Istantinople, Day One - Sultanahmet
Late as ever, I already wanted to write this report middle of last week, but then I got distracted by bad weather, shiny things, calling relatives (now that I have a phone \o/), a peperoni and the surprise visit of my japanese friend to Paris. (The peperoni part sounds probably funny, but it really wasn't. Trust me on that.)
Aaand because I seem to be unable to make a radical choice amongst the fantastillion pictures I took, I'll have to split this report. I'm sorry for that (except that I'm totally not. Except maybe for those with a shitty connection)!
Also, I am once again a total no0b when it comes to editing pics, I can't even install Photoshop correctly!D: So have the pics in their raw state for now. I hope I'll get to work on them one day, but this day won't be today I'm afraid. Otherwise I'll never get them posted at all!;>_>
So for a beginning, Sultanahmet! The part of the city where my hostel was... and about every single top important historic site in not even five minutes walking distance all around. Aka, the kind of stroll through the city where you can just turn around yourself and take a picture of everything that moves, or, uh, rather doesn't!<3 I desperately need a Türkiye icon, clearly!
Also, here be your warning for a shitload of pictures? Maybe I went a liiiitle overboard, now that I have my own internet and all.D:
Oh well, I came (not without some difficulties), I saw and while I can't pretend that I conquered, I still felt like *VICTORY POSE* on my first day, considering the sunshine and the warmth afterall those months in the cold western/middle Europe! More about my arrival to Istanbul as well as the first morning behind the links, including plenty of fail!'ı's.
Instead, have a few pictures, like... the Blue Mosque hiding behind a random bazaar.
Those seats and carpets are pretty cool by the way. I've had my first çay with a random carpet seller somewhere in this street, along with a really nice chat... and nobody tried to sell anything, they were just happy to talk and get to know me. That was.. cool. Really.
In general I must say, I was very impressed by the turkish hospitality! I stopped counting at some point just how many people asked me whether I wanted to drink a çay with them, and although at first I was (possibly understandably as a western european?) quite a bit suspicious about that (usually lurking you into a shop means that you'll have a hard time coming out without having to buy a trillion useless goods... or well, ever been hit on by middle-eastern men anywhere outside Turkey? Then you know what I mean), I realized that many of them really only were curious about me. It was really nice, and never in my life before I would have dreamt to follow completely strangers either for a tea in their shop or for a backgammon game into a random café. Although in the end it was quite weary as well, you can't have a tea with all of them after all, and they were all insisting, some up to the point of exasperation. In the end I even made rather huge detours so that I wouldn't have to pass in front of the shop of some who insisted most (one of them who obviously wanted me to buy things rather than have a tea and a chat) in order to go to my hotel. And on two occasions it even lead to exhausting endless arguments because I said that I already had a plan to meet my family (which was mostly a lie, but still).
So it definitely enchanted me at times, but then again I wish some wouldn't insist that much when you just can't or don't want to. It made me feel really bad afterwards. Not so much in the "Why did I refuse this poor guy's offer" way, but it left a bitter aftertaste where I wondered in exactly what degree I don't understand their way of thinking and they obviously don't understand mine either as a (female) western european. *sigh*
The Blue Mosque, officially Sultan Ahmed Mosque, had sort of a scandal going on when it was built (between 1609 and 1616) because of it's six minarets. Apparently the only other mosque at that time which had six minarets was the mosque of the Ka'aba in Mecca, so the Sultan had another seventh minaret built for Mecca.
Or at least that was what was written all over the place in Istanbul, but now according to the all-knowing high authority of Wikipedia, this isn't entirely true.oOa
And now turning around with the camara, facing the Blue Mosque, may I present to you...
...the Ayasofya, better known as the Hagia Sophia! Probably the most beautiful church in the world at Byzantine Empire times (or rather one of the most impressive buildings in the world period), the current (3rd!) version was built some time between 532 and 537! It became a mosque in 1453 after the conquest of Constantinople and finally a museum 1935 thanks to Atatürk. You'll hear my inner history geek squee a bit more about the Hagia Sophia later.:D
A part of the old city wall:
I have another picture where you can see one random plastic garden chair right in before the wall, almost in the middle of the street. With no house around to explain why anyone would put a garden chair in front of their lawn to enjoy the sun. There wasn't anyone around either to claim said chair. Totally random, but I found this to be more amusing than it probably is.
