Istanbul - Part Two

Saturday, November 21st

Day two in Istanbul was jam packed with sites and activities. We started at the Hagia Sophia. As noted in the last post, this is the Byzantine church built by the Romans that was converted to a mosque and is now a museum.

The place was massive. It was much more open than most churches we've seen, which tend to have a lot of columns running through the middle. This place just felt like one gigantic room, probably because it was, and they say the Statue of Liberty can fit inside the dome).

They've left up a lot of the remnants of both Islam and Christianity that remain. The walls were originally covered with Christian mosaics, but were subsequently plastered over by the Muslims. In the conversion to a museum, many of these were found to be in good condition. It was interesting to see the images of Christ on one wall and then turn a corner to see Muslim decor.

The most interesting thing though, I think, was the placement of the altar. In Christian churches at the time, the altar faced east, so that the people were facing Jerusalem. Also, Christ was at the time thought to be returning from the east (based on a piece of scripture), so people wanted to be facing that way just in case! As most know, Muslims are required to face their holy city of Mecca when they pray. Mecca is slightly southeast of Istanbul, which presented a bit of a problem when the church was converted to a mosque. To solve it, they just put the Muslim altar slightly askew in the apse, so if you're looking straight down the middle of the building, the altar is set off slightly to the right.

Our next stop was the Topkapi Palace - the home of the sultans.

This started as a fortress, but over time was turned into a royal palace that was added to by each subsequent ruler until it became a lavish estate. We toured the whole place, and again were blown away at the interior decoration. Every room was covered in ornate, colorful tiles. It is like nothing we've seen anywhere else. This is officially Europe, but when you step into these places, you wouldn't be surprised to see Aladdin walk around the corner!

We toured several different buildings and gardens, all of which were very nice, but our favorite part by far was the harem. The common misconception of a harem is, of course, that it was a den of beautiful young women that were at the disposal of the sultan. In fact, the harem is simply a reference to the sultan's inner household. The harem was full of slave women, but the vast majority were simply servants. He could take up to four wives (usually chosen by his mother), but many took less than that. He was also allowed to have up to four concubines as well, but these were chosen by his mother and wives. This was all done not to simply give him pleasure, but instead to ensure the family dynasty continued. Because of these practices, the same family ruled here from the inception, something that was very rare in time.

So we definitely learned a big lesson about harems!! We got to see several apartments and reception halls and various other parts of the inner palace - all ornately decorated. Jenna just loved all of the beautiful and different tiles throughout the palace! Like the mosques, I wouldn't necessarily say these were more beautiful than other European palaces, but it was just so different that it was a nice change.

We next made a quick stop at an underground cistern - basically a giant well. It is the size of a couple of football fields, and is a large pool filled with columns. It was built by the Romans using columns from existing structures, so each is different. It sits right in the middle of the old town, and was provided water to the Roman citizens. When the Turks took over, they neglected it, but it stayed in fairly good working condition and still provided water to all of the wells in the main part of the city. It was rediscovered in the recent past and turned into a big tourist attraction, good for a look at some interesting old columns and some great photos.

After grabbing a quick lunch, we headed to the Grand Bazaar. This has been around for hundreds of years, and used to sell everything that you can imagine (other than the spices sold at the market down the road). Now, it is heavy on jewellery and souvenirs. The place is gigantic and a maze of shops, so it was fun to just wander around and peek into the shops.

After leaving the market, we headed up to the new town to wander down the main shopping street. On the way, we stopped by one of the other main mosques in town, The Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent. Unfortunately this one is under a major refurbishment so the inside is mostly closed, but the small portion that we did get to see was pretty amazing.

We made it up to the New Town just after sunset, when there were a ton of people out. This is where they had all the major retail chains, which weren't a huge pull for us, but we did enjoy a nice dinner, and it was interesting to see the hundreds of people shopping along the street. This was definitely the place to be in the evenings.

