Friday: Istanbul - a Turkish Delight

No entry for Thursday October 18th. This was an at sea day and we just bummed about the ship and rested up for the upcoming main event of this trip - Istanbul! - afk.


Friday, October 19th, 2012: Istanbul, a Turkish Delight

 

(Steve writing) I was jostled awake at 6:30AM as the ship shuddered as it pulled near the dock in Istanbul. Outside our balcony we could see the lights of nearby apartments on the hill overlooking the passenger ship terminal in the “New District” of the city. Since it was going to be an “early start” day, we ordered a small room service breakfast (which Celebrity does quite well, I might add): coffee, orange juice, and some croissants.

We met up with Michael and Shaun at 7:45 and were able to get off the ship just before 8AM. We had a little trouble finding our guide, but he was there outside the gate to the terminal. His name was Caspar, probably late 20s, cute, and very personable. We found out that he was originally from Poland, spent a year in the U.S. as an exchange student (in Arkansas, of all places), and had also lived for a little while in France and then four years in Barcelona. He’s been in Istanbul almost two years.

Michael had booked the tour using a website that featured individuals who gave unusual types of tours. Caspar was taking us to one of the best breakfast places in Istanbul, and then for a traditional Turkish coffee with a view of the Bosporus.

We walked about twenty minutes, most of it very uphill in that very neighborhood (Galatasary) that we viewed outside our balcony. Nothing like cardio first thing in the morning! The area we walked through was bustling at this hour, with well-dressed people heading to work or school. The apartment buildings were vintage late 19^th century and with a few Art Deco examples here and there; very pleasant. We also passed through Taksim square.

The restaurant we went to was called “Van Kahvalti Evi” and Caspar had a great rapport with the owner. It was a small place, fairly quiet at this hour (on weekends, apparently, there is a line out the door). Caspar took care of the ordering. Soon we were enjoying delicious cheeses, a Turkish version of tzatziki (here called “jadjik”), fresh baked bread (oh – the endless baked goods for sale in this city! The Turks are crazy for bread), and tea. There were also some delicious hard-boiled eggs and one scrambled egg dish with tomatoes and green peppers. It was a relaxed and delightful meal, and for the five of us the cost was about TL79 (less than $50). TL is Turkish Lira, and is currently at 1.70 per $1.00.

After breakfast, we walked a few blocks away to the “5. Kat Café Bar Restaurant”. “5. Kat” literally means “fifth floor”, which is where this rooftop restaurant was located. We were only up there for the spectacular views afforded from the terrace. Istanbul really does impress: with the ever-present water of the Bosporus, the city straddles Europe and Asia in more than just physical location. It combines its Asiatic trading history with European sensibilities.

From there we walked down the hill again, this time stopping at a sidewalk café above a dusty park for traditional (read: thick) Turkish coffee. We enjoyed the views of our ship just below this park (I remember seeing it from our balcony this morning). The coffee was sludgy, but I suppose that’s part of the experience  (I beg to differ. This coffee was not that good. Both of my other experiences with Turkish coffee were vastly superior to this, but it was a very pleasant spot to sit and take in the sun and the glorious view of the city – afk.).

We continued down the hill (it was quite a hike up there, remember) and eventually made our way to the T1 tram line, which would take us from Tophane (in the New District) into the Old Town (across the Galata bridge that spans the Golden Horn). The very modern and clean tram was TL3.00 per person, with easy-to-use token machines at each stop. I was surprised they used tokens, which looked like plastic casino chips, just smaller. Anyway, they worked, and in about ten minutes we exited at Eminonu, just steps away from the Spice Market.

The Spice Market, built over 350 years ago, was shaped like a large “L”, and surprised me in being airier and wider than I was expecting. There were probably over a hundred small stores, most with their wares displayed out into the main walkway. The piles of colorful spices were a photographer’s dream, not to mention the number of attractive men selling those wares (Istanbul was monkey heaven). Everyone was jockeying for your business, calling out to you in whatever language they thought you might speak (I seemed to get a lot of Spanish). (True on both counts. I had been particularly looking forward to going to the Spice Market; world renowned for the quantity, quality, and variety of fabulous spices found there. The men in Istanbul, WELL… let’s just say that if everyone gets their own personal Heaven, mine would be filled with a high percentage of Turks: short, swarthy, and furry. Yum! - afk).

After we made it through the market (without buying anything), we parted company with Caspar. We ambled up the curvy, narrow streets toward the Grand Bazaar. The Grand Bazaar dates back to Byzantine times, and is considered the world’s first “shopping mall”. Its scale made the Spice Market look like a kid’s lemonade stand: over 4,000 different merchants in a building covering many square blocks. You could easily get lost  in its maze of aisles. Here’s some shocking news: Allan said he was “too overwhelmed” to shop there.  In our case, we were so shell-shocked by the endless choices and persistent hard-selling that we escaped after only 15 minutes, never to return on this trip. (Shocking as it may seem for those who know me, it really was the most incredible sensory overload I’ve ever experienced being in that place with thousands of shops. I simply couldn’t even begin to think about making a choice when there were twenty or thirty shops within the next few hundred feet offering the same goods. My mind reeled, and rebelled completely. – afk).