Just a random.. uh, fountain maybe? In the middle of the old hippodrome, which is only a regular street where the horses once ran with a bit of park in the middle now.
More random shots of Sultanahmet:
More random ruins along with the tram tracks that run through one very touristy street. You can't escape history in Istanbul, ever!
Like I said: everywhere! (Although usually in a better state than here.)
Yep, everywhere.
My hostel, Bahaus hostel, is the last one in the row on the right. Plenty of backpacker hostels (and some other hotels) in Sultanahmet, but I can definitely recommend Bahaus! The beds weren't as comfortable and the bathrooms not as perfectly clean as the evaluations on Hostelworld.com or Hostel.com made me believe, but still perfectly ok. And the staff knew everyone by name and very friendly in a totally personal way. Cool atmosphere, really! This ad was brought to you by Bahaus hostel in exchange for a free narghile smoke.
There were street vendors like everywhere, especially simit like here in the picture, but also roasted chestnuts and sometimes corn. The only times when I couldn't find any was of course when I was hungry and actively searching for them.~_~
The imperial gate at the entrance of Topkapı, the sultans' palace:
I.. barely want to admit that I thought this gate to be the Sublime Porte, that gave the Ottoman Empire it's "nickname", but alas no, I lived in error for an entire week or two.D: And I haven't actually seen the real Sublime Porte on top of that, or at least I can't remember having seen anything that resembles this picture (or it didn't struck me in particular compared to all that other glance and pomp).orz
This shows the fail when one doesn't buy the detailed tour guides. Although it's not so much like I didn't want to buy one specifically for Topkapı, it's more that almost all guides I saw in the tourist shop didn't have a price tagged on it. And while I can understand that for a bazaar or the random sellers outside who run from tourist to tourist, inside of a tourist shop on the palace grounds, I wasn't in the mood to ask for the price for every single item I was vaguely interested in. *sigh*
...the Marmara Sea!:D
And for the end, some geekery of teh cute:
...because I don't know how many stray cats there are in Greece, but Turkey can haz them too!<3
...and street dogs! And surprisingly, not of the filthy, nasty and barking sort like I usually imagined street dogs, but more of the big, gentle they-should-grow-up-with-my-children type. Cute!
Oookay, first part is done! More to come soon with the Grand Bazaar, although there will be fewer pictures (fortunately).
Hold on!~♥
Aaand because I seem to be unable to make a radical choice amongst the fantastillion pictures I took, I'll have to split this report. I'm sorry for that (except that I'm totally not. Except maybe for those with a shitty connection)!
Also, I am once again a total no0b when it comes to editing pics, I can't even install Photoshop correctly!D: So have the pics in their raw state for now. I hope I'll get to work on them one day, but this day won't be today I'm afraid. Otherwise I'll never get them posted at all!;>_>
So for a beginning, Sultanahmet! The part of the city where my hostel was... and about every single top important historic site in not even five minutes walking distance all around. Aka, the kind of stroll through the city where you can just turn around yourself and take a picture of everything that moves, or, uh, rather doesn't!<3 I desperately need a Türkiye icon, clearly!
Also, here be your warning for a shitload of pictures? Maybe I went a liiiitle overboard, now that I have my own internet and all.D:
Oh well, I came (not without some difficulties), I saw and while I can't pretend that I conquered, I still felt like *VICTORY POSE* on my first day, considering the sunshine and the warmth afterall those months in the cold western/middle Europe! More about my arrival to Istanbul as well as the first morning behind the links, including plenty of fail!'ı's.
Instead, have a few pictures, like... the Blue Mosque hiding behind a random bazaar.
Those seats and carpets are pretty cool by the way. I've had my first çay with a random carpet seller somewhere in this street, along with a really nice chat... and nobody tried to sell anything, they were just happy to talk and get to know me. That was.. cool. Really.
In general I must say, I was very impressed by the turkish hospitality! I stopped counting at some point just how many people asked me whether I wanted to drink a çay with them, and although at first I was (possibly understandably as a western european?) quite a bit suspicious about that (usually lurking you into a shop means that you'll have a hard time coming out without having to buy a trillion useless goods... or well, ever been hit on by middle-eastern men anywhere outside Turkey? Then you know what I mean), I realized that many of them really only were curious about me. It was really nice, and never in my life before I would have dreamt to follow completely strangers either for a tea in their shop or for a backgammon game into a random café. Although in the end it was quite weary as well, you can't have a tea with all of them after all, and they were all insisting, some up to the point of exasperation. In the end I even made rather huge detours so that I wouldn't have to pass in front of the shop of some who insisted most (one of them who obviously wanted me to buy things rather than have a tea and a chat) in order to go to my hotel. And on two occasions it even lead to exhausting endless arguments because I said that I already had a plan to meet my family (which was mostly a lie, but still).
