Our arrival to Istanbul was quite interesting. Our hostel was located in clearly the backpackers’ district and as we walked down the street trying to find our hostel, we were “fished” by a lot of hostel owners trying to get us to stay at their place. We were even harassed by our own hostel staff: “Hey! hey! You guys need cheap rooms?” The irony was that when we actually went up to them and told them we had a reservation, they weren’t sure if they even had room for us! Fortunately, we took the last two beds they had.
Our first day was spent just walking around and taking in the sights. Our hostel was located literally just around the corner from the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, so before we really headed deep into downtown, we had plenty of time to gaze at both of these two landmarks. We also explored the Grand Bazaar, a huge labyrinth of more than 4200 stores, and after having fully exhausted ourselves of hawkers, we visited an area known as Beyoglu, Istanbul’s posh and expensive district. We finished the afternoon in a cafe in the Sultanahemet district, drinking Turkish coffees and reading. For lunch we had gotten some kebabs that had filled us up quite a bit, so for dinner we only got some simit “pretzels” and ate them in front of the Blue Mosque. It is worth mentioning that every time we left the hostel, we had to pass by one particular rug shop. Months ago, we had considered purchasing a genuine Turkish rug, but we later began to connect the dots on their prices when we noticed that hardly anyone was ever in the stores but yet the pushy salesmen all wore very expensive looking suits. When we walked by this particular evening and got invited in yet again by the owner, we decided to take him up on the offer, but made it very clear to him that unless he had rugs a student could afford, we wouldn’t be buying one. He still happily agreed to show us some of his rugs and explain how the prices run. The $200 ones he had were a bit unfortunate looking, but the ones that ran for $5000 (and more) were truly exquisite. We thanked him for showing us the rugs, promised to return in 20 years or so, and retired to the hostel to enjoy some beers with the other hostel guests.
Our first day in Istanbul pleased us very much. It was also much more European than we had expected it to be. The area we were staying in though, less than 100 meters from the Hagia Sophia, was extremely touristy and a bit classless we must admit. We would often pass by a restaurant and hear the owner yelling at us, “Excuse me! Excuse me, sir!” No, we didn’t drop or lose anything. That was simply what he did to get people to stop and look at his menu. (It can be a terrible recipe for making one distrustful.) Our first stop the next morning was the Hagia Sopha. When the Republic of Turkey was established in the early 20th century, the Hagia Sophia was officially closed as a mosque and after extensive renovations, reopened as simply a museum. Originally commissioned by Emperor Justinian in 532 AD, it was for almost a millennium the largest indoor structure in the world. After Constantinople’s fall to the Moslems, it was converted into a mosque and remained that way till just about 100 years ago. Fortunately, the Turkish sultans covered up the Christian mosaics with only plaster, so many of them can be seen again today. (In our pictures, please ignore the huge tower of scaffolding in the center–extensive rennovations are still going on.) That morning, we also visited the Basilica Cistern, an impressively large underground reservoir built by Justinian as well. We picked up some Turkish delights and cherries in the spice market, and returned to the hostel for some more reading before taking a late night walk.
The first thing we wanted to do the following morning was visit the Blue Mosque, across from the Hagia Sophia. Several months ago, when we were in Cairo, we were a little disappointed with the cleanliness of the mosques that we visited. Though they were supposed to be the most important religious buildings in Egypt, we found the carpets to be really dirty and threadbare. When we entered the Blue Mosque, however, we were awestruck. We loved the way the plush, clean, and beautiful carpet filled our toes. Also, note how huge the supporting columns are. Afterwards, we walked across the Golden Horn to the Galata Tower but returned to the hostel a bit early so that we could finalize some details regarding the final days of the trip. We had been a little disappointed by Turkish street food and this hostel had no kitchen so we were unable to cook the yummy pasta sauce that we bought in Athens. So for dinner that night we went to a place called Kafe Ara in Beyoglu whose food both looked and tasted beautiful. Before going to bed, we spent the final hours of the night speaking with some Brits about their travels in Australia, a stretch we had been forced to change around a bit.
Though the afternoon of our final day was spent purchasing plane tickets for Southeast Asia, we spent nearly three hours that morning in the Topkapi Palace. I try to use the word amazing sparingly when describing anything whilst traveling, but as far as palaces and castles go, I would say that this complex certainly merited it. Its treasury collection was the most beautiful of any I have ever seen and the buildings and furniture in the Harem were also exceptionally impressive. After visiting spending several hours at Topkapi, we went back to the internet cafe, and then after we got some dinner early in the evening, we headed to the airport to catch our 11:30 flight to Tel Aviv.