culture and A Tale of Two Continents. I decided not to do this as you can read a guidebook for that. Furthermore, which city are we talking about? It has had so many names over the years that one could become confused- Byzantium, New Rome, Constantinople, Stamboul and Istanbul to name but a few.

Although Istanbul is not the capital of Turkey, it is certainly the largest city with around 13 Million people. Divided by a strip of water between the Black sea and the Marmara Sea, half of the city lies in Europe (the part which used to be Constantinople) and the other side in Asia.

On the 1st June 1889, the Orient Express first left Paris for Constantinople. These days it only makes this Journey once a year. I think when I am rich I will do this because it would be brilliant. From the Asian train station it is possible to get trains to popular holiday destinations such as Baghdad and Tehran. Maybe one day I will do that too.
This time though I arrived by plane in the wee hours of the morning which meant that I had to hang around on the Asian side of the city waiting for the first ferry to Europe with nothing to do except take photos.
No trip here would be complete without a trip to the Hagia Sophia, probably the city's most famous landmark. It was built as a Byzantine church, to out-do the temple of Soloman. When the city was captured by the Ottomans it was redecorated and transformed into a mosque. In the 1930s it was then turned into a museum, which I think just means they're allowed to charge an entry fee.

Sorry to use another cliché, but this is a city with layers of history. Literally layers which you can see in here where parts of the newer decorations are coming off, revealing Christian mosaics.It was quite difficult to photograph as it was so large but also very dark inside so most of my photos are blurry. The round Arabic medallions are not part of the original decorations they were very impressive.I'm sure this is symbolic in some way- something about religion's ability to restrict?Tourist attraction number 2 is the Sultanahmet Mosque, a.k.a. the Blue Mosque.It was designed by the famous architect Sinan and got its nickname from the blue tiles inside.
Just outside was a fountain which was a present from the Kaiser of Germany (Wilhelm II) to the Sultan. It had some lovely mosaics- I'm sure a magpie would steal it all for its collection.This is the Ottoman seal and it comes up all over the city. Rather like an Aladdin style lamp don't you think?

This is the courtyard outside the mosque at night.
Whilst I'm on the topic of Sinan's mosques, here is the Süleymaniye Mosque, a little bit older but freshly restored.

Tourist Attraction number 3 (we didn't visit all these in this order) is the underground cistern built by the Romans to supply the city with water for their Turkish baths, which at that time were still known as Roman baths for obvious reasons. The cistern was forgotten about until someone noticed people were able to get water by lowering a bucket through a hole in their cellar and sometimes the occasional fish apparently.

It is famous for two Medusa's heads which hold some columns. Apparently they were looted from some other temple, just like everything else everywhere pretty much. They were put there to scare away the real Medusa.


Here's the seal again.Another must see on a visit to Istanbul is the Sultan's palace. Dad didn't really want to go in, but I made him as I really wanted to see the harem. I may have been ignorant, but I never realised before that the Harem was for the Sultans here, I thought it was somewhere else but I'm not sure where actually. He didn't regret coming in as it was stunningly beautiful. I have many photos of beautiful tiles and all the decorations but I'm sure you want a condensed version. I think this might have been a general room for the concubines to entertain the Sultan in.
I'm glad they were practical about storage space in there.
This was another room. Many of the rooms were decorated lavishly so this is just one example.



These domes are just in part of the palace grounds.

There are many mosques in Istanbul, many of them designed in the Byzantine style (with big domes like on the photo) after the Hagia Sophia.




Pretty much everywhere in the city there were lots of very nice tiles on show which would look very nice decorations at home. It's a good job that you can try and haggle for them in the Bazaar.

One of the reasons I have always wanted to go there is the old style ferries which are a reminder of the city's former glory (not Roman times obviously, but like 19th/20th century probably)

In a city with so much history, one has to pay a visit to the Archaeological Museum. One of the best things about this was the cafe. It was in a garden amongst many statues of Medusa, other people and animals. A perfect spot for a Türk Kahvesi (Turkish coffee.)Although this did lead to some silliness which I can't demonstrate as I will get into trouble, but if you want to see it, I have the photo.

Another great cafe was on the other side of the Bosphorus, looking out over the Maiden's Tower, where James Bond averted a nuclear holocaust, towards the mosques on the European side.

Whilst on the theme of cafes, we went to on where they served the tea in elegant samovars. You pour the tea from the top one, but it is quite strong so then you dilute it as you like it with water from the bottom one.

This cafe also had a beautiful view over to Asia and you could see all the ferries going by.

"What a beautiful view!!!"

Speaking of samovars, I bought one. I haggled for it which was great fun and I got a little coffee pot into the bargain. There is a bazaar district which includes the Grand Bazaar, the worlds oldest shopping centre and the Spice Bazaar. At the Grand Bazaar I bought some nice things and of course haggled, nothing has a fixed price. I was probably paying way over the real cost but I think I got them down quite far.

The spice bazaar is for foody things, like lovely snacks...
We had this chocolate Baklava somewhere else but it is generally the sort of thing they had there.
They also have lots of Turkish delight and similar things. I bought some and it was very nice and not too expensive.
Of course the main thing you should buy in there is spices, there was plenty to go around.
Wow I've got to the end of the post.

It's kind of like Europe with an exotic twist, but kind of not like Europe at all, and probably not so similar to other Asian cities. I think the best overused phrase to describe it is One of a Kind.

This was one of my last photos, taken on my last ferry ride back to the Asian side to my airport (the "ryanair" airport of Istanbul.) One of the silliest airports ever, I was not allowed to go in. After about 20 minutes of asking the staff where I could get in for my international departure, I eventually worked out that the only place I could go in was through the "Domestic Arrivals Exit." Time for a last cup of Turkish tea (and about 6 hours) before I flew back to Germany.