cobblestones and places unknown: Istanbul

I just got back from a whirlwind weekend in Istanbul! After saying goodbye to Jake on Friday morning, I headed to the airport myself only a few hours later with 6 Furman people. We’d basically decided on a whim that we wanted to visit Istanbul, and were excited to visit a European city with a decidedly different culture. We landed around 8 PM Friday night on the Asia side of Istanbul, and had a long drive to our hostel. The traffic was so bad over the Bosphorous Bridge (linking the European and Asian sides of Turkey) that street vendors were actually set up within the lanes.

Anyway, after settling into our hotel, we decided to grab some dinner. Our hotel recommended a traditional Turkish restaurant, where I had the best chicken dish I’ve possibly ever had in my life, followed by the Turkish specialties of baklava and apple tea, which I think I’ve actually formed an obsession with. At dinner, Anna and Russell also ordered this type of meal that cooked in a clay jar. To serve it, the serve cracked the clay jar in front of us, and poured the meat and vegetables into a separate dish. It was an awesome dining experience.

After dinner, we were all tired, so we decided to get some sleep for the busy day ahead. The next day, our first stop was the Hagia Sophia, a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum. It was really beautiful, and definitely different than any other European church I’ve seen. The Hagia Sophia itself contains a famous mosaic of the Virgin Mary, which is featured pretty prominently. I was really impressed with it.

After the Hagia Sophia, we took a look around some of its tombs. This involved a lot of taking off our shoes, since they aren’t allowed in places of worship or holy places. This is also where I learned that my dress, which I considered to be very modest, was actually too short by Turkish standards. I wasn’t allowed into one of the tombs because of it!

After the tombs, we made the short trip over the Blue Mosque, which faces the Hagia Sophia. To enter the Blue Mosque, the girls on the trip had to cover our heads and hair with scarves, and the Mosque officials gave me a long blue skirt to wear over my dress. All the fuss was worth it, however, because the inside was beautiful. It had blue tiling, and we could see people worshipping in the traditional Muslim way.

By this time we realized that we missed visiting the Topkapi Palace, the primary residence for Ottoman sultans for almost 400 years. We quickly walked back over past the Hagia Sophia and to the palace. The palace housed a seriously intricate imperial treasury, with jeweled weapons, crowns, medals, jewelry, and more. IT was all really impressive and gorgeous.

By this time we’d worked up quite an appetite, so we grabbed a quick bite at the famous “Pudding Shop”. It became popular in the 1960s as a meeting place for hippies and other travelers on overland route between Europe and Asia. The restaurant got its name as a result of word of mouth from numerous foreign travelers that could not remember the name of the eatery but did remember the wide and popular selection of puddings sold there and thus referred to it as the "pudding shop". I of course sampled some of the pudding, and found it to be delicious!

After lunch came my favorite part of the day. We headed to the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul, one of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world. There, I got to try my hand at bartering, and I must say, I think Wanda would be pretty proud of me! I perfected the “walk away until they give you the best price” method. The market sellers are such funny people. They entice you with calls of “beautiful girl” and “I have the best price for you!”, but once you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a hundred times. The sellers are also highly theatrical, and will be fake upset if you quote a price that is too low. Overall, I got some nice goodies and enjoyed myself immensely. This all took about two hours or so, so we all met back up at the Starbucks (!!!!!) in Istanbul before heading back to dinner.

Because we’d had such a good experience the night before, we decided to head back to the same Turkish restaurant. The restaurant was happy to see us and even gave us some complimentary food! After another delicious dinner, some of us went into a local bakery to try some Turkish delights, the famous Turkish desserts (and consequently the dessert Edmund sells his family out for in the Chronicles of Narnia) and some more baklava. I actually got some apple tea again, and even ended up buying a packet of some to take home.

By this time we were all exhausted, having spent most of the day on the move. We had to get up at 4:45 the next morning to head back over the Bosphorous Bridge and back to the airport, so we went and got a good night’s sleep. Even though I was in Istanbul for less than 48 hours, I absolutely loved it. It was just so different from anywhere else I’d visited. I would love to go back to Turkey some day!