Istanbul Part 2

We arrived at the hotel right as our friends were arriving.  Regine has been friends with Shanna since they both started in the same intern program in Texarkana back in 2003 (I think that was the year, but don't quote me).  Several years before we got here she got a job in Germany, and now lives and works in Wiesbaden.  Her boyfriend Marcello came with, as well as two friends of theirs, Tre & Xolani.  We'd never met Tre & Xolani before, but they were nice, and we clicked pretty fast.

After they got checked in and settled into their room, we hit the next palace on our list to see, Topkapi Palace.  This was a deceiving Palace from the outside, it didn't look nearly as big as it actually was once you were inside.  Unlike the other palace, though, the parts you could tour were primarily outdoors in the courtyard area.  The indoor areas were rooms you'd walk in, then walk right back outside.

The various rooms had all kinds of artifacts that the Sultan owned.  Unfortunately, like the other palace, no pictures were allowed inside.  One of the first rooms we went into was the weapons room.  It had all the types of weapons both practically used and for ceremony.   One amazing sword they had from the Byzantine era was a broad sword that, from handle to tip, was taller then me.  That had to be just for display...the widest part of the blade was about the width my hands put side to side.  There's no way it could be used in combat.  The jewel encrusted daggers were neat too.  They also had a ceremonial chain mail armor encrusted with jewels all over it that was neat.  The neatest thing we saw, though, was in the jewel collection room.  They had an 86 carat diamond surrounded entirely by 49 carat diamonds.  It was first found in a garbage dump, and sold to a street vendor for 3 spoons.  When it was eventually figured out what it was, it was given to the Sultan.  This diamond was HUGE.  We walked around the rest of the palace, took some pictures, then headed out.

We showed everyone around the Grand Bazaar, did some more shopping, then went to find a Hookah Lounge.  No one was really hungry at this point, but we were tired of walking and they'd been up early for their flight, so we figured relaxing with some tea & Hookah sounded like the perfect thing to do.  In our quest for dinner Wednesday night, Shanna & I had stumbled upon a Hookah lounge that looked nice, so we took them there.  These are sometimes the best parts of a trip with friends...sitting around in a new city, in a new environment, relaxing.  One neat thing they had were these huge metal pipes on the ceiling that ran all around the place.  It was obvious they were for heating the rooms, but we didn't realize until we left just how neat that process was.  Outside was a guy stoking coals .  All the metal pipes ran from inside to right above the coals, so that heat we were feeling was coming from this fire outside.

After awhile we were ready for dinner.  Near our hotel was a string of restaurants, so we headed back there.  A lot of places had guys standing out front trying to convince you to eat at their place.  We stopped at one to look at the menu outside, and when Regine appeared like she might not want to go there, the guy offered us 10 percent off our bill.   We were probably going to eat there anyway, but we weren't going to complain about 10 percent off.  The food there was DELICIOUS.  They brought out this puffy bread that looked huge, but when you cut into it, it deflated.  But it was still fantastic.  Shanna got a fish that I think was a sea bass.  I got Turkish pizza.  When we got back to the hotel that night we asked Habib to call Esra & arrange to meet us the next day for a tour of other places in the city.

At 8:30 the next morning, we got our start.  Unfortunately, despite it being a beautiful day on Friday, it was cold & wet on Saturday.  Our first place to visit were the Basilica Cisterns.  They were used as a giant water filtration system for the palaces, but today the water level has been cut off from the aquaduct that used to feed it and brought down to a tiny level.   They have fish in the water now that keep it clean.  As you walk down into the Cisterns you can't help but be overwhelmed by the huge columns and the sheer size of the place.

Esra gave us the history of the place, and took us to the back where several columns were supported by a giant stone head of Medusa.  It's unknown where these came from.

From there we headed down to the docks.  The water was choppy, but not so bad that they closed the ferry down.  When we got on the Ferry, Esra started talking about what we'd see, but it didn't take long for the ferry captain to pull away from the dock & start the tour.  Unfortunately the weather never really cooperated.  It was extremely cold & windy on the top deck, so we spent most of the time on the main level inside.  I went up top for a bit to take pictures, though.  The continental divide goes right down the river, so we started on the European side of Istanbul.  The European side is where most of the Istanbul citizens work, and the Asian side is where most live.  After we got to the suspension bridge, the boat turned around and floated up the Asian side.  There were mansions lining the coast, with costs of some going as high as $165 million.

