Istanbowel

Back a year or so ago, when made a list, we each came up with our top 10 places that we wanted to see in the world, and we then made a vague route based on these lists. The first place on my (Joel's) list was Istanbul. And 4 months deep into this trip it was still the place I was most pumped to see. So when we finally arrived in Istanbul I was giddy with excitement and planned on cramming as much of the city as possible in our week there. But sadly our brief 7 days turned into an even briefer 4 days after I had to excuse myself for the restroom for our last 72 hours there. At least it was a well timed illness because it snowed, sleeted and/or rained the entire time I was down, including New Year's Eve and day. But thankfully we did have those first few days of good health and good weather to wander the city and to see a few of it's major sites.

Hagia Sophia
We were worried about the line being insane, but we only had to wait 5 or 10 minutes to get in. As you would imagine this Greek-Orthodox-cathedral-turned-Roman-Catholic-cathedral-turned-mosque-turned-secular-museum was absolutely stunning. The massive scale of the building, the detail of the designs and the overlap of Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Islamic elements was an incredible thing to see. There was some restoration work going on (the whole continent of Europe seemed to be under construction), so just try and ignore that scaffolding.

Tombs of the Sultans
Right next to Hagia Sophia were several buildings containing the tombs of various Sultans and their families. These buildings and their designs were easily one of the highlights of Istanbul for me. Look at these designs!

Sultan Ahmet Mosque AKA Blue Mosque
The Blue Mosque is actually called the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, it only took on the name Blue Mosque by people visiting from the west because of its internal bluish color. Unlike Hagia Sophia this is still an active mosque and you must be dressed appropriately to enter. They loan woman headscarves and other articles of clothing to cover themselves properly (need to have hair, arms, and legs from the knee up covered) so they can enter. Men just need to wear long pants, which I did remember to put on that day...and lucky JRam's torn Slayer tube-top and stonewashed BAM!shorts were left at home.

Grand Bazaar
I don't know exactly what I was expecting from the world's first mall (and apparently the most visited tourist attraction in the world), but I found it disappointing. There are a few cool shops (like the nautical instruments one) and the place is bustling, but I didn't get too much out of our visit here. Not surprising I guess considering how little I enjoy shopping and any sort of mall. Still, of course, glad that we got to see it.

Basilica Cistern
This beautiful cistern was built by the Byzantines under the site of a former basilica to store water for the growing Istanbul population. It features many beautiful columns, including two with Medusa heads at the base. Seeing these columns was the highlight of the cistern for me, but I thought the rest of it was pretty lame. Don't get me wrong, it's a super interesting place but the canned atmospheric music, the flood lit pillars, and the railed boardwalk all made me feel like I was waiting in line for a ride at Disneyland, instead of at a legit historic place. I would have loved to visit this place before they made all of these changes in the 1980s, when they used to let people row a boat across the cistern. But seeing the Medusa pillars was very cool and almost made it worth the overpriced admission.

Bosphorus cruise
A state run company offers these great cheap ($8) day cruises up the Bosphorus straight towards the mouth of the Black Sea. It's a three hour cruise with a two hour stop at the city of Anadolu Kavagi. The city of Anadolu Kavagi didn't offer very much but the cruise itself was wonderful. It really makes you appreciate the size and beauty of Istanbul.

bridge under construction

Yoros Castle at Anadolu Kavagi

Istanbul at dusk

City sights and the snow (!!!)
Somehow this was the first real snow that we've experienced on this trip (amazingly we made it through November and December in Europe without even having to buy real coats!). It apparently doesn't snow too often in Istanbul, but when it does it said to be extra beautiful...and I do not disagree. Like I said before, we didn't have to deal with it much since I was inside (sick) most of the time it snowed, and really only had to be out in it during our mile walk in the slush on New Year's morning to catch the bus to the airport.

tons of fishermen and fisherwoman on the Galata Bridge

Galata Tower

New Year's morning snow, on our way to the airport

In summary: didn't get to see all that much of it, but what a city! So much history, so much beauty - really in many ways it's the ultimate city. It's just so many things all at once. So much influence coming in and going out of this city for so many centuries. I regret not giving ourselves more time to explore the city's endless neighborhoods and to do more aimless wandering (which I think is often the best way to see a city). Plus it also would have been nice to try more of the food. We've eaten so many Turkish doners over the last 4 months in different countries, but unfortunately we didn't find too much good food while in Istanbul. I'm going to chalk this up to bad luck and lack of research on our part. But next time Istanbul. NEXT TIME!
For now we're hopping over to Southeast Asia for our last three and a half months before I fall into a prolonged fit of depression and despair.

