Istanbul, Turkey

 

Istanbul, Turkey                                                      Friday, April 15, 2022

Sunrise as the ship approached Istanbul from the water

 

We are now in Istanbul.  The day began with a Good Friday worship service aboard ship.  From there we steamed, can you say that when thinking about today’s cruise ships? up the Bosphorus which is the waterway that separates Europe from Asia.  Istanbul, official population of 16 million while locals put the population north of 20 million, is the only major city located on two different continents.  We sailed into the city in the morning.  It was very hazy but the city is still a spectacular site with many ancient historical buildings visible from the boat.  Turns out much of the haze is probably pollution.  There was a definite pollution cloud hanging over the European side when we visited the Asian side on day two of our short sojourn.

Our tour agency which booked us and another thirteen people on the ATW journey had set up three private tours for the 15 of us, but two were cancelled because of itinerary changes.  They put one together for Istanbul and we found out about it a week or so ago.  The tour had everything we were looking to do so we decided to take advantage of it.  We had a late arrival (scheduled) into Istanbul with the boat arriving at 1:00 in the afternoon.  Our tour was scheduled to go at 1:30 and surprise of all surprises it actually went off on time. 

The Grand Bazaar

Of course there was the small problem that the president of Turkey was visiting the area that we were planning to be visiting in Istanbul causing the closure of a number of streets and requiring more walking by us.  This was not really a problem for us, but several of our fellow passengers are not well equipped for walking on uneven ground at this point in their lives.  The tour was hard on them.  We started our tour in the old city in the Grand Bazaar.  It is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 4,000 shops in a total area of 30,700 m², attracting between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily.  It is supposedly the most visited tourist attraction in the world.  Building was started in 1455/56 and completed in 1460/61.  It is a wild shopping mall experience.  We used entrance number 1 of 22 and were on jewelry street.  I think in a previous blog we had mentioned never seeing so many jewelry shops on one street (in St. Thomas). Now I’ve seen it.  Admittedly there are more people here, but it is still amazing.  Our guide gave us an hour to look around.  Clearly that is not enough, but we got the flavor.  Several great lines from sale’s people (the exact quotes have disappeared into the mists of travel) “How can I help you spend your money,” and, “Can I help you purchase something you don’t need?”  We enjoyed Turkey last time we visited, and still think it is a great place to travel.

Topkapi Palace

Next on the itinerary was the Topkapi Palace.  This was the home and executive offices of the Ottoman Sultans for two hundred or so years from the 1460’s into the 1600s. The complex covers 140 acres.  At its height it housed nearly 8000 people.  We visited the courtyards and several sections of the palace.  The buildings are richly decorated.  The massive kitchens had displays of cookware as well as the ornate serving vessels and place settings.  We learned that they brought powdered snow from the mountains and placed it underground to use it during the summer.  Add fruit to it and you get your first sherbet which became sorbet.  The special room where the Sultan could talk to dignitaries had running water outside so the sound could keep the conversations private.

Fountain and meeting room in the third courtyard (because one or two isn't enough)

We left the palace area and headed out into the square between the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia.  We had stayed in a youth hostel in the area when we were here before.  There is no longer a youth hostel, nor the rug sellers where we purchased a carpet that now sits under our dining room table.  All these historic places are still within blocks of each other and the impressive facades as you turn each direction are amazing.  

The Hagia Sophia started life in the 6^th century on top of two previous churches, the first starting in the 300’s.  (I could be more accurate, and specific about dates, but do you really care?)  It became the largest dome and domed structure in the world for the next thousand years, finally surpassed by St. Peter’s in Rome.  It went from Church to Mosque to museum.   It is now a museum but remains a mosque.  You take your shoes off to enter.  It is a spectacular space.   Oddly enough, when turning it into a mosque they covered some mosaics with plaster accidentally preserving them.  Relatively recently uncovered, the mosaics are beautiful.

Coronation area in the center circle - samples of all marbles used in construction from all over the known world at that time.

Something here is out of place.... 

Newly uncovered Christian mosaic

Our next stop on the tour was the Whirling Dervish Experience.  I’m still processing this.  It turns out we paid to watch what is essentially a worship service of a small sect of Islam.  The hour long service was, I can’t figure out what it was.  It was unique.  It was different.  It was not entertaining, but why would a worship service be entertaining.  It was not exciting.  It was solemn.  It was worshipful.  It had two chanters, a drummer, flutist, and two plucked instrumentalists playing traditional instruments that I don’t know the names of.  There were five, whirlers? dervishes? dancers?  Not quite sure what.  They came in and did a choreographed liturgy which was explained by pictures shown on the wall.  They whirled.  They bowed a lot.  They left.  We left.  Still trying to decide how I feel about paying to see a worship service billed as a tourist event.  It was Good Friday and it did allow a chance for me to think about different religious traditions and how they practice their beliefs.

On to dinner in a former cistern.  Several of these underground areas have been turned into restaurants.  The leg of lamb that we got was massive and fell off the bone tender.  Stuffed to the max we returned to the ship at 10:30.  What a day.

Day two saw us up early for what the ship calls a “Go Local” tour.  We left with our guide, took a local ferry to the Asia side of the city.  From there we took a street car up to the Moda section of the city.  Our guide is presently living in this quarter and took us through the streets showing us homes of famous people, businesses, and filling us in on life in Istanbul.  Did we mention cats?  Cats are everywhere in Turkey.  

They are semi-domesticated.  Apparently they get neutered and then find their niche.  Benefactors put out food for them and the cats keep the rat population down. We had tea overlooking the harbor, walked through the market, had a great lunch at a buffet restaurant established in 1919 and where local merchants choose to eat.  We had some free time to walk the market before returning to the ferry and back to the ship.   All in all a great two days in Istanbul.  It is a very photogenic place with a huge number of excessive buildings.  I took a lot of photos, but many look almost exactly the same.  I will try to find representative pics that don’t all look like the same picture.

Local art