When the ferry tour was over, we got on an underground train that went up to the higher part of the city.  It's mostly a shopping district, and when we came back up to the surface, there was a large demonstration going on.  There were also riot police standing side by side forming a barrier in case things got out of hand.  We decided to duck into a restaurant nearby and get lunch in the hopes that things would calm down while we were in there.

It did, and after lunch we continued down the shopping district street.  This was interesting, while walking down we saw some American fast food places that we haven't seen in a long time.  Who knew that Little Caesars and Arby's had operations in Turkey??  Some of the highlights of that walk was the largest Catholic Church in Istanbul tucked away behind a fence and a restaurant that looked normal from the outside, but when you walked in & upstairs, you suddenly had a great view of the Bosphorous.  Well, what would have been a great view had the weather been better.  At this point the rain turned to snow.  That was unexpected...no where in the weather report I looked at was snow forecast.   At the end of the street we heard loud yelling and a protest group was walking the street heading our way.  We got over on the side of the street, expecting them to keep going, but when they got to our spot, they stopped.  At that point they split in half, with half going to one side of the street and the other half moving towards us.  When someone lit off a flare, we got the heck out of there.  When we turned to look back, the entire street was filled with smoke.

We got back to the underground train and took it back down to the other side of town.  When we got out, we were near the oldest bridge in Istanbul.  There were fishermen lined up all along the bridge...there must have been at least a hundred poles over the side, if not more.  We crossed the bridge and decided to visit one more mosque.  This mosque was much smaller then the previous ones, but was unique because of the tiles used to cover the outside & inside of it.  They were all the original tiles used in the 16th century and were in great shape.  We had to hurry because it was getting really close to prayer time, and visitors aren't allowed in during that period.

At this point we parted ways with Esra.  Shanna & I wanted to visit one more mosque, and everyone else wanted to head back to the hotel to rest up after a long day.  Here's where we ran into a problem.  Esra took us to the tram stop, but it was closed because of a power outage.  Not just a local outage...the entire old town area was without power.  She was nice enough to walk us to the point where we could follow the tracks in the street back to our hotel.  The only thing we were disappointed in was that we couldn't go to that other mosque.  It was just too far to walk all the way there, especially in the snow.  So we walked back to the hotel.  But it was actually a peaceful walk.  Because of the power outage, there was almost no cars on the road in Old Town, just people strolling outside.  Most shops were actually still open, running on generator power.  The chestnut vendors were still out, so it was a nice walk and smelled great along the way.  The amazing thing is it even made the news in San Diego.  A friend of ours who lives out there sent us a note saying she'd heard about the snow storm & power outage in Istanbul and asked if we were ok.

For dinner no one wanted to go far, so we took them to the Cozy Pub (that was the name) we found on our first night.  There isn't much to write about, but not because we didn't enjoy ourselves.  It was really nice sitting there, eating delicious food, and enjoying some of the local food & drink.  We even ended the night with a bottle of famous Turkish liquor called Raki.  It wasn't bad!  We liked it enough to get a bottle to bring home with us.

Finally, around midnight, we called it a night and headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we all met up for breakfast before heading our separate ways.  It was a beautiful day out, the complete opposite of the day before.  Since it was such a nice day, we decided to cancel our Turkish Bath appointment and head to the Süleymaniye Mosque, the second largest in Istanbul.  Like the Blue Mosque, it was huge & impressive on the outside, and just as beautiful on the inside.  There were only a handful of people there, so it was peaceful walking through it.

One thing interesting you might have noticed is how empty mosques are.  Unlike churches, which have seats (and kneelers, depending on the denomination), there is none of that in a mosque.  People come in with their prayer rugs, lay it out on the carpet, and pray on it.  Having grown up in churches, this was something completely new to me...I didn't even think of them not having any seating.

When we read the description of this mosque it mentioned that the namesake of the mosque, Sultan Süleymaniye, was buried there.  Sure enough, in the back, was a series of tombs & graves, including his.

After this, we still had 2 hours to kill.  I had gotten an iPhone app that showed a map of all attractions, and worked with the GPS to show ones near you.  I pulled it up see what was in the area, and it turns out there were two mosques nearby.  One was formerly an Eastern Orthodox Church, built sometime between the 9th and 12th centuries.  In the 13th century it became a Catholic Church, and in the 15th century it became a mosque, which it still functions as today.  This turned out to be a real gem.  It was tucked away in an alley, and is one we never would have found without the App.  Inside you could tell it was old...it still had the original columns and was amazing to walk through.

