Istanbul was incredible. Now that we're 4 days into our 5 day crossing of the Mediterranean, all I can think about how much I want to go back!
We docked in the port of Karakoy and woke up to an incredible view of the Hagia Sophia and Topakpi Palace. The MV Explorer was parked in the famous Golden Horn, or bay of Istanbul. The ship was perfectly located. The best location so far this voyage. We were a 7 minute taxi ride or 10 minute tram ride to the Hagia Sophia and Hippodrome.
On the first day I had signed up for a Semester at Sea Field Program called, appropriately, "Istanbul City Orientation." Our charter bus drove us all around the city before stopping at the area of town known as the Old City or the Peninsula. Our bus dropped us off right at the Hippodrome. The hippodrome was once the equivalent of the Roman Circus Maximus. The home of Constantinople's chariot races was once able to hold 110,000 people. Now though, it is basically an open plaza in an elliptical shape. We walked the length of the Hippodrome and stopped in front of the three famous columns that still stand. The first column is a huge Egyptian obelisk made from one piece of marble and carried from Cairo in one piece before being set on a huge bronze platform in the middle of the Hippodrome. The second column was really small and made of bronze. It was called the serpentine column because it was once several yards higher and the swirling bronze lines were capped with two snake heads. The third column is called the Column of Constantine because Emperor Constantine, the Roman emperor responsible for moving the capital to Constantinople, had it built in his memory -- after naming the new city after himself… humble right?
When we were done with the Hippodrome, we ate lunch and then walked the 250 yards to the Hagia Sophia. Once through the security gates, I was dumbfounded by huge the inside of the church was. I thought it was only rivaled by St. Peter's in Rome. The dome of the church/mosque/museum was incredible, not to mention huge. The entire inside of the church was open, square, and vast. The best way to describe the Hagia Sophia is that it is a huge cube with a dome on top. The inside of the church, which was converted to a mosque in the 15th century was very strange because you could physically see the layers of history on the walls. The frescoes of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary had been white washed and covered with Arabic writing and shields. Once the mosque became a museum, they began to peel back the layers so that everyone could get a sense of the history of the building.
Once we left the Hagia Sophia, we walked to the Basilica Cistern, which was across the street. The inside of the cistern was so cool. It was built in 537AD and was lost to history until the 15th century when it was found by a French surveyor. The cistern itself was to collect water for the peninsula and old town area. The interior of the vast water space was filled with long colonnades of huge, beautiful Corinthian columns, dramatically lit, with a foot or two of water at the bottom. The tour group walked along a raised platform all around the beautiful area, so beautiful in fact that one of the dates for the Bachelor took place in the middle of the area. We also passed a pair of columns which had bases of recycled Roman statues of Medusa that had been turned upside down to take away Medusa's magical power.
After walking in the cool air of the cistern we reentered the Turkish inferno on our way to the Blue Mosque. Unlike the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque - although historic - was still an operating mosque. Because of that, the women on the tour had to cover their head, shoulders, and legs out of respect for the Islamic culture. Once through the equivalent of a security checkpoint, that made sure everyone was following the rules, we were greeted by another incredibly huge space. And because it was still a functioning mosque, we had to take off our shoes so as not to dirty the carpeted floors. We walked around the Blue Mosque, named for the use of blue ceramic tiles on the walls and ceilings, for about half an hour before meeting back up with our bus for the drive to another mosque built by Sinan, the famous architect who built the Blue Mosque and the fantastic Suleymaniye mosque. This mosque, called Sehzade Camil Fatih Camil, was also huge, carpeted, and beautifully decorated with tiles and Arabic script. Once finished at this secondary mosque we got back on the bus and returned to ship. Just in time for dinner.
Our first day in Istanbul was also one of my friend's, Genny, 21st birthday. So we wanted to go out to dinner and celebrate with her. We found out from some locals that best place to go for dinner and a night out was a 2 kilometer long pedestrian street off Taksim square. We went there and were immediately greeted by Thousands of people. The street was really crowded and we barely made it halfway down before turning back to go to a restaurant called TXM People where we sat, had a drink or two, and ordered some fantastic Mexican food. You read it right, Mexican food. I ordered a quesadilla and it was delicious. Maybe because it has been nearly two months since I've had anything like Mexican food but oh well. It was great. After dinner, we decided to brave the pedestrian street again looking for somewhere to go dancing or a bar to sit and hang out. We asked the concierge at a local hotel and he walked us about half way down the street to a bar a friend of his owned. However, we didn't end up going inside because in our PrePort before Istanbul, the administration had warned us of this kind of scam. Where tourists are brought to a cool club, have a couple drinks then get a $400 bill and are forced to pay it in order to leave. So we decided to not go inside and went back to the ship.
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The next morning, me and most of my friends went to the world famous Grand Bazaar. We got off at the tram stop and walked into the massive indoor structure. The easiest way to explain it is that the whole building was a small city. It had streets and side streets and restaurants and water fountains and over 4,000 shops. Most of them were selling the same types of things, souvenirs, fake designer brands, jewelry and various linen pieces of clothing. We spent the whole afternoon meandering our way around, haggling here and getting yelled at for asking too low of a price there. It was really fun to get the prices down and then just walk away. One of my friends wanted a bracelet that was originally 300 Lyra and talked him down to 7 Lyra, then didn't buy it out of principle. A fun experience to say the least. Some of my friends walked away with Louis Vuitton and Chanel, while I came out with a magnet. haha.
