Greetings reader old and new, and welcome to another set of ramblings bought to you by Steven while in a foreign land… This time, from Istanbul (no, not Constantinople).
Thanks to a lack of outbound companion voucher flights to Israel and a want to have come and visit for a while, I find myself writing while sat on a rocking chair on the balcony, listening to the call to prayer going on in the background.
This morning at an ungodly hour, I made my way to Heathrow, where I was soon to learn that the baggage carousels “Don’t start work” til 4.30, and the BA Lounge doesn’t open til 5.
Once the bag was dropped and I was fed, we boarded the flight where I promptly tried my best to sleep. Having done so many Transatlantic flights last year, I found this one a little short (It was only about 3.5 hours!)… but then I had made it to Istanbul!
From the airport, I hopped into a taxi and headed to the hotel to dump my bag and have a little nap. Nap didn’t happen as the housekeeping team helped me to put the AC on for me to find out shortly later that it was only blowing hot as the cold is “off for the winter”.
Eventually, nap given up on, I put on some shorts and headed out to the Galata Tower. (Shorts were a MISTAKE, and would soon be replaced with trousers – spot the tourist!)
Galata Tower was opened in 1349 and provides great views over the city of Istanbul and beyond. I’m not entirely convinced the Lifts containing floor to ceiling screens which panned across Istanbul during the ascent were original from 1349, but who am I to judge?
While up the Galata Tower we were looking down on some form of rooftop studio… I wouldn’t be surprised if you see the footage on the Eurovision song contest entry for Tukey this year….
Inside the tower, on the way down was a collection of pots, pans an ornaments from Istanbul over the years, some of which were pretty cool!
The stairs were incredibly tight and I bumped my head a number of times but they made a great aesthetic and seemed more legit than the lifts…
My favourite exhibit in the collection however, was this….
From the Galata Tower, I started to walk down to the Golden Horn and snapped a photo of a street cat, who then turned around to star face on in the second attempt…
I walked down to the Atatürk Bridge and crossedt he Golden Horn, taking far to many photos of the train that stops halfway. (I might do something funky with them later on…)
Once on the other side of the Golden Horn, I wondered the streets a little – it’s very easy to just go for a wander and take in the endless market style shops and stalls and look at all the things you have no reason to buy… and some thing you want anyway!
I stopped for some dinner, before walking to the Basilica Cistern. The Basilica Cistern is the largest of the many underground cisterns in Istanbul for water storage, and dates back to the year 527!
It’s super beautiful so I will let the photos do the talking…
The lighting changes tone every few minutes revealing different aspects of the stone work…
Also, toward the back are two rather strange columns with carvings of Medusa!
The poor man in this photo thought he tried to help me by taking a similar photo of me… but my camera didn’t take the photo… I don’t speak Turkish, he doesn’t speak English and we had a hilarious non-language conversation… alas, no photo… This particular column dates back to the end of the 4th Century!
I walked back toward the Golden Horn via the very pretty Gülhane Park, and took some photos of the lovely flowers, while locals partook in their Iftar meals in the grass…
My walk took me back past Yeni Cami, one of the lesser known but still incredibly pretty mosques (Dating back to the 17th Century)
I wandered across the Galata Bridge, looking at all the restaurants on the underside of the bridge (while the tram/road goes on top), before snapping this, ft. Moody sky…
Finally, I was lazy and went on the incredibly creatively named “Tunnel”. The second oldest underground train in the world (after the Tube!) with literally just two stops, it bought me nicely up to the hill by my hotel! (More on “Tunnel” to come, I’m sure!)
Right… I’m off to the giant indoor jacuzzi in my room (I’m not sure why it’s there… I didn’t book it.. but I’m embracing it…) and then bed because I’m shattered!
Welcome back to Istanbul (not Constantinople) part 2! I’m back in the rocking chair on the balcony writing for the second evening running…
The hot tub in the background features later in the day…
This morning began in the bustling breakfast room of the Hotel. There was pretty much anything and everything on display for perusal – not much fruit, but almost anything else you could imagine. I settled for a few slices of toast covered with honey I took from the honeycomb on the buffet (as you do)… a few pieces of traditional bread, and some Turkish Delight and nuts…. when in Turkey and all that!