We headed to one more mosque, then made our way back to the hotel.  We were already packed, and the shuttle driver was already there waiting for us.  After checking out, the hotel had one more thing for us...a complimentary CD with Turkish music on it.

All in all, this was an amazing experience.  Istanbul is one of (if not the) most exotic city I've ever been to.  It has so much history behind it, and the people were incredibly friendly.  I also didn't realize how close Troy and the World War I battlefield of Gallipoli were.  We will definitely be back to Turkey.  If you ever have the chance to visit the country, jump on it...you won't regret it.

To see pictures, click here or any picture in this post.

Istanbul Part 1

This past week Shanna & I decided to take a long weekend for MLK weekend.  There had been various places we'd kicked around going to, but decided it would be a good time to try Istanbul, Turkey.  We found a great deal on direct flights & a hotel right in the heart of the old town area.

On Wednesday morning I dropped the dogs off at the kennel, then we headed to the metro which took us to the airport.  It was a quick 3 hour flight, and by 3pm we were in Istanbul.  The weather was cold & rainy, but it was supposed to clear up the next day, so I wasn't too concerned.  Because we were staying for more then three nights, the hotel offered a free shuttle service.  We've done the hotel shuttle service a few times at previous places, and it's always nice to walk out of baggage claim and have someone waiting there for you to load your bags in a car and drive you straight there.

When we arrived, as is standard every time we travel, the hotel had to take our passports to log them in, which takes about 5 minutes.  While we waited in the lobby, they brought us out hot tea.  I'm not a tea drinker, but I figured since we were here, I might as well try the local variety.  It wasn't bad...Shanna, who does drink tea, really liked it.  Below is a picture Shanna took of me waiting in the lobby.

After everything was set, they took our bags to our room and we got settled in.  We've stayed in our fair share of European hotel rooms, and this was by far one of the largest.  It even had a small balcony looking over the street below.  I had decided on this hotel when booking for a few reasons.  First, the reviews raved about the level of service from the employees.  So far, that was right on the money.  Second was the amazing view from the top floor.  That's where breakfast was served every morning, but I didn't want to wait, so I headed up stairs to look at it.  The rain had died down, and it was mostly clear out.  The view did not disappoint.  You could see over the entire city, and had amazing views of the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia (I'll explain more about them later in the post).  Below is a shot of the Blue Mosque lit up at night.

It looked more like a spaceship then a mosque.  We spoke with Habib at the front desk, who couldn't have been more helpful.  We've gotten to the point where if at all possible, we try & hire a private guide to take us around.  It's more expensive then a conventional tour, but you get so much more out of it.  We initially asked Habib about getting a guide, and before we knew it, he had taken out a piece of paper and drawn out an entire itinerary of things we should see over the next few days, as well as "optional" things if we had time & were interested.  He also said the hotel worked closely with a guide who would take us around & show us the "highlights" of the old town area the next day if we were interested.  We definitely were, so he set that all up for us.  Since the weather was so bad that night, we decided to just walk around a little bit, get dinner, then call it a night.  We briefly walked around the Grand Bazaar, then came back to the hotel.

The next morning at breakfast the view was even more spectacular.  We could see the Golden Horn, Bosphorus, Sea of Marmara, as well as the half of Istanbul that was on the Asian continent.  When we were done we headed downstairs and were met by Esra, our guide.  Right off the bat we were comfortable with her.  Before we left she laid out a map and showed us all the places we'd be visiting.  We also got to know each other a little bit and found out she's been doing tours since 1993, and one of the main things she does is organize trips for Turkish people to visit the US.  She'd been to NY, DC, Atlantic City, and one of her favorite cities was San Diego.

We headed out of the hotel, and to our first destination, the area where the Hippodrome used to be.  I was disappointed that there were no more remnants of it left.  The Hippodrome was used when the Romans were in the area as a Chariot racing track.  By the time the Ottoman Empire took the city over in 1453, it was already ancient ruins.  Over the next 500 years, it decayed more & more until it was just paved over.  All that remains are the obelisks that were in the center of the track that were brought from Egypt in 390AD.