After lunch, we went to the Spice Market, which was a whole other ball game. Instead of selling cheap knock offs, these shops were selling every kind of spice imaginable. What my friends and I had come for first and foremost though was the tea. Turkish tea is amazing. I highly recommend the apple or mint flavors if you have any way to get some. A few friends bought some delicious baclava and we made our way through the maze that was the spice bazaar. After a whole day of shopping, we went back to the ship for dinner and nap.
Once we were well rested, we decided we wanted to go to one of Istanbul's famous Hookah bars. I had heard from my tour guide that there was a district of hookah bars not 3 blocks from our ship so we headed there first. We went to the first one we saw, called "Ali Baba Nargile." Nargile is the Turkish word for Hookah. They sat all 12 of us down around two big, low tables on big couches. We ordered 4 Hookahs, which was more than enough for the 2.5 hours we spent there just talking and hanging out. The Owner, Mr. Baba himself came out to talk to us to make sure we were enjoying ourselves. He explained that his family had owned that hookah shop for 325 years. It really was cool, it looked almost exactly like I was expecting. We ordered Lemon-Mint flavor tobacco (which sounds gross but is really good) and just enjoyed each other's company for the evening.
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The following morning my friends and I went with one of our professors for a guided tour of the mosques and monuments. Unfortunately for me, I had already seen all the items on the itinerary so I just went along for the company. We went to the Basilica Cistern, the Hippodrome, the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. I cut out before the Hagia Sophia (I didn't want to pay the entrance fee again) and went to a small cafe with the other people who had already seen the Hagia Sophia. After some delicious turkish tea and hummus, I had to go back to the ship to attend a required discussion/lecture for one of my classes on the Istanbul Port Authority.
The lecture lasted until the late afternoon so I just waited to have dinner on the ship. After dinner, my exhaustion caught up with me and I decided not to do anything but stay in and write some of the 1000s of papers I have to write to keep my grades up.
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We woke up late the next day, and decided to go over and explore the continent on the other side of the Bosphorus strait, Asia. We got on a ferry, which was right next to our ship, and rode for 20 minutes to another continent. Once we landed, we started looking for a restaurant that had been suggested to us. It took about 30 minutes, but we found it. Everyone ordered Kababs, but I thought I'd try something new. I ordered a Kabap. Basically it was a really thin pita bread stuffed with sliced lamb, mint leaves, cilantro, yogurt, and parsley. It sounds really gross. But trust me, I had the best tasting meal at the table.
When we had paid up, we walked around the Asian side a little bit more, but quickly realized it was exactly like the European side, except a little less touristy. We took another ferry back to the ship around 5 o'clock. I went to a local cafe to get some wifi, then met back up at the ship for dinner. After dinner, we went back to the Hippodrome to watch a very strange ceremony. That day was August 1st and we had the pleasure of being in Turkey on the first night of the Islamic celebration month of Ramadan. As I'm sure you're aware, muslims fast from sun up to sun down during Ramadan. So sunset was obviously pretty important for muslims, they could finally eat and drink.
We went to the Hippodrome because during Ramadan, the large open area is turned into a street festival with tons of picnic tables for people to eat their meals at sunset. It was this festival we went to see. We explored the stalls that were selling and showing Islamic and Turkish food and art. Then, at sunset, the minarets that usually call people to prayer in the muslim faith, erupted into prayer and song, followed by a cannon shot. This symboled that the sun had set and it was acceptable for people to eat. We watched as hundreds of people, sitting at the picnic tables, dug into their huge meals that had been sitting in front of them for almost an hour. Talk about self-control.
After the eating had started, we continued to explore the street festival, which had all the sudden become much more lively! A couple friends and I participated in a traditional Turkish art style of water painting called ebru. Basically, you use oil-based paints on top of water and wallpaper glue then drag the paint around to make calligraphy and flowers. Once the paint is where you wanted it, you laid a sheet of paper on top, let the paint soak in and then you slid the paper off the water, letting the excess slid back into the pan. Boom. Beautiful flower.
After painting, we went to a local hookah bar in the Backpacking District. There were about 20 of us so we got our own private patio and the bar tender was kind enough/though it would be funny, and played country music all night for us. We were joined later in the night by some really nice Australians who were backpacking around the world for 7 months. When the night was over and the country music XM station had run through, we headed back to the ship.
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The next morning, our last in Istanbul, we decided to go back to the bazaar, pick up a few more things and then go get Turkish baths. I don't know if anyone reading this has ever had a Turkish bath, but let me tell you. As strange as it is, I would do it again in a heart beat. I went to the Cemberlitas bath house that was built in 1547. We paid at the entrance to the Hammas (baths). The men and women separated. Basically, after undressing, I went into the Turkish equivalent of a sauna. With just a towel on, I was told to lay down on this huge piece of circular marble. The marble was hot and the room was steaming. After about 15 minutes of laying on this rock, a Turkish man came in and started scrubbing me with the equivalent of a soft sandpaper glove. Removing all the dry skin. I've never been so violated in my life but when it was all done, I felt really really clean and healthy. After the scrub down, I got a 30 minute oil massage, which was super. By the time I was all done, it was time to go back to the ship to ensure that the Explorer did not leave with out me.
We left Istanbul right as the sun was setting on the city. It was a beautiful scene with the bright orange and red sky contrasting against the minarets of the 2000 mosques of the city.
Sorry it has taken me so long to get this out, but it's taken a while to type it all up. We land in Casablanca, Morocco tomorrow and I'm getting really excited! I'll send you that post, hopefully before we land in Boston on August 20th.
Robbie