There were no empty tables in the breakfast room so I ended up making friends with a very interesting Austrian lady who was here visiting “The bad parts of town”… she had family here, and she comes back regu larly… She also told me at the end of WW2, her father walked home to Austria from Poland once he escaped internment. She was not forthcoming with any more details so I did not push!
From Breakfast I wandered down to the Neve Shalom Synagogue and Jewish Museum. I learned all about how the Jews came to Istanbul following the Spanish expulsion – How they integrated, formed a unified community and how they have had a rich history here.
The Chandelier makes the shape of a Magen David
As someone who is incredibly Ashkenazi (Eastern European Jewish)… and by incredibly, I mean 99.7% according to my DNA test, many of the things about the Sephardi (Spanish) culture are interesting to me as they are similar, yet different.
Turkish Sephardi Torah Scrolls
While there are actually now both Sephardi and Ashkenazi Synagoges in Istanbul, a chance conversation showed me the similarities – I was in the foyer of the synagogue looking at the memorial to the two terrorist attacks that damaged the building and killed congregants and got talking to the people stood there.
One of the men, made Aliyah (Moved to Israel) when he was 14, but as a child this was his Synagogue. I don’t think he’d been back since he was a kid, (and was now in his late 50s) and was recalling stories to his family and friends (who also happened to be local Turkish jews)… he said that as a kid he used to go to Synagogue… sit with his dad, and then go upstairs to sit with his grandma to be shown off to all her friends and spoiled rotten with sweets…. We had the same story. <3
Neve Shalom from the Ladies Gallery
We also had an amazing conversation about the difference between being Jewish and practising and how special it was to be Jewish but it was mutually exclusive to being religious.
The Exerior… Note the hidden Chanukiah!
From Neve Shalom, I walked into a film set (literally) and ended up stumbling up the Camondo Stairs to get out the way – I didn’t get a photo in the panic!
From there I walked down to the Golden Horn, and walked accross the Galata Bridge again. This time, I wandered through the Egyptian Spice Market… I will be going back there tomorrow!
From the Spice market, I wandered over to the Topkapi Palace! (I had to look up how to write this, as in my head all day I’ve been saying Teppenyaki!!). Ordered to be built in 1459 by Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, and serving as the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire and the home to it’s sultans up until 1856, it’s a pretty impressive piece of work…
One of the buildings the sultan himself lived inA fun reflective shot… My new sofa arrives Tuesday…Some of the painting was breath taking……and so were the tiles!A wild me in the sultan’s drawing room! Even more tile porn. Interesting courtyard tile art!
From the Palace, I walked through the gardens down to the Hagia Irene – a greek orthodox church, Technically the second largest in Istanbul, which is now a museum.
By Museum it’s pretty much just a shell… the photos of inside were pretty unenthralling as most of the center was covered by fencing for what looked like building work, and nets collecting bird poop!
But a large cross was visible!
From the Hagia Irene, I wandered out and over to the Blue Mosque… which was closed…
Closed for Refurbishment…
So I wandered back over the square to the Hagia Sophia…
Not closed!
I got there just in time for the afternoon prayers…. there was a rush, and where I could go was a little limited, but all the same, I popped my shoes off and went inside.
It was breathtakingly huge…. and impressive… and just an incredible feat of engineering and art… Now when I said Hagia Irene was techincally the second largest Church… that was because Hagia Sophia was originally a church, that was converted to a mosque in 1943.
Guardian Angels on the ceiling…
From 1935 til 2020 Hagia Sophia was a museum however the current Turkish president changed the status back to mosque through a series of technicalities as a way to win over some of his more religious subjects…. This has resulted in some of the leftover church features being covered up…
Mary hides behind the white sheet…
While others are a little more difficult to hide…
I left Hagia Sophia, and headed back to the hotel. It was warm, I was warm, I wanted to chill out for a little bit before I headed out to dinner so thought I’d try the rooftop/balcony Jacuzzi.
This was not my finest hour. It transpires I was too long for the bath, so couldn’t find a comfy position whereby I was actually submerged in the water, and it also transpires the secluded rooftop balcony, was not as secluded as one might think when your neighbours appear on the actual roof of their building…
From a risqué bath, I headed out to dinner, via Taksim Square and yet another beautifully lit mosque
For dinner, I shlapped out to the only Kosher restaurant in Istanbul (that I could find)… I guess this is becoming a feature of this blog – “Eating in a questionable far flung Kosher Restaurant so you don’t have to”…
As it happens, good choices were made!