So it definitely enchanted me at times, but then again I wish some wouldn't insist that much when you just can't or don't want to. It made me feel really bad afterwards. Not so much in the "Why did I refuse this poor guy's offer" way, but it left a bitter aftertaste where I wondered in exactly what degree I don't understand their way of thinking and they obviously don't understand mine either as a (female) western european. *sigh*
The Blue Mosque, officially Sultan Ahmed Mosque, had sort of a scandal going on when it was built (between 1609 and 1616) because of it's six minarets. Apparently the only other mosque at that time which had six minarets was the mosque of the Ka'aba in Mecca, so the Sultan had another seventh minaret built for Mecca.
Or at least that was what was written all over the place in Istanbul, but now according to the all-knowing high authority of Wikipedia, this isn't entirely true.oOa
And now turning around with the camara, facing the Blue Mosque, may I present to you...
...the Ayasofya, better known as the Hagia Sophia! Probably the most beautiful church in the world at Byzantine Empire times (or rather one of the most impressive buildings in the world period), the current (3rd!) version was built some time between 532 and 537! It became a mosque in 1453 after the conquest of Constantinople and finally a museum 1935 thanks to Atatürk. You'll hear my inner history geek squee a bit more about the Hagia Sophia later.:D
A part of the old city wall:
I have another picture where you can see one random plastic garden chair right in before the wall, almost in the middle of the street. With no house around to explain why anyone would put a garden chair in front of their lawn to enjoy the sun. There wasn't anyone around either to claim said chair. Totally random, but I found this to be more amusing than it probably is.
Just a random.. uh, fountain maybe? In the middle of the old hippodrome, which is only a regular street where the horses once ran with a bit of park in the middle now.
More random shots of Sultanahmet:
More random ruins along with the tram tracks that run through one very touristy street. You can't escape history in Istanbul, ever!
Like I said: everywhere! (Although usually in a better state than here.)
Yep, everywhere.
My hostel, Bahaus hostel, is the last one in the row on the right. Plenty of backpacker hostels (and some other hotels) in Sultanahmet, but I can definitely recommend Bahaus! The beds weren't as comfortable and the bathrooms not as perfectly clean as the evaluations on Hostelworld.com or Hostel.com made me believe, but still perfectly ok. And the staff knew everyone by name and very friendly in a totally personal way. Cool atmosphere, really! This ad was brought to you by Bahaus hostel in exchange for a free narghile smoke.
There were street vendors like everywhere, especially simit like here in the picture, but also roasted chestnuts and sometimes corn. The only times when I couldn't find any was of course when I was hungry and actively searching for them.~_~
The imperial gate at the entrance of Topkapı, the sultans' palace:
I.. barely want to admit that I thought this gate to be the Sublime Porte, that gave the Ottoman Empire it's "nickname", but alas no, I lived in error for an entire week or two.D: And I haven't actually seen the real Sublime Porte on top of that, or at least I can't remember having seen anything that resembles this picture (or it didn't struck me in particular compared to all that other glance and pomp).orz
This shows the fail when one doesn't buy the detailed tour guides. Although it's not so much like I didn't want to buy one specifically for Topkapı, it's more that almost all guides I saw in the tourist shop didn't have a price tagged on it. And while I can understand that for a bazaar or the random sellers outside who run from tourist to tourist, inside of a tourist shop on the palace grounds, I wasn't in the mood to ask for the price for every single item I was vaguely interested in. *sigh*
...the Marmara Sea!:D
And for the end, some geekery of teh cute:
...because I don't know how many stray cats there are in Greece, but Turkey can haz them too!<3
...and street dogs! And surprisingly, not of the filthy, nasty and barking sort like I usually imagined street dogs, but more of the big, gentle they-should-grow-up-with-my-children type. Cute!
Oookay, first part is done! More to come soon with the Grand Bazaar, although there will be fewer pictures (fortunately).
Hold on!~♥