One neat thing in that area is the German Fountain.  It was given as a gift from Kaiser Wilhelm to the Sultan in 1901.  Apparently the two of them and Francis Joseph of Austria were good friends.  We found that out later on when we toured the Sultan's palace and there were paintings of the three of them there.  Right across from there was the Museum for Islamic Arts.  This is a museum we probably wouldn't have visited on our own, but it was actually really interesting with Esra there telling us about it.  The museum used to be the palace of the Grand Vizier whose wife was the Sultan's sister.  Now it's a museum that showcases the Nomad Turks and the famous Turkish Carpets.

Next up was the Blue Mosque.  Shanna & I have been to cities all over Europe in the 2 years we've been here, and seen a lot of things, but until now, they'd all been historically Christian.  This was our first time in a Mosque and a city that was historically Islamic.  The first thing you notice is the size of the Mosque.  It was enormous.  Since the mosque was still actively used, we had to take our shoes off before entering.  Once inside, we found a place to sit while Esra told us about the place.  The Blue Mosque is not it's actual name, it's a nickname visitors have given it over the years because of the abundance of blue paint used.  It's real name is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque.  It was completed in 1616, and for awhile, was subject to some controversy because of the number of Minarets (the tall Spires outside) it had.  At the time, the Mosque in Mecca also had six minarets, and people thought it might confuse pilgrims into thinking they were at Mecca.  They easily solved this problem, though, by building a seventh minaret in Mecca.  To date, it's the only mosque with seven spires.  Another neat thing was the lighting.  The ceiling was extremely tall, but the lights hung only a few feet above my head.  The reason being was before electricity, they were oil burning.  By keeping them low, it prevented damage to the ceiling.  Also, at that level, the cross draft would push the smoke right out the back door, preventing it from building in the mosque.

We headed out from there to the Hagia Sophia right across the street.  First up, though, was a trip into the Turkish Bath's.  Esra wanted us to see them and see if we were interested in making a reservation.  They were beautiful inside, so we decided to make reservations for Sunday morning before our flight out.

The Hagia Sophia is one of the most impressive places we visited all weekend, and I'd even go so far as to say one of the most impressive buildings I've ever been in period.  It was built & destroyed twice between it's first iteration in 360AD and it's final, current iteration completed in 537.  Between 537 and 1453, it was used as an Eastern Orthodox church and a Catholic Church.  In 1453, when the Turks took over the city, it was converted into a Mosque.  Here's the strange thing.  Instead of destroying the Christian symbols inside, the Turks plastered over them to hide them.  In 1931, it was converted to a museum.  When they started to do the restoration and removed the plaster, they found that it had perfectly preserved the ancient Christian mosaics.  Images that never would have lasted this long looked like they were painted yesterday.  The result was some amazing religious duality.  At the front of the inside of it you had the Arabic symbol for Muhammed on the left, the Arabic symbol for Allah on the right, and in between, a mosaic of Mary & Jesus.

At this point we were getting a little hungry, so Esra took us to a small restaurant in back alley she liked.  Along the way Shanna mentioned that I had wanted to visit the town of Batman if it was close.  Esra had a look of total confusion on her face, and asked why in the world I'd want to visit there.  It's not close, and there's nothing to see or do there.  Then suddenly it clicked...she realized I wanted to go because the name was "Batman".  She was laughing so hard she almost had tears coming down her face.  Yeah yeah...what can I say, I thought it'd be awesome to say I was in Batman, Turkey. :)  At the restaurant we shared a large plate of vegetables cooked in olive oil, and we each had a bowl of Lentil soup.  The vegetable plate was delicious, but our favorite part was the grape leaves wrapped around rice and soaked in olive oil.  We liked it so much we ordered it several more times that weekend at other places.

After lunch it was time for the Carpet Shopping experience.  A good friend of ours had recently been to Istanbul and said that even if we didn't want to buy a carpet, we should go through the experience because of how enjoyable it was.  When we walked in they greeted us and took us downstairs to the carpet area.  We sat down on comfy plush chairs, and they served us hot tea.  Once we were settled, the "show" started.  They would bring out carpet after carpet made from Silk, Wool and Cotton and put them out on display for us, talking about them and the stories each pattern told.  We also got to watch a lady hand weave the carpet.  That was INCREDIBLE.  Her hands were flying over the loom so fast I couldn't tell what she was doing.  She then slowed it down so we could see, and I couldn't believe she had been doing that so fast.  One thing we learned here was I'm an awful haggler, but Shanna's great.  We found an antique carpet we really liked, and Shanna was able to haggle them down significantly from the original price.  We hadn't planned on buying a carpet, but loved one in particular.  The only concern I had was Murphy has a tendency to sometimes pee on rugs.  I didn't want to spend money on a carpet only to have him relieve himself on it.  The first time he did he'd become an outdoor dog.  But they said they could sew in little rungs to hang it on the wall, so that's what we'll do.  They offer free shipping world wide, so it should arrive at our house in 4-5 weeks!