A proper Turkish in Turkey!
The guy in charge didn’t speak much English, I don’t speak any Turkish, so we settled on a combination of English and Hebrew… A good warmup for my next stop!
From Caffe Eden, I wandered down to get a view of the 15th of July Martyrs Bridge (Named after those who died in an attempted coup on the bridge)… and wow am I glad I did…
From the bridge, I took a wander back to the main road and just before hopping in a taxi, I accidentally stumbled upon another Synagogue to round the day off nicely!
I’m off to weigh my suitcase now to work out how much stuff I can buy at the Bazzar and spice market tomorrow… Early start – I’m off on a Cruise up the Bosphorus!
For the last time, Good Evening London, Good evening world, Istanbul Calling!
Today started with a “reasonable” wake up call which resulted in a slightly less busy breakfast room… After a quick breakfast, I hot footed it down to “Tunnel” – to make my way downhill to Karakoy to make it over the Galata Bridge and to the ferry port.
The ferry company in Istanbul offers a pretty much full day tour – 10:30-16:30 almost all the way up the Bosphorous Strait to the North Sea… All for the very pricey sum of 65 Turkish Lira…. or £2.70.
In the queue to get tickets I made friends with Karen and Ed from the USA (shoutout to you if you’re reading!), all thanks to a man attempting to silently push in the queue… I used my best being British and a very quiet tut to ensure he was not pushing in!
A pretty nice view from the Port of Eminonu.
The Bosphorus is BUSY – it’s a prime shipping lane from Russia and hundreds of ships per day pass through – 48,000 per year which is 3-4 times more than the Panama Canal or Suez Canal.
But there was also plenty of wildlife too… like this guy who kept flying alongside us…
As we sailed up the Bosphorus we passed lots of incredible buildings, mosques, palaces and all sorts….
Dolmabahçe Palace
Karen was, quite rightly obsessed with this MAHOOSIVE flag of Turkey up the hill…
Work decided to follow me…
There was genuinely LOADS to see from the boat
Rumeli HisanNot sure what this was but it looked cool…
When you reach the top of the Bosphorus, you dock at the tinest town – Anadolu Kavağı on the Asian Side, just south of the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge. Looking at the bridge now, I have found its the 5th tallest of any bridge in the world and is one of the widest!
Anadolu Kavağı is really a tiny town, where it turns out they don’t speak much English… Karen and Ed had an amazing book (a bit like lonely planet) which recommended a bakery – we thought we’d get something to see us through before we went on a short hike.
What unfolded in the bakery, I cannot do justice to explaining here, but involved frustrated language from both sides, lots of gesticulation and shouting of the word “Potertoy” which transpired to be… Potato. I had my eye on the single roll left there, but after much confusion and me shouting “ONE-ONE” whilst doing single digit hand gestures, Karen got her pastry, I got my roll and we set off.
The cabaret of the bakery, however was concluded with us all trying the rather large pot of Potertoy pastry and each of us concluding it was horrible! The single roll was lovely, and we all shared that!
We left the town and hiked up the hill through the military controlled zone (We’re asking no questions… cameras away) to Yoros Castle…. or at least the remains of it…
Some stones in the shape of a castle.
What was lacking in castle was certainly not lacking in view!
There I am between the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge bridge… Thanks Ed! An artsy one…The view south toward Istanbul!
Whilst hiking we made more friends with the most intriguing New Zealand couple, thanks the husband exclaiming “I don’t know about the Black sea… it looks blue to me!” – they have left New Zealand for a year, with no solid plans to basically travel the world with their son. Pretty incredible stuff and I’m sort of a little jealous!
Karen, Ed and I were hungry so decided to settle on a small waterfront Restaurant, looking over the boat so that we could keep an eye on things to ensure we didn’t miss it going back!
While the Restaurant had English menus, the staff did their best but did not really understand, causing another round of gesticulation and repeating… meanwhile I settled for, and managed to order a Fish… and we shared some surprisingly good chips before heading back to the boat.
After sailing back to Eminonu, we took a stroll uphill to the Grand Bazaar…. If I’m honest, it was actually a little overwhelming. Streets and streets of crap… I mean things… many shops selling the same stuff as you’ve seen all over Istanbul. I had a jaunt round before heading back to the hotel.
Questionable… We giggled.
