Jan 29, 2008 20:00
Istanbul is probably the most well known city in Turkey. Perhaps it’s the only known city in Turkey to people not familiar with Turkey. To me it was. I didn’t really know what to expect when we decided to go to Istanbul. The name conjours up images of dusty markets and bazaars, mystical orientalism, exotic flair, eastern charm, religious architecture, etc. Well, it sorta has all of this…and a whole lot more. It is, after all a city of about 14 million people that straddles two continents. So, it has it all, really. It has poverty, it has wealth, it has sea, it has mountains, it had tourist areas, it has places no tourist has or may ever see, it has ethnic groups from all over the world, it has mosques, synagogues and Christian churches. There are very conservative areas mixed with very liberal areas. It’s a mish mash of everything all in one.
We stayed in an area of the city called Sultanamet. If you want to see the real Turkey, this isn’t the place. This is where you go when you want to say you’ve been to Turkey, but don’t actually want to get dirty. It plays into every stereotype you may have of what Turkey is about…from belly dancers to whirling dervishes to water pipes to carpets…it’s all there, in it’s polished, touristic glory. Now, don’t get me wrong, we loved where we stayed. We had a fantastic hotel which I would recommend to ANYONE. We were in a relatively peaceful area, from the terrace we could look over the Sea of Marmara, and the beginning of the golden horn and the bospherous. Right behind us was the Aya Sophia AND the Blue Mosque, plus the splendid Topkapi palace. All of the major, and INCREDIBLE sites were right there. The only thing missing were Turkish people…other than touts who stood in front of stores trying to get you in, or standing in front of the tourist sites, trying to lure you into their carpet or leather store. Prices were insane (although our hotel was CHEAP), food was lousy for the most part, and, yet, it was great! We had a wonderful time, though the best times were probably spent outside of the tourist zone.
On the second night of our time in Istanbul, I saw that there was a big football game on…Galatasary and Bursaspor. I’ve been to games in Ankara, but, they don’t draw quite the same crowds because the population is smaller. So, I wanted to check this out. I headed to some part of the city through a series of different public transportation links and found myself outside a MASSIVE stadium that was filled to the brim with the loudest fans I have ever heard…and faced a gauntlet of scalpers. Crap. Even there I couldn’t get away from hawkers. Anyway, I guess because the game had started, and possibly sold out, there were no ticket booths open, but there were a whole lot of desperate scalpers who had to try and get rid of their tickets 15 minutes into the game. After refusing aggressive seller after aggressive seller, and making my way to a gate, a final scalper caught me. I couldn’t see another way to get a ticket. After confirming that the ticket was indeed legitimate, I decided to buy the guys ticket. It was a comp ticket, so it didn’t have a price. In the end, I gave the guy 40 YTL, and thought I had probably grossly overpaid. But, I had a ticket, and I was happy, and I headed into the stadium to find my seat…which, for some reason, somehow ended up being the best seat I could possibly get in the entire frickin’ stadium! I was field level, I could see the sweat dripping off the players. They were feet away. The area wasn’t crowded. It was covered and relatively warm. It was…PERFECT! Where the hell did that guy get this ticket??? Anyway, this was indeed the biggest game I had been to yet. The stadium was pretty much packed with a very rowdy group of fans, chanting, banging drums, lighting flares, being very passionate about the sport. The game was a good one. Man, the more I watch soccer, the more I appreciate it. Watching it on TV can be boring, but live, it’s completely different. I enjoy it. Things were going well. The crowds team (Galatasary, as evident by the sea of red, yellow and black scarves, jackets, hats, etc) was ahead by one point. As the game came to a close, the goalie for Bursaspor, for some reason ended up punching a Galatasary player in the face. This didn’t go over well with the fans. Next thing I knew, chairs, cans, bottles, garbage, whatever anyone could get their hands on was flying down on to the field and the crowd was very boisterous. The police at the bottom had their shields up protecting themselves from flying objects. The press were bombarded with junk. The field was covered. It was great! This was much closer to the type of game that has made the game so famous - rowdy behaviour! It was a great night, I must admit. The crowd was jubulent as they left the stadium, thanks to the big win, the streets became stuffed with a sea of red, food salesmen were practically giving away the food they had left, and the night was still young, which meant I would get back to the hotel at a decent time. It was great.
