Istanbul is wonderful (Part 1)

The iconic Sultanahmet Mosque (aka Blue Mosque)

Visiting Turkey has been on my bucket list for a few years. It was certainly on my "must visit" list when I learnt I'd be heading to Lebanon. The strange thing was that when the opportunity to go finally came, I found  myself tossing up between Turkey and Greece in what should have been a no-brainer decision. In my defence, I'd hesitated over Turkey because I'd initially planned to go with friends in early 2015 plus I was distracted by the will-I-get-leave-or-won't-I saga. A week after returning, I'm not sure my leave was ever officially signed off as I still haven't seen the paperwork (the craziness of my work would fill another blog post and more),

The last minute nature of my trip meant that a) my flights were dearer than I'd liked at US$355, and b) I had done minimal planning.  All I knew was that I wanted to visit Istanbul plus Cappadocia AND Ephesus. A tall order given the size of Turkey and the fact that they form three points of a pretty large triangle. But all three had been plugged by my parents and brother (who had all been to Turkey before me - why am I always playing catch up?) as the main highlights of Turkey for them, so I didn't want to risk missing out on one. After all, best intentions aside, there's no guarantee that I'd ever have the opportunity to return to Turkey.

I jetted off to Turkey early Saturday morning, 15 Nov.  While the 7 am flight meant that I had to be up by 4.30 am, the advantage was I arrived in Istanbul by 9 am and had the entire day ahead of me. Coincidentally, I arrived in Istanbul on the same day as some friends. P and N are based in Amman, Jordan where P does the same work that I do here in Beirut. We met each other at the airport and made plans to spend the next 3 days or so exploring Istanbul before we headed off to other parts of Turkey. As we were all staying in the historic/touristy Sultanahmet area, that made things easier.  

From the airport, we headed to town via metro and tram. Oh the joys of public transport - such a treat to have an efficient public transport system after the taxi headaches of Beirut (that's something for another post). After sorting out things like checking into our hotels and filling our empty stomachs, it was time to check out the sights.

Stumbled across this East Turkestan restaurant in Sultanahmet.
East Turkestan = Xinjiang Autonomous Region in China.
Calling it East Turkestan is a political statement. I was
intrigued and wanted to try it, but sadly did not have the time. 

Sultanahmet is Istanbul's Old City. It is essentially where the ancient city of Constantinople was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985. Most of the main historical sights in Istanbul are in Sultanahmet or within walking distance. It is a delightful area with lots of twisty little streets filled with quaint buildings. The downside is how overwhelming touristy it was - hotels, tourist restaurants and souvenir shops galore! One thing I did not like about Istanbul was how restaurant staff and shopkeepers continually hassle you to come in, buy their stuff etc. I'm one of those people who's more likely to buy stuff if you leave me alone.



Unsurprisingly, we started at Sultanahmet Square. The Blue Mosque and the Basilica-turned-mosque-turned-museum, Hagia Sophia (or Aya Sofya) face each other across Sultanahmet Square. The old Hippodrome (now an open-air square) and the Basillica Cistern are adjacent to the square. There are many street vendors selling snacks (including simit, a traditional Turkish pretzel-like bread), souvenirs, toys and Bosphorous cruise tickets. One thing I was surprised by were the number of stray dogs, and rather large healthy-looking stray. The dogs all bore tags on their ears - a Turkish friend told me that it's a way of showing that the dogs have been sterilised. I guess the Turks don't have the same fear and abhorrence of dogs that their Muslim brethren in Malaysia do.

Majestic-looking dog with Hagia Sophia in
the background.

Another one making himself at home at the square

Inner courtyard of the Blue Mosque. It was an overcast day.

Our first port of call was the Blue Mosque, one of the few free attractions in Turkey. Some might say it's a house of worship, so of course entry is free. But that's not the case for many churches in Europe - Westminster Abbey, I'm looking at you. The way around that is go during a service, which means actually attending/participating, but that's not an issue for me.  It's a privilege to be able to attend a service in such beautiful a building with such rich traditions.

Anyway, I digress. While P and N were having lunch, I'd nipped back to my hotel quickly to get a scarf to cover my head for this. It turns out I needn't have, because they were handing out scarves for free at the entrance (but the again, I know mine hasn't had several hundred heads wearing it). It was quite a queue at the visitor's entrance at the side of the mosque to get in. While standing in line, N and I amused ourselves taking pictures of ourselves in headscarves.

Stations of the wudu or ritual ablution at the back of the mosque.
The visitor's queue went past this area, which stretches out the
the entire width of the mosque. 

After about 15-20 minutes, we were in. They handed each of us a plastic bag for our shoes, which we carried around with us. The mosque is pretty, but it was difficult to appreciate it with all the tourists jostling around. If this was during the low winter season, I don't want to know what summer would be like.

The Blue Mosque gets its moniker from the blue tiles adorning
its interior. They didn't show up as clearly because of the
overcast conditions, but you can still see the blue-ness.

The faithful praying while the tourists
wander behind a barrier.

The Hagia Sophia.
If one is blue and the other pink, is one a boy and the other a girl?

After the Blue Mosque, we crossed the square to join another queue. This time, it was at the Hagia Sophia. The Hagia Sophia was built as a Basillica during the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). Its massive dome was a masterpiece of Byzantine engineering. I read somewhere that the Hagia Sophia is so big that the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris could fit inside it. While no doubt an amazing structure worth visiting (we spent a couple of hours there), we thought that the 30 TYL entry fee was a bit of a rip-off considering the massive scaffolding inside (Wikitravel says its been there since August 2013). When Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the 1400s, Hagis Sophia was converted into a mosque. The Ottomans made changes to it, such as adding four minarets and plastering over Christian mosaics. Ironically, seems that the plastering over of the mosaics may actually have preserved them. In 1935, the Hagia Sophia was converted to a museum under the new Republic of Turkey.

The interior has a dim Gothic feel.

One of the chandeliers illuminating the Hagia Sophia

TheVirgin Mary and Christ Child, flanked by
Emperor John Commenus and his Empress. 

Christ, in the Deesis Mosaic

The Blue Mosque, as seen from the Upper Gallery.

I like the juxtaposition of the mosaic of the Virgin and Christ Child
with Islamic calligraphy in this shot. 

We had initially planned to visit the Basillica Cistern after the Hagia Sophia. However, we had not planned for the massive queue in at the Cistern entrance when we exited Hagia Sophia. A local guy who saw us staring said that it was because the Hagia Sophia had closed for the day, so the crowd simply migrated to the Cistern. Deciding our time was better spent elsewhere then yet another queue, we found a cafe for drink and a short rest.

We had dinner that night at a restaurant near P and N's hotel. But not before P led us on a gigantic circle around the Blue Mosque to get to that area, when we could have cut through Sultanahmet Square. After that, it was back to the hotel for an early night. It had been a long day.

I swung by to take some night shots. They didn't quite turn out.
Only this one is halfway decent.