After dinner we headed off for what turned out to be the highlight of the day, and probably the trip - the Turkish Bath. We'd heard this was a great experience, but weren't exactly sure what to expect. We showed up and split off to our separate areas (there is a small amount of nudity involved, so they split the sexes). It was essentially the same for both of us, but Jenna did get a little extra massage at the end. Here is a brief description of what happens:

You go into a private room to change clothes and put on a towel, and then make your way to the bath. There is a large round heated marble slab in the middle of a very warm and steamy room, and surrounding the slab are several small sinks. You sit next to a sink and use a small bowl to pour hot water all over yourself. Once you're all warmed up and relaxed, you go over to lay on the slab and wait to be scrubbed. After laying for a short time a large Turkish man (or woman for Jenna) who speaks absolutely no English tells you to come over. Since he can't tell you where to lay or what to do, he pretty much throws your body around into the right position. He then proceeds to scrub your body with a coarse rag and soapy water, and then gives you a quick massage. It was by far the most interesting and foreign experience we've had since we've been in Europe, and it felt amazing. Definitely something to experience at least once in your life!!! For a reference, here is a picture from the website of what the bath looks like:

After the bath, we were completely relaxed and ready to fall into bed, so we stumbled back to the hotel and collapsed into an amazingly restful night's sleep.

Istanbul - Part One

For the one or two of you who read this blog on a regular basis, you may remember that on our cruise this summer we stopped in Kusadasi, Turkey, and that it was by far our least favorite stop along the way, and maybe our least favorite destination so far. Well, we felt like we might not be giving Turkey a fair assessment based on one port city, and we'd heard that Istanbul was really nice, so we decided to give it another try.

We are so glad that we made that decision. Istanbul is such an amazing and foreign place!! It's a city that sits on two continents, has a skyline dominated by mosques, and has a history that puts it as the center of the Roman and Ottoman empires. We spent four days, which will warrant multiple posts, and we literally can't say enough about what we experienced there. It has made its way into my (Aaron's) "Top 5 cities", and I think it will definitely be one of the most memorable trips that we've taken during our time in Europe.

Friday, November 20th - Arrival

We left early in the morning, but with a 4 hour flight and crossing two time zones, we didn't actually arrive in Istanbul until early in the afternoon. This is the only city in the world that sits on two different continents. The "old" part of the city that holds all the main sites as well as most of the business districts is in Europe. Just across the Bosphorus Straight to the west is Asia, which is mostly residential. Our flight arrived on the Asian side, which was good because we got to check off another new continent, but had the downside of a 1.5 hour trip to our hotel. We didn't end up getting to the hotel until after 4:30, but it was worth it to get a nice ride through the city.

The first thing that struck us was the number of Turkish flags flying everywhere. In America it seems like people are a little flag-crazy, with banks and churches and everyone else flying Old Glory. Europe is completely different, especially EU countries. Most government buildings will have the national flag (along side the EU flag), and some of the historical tourist sites will have them, but in general you don't see the national pride - at least not through flag bearing. Turkey was different, giving the USA a run for its money with the big red flag seen all over the place. You definitely knew what country you were in!!

The second thing that struck us were the minarets. These are the tall spires that are associated with mosques. Turkey is officially a secular nation, but with 99% of the population being Muslim, Islam definitely has a major hold on the city. There were tons of mosques throughout the city - we saw dozens just on our trip in. They are especially noticeable because the city doesn't have many buildings taller than 3-4 stories, and the minarets pop up to define the skyline. Just driving in from the airport we knew we were in for a very different experience!!

Since we got such a late start, the sites were starting to shut down, but I think we got a great taste in the short time that we did have. Our first stop was at the Sultan Ahmed I Mosque, but before we get too far, a short history lesson...please excuse any inaccuracies!! If you're not interested, just hop down to the next picture.

Around 300 AD, the Roman Empire was divided, with two Caesars ruling the empire. One of these was Constantine, who set up his capital near the far eastern border of the empire, naming it Constantinople. As time passed, he fought several civil wars against the other ruler, and eventually won control of the entire empire, with Constantinople as his home. He was the first Christian emperor, and ended the persecution of Christians that had existed since the Crucifixion.

Later, the Emperor Justinian built a giant church in the city, which would be the largest church in the world for 1,000 years. Time passed and the empire fell, and at last the city itself was conquered by the Turks in the 1400s, and the Sultan had the church converted into a Mosque, with the Christian symbols plastered over and 4 minarets being built outside. This, the Hagia Sophia was the main mosque in the city until it was converted to a museum in the 1930s. Subsequent sultans wanted to leave their mark on the city and please Allah, and as such tried to one-up the Hagia Sophia and each other. The first of these was the Suleymaniye Mosque, and the second and grandest was the Sultan Ahmed I Mosque. It was built with 6 minarets, which was apparently a very big deal, as this matched the number at the mosque in Mecca. To show who was really numero uno, a 7th minaret was soon built at the mosque in Mecca.