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More Istanbul pictures at our flickr

Yalla!!! (Arabic for let's get going, hurry up)

Call us spontaneous, we up and went to Jordan for 36 hours. Originally it wasn't part our our plan though Petra was on our bucket list but the media makes it sound like Jordan is not safe, plus the trip from Israel is pricey. Yet, once in Jerusalem and seeing all the tours offered we decided to splurge and live it up. Our only regret, not opting to pass through Wadi Rum.

After some research we booked an overnight trip to Jordan but we actually ended up getting outsourced to "Fun Time Tours", a pretty shady name if you ask me. However, it actually ended up being a very fun time, because the people on the tour were awesome. We met the family we will henceforth aspire to be one day, a family that takes 2 trips somewhere in the world every year (we don't have cushy professions, so for us it would be more like 1 trip a year/every other year). Seriously, the parents were so cool and the kids were mature, grateful, and have great social skills. I hope my future kid(s) are as cool and awesome as Isabel and Fred. Okay, I will stop gushing about this family. Other people on this tour included: Duncan (another very cool teenager) and his Mom, Marshall (doing a 9 month around the world trip), plus 3 others.

So, we get picked up at 6:30am and head out for the Jordanian border. Crossing the border, in the words of the great Kai Lokken, was a shit show. Before we could even get to the border we had to go through militarized Israeli check points and once we got to the border there were 3 more checks. Oddly, the tour company doesn't accompany you, they drop you off at the border, leaving you to figure it out for yourself, and then your guide picks you up on the Jordanian side. The result, the border people rip you off. When you arrive they expressly tell you you must pay in the Jordanian currency and only offer you a shit conversion rate because you have to pay a fee that can only by paid in Jordanian currency. So, they won't let us cross until we convert money, which we do, and when we get to the next check point, no Jordanian currency needed. Fun Time! So, if you go to Jordan, don't believe them, you don't need any Jordanian currency to pay fees to get into the country. And yes, you should visit Jordan because even with all this, it's worth it. Six check points later, we're in Jordan! Yalla! Our guide in Jordan kept saying this to our group as we sped through the different sights.

Stop #1: Jerash

Our previous stops were Rome and Greece, so we've been seeing a lot of impressive ancient stuff, but this still impressed! For me, it was visual overload, there was just so much to see. It's crazy to see how far reaching the Greek and Roman empires went.

Stop #2: Mount Nebo

This is where Moses saw the Holy Land and is believed to be buried.

You can see Jerusalem on a good day, but not this day.

Byzantine monastery rolling stone door

Stop #3: Madaba
Byzantine mosaics

The mosaic on The Church of Saint George's floor is the oldest known map of the holy land. This is the part that shows Jerusalem.

Though our tour said we would visit Amman, we merely drove past the city. A bit disappointing, but oh well. We spend the night at our hotel, pumped up to see Petra in the morning.

And now...Petra!
Petra is epic, like the Grand Canyon or Macchu Picchu level epic. We walked 16 kilometers up to the Monastery and back (just over 10 miles). The guide said you would need 3 days to really see all of Petra and to hike everywhere, so we got the chance to see a slice.
The photos don't capture the brightness of the colors or the marbling in the rocks, it's beautiful.

And then, back to Israel...which was a bumpy ride. There are speed bumps all over the highways and sometimes they are not marked so you get a little surprise. Heading back into Israel was an experience, it's a very long border, with several checks and you have to get out and show your passport at each check. At the last check Joel and I got pulled aside, which we found odd. One of the workers kept staring at Joel and as soon as we went up they set our passports aside. Then, the manager interviewed us separately, asking detailed questions that didn't seem relevant. For example, the name of the universities I attended, the name of the high school where I last worked, how much money is in my checking account...the strange thing is they didn't write anything down or verify any of my answers so I don't know why the questions were necessary. After my 10 minute interview Joel only got questioned for 2 minutes, go figure, and then they let us go through. The driver that was picking us up said not to take it personally, it's just what Israel has to do to feel safe.

Despite the overkill on security check points (mostly all from the Israeli side) this trip was totally worth it and we are so glad we went. I know that the we had the idea that Jordan was not safe from the media and different governments have travel warnings but things seemed fine in the touristy areas we visited. I guess what I am trying to say is that don't necessarily be dissuaded by what you hear, of course, don't be reckless. We talked to a few people who had recently visited and as long as you are aware and cautious then you should be fine. Just like I wouldn't walk around the Tenderloin late at night by myself I also wouldn't wander around a shady neighborhood in a foreign country. YOLO!

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More Jordan photos