Istanbul

After one of the best night’s sleep both of us have had in a while, Ilona and I woke up to the excitement of exploring Istanbul, one of the largest cities in the world. First thing we did was to check out the Grand Bazaar (after some Turkish coffee of course). Here we found where Istanbul keeps all 14 million people who supposedly live in the city. It was a complete assault on the senses, all the colours, sounds and smells overpowering you, while hawkers from every overly-laden shop are jostling for your attention with “yes pleeeez”, “hello, hi, yes!” and “pleez, come and I will help you spend your money!” . They are all very polite about it, and never seem to constantly harass you after you walk past. 

Inside the Grand Bazaar

 We picked up some loose pants for Ilona to wear into mosques from a wholesaler who seemed to supply all of the other shops in the bazaar and had a good look around all the shops selling much of the same souvenir trinkets and nick-nacks. Continuing on, we walked down towards the Bosphorous and came across a small mosque that we had been recommended by the proprietor of the cafe we went to that morning. Even now, we can both say that it is our favourite of all the mosques we have visited in Istanbul, even including all the huge attraction mosques. The tile work was incredibly detailed and the small size, coupled with the plush carpeting created a very tranquil setting.

One of the smaller mosques we visited.

Later that afternoon we found the Egyptian spice market, which was a similar scenario to the Grand Bazaar, with shopkeepers yelling all the time, hawkers trying to attract you to buy the exact same thing as the other guy in the next store along, only saying that his is better. 

We soon found that the Turks are very into their sweet treats, with dozens, if not hundreds of pastry/sweet shops all over the city, selling Turkish delights of every variety imaginable, any conceivable variation of baklava and numerous other sugar based foods. 

Dinner that night consisted of a 5 lira (£1.75/$3.50NZD) kebab from a food cart on a street corner, which was very, very tasty. We got talking to some Australian guys who were on the bus into Istanbul with us and they ended up inviting us back to their hostel bar for a couple of drinks, which we took them up on. I tried shisha for the first time (which I didn’t like) and Ilona and I socialised over a couple of beers with people from New Zealand, Australia, England and Turkey.

Happy Ilona has her coffee.

Day 2, and we both got our obligatory coffee again, before checking out the blue mosque, one of Istanbul’s most famous mosques and named after the thousands of blue hued tiles that line the interior. The place is huge, though teeming with tourists. Very few people were praying, most likely due to the hundreds of tourists flocking the place. We got their just before lunchtime prayers, and the security guards were trying to usher everybody out in time. We had seen enough and emerged to the building crescendo of calls to prayer filling the air. Five times a day, all the mosques play a call to prayer from their PA systems attached to their towers. As there are so many mosques throughout the city so close to each other, they all start to overlap each other and create an almost incomprehensible wailing that seems to fill the air and slip into every nook and cranny of the city. When you’re in a busy place like a market or bazaar, it just adds to the sensual overload and can make any claustrophobic person go wild.

We had kebabs again for lunch and crossed the Bosphorous to get to the Galatea Tower, which gave us great sweeping views of Sultahnamet and the Sea of Marmara. Feeling overwhelmed with all the crowds, we made our way back to our hostel, stopping for beers and a light dinner in a cafe situated over some Byzantine era excavations.

One of the recommended escapes from Istanbul is the Princes Islands, which are a 2 hour ferry ride away. We went on Wednesday morning and hired some bikes, which are the most effective form of transport around the island as there are motor vehicles, aside from service and emergency vehicles. Riding around the island was very hot, and our search for a suitable beach to swim at was in vain, so we headed back to the port for a fish kebab, ice cream and coffee, before getting the ferry back to the mainland and getting street kebabs for tea again.

Sunset on the boat back from the Princes' Islands.

Thursday was a day of errands, Ilona completed a literacy assessment for her teaching diploma, we went to the post office to send a few things and then to sort out a tour company to take us to Gallipoli the next day. With that all sorted, we visited the Istanbul Modern, which had some interesting and some completely ridiculous modern art. Our favourite being a video piece called ‘Beirut’ which was a looped video of fluttering hotel curtains with a peaceful soundtrack, contrasted with sounds of war in some points. Sounds a little silly and boring, but was actually quite powerful.

Friday was our big day out to Gallipoli, starting at 6:30 in the morning and hopping on a 5 hour long bus ride to Eceabat on the Gallipoli Peninsula. We had a guided tour around the main battlegrounds and memorials which are all far smaller than I had originally imagined them to be. ANZAC cove itself is only 50m long from end to end. The landscape on the peninsula was stunning, with rolling hills covered in green scrub, and dotted with numerous white memorials rising from the trees. 

ANZAC memorial.

We visited Brighton Beach, ANZAC cove, North Beach, Lone Pine Cemetery (the main Australian memorial site), the Turkish memorial site and Chunuk Bair, which is New Zealand’s memorial site. Our guide was really well informed taught us a lot about the main battles, significance of each point we stopped at and how the entire campaign played out. We didn’t arrive back to Istanbul until nearly 11 that night and fell asleep absolutely exhausted.

The weekend had come and once again, we started our day with coffee, and then had a peek into the mosaic museum, where 5^th and 6^th century mosaics had been discovered and restored. We wandered a bit more and found an artist workshop and cafe Ilona wanted to go to, where we had another coffee in a quiet little courtyard. We then went to a pub that was playing the All Blacks game, paid way too much for drinks (my fault) and had to relocate to another cafe as they were having problems with their reception. The new cafe had a nice little corner that a bunch of Kiwis and Aussies took over to watch the game, which wasn’t the best, but quite exciting towards the end, resulting in a diplomatic 18-all draw.

We had been told that we needed to go and have a traditional Turkish bath, with massages and scrubs, but when we went for one that afternoon, we found that they were ridiculously expensive, so went to get some cake instead.

Sunday saw us start with coffee yet again and then off to see another mosque, which was quite stunning, yet again. We wandered down to the waterfront and found a small boat that was selling fresh fish kebabs for a fiver, which we just had to have. Walking along the waterfront a little more, we came across the bigger establishments selling the same thing, but for nearly double the price; a convenient stroke of luck which we kept congratulating ourselves about. 

One of the biggest tourist draws in Istanbul is the Hagia Sofya, which is an enormous museum directly opposite the Blue Mosque that started life as an Orthodox Catholic basilica until the Turks invaded the Byzantine Empire in the 15^th century and converted it into a mosque. It was secularised in the 1930s and became a museum shortly after that, preserving all the amazing mosaic work and architectural innovations inside. The main dome is huge and covered in gold mosaics, surrounded by smaller half domes that give it the illusion of being even larger. Pictures don’t do it any justice at all, as the sheer scale of the building needs to be seen in person.

The impressive interior of the Hagia Sofya.

Monday was our last day and we took it pretty easy, finally getting round to seeing the Topkapi Palace where the Ottoman Sultans held reign over their empire. It was a huge complex, and despite the crowds, quite serene. We had our final dinner at our favourite street vendor and then off to bed, all excited for Egypt the following day!