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...