One of the big attractions, of course, is the Aya Sofia…a giant cathedral turned mosque. That was one of our first “tourist” desitinations. It was quite something to see, I really must say. But, maybe that was in comparison to what we had just seen which was the inside of a carpet store that we had been sucked into by a new “friend.” If something in Sultanamet asks you where you are from…it is not because they like you and want to get to know you. They have something and they want to sell it to you. That isn’t to say that some of these guys aren’t nice, because some of them really are. This guy, who swayed us from the entrance of the Aya Sofia by saying he just wanted to give us a pamphlet, was actually a really nice guy. And, it was an interesting experiencing going to his carpet shop which was in a restored Ottoman house which really was beautiful. And the carpets that they sold there were lovely…although I don’t think they were exactly what they were telling us they were (one of a kind…and antique…no. Nice…yes.) We had tea, we saw rugs, they gave us a lengthy talk about each one. Then, it came to price. They were showing us 1200 YTL carpets. We were in the….100 YTL budget range. They looked unhappy. We left. Hey, they said no obligation…just some tea and look at some carpets. So we did. But, in the end, it turns out that they didn’t like the idea of us not spending 1200 YTL on a carpet. Like we even LOOKED like people who would (or COULD) spend that much on a carpet! Would someone actually allow themselves to be dragged off of the street and just drop 1200 YTL on a carpet?? If so…I dunno. Anyway, it was part of the whole Istanbul experience. It needed to be done. We learned how the touts went about their affairs, and we learned quickly how to dodge them. So, back to Aya Sofia we went, in the gates we go, through a gauntlet of people who wanted to be our guides for the afternoon...people we had to say “no” to repeatedly (I shouldn’t even engaged in conversation with them) …and in we slipped to a truly spectacular building! Originally, it was built as a Christian church. It then fell into Ottoman hands and was turned into a mosque…a giant, red mosque. After Turkey became Turkey, the building was turned into a museum. There are still some Christian remnants, including mosaics of Christ and the Virgin Mary, saints, and pictures of a variety of rulers standing with Jesus, even though they ruled long after the poor guy was dead. Go figure. How they ended up hanging out will be one of those unsolveable mysteries I suppose. Some buildings have a sense of history. You can feel it. It doesn’t just look old…it feels old…it feels like it has had a long and interesting life. To me, this was one of those buildings. You can see pieces and alterations added with each new ruler, with each new ideal, reflecting religious thought and idealogy. You can see where there were some Christian connections that new owners had attempted…though lazily at times…to get rid of. If one had time to really study it, I’m sure one could actually read it’s history just by these subtle little changes, and alterations. I enjoyed being in that building. It is huge. It is dark. It is old. It is spiritual. And, it is under repair. Inside, part of the building is filled with the biggest scaffolding I believe I have ever seen. I would not want to go up that! It is obvious that the building is wearing, and it does need restoration, so it is good to see that it is being done. Maybe they should take up selling carpets to raise the money. I’m sure selling a few 1200 YTL carpets would help!
There was a time when the cisterns under the city were…lost. How one loses a cistern, I dunno. People would stick a bucket through a whole in their floor and get water. Often, they would fish through the hole. Then, one day, someone said “Hey, why are we getting water and fish through the holes in our floors??” and the cisterns were rediscovered. Now, these romans and Byzantines and such don’t do anything simple. No…when they build something, they go all out and turn it into a flowery, beautiful, masterpiece. These were cisterns under the city that held water that was brought up through these revolutionary means across a series of hills, etc. They really only needed a big square box. But, oh no, they had to build these massive, beautiful underground structures with pillars and bits and pieces from here, there and everywhere, including two giant medusa heads that no one really knows where they came from. There are a few different areas you can see the cisterns. One section has been turned into an underground bar and restaurant. Another is an art gallery. The St. Basilica ones that we saw had been renovated and opened to the public. The water was there…complete with fish…big, ugly fish. The medusa heads were there. A giant pillar with tear shape coverings was there (supposedly with magic healing powers). This cistern was amazing. And, for years, it had been filled with crud, and people were drinking the water and eating fish out of it. Crazy. Anyway, those were worth seeing.