The sultans continued to rule the Ottoman Empire up through WW1, where they sided with Germany and the empire fell at the hands of the Allies. In the 1930's the country of Turkey was formed and has existed in essentially the same form to this day, with the government headed in centrally-located Ankara. Also, the city of Constantinople was renamed to Istanbul, which you probably knew already from the song:

Istanbul was Constantinople

Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople

Been a long time gone, Constantinople

Why did Constantinople get the works

That's nobody's business but the Turks

Hopefully that wasn't too much history. In any case it should help give a little perspective on what we saw.

As I said, our first stop was the grand Sultan Ahmed I Mosque, better known as the Blue Mosque for the colored tiles that line the inside. Our hotel was just a block or so from here, and we arrived just before 5:00 which put us in the main courtyard to hear our first call to prayer.

In Islam, people are required to pray 5 times per day at times which are determined by the position of the sun. Since the timing can be a little confusing, they started announcing it to the people, which is why mosques all have minarets. The guy would climb to the top and shout out the call for all the people to hear to remind them to pray. Now, the call is read from inside the mosque, but blasted through the city via loud speakers attached to the minarets.

We'd read about the call to prayer and heard it described by many as "eerie". I think this is probably due to a mix of its association with a foreign religion, its being sung in a language that sounds nothing like English, and its use as a background track to numerous films concerning terrorism and Islamic extremism. I for one loved the idea of it (other than the fact that the first is around 5am, which did affect our sleeping). If you look at a translation, they are basically just saying "Come to pray", and then listing out several of the tenets of the faith (there is no god but Allah, etc). I think it is something similar to if every church in the US blasted "Jesus Loves Me" from the steeple, which I'm sure would seem eerie to a visiting Muslim who only spoke Arabic. I really wish that our churches did something similar as a reminder to break away from our busy days and focus a few minutes on God.

The mosque itself was awe inspiring. I wouldn't say that it was necessarily "better" than the cathedrals like St. Peters or the Duomo, it was just very different, and I think we were struck by the beauty in the differences from the churches that we've been visiting so often of late. First, the inside was so colorful!! Most cathedrals are plain stone, and although the architecture is incredibly beautiful, the amount of gray can make it a little drab. The Blue Mosque, however, is covered in tiles, (as are most mosques, and other Turkish buildings, for that matter). The patterns and colors were just so different that we were blown away. Also, the entire place was carpeted with bright red supple carpet with nice designs, which was also a far cry from the stone or tile floors of all European cathedrals. The architecture was also great. Similar in its awesomeness to many churches, but again, just different - with a focus more on domes and spires than on naves and apses.

We left the mosque and still had time to make it to one more thing before the day was done - the Egyptian Spice Market. This is an indoor market hall lined with small vendors. It originally filled with owners selling spices exclusively, which is where the name comes from, but over time a few other shops selling jewellery, clothing, pottery, and other goods have popped up as well. Spices are definitely still king here, though - something that we knew the second we stepped through the door and were hit with a shock of wonderful new aroma.

We walked the and browsed the shops, amazed at wonderful colors and fragrances of all the spices, and also amazed at the differences between this market and the one in Kusadasi. One of the most off-putting things about that place was that as you walked through the market, you were approached by every vendor who tried to coerce you to buy their carpets and leather goods and fake designer clothes. We'd heard that the markets in Istanbul were the same way, so we were a little apprehensive to go, but it turned out to be way more laid back. We did get a few people who talked to us, but we never really felt like they were pushy at all. In Kusadasi, we couldn't look in a window without being mobbed. It was a great experience, and we walked away with an armful of apple tea (a local favorite) and Turkish delight (famous candy which is hard to describe but delicious to eat).

By the time we'd finished it was getting on in the evening, and we were getting hungry. We once again trusted the judgement of our Rick Steves' guidebook, and once again were not disappointed. Dinner started with a giant piece of flat bread that was very good and helped stretch out our stomachs to make way for the incredible kebaps that we'd ordered for the meal. I had lamb and Jenna had Chicken, and both were just delicious. Not sure if it was the spices or just our recent lack of decent grilled meat, but we were in heaven. We were completely stuffed, but of course that didn't stop us from capping it all off with some delicious baklava and apple tea for dessert. After finishing, we waddled back down to the hotel and headed to bed early in order to get a good start on Saturday...

to be continued...