05.14.22
If a picture can speak 1000 words, a word can generate 1000 pictures, and the mere name of the city we just visited—Istanbul- conjures up many thousands of images! One of the oldest cities in the world, it was founded almost nine thousand years ago, and initially called Byzantium, then Constantinople, and it has been under the rule of Greece, the Roman Empire, and the Ottomans. It is one of the few cities that bridges two continents, and it’s magical, crowded, full of history, a gourmand’s pipe dream, and a traveler’s fantasy; Istanbul is many things. It has one of the busiest airports in the world and is easier than ever to get to.
In past blogs I shared the surprise I had when we arrived in Turkey in December 2021 and how the thought of visiting this country—let alone living in it—was never a thought in my head. But after 6 months and visiting just a fraction of the western coast, it is truly a jewel of the world. Since Kat and I are returning to the US for the month of June she suggested (insisted??) that we visit this town of 15 million people and almost 20 percent of the population. “When someone asks us if we got there, I’d like to say yes,” was her pitch, and I didn’t fight it. It wasn’t a big deal to me, but it was to Kat. I didn’t care, but we went to Istanbul…and here’s what happened.
The flight from Antalya was cheap, about $62, which is typical of most flights outside the US, where domestic flights are expensive. We found a nice AirBNB in “Old Town” which is where we were recommended to stay. It’s near the Golden Horn, the Bosporus straight, hell, pretty much everything we wanted to see, including several major mosques, Topkapi Palace, Galata Tower, and more. As it turned out we got there the second day of a three-day holiday called Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the 30-day celebration of Ramadan. Now that the faithful can return to normal activities, including eating, drinking (even water), and other assorted activities, they celebrate. During Ramadan even sex is forbidden, so that’s pretty committed to their faith.
Our flight was easy, as was the 90-minute journey from Sabiha Gokcen Airport, the newer one, which is waaaay outside of town. It required one bus and one metro, so that wasn’t horrible. The town was active, but well within reason, and when we arrived on day one, it was surprisingly quiet—until we got to the tourist area. Two of the major mosques are within a 10-minute walk of each other, so that is where the crowds were. We were told that after the three days were through things would get more “normal,” whatever that means.
Day II we got an early start and walked over the Galata Bridge, which was very cool in that the top deck was covered with fishermen and their lines hanging over the sides, and below that level was all restaurants. On the other side Kat spotted a very cool tower, Galata, so we climbed a very steep incline to find it. Packed, that’s what it was, so we didn’t go in, but enjoyed the area. The tower was built in 1348 and over the centuries had damage, rebuilding, fire, add-ons, and now it is a tourist spot. This was the big day for walking—12 miles—and that includes lots of hills since Istanbul was built on seven hills, following the example of Rome. Of course, back then it was called Constantinople and it was the gateway between Europe and Asia as well as the bridge between Christianity and the Muslim faith. I do have to add that as used to being in and around “old buildings” as we are, Istanbul was humbling. We spent several hours in their archeological museum and were face to face with statues, sarcophagus, coins, and other relics that were seven, eight, even ten thousand years old. Their statues were particularly impressive and since they had the entire country to get them from, they were probably the best of the best. I was particularly enamored with a huge exhibit dedicated to Troy, the real city, which they determined was in northern Turkey. It also was a city that was covered repeatedly with dirt and new constructs, and they had to dig through ten different levels to get to their origins.
We took it a little easier the next day, only 6.5 miles, and visited the Hagia Sophia, Suleymaniye, and Blue mosques, each different and spectacular in their own way. That left 3227 that we did NOT visit, since that is the estimated number of mosques in this very conservative, devout town. We saw far more Hijabs (head and body scarves worn by Muslim women), and everyone blended right in. The crowds in SOME areas were better, like around the tourist spots, but the Grand Bazaar and others like it were pandemonium. Most vendors were courteous, a few were pushy, but since we are very particular about what we buy (being nomads), we held our own. Dinner was at a great buffet where you pick your food dishes when you enter and it was terrific.
Our last day was a full one since we didn’t fly out until 8:30 p.m., but the roads everywhere were a mess and we had concern about getting to the airport, even though we left four hours early. It ended well due to a shared taxi ride rather than the city bus, and by the time we got home we needed a day to just recover.
Istanbul is what I call a “city on overload.”
Busy everywhere, though SOME streets were barren of traffic, and others were a parking lot. There wasn’t much in between. The buses and subways we saw were usually jammed, I mean sardine jammed, and made us both reluctant to use them. On top of the 15 million residents, I suspect that that number increases 20-30 percent with visiting tourists. As the largest city in Turkey, and in Europe, we heard scores of different accents, and far more English than we did in Antalya. It seems that Americans and Brits visit THERE before they go anywhere else. We found the affordability reasonable, as in “Turkey reasonable,” and imminently affordable. The weather and crowds must be factored in if you plan your trip since it gets quite cold in winter (they had snow this year) and pretty hot in summer, but the determining factor is more the crowds than the weather. We were there for four days and we could go back for a month and still not see “everything,” but for us, personally, since “cities” and crowds are not our thing this might be a One and Done.