From the hotel I got ready for my Hamam. I followed the instructions from the Hamam and got some swimming shorts ready, left most of my valuables in the hotel and headed out to get some food.
I got food in a great bar where there was an American lady and her husband playing guitar/singing. She cracked out the Kazoo and I was happy!
From the bar, I pottered a little bit before heading into the Hamam.
Kılıç Ali Paşa Hamamı
Kılıç Ali Paşa Hamamı is a renovated 16th century Hamam pretty much within the grounds of the neighbouring mosque.
Upon entering I was sent upstairs to a small changing room to remove all clothes… “No Underwears” the attendant reminded me – you wrap yourself in a peştamal – a sort of wrap, before heading back downstairs.
The Ceiling from the changing area…
Once downstairs, you are led into the Hamam. The warmth instantly hits you and the steamy air relaxes you… but it’s not as steamy as a steam room. You’re sat on warm marble against the wall, where you are washed from a fountain with a bowl. The water was a lovely temperature and it was a welcome warm up for what I was about to endure.
From the pre-wash, you are then led to a giant marble slab in the middle of the room. You lay out on your back to soften and relax for about 15-20 minutes. It’s warm and relaxing and I really took the time to unwind.
While lying there, the call to prayer started from the mosque next door and it really led me to relax even more, taking in the sounds, the ancient roof above me, and dreaming of what it would have been like here back when it was first built.
My daydreams were soon interrupted by my new friend Yasar, who came to take me to another warm marble bench for the scrubbing and bubbling.
I’m not even sure how to describe what happened next in words, but for the next 30 maybe even 40 minutes, Yasar and I got a little too acquainted for my liking… between the way he magically created endless bubbles from what looked like a pillow case, to the way he scrubbed nearly every inch of me with a bath mitt that felt a little like 80 grit sandpaper, we got close. We also established that I am tense, my back is a mess, I am VERY ticklish and that Yasar likes football… there was some connection to Hull City. (I’m still not entirely sure)
I was also reminded pretty boldly that my mobility and posture is actually pretty crappy and I hope this has kicked my butt into gear to take up something like Pilates back home!
After a the scrubbing was more bubbling washing and massaging including shampoo and my temples feel new… to the point I’m not sure I have ever been so clean in my entire life!
Yasar didn’t warn me that the final watering would be cold, which was quite the surprise! Once cold watered, Yasar wrapped me up like Sultan Steven the first and sent me out to sit in the lounge area on a sort of sofa bed to chill out.
I’m not sure this look will take off!
I chilled for a while before getting dressed, paying and wandering out back toward my hotel… As I stepped out I was a little awestruck by the beauty of this small mosque…
Sometimes small is beautiful!
I wandered up the super steep hill back toward the main road near where I am staying, where I had a little wander. It’s sort of like Denmark Street in London – LOADS of musical instrument shops, as well as shops selling knicknacks, clothes, turkish delight, etc.
One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is the size of the street dogs. There are street cats everywhere and a number of street dogs. While the cats are normal sized, the dogs are HUGE.
This is a pretty medium sized Chonk!
From the main street, I finally found some postcards, and made friends with the man in the shop called Tina – Tina, you’ve promised to send the postcard. Don’t let me down – the recipient is a huge fan of the blog. NO PRESSHA.
And with that, I think my time in Istanbul is pretty much complete. My flight out at 13:10 tomorrow means I will be leaving the hotel at about 10 to head to the airport (There are many question about how long it actually takes to get to Sabiha Gökçen airport so better be safe than sorry.)… I’m actually flying “Turkish Easyjet” – Pegasus Airlines, so am now off to pack, repack, measure and weigh my bags!!
Would I come back to Istanbul? 100% – while I feel like I’ve seen everything I have set out to see, it certainly strikes me as the sort of place you could come back to, see new things and enjoy old things again. I’m a fan for sure!
What next I hear you ask? Well, I have been a little sad this evening that I have not done anything official to commemorate Yom HaShoah – Holocaust memorial day… before I realised that the way I am commemorating this year is by flying to Israel! Not only do Am Yisrael Chai(the children of Israel live), but the Children of Israel thrive, and I’m super looking forward to another trip to Israel. I can’t think of a better way to commemorate the 6 million murdered by joining the 7 or so million living and thriving in our homeland for a few days!
It’s unlikely I’ll blog again from Israel, so until next time I’m somewhere new, thanks for joining me… and, I guess… Yalla Bye!
