Istanbul is a city of minarets - over 3000 mosques in the city alone so it was no surprise to find some beautiful ones. Hagia Sophia, one of the largest and most famous was next door from our hotel and from the rooftop, people gathered for photographs with the mosque in the background. The mosque, a Byzantine masterpiece was originally built as an orthodox church in the 530s and remained the world’s largest cathedral for nearly 1000 years. With the fall of the Byzantine Empire, it became a mosque, a common fate for churches in this part of the world. All the relics, artwork, bells and altar were removed, destroyed or painted over to be replaced with beautiful intricate mosaics. Out with the old, in with the new!
On our first day in Turkey, we cruised Bosporus Straits, in Istanbul, the border between Asia and Europe. It was quite the hub of activity! We saw beautiful old summer homes along the coast, a royal palace, a naval base and more than a few fishing boats as we traveled from the Golden Horn all the way up to the Black Sea. Turns out, lots of fish migrate between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marma at this time of year so everyone from commercial boats to the local fisherman were busy hauling in their catches. Constant freight traffic on the river traveled one direction in the morning and the reverse in the afternoon.
Our tour guide Gem gave us some insights to the city that you can only get from a local. For instance, when it came to succession for the sultans, the son who assumed the throne had the authority to commit royal fratricide (including brothers from all his father’s wives) to reduce the threat of an uprising. No family loyalty there! The practice continued for several successions until it was eventually by a young in the early 1600s. We toured the Topkapi palace, built in the mid 1400s to be reminicient of some of the royal palaces in western Europe. A key difference was all the female members of the Sultan’s family lived in the harem with their children – multiple wives in relatively close proximity. At one of the many carpet stores in the old town,we visited a carpet store where a woman with 20 years of experience was hand tying a very intricate pattern – painstaking work for sure. The rug she was working on was roughly 1 meter wide and would take her 6 months to complete.
Each knot was tied by hand and then the row was trimmed with huge flat scissors. Gem also introduced us to an artist friend of his who does water painting, not to be confused with watercolor. Paints of different colors are dabbed in a bucket of water and swirled. Then a paper is placed on top of the water and lifted out to reveal the image. Unique and beautiful.
More than any other city we’ve been to, historic ruins seemed to be everywhere. After we had lunch at a tasty bistro near our hotel, the owner, who had been quite chatty came over to tell us he had a secret space he wanted us to see. Turns out a hole in one of his side walls opened up to a cistern with several rooms and 2 floors. Really cool!
Along the waterfront at Eminonu, fast-food activity is everywhere. Vendors are vigorously frying up freshly caught fish sandwiches, stuffing them in breadrolls with onions and lettuce, quickly wrapping them in paper then passing them onto happy customers. It was all a blur of furious activity but they tasted great.
The Grand Bazaar was bustling with vendors of everything you can imagine. Apparently it’s the place locals go to buy gold and tourists go to buy anything else. We couldn’t resist a little Turkish delight and also came away with some lovely spice mixes to try on the grill whenever we next have one .
We found locals to be very friendly, especially if they thought we could be convinced to buy a carpet or a meal. The advantage of not having a house is there’s no temptation to collect things as we travel! We did manage to find some good delicious restaurants on the recommendation of our wonderful hotel concierges, nothing fancy but just good food with welcoming service. Covid hit this area pretty hard so everyone is very happy to see gradual the return of the tourists.
Next stop Jordan!mention the wind!
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