Also worth seeing were the Princess Islands, a set of 4 Islands out in the Sea of Marmara, not far from the city. You take a fairy, costs 2.60 YTL each one way, and it’s wonderful. There is a big, main, tourist island, and three smaller ones. Each is a summer playground for Istanbulians. We chose to stop at Island two, mostly boarded up for the winter. The only life were a few folks here and there, and a million stray cats and dogs. As soon as we got off the ferry, we were wondering where the heck we were. The ferry dock was covered with all of these sleeping dogs, lying in the sun, looking dead. Dead dog island! They weren’t dead…they were just very docile it turns out. Everywhere we went, packs of not so wild, very cuddly dogs and cats could be found. They all wanted to be our friends…especially the ones near the fish restaurant where we were eating. One fellow was gutting Himsi fish (sorta like a smelt) on the dock, and there must have been 20 cats around him waiting for a handout. As we ate, cats swarmed, and dogs stared. I fed one poor, shy, but nice dog a whole loaf of bread, while one bold stray cat made his way onto Elyssa’s lap to see what he could eat. We had a whole day filled with our pets who ran the island. After lunch, we took a walk up onto the other side of the island to see what we could see. Up and up and up we walked until we couldn’t walk up no more, at least so we thought. The view was superb. Istanbul lay in the back, the other islands were to the left and right, and the sea lay in front of us, filled with boats, tiny islands, the deep purple of the land to the south. It was well worth the walk. No one was around. It was peaceful and quiet. The weather was perfect. The sun was starting to set. The moon was rising over Istanbul. It was…there are no words. It was romantic, it was fun, it was wonderful, it was paradise. It was the perfect time of year. There was no one there. In fact, January was the perfect time to be in that part of Istanbul PERIOD. Our hotel was empty, save for a couple of people here in there, including a nice, young Scottish chap, and a teacher from florida with itchy feet. The place was empty! The streets were manageable. There were no lines anywhere. Things weren’t crowded. It was…PERFECT. I can’t imagine going at any other time of the year!
The Blue Mosque is known for it’s blue Iznik tiles (made in…Iznik I believe…or…). There is no doubt it is a beautiful mosque, but I felt disappointed. Well, at first, I felt great, because as we started to walk into said mosque, I bent down to pet a cat, and he leaped on to me and started nuzzling me like crazy. He was the friendliest stray cat that could possibly ever exist.There we were, in the sun, this stray cat cuddled in my arms, and what am I to do? How could I put him down! He was so loveable! So, we cuddled for a good while. It was so nice…and, unexpected. But we had to see the mosque, so we had to say goodbye to the cat. I put him down, reluctantly, and we carried on into the giant mosque. It does have age going for it, but it is also overrun with tourists. The Kocatepe Mosque in Ankara is larger, I believe, is just as stunning, and has no tourists. Because of the tourists, much of the Blue Mosque is closed off, and the areas where there are people, it is stuffed with people taking pictures left, right and centre. The peace that I felt in Kocatepe Mosque was gone…it was lost. The building was beautiful, but it was not what I hoped it would be. It was built in response to the Aya Sofia. It didn’t quite meet the size. There were also some structural malfunctions earlier on that led to a roof collapse at one point in it’s existence. There was some controversy over the number of minarets, which led to the sultan of the time building an extra minaret onto the mosque at Mecca. It has an interesting history…but, because of it’s popularity and fame, it has also lost much of what makes a mosque such a special place…the tranquility and the peace.
