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