From there we walked through the tiny streets & alleys until we got to the Grand Bazaar.  At that point it was late afternoon, and time for one of the 5 times a day Muslims are required to pray.  To let you know it's time, a man called a Muezzin chants in Arabic.  Before electricity he'd climb to the top of one of the minarets at the mosque and his voice would carry over the city.  Now they have giant speakers hooked up on all minarets across the city.  I didn't know that it wasn't recorded, though.  They use a speaker system, but it's still a human being chanting live...it's never been a recording.  It was neat to hear it called out over the city while we walked through the Grand Bazaar, knowing that 500 years ago people here were doing the exact same thing that we were doing right now.

The Grand Bazaar is a huge labyrinth of shops and vendors selling all kinds of things.  Everything from brand names to things hand made locally, you could find it here.  I got my standard Stein that I get from every new country we visit, and Shanna got all kinds of little things.  It seemed like every other vendor there knew Esra and would say hi to her, then offer us the "best price, guaranteed".  On the first night we were there, I hated how pushy they were, but by this point I'd gotten used to it and just considered it part of the experience.

Our last stop with Esra after that was the Spice Market.  This was really neat...it was small, but crowded with a ton of shops selling all kinds of spices, meats, cheeses, tea and other food.  We went into one store where Esra knew the owners, and they let us sample all kinds of desserts.  Of course, they also served us tea.  I drank more tea over that weekend then I have in my entire life.  Turkish Delight, the name they have for these treats, consist of sugar, gel and various fruits.  It might not sound all that appealing, but it was actually really good.  We ended up getting a few packages for ourselves and friends, and Shanna bought some apple tea from them.

Outside the Spice Market was the fish market.  It was funny watching them because the vendor shops were built into the side of a building.  On top of the building was an entire army of sea gulls just sitting there.  Every time a piece of fish would drop on the ground, the vendors would pick it up and throw it up on the roof for the birds.  In that area was a restaurant that Esra said had the best Baklava in the city.  Since I didn't try every vendor, that's impossible to say, but it WAS the best we would have all weekend.  It practically melted in your mouth.   We got Esra's contact info and told her we might user her again on Saturday when our friends came into town.

That night we were tired from walking around all day, so we found a pub, ate dinner and called it a night.

The next morning it was BEAUTIFUL.  Not a cloud in the sky, but it was cold.  Our friends were flying in early that afternoon, but we had all morning to do something, so we decided to tour a few palaces.  Right on the water is Dolmabahçe Palace, former home of the Sultan.  It's huge, and an impressive sight from the water.

We took the tram and it dropped us off five minutes from the palace.  When we got there, we were disappointed to see it followed the same trend that seems to be sweeping Europe, which is no pictures allowed inside.  I get the no flash rule because of what constant light exposure can do to antiques, but no pictures period is ridiculous.  They'll gladly sell you pictures in the gift shop at the end though.  It's really too bad, too because the palace was amazing on the inside.  Before we could start the tour, though, we had to put pink plastic caps around our shoes.  They looked like shower caps.  I almost couldn't get them on my big feet.  Once it inside, it was beautiful.  His bathing room was made entirely of marble.  The ceiling, walls, and floor, all marble.  There were huge windows that faced the river from inside the bathing area.  The staircase that led to the Grand Ceremonial room was amazing.  The railing was all marble, and are you ready for this?  The banisters were all made from crystal.  All this lead to the Grand Ceremonial room that was HUGE.  It was 80 meters high and the dome at the top was 25 meters across.  Hanging from the dome was the largest crystal chandelier I've ever seen, weighing in at 4.5 tons.    After that section, we went outside and to the back, where we toured the Harem section.  This was the area where the Sultan's wives and mother lived.  It was interesting, but as you can imagine, not nearly as impressive as where the Sultan lived.

We didn't have time at this point to visit the second palace, so we hopped on the tram and went back to the hotel to meet up with our friends.

In looking over the size of this post, I'm going to split it up into two posts.

Click here or any picture in this post to see all the pictures from the trip.

To continue on to Part 2, click here.