There aren’t a lot of record stores in Ankara. So, one thing that I did want to do while in Istanbul is seek out some CD’s. This led me across the Bospherus on a chilly, drizzly evening to find a store that I had heard about on the Asian side (Istanbul straddles two continents…asia and Europe) in a neighbourhood called Kadikoy. Off I went, in search of discs in this area that is a maze of streets and stuffed with people. I chose a most unfortunate time to go there…rush hour. The ferry was packed. The streets were packed. I had no clue where I was. I just wandered aimlessly trying to find this place. By the time I got there and started roaming, it was well after 5. I told Elyssa, who was at a 14th Century Hammam, that I would meet her back at the hotel at around 7:30pm to go for dinner. I could see right then and there that it wasn’t going to happen. I stopped at a musical instrument shop to ask where the heck this record store was, and a nice young man said he was just leaving and would show me the way. He was just picking up his bass guitar which needed a bit of work. It turns out that the shop I was going to was run by his former producer and manager. Interesting. Turns out that for about 10 years he was in a hard rock band before giving up music for a while. Now, the very clean cut, quiet, friendly, polite guy plays in…a death metal band. Death metal is very popular here. The more death metally, the better. That, and prog rock…the worst form of rock ever conceived. Apparently, his band will be touring in may with a Norwegian death metal band...those Norwegian metal heads also love their metal with a heavy dose of death. So, I look forward to seeing them in Ankara. Anyway, into a dingy pasaji he led me, filled with book and record stores, and a few T-Shirt shops, and then we said our goodbyes. It was GREAT. Finally…CD’s! I knew I wasn’t going to get out of here anytime soon. Now, this one shop was your typical record store. It was crammed to the rafters with CD’s, tapes and vinyl, in boxes, scattered all over the place, no rhyme or reason to anything. A customer just has to search and search to see if they can find anything of interest. And, I did. I couldn’t believe how many Canadian CD’s there were…from the Watchmen to Alana Myles, to…I dunno…I can’t remember them all. I just thought “Where the heck did these come from??” There was stuff there that I have no clue how it got there! Just boxes and boxes and boxes of CD’s, a massive eclectic mix from all over the world. Next door, there was a pure metal and punk store, all with new CD’s. The guys inside spoke English and were very nice. I bought a CD. I went across to a T-Shirt shop run by a guy who looked like a Turkish Tommy Chong, and picked up a T-Shirt, and headed out. By this time, I think it was almost 9pm. I still had to find the ferry, get on the ferry, and get back to Europe and then make my way back to the hotel. Fortunately, it didn’t take too long to find the ferry…I just headed downhill figuring it would take me to the water, and low and behold…I was right! Now, the problem was that the ferry that I took to this side originally was no longer in service. Okay, now what? I was told to take another ferry. I was under the assumption that it would go to the ferry dock that I DID want…eventually. On the ferry I went, and we started to go. We stopped at another ferry dock…then we headed along…stopped at another ferry dock…and then, much to my dismay, we started to head BACK to where we came from. Crap. This was not what I had intended at all. So, back we went, to where we started, and I was hoping and praying that the ferry wouldn’t keep going up the coast and even farther away. Time was ticking on. After a while, I think I got it figured out. I had to get off on the last stop on the asian side. Okay. Then what?? I still had to get back to the European side. Luckily, there is no dramatic ending to this story. It just so happens that the stop was next to a bridge and the handy dandy tram stop was right there. Phew! My hour and a half spell on the boat, out on the freezing water, in the drizzling rain (I think I saw a few snow flakes) had come to a rather dull end, and home I headed. By this time, it was well after 11pm…which is the perfect time to wander around that part of town. No one tries to sell you anything, very few people are around, it’s quite. I like it.
Soooo, I did it again the next night…went for a wander through Istanbul late at night. I left the hotel around 9pm, with the intention of being back in an hour…an intention that never, EVER comes true, so I don’t even know why I intend things like this. As it turned out, I made it home closer to…1am. Again though, perfect time to be out and about! I ended up in an area called Fatih. It is a conservative enclave in the middle of Istanbul. The district stretches fairly far, and I believe that I was in the far less conservative end of the community. The streets of Istanbul, at least in this area, are different than in Ankara. There are not a lot of tall buildings here. In that section of town, it was all apartment blocks, built sometime in the 60’s or 70’s, with the odd old, wooden Ottoman building stuck in between for good measure. It was more like walking in New York or London. The side streets were narrow. The buildings were tall. It was a very different feel. Each street revealed a new community. I went through one section where it was all Russian shops and wholesale outlets. Not far away was an African neighbourhood. I ended up in a fish restaurant district. Around one corner were docks, storage facilities and rows upon rows of mechanic shops. All through, you could see traces of the cities history…part of an ancient wall here, an old building there..but you can also see the effects of a growing population. New buildings had taken over where the old ones stood, providing housing for some of the 14 million (or so) people who live in the city.
To be continued….
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