We arrived in Istanbul on the Asia side to immediately be met with a wonderful courtesy car. We were ushered to a fantastic black Mercedes, inside were two rows of seats facing with quilted leather seats. The ceiling was lit up the sides had hidden lights and we were offered water and chocolates. All free courtesy of booking .com high level usage! We were driven to the Europe side of Istanbul which meant we had traveled two continents in one day and we got to see more of Istanbul than we would otherwise.
Our hostel was friendly and had a great view across the Bosphorus, it was in a great location within walking distance of the main tourist sites. We’ve enjoyed meeting up with other travelers and getting to know them,
- The evening Bosphorus cruise is well worth it. A three course meal, unlimited drinks, all the beautiful lit up sights and entertainment, folk dances and belly dance. we thoroughly enjoyed our evening.
We also did a daytime cruise just so we could see it all in daylight
2. Many of the buildings near us offer terrace restaurants. A lively place to see the sunset. We managed to pick a lovely warm evening to eat Turkish food and enjoy the view.
I’ve had to start adapting my tastes, In Romania the tea was awful, but here there is a variety of teas available. I got given a free taste of pomegranate tea early on and was then recommended apple tea which became a favourite along with of course Turkish tea.
Food is generally more expensive than expected unless we travel across to a different area so we are hoping that once we leave Istanbul it will generally become less expensive. Having said that we have enjoyed the food just not the price.
3. We are at the cross over of religions here. A city that converted to Christianity under Constantinople and the first council of Constantinople agreed the church creeds. Later the city was conquered by the Ottoman empire and Islam became the main religion. Many churches were converted to mosques such as the hagia Sophia. As such, many of the sights are beautiful mosques.
We visited the blue mosque, one of the main attractions
I also visited the Suleymaniye mosque
We also visited a whirling Dervish ceremony. It was really interesting to find what it represents. It is a mystic form of faith. The participants dress represents there death from self, with the white dress being a shroud, the black cloak they wear is the grave and the tall hat a tombstone. We couldn’t quite workout what the red dresses meant.
We got to a church service in English in the Dutch Consulate. We went up a steep alley way and found the entrance most surprisingly there. We had to go through security to get into the consulate; a first, going through security to go to church.
Of course I had to visit the bazaars. Everywhere you go here there are carpet shops, silk shops etc and loads of restaurants. It seems every person you talk to has a cousin with a rug shop!
The inspection chamber covers in the bazaars were all quite interesting
We also learnt a lot about the local history. We visited the sights of the hippodrome and learnt about it in the Cistern Art Gallery
We also visited the Bascillica cistern which used to supply all the water for Istanbul. Navigation would have been by boat then, fish were kept there for cleaning the water, as an early warning system for poison and food. Most of the columns were reused from previous building so the tops were quite fancy and varied
the medusa head featured on a couple of columns with various theories about why.
The cistern also features various art works
The last visit was to the Topkapi Palace and the fascinating stories of how the Palace worked and supported the Sultan.
Visitors progress through 4 Courtyards gradually getting more intimate. Envoys might stay weeks in the second courtyard hoping to see the king meanwhile being impressed by all they saw.
The throne room was in the third courtyard the fourth more about everyday living.
The harem was a fascinating insight. Concubines were trained and educated in the court’s ways for future roles and marriages to important men who served the Sultan. The Sultans mother- his most trusted allie lived here and he could relax here free of rivals
Lastly the church, this wasn’t converted to a mosque but used as an armoury. So although the structure is magnificent it isn’t as pretty
It seemed that the political unrest followed us with protests on many of the days we were in Istanbul. Thankfully we managed to avoid it all although many of us saw crowds and heard shouting.
We’ve now left Istanbul for the rest of Turkey