We made our way in the bright autumn sunshine up to one of the more main roads in the Old District and walked east toward the Hagia Sophia (which means “Divine Wisodom” in Greek), the Great Church of Constantinople. It was started in 532AD and completed in 537 during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian as the headquarters of the Eastern Roman Church (Rome at this point was in its moribund decay). Like Saint Peters in Rome, the structure was huge. Unlike St. Peters (built 1,000 years later), the church was converted into a mosque when the Ottoman’s took over in 1453. They whitewashed or plastered over most of the Byzantine artwork (which ironically managed to preserve some of them). In the 1930s, after Turkey became an independent country, the structure was converted into a museum, which it remains to this day.

It was a stunningly enormous space, breathtaking like St. Peters, but much more open. It was designed in the classic basilica style, with a large nave flanked by rows of columns and narrow side aisles. The dome is 185 feet high and 105 feet in circumference. Since the conversion to a museum, some of the mosaics were uncovered, and the huge Arabic script medallions with the names of the prophets and caliphs is still in place from its years as a mosque.

We spent at least an hour walking around, following Rick Steves’ walking tour. The upper galleries were reached not by a stairway, but by a series of ramps. Apparently this was to aide those of higher rank who were carried upstairs in sedan chairs, or chose to ride their horses. The views from the upper gallery featured some beautiful mosaics in the Byzantine style. All in all, it was an incredible (and thrilling) experience.

After taking in all of this, we decided to go to a nearby restaurant recommended in the guidebook, Sultanhamet Köftecisi. It was cheap and low-key and we all had the specialty of the house: köfte (Turkish meatballs), along with salad and much-needed cold drinks. Many locals were eating there, and it gave us a chance to recharge.

We headed back to the area of the Hagia Sophia, only this time veering toward the famous Blue Mosque. The Blue Mosque was completed in 1616 and features six minarets. After warding off would-be guides and some confusion on where to enter, we removed our shoes (carrying them in plastic bags) before entering the mosque. Visitors are not allowed during the five times of prayer, but we timed it well. The space was large and beautifully decorated in blue tiles. Vast red carpets covered the floors, and enormous lighting fixtures (originally oil lamps with floating wicks, now electric). It was an amazing space, but fatigue was starting to set in.

Our original plan was to visit a hamam (Turkish bath) at this point, but instead we plunged into the vaster-than-we-imagined Topkapi Palace. The palace sits in a park-like setting the easternmost tip of the Old Town peninsula, at a strategic point between the Bosporus Strait and the Sea of Marmara. From the 1470s it was the seat of power for the Ottoman Empire, occupied for over 400 years by a single dynasty of Sultans and their heirs.

(I was not happy with the decision to go on to the Topkapi Palace. That was not in our discussed original plan. I thought we should save it for the next morning when we could start fresh, so I was fairly cranky throughout and getting more tired by the minute. Once we were through the gates though my spirits lifted a bit as I saw the magnificence of this place. My shutter finger itched, and I was off. I must have taken at least 500 photos at Topkapi. Many of those were impossible for the others to catch because it was so dark in the interior spaces – especially the Harem. A vast and marvelous place with the most exquisite tile and mosaics I’ve ever seen outside of Italy - afk)

The grounds were beautiful and filled with trees; even some large older ones that had been struck by lightning were already sprouting new growth. If it weren’t for the large numbers of people touring the palace, the atmosphere would have been serene. We first did the optional tour of the rooms that were occupied by the Sultan’s mother and the harem. Westerners think of harems as being a bunch of sex toys for the Sultan, but as it turns out, the real story was quite different. The Arabic word “harem” means “forbidden”. The Sultan allowed up to four wives, with several hundred female slaves as concubines. The Sultan (or his mother) would select up to four favorites. If one of these favorites bore him a child, she was treated similarly as a wife.

Split among four huge courtyards, and it took us several hours to get to the last (with spectacular views over the water). One section in the third courtyard was the Hall of Holy Relics. These were Muslim artifacts that would be better appreciated by those knowing the Q’ran (a footprint of Mohammed, Moses’ staff, bone fragments from John the Baptist, etc.). Another section was the Imperial Treasury, where Allan ooh’d and ahh’d over swords with precious jewels and gifts from other countries. By the time we got to the Circumcision room in the fourth courtyard we were exhausted.

Allan was cranky at this point (understandably so), and we had to completely backtrack our way through the four courtyards just to get out of there. Then we had to make it back to the nearest tram station to get back to the ship. It was a Friday rush-hour, and the trams were packed. We finally made it back to the ship at 7:30.

After an hour’s time to re-group, we met for dinner in the Silhouette Dining Room. No Monopoly this night. We went to bed early in order to get a good start on our second day in this amazing city.