I have so many words that I could use to describe Istanbul... alive, exotic, chaotic, colorful. This trip has been one of my favorites since I've been here. It was just the right blend of history, culture, shopping, food and downtime. My colleague from Nike, Kristin, and I decided around December that Istanbul sounded like a pretty cool city to visit. There is SO much history that stems from this city - it's kind of like a middle eastern Rome... and it kind of was for a certain time. Half of the city falls in Europe, while the other half is in Asia. This alone gives the city a feel of its own. I felt at times like I was in Europe, at other times, Asia, and, still other times, it just felt like something completely new! I think the thing that made the biggest impression is that this is a Muslim city. There's no escaping it. Five times a day (starting at 6:00 am - trust me, I could hear it from my hotel!), there is a call to prayer that is broadcast from the tall minarets at the tops of the mosques. The call comes from each of the mosques, which are abundant, so at these times, it is an absolute cacaphony of Muslim chanting that means something like "Allah is our one God, Mohammed is his prophet, come to pray." It was such a different experience for me... sure, I've seen mosques - there's a huge on on the way to my former alma mater on I-475... but, I've never been in a Muslim country. I took a recording of the prayer call one evening... if you are interested, have a listen. It's pretty mesmerizing.
A phrase that Kristin kept using this weekend was "travel bliss", and I think I'm going to steal that one from her... there were so many moments where I just closed my eyes and thought, "Holy crap! I am SOOO lucky!". Without further ado, I present to you my four days in Istanbul:
Thursday, I got up at the crack of dawn to catch my flight. We arrived in Istanbul, thinking we were going to need to catch a taxi... however, when we arrived, someone from our hotel was there to pick us up... what an amazing surprise. And the first of happy surprises with this hotel... we stayed at Arena Hotel in the Old Town part of Isanbul, and I would highly recommend it. Here is our room:
We got settled in, and then gathered cameras, coats, and guidebooks and hit the town! We only had a few hours on that first day, so we hit the oldest site first: The Aya Sophia. This was origianlly a church from the Byzantine era, but when the Muslims captured the city, they built the tall minarets on the top of the church, covered up all the religious art, and called it a mosque. Funny, because many mosques are based off of the architecture of what used to be this Christian church! :) Here is me outside of it (note the new REALLY RED hat - it was FREEZING outside!):
Here is the inside of the Aya Sophia... it's been under construction for the past 20 years, and still has 10 years to go! In the Muslim faith, there are no pictures of people like in the Christian church, their art is all the Muslim calligraphy like you see on the circles hanging on the wall. Different, but still beautiful.
After the Aya Sophia, we checked out another pretty cool site - the Underground Cistern. This was once a huge underground water supply for the citizens of Istanbul that went forgotten for years. It's been restored, and now you can go underground and see how ancient citizens got clean water. The coolest part was seeing all of the Roman columns - these were all recycled from other places, and cut to fit down here. Very cool.
We were SO cold after these two things, and had a few hours to kill before our dinner reservations, so we stopped in a small cafe and had our first of many apple teas. Now, I'm fairly certain that I have never had APPLE tea before in my life... I love tea, but this was new to me. And, the way they made it was interesting... it was from these little green crystals (okay, so it really wasn't that FRESH), so the tea is like this NEON green color. It was quite tasty, and I drank it every chance I got. I liked it so much, in fact, that when I went to the Spice Market on Friday, I bought an entire KILO (about 2 lbs) of the real stuff. I'll be drinking this until I move back to the States! :)
One thing I have to say about Turkey is that the people are SO nice. I had a minor (okay, pretty major) scare with an ATM, when it ate my debit card. I wasn't quite sure what to do... it was after bank hours, and I had no idea how I was going to get my card back. There was a really nice Turkish man standing nearby that spoke English, and he came over and found out what was going on, then proceeded to bang on the bank's door until someone answered. He stayed with me until I got my card back. Whew! I was so thankful for this Good Samaritan (yes, that's right Em... the Good Samaritan!) Anyways, we proceeded to have a really nice dinner, then passed out (only to be awoken by the 6 am prayer call... it was surreal!).
On Friday, we started out with a visit to the Blue Mosque, which was super close to our hotel. In order to go inside, you have to remove your shoes as a sign of respect. Some mosques require women to cover their heads, but this was not one of them. The mosque was stunning both inside and out. It's pretty cool... there is a pattern in the carpet so people know how to line up in prayer (Rick Steves equates it to having lines on a piece of paper so you know where to write). It was fascinating to me to learn more about this religion... though I've taken a world religion class, it was really cool to see everything up close and personal.
Outside of the Blue Mosque
Crowd removing their shoes before entering
Shoe racks inside (and you can kind of see a little darker line showing people where to do their praying)Beautiful ceiling and arches in the Blue Mosque
Me with the Blue Mosque
After the Blue Mosque, we visited the amazing Topkapi Palace, which is where the Sultan used to live with his Harem. There were some amazing jewels on display there, and it was fun to get to see how the rich people lived back in the day. The Harem was fascinating - sounds kind of like an ancient form of "The Bachelor"... the Sultan had one main wife, and could have up to 3 others, plus concubines. Seriously - didn't the guy realize that one women was enough to give him trouble!?! ;) Anyways, they all lived in the harem with the Sultan's mother... who pretty much decided who was going to be the favorite. Sounds like not such a fun life to live... unless you were the favorite.
After this, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a little Turkish cafe, and then walked around the Spice Market... which is basically what the name says - a place to buy spices... and about any other food delight that you'd like. It was fun to haggle and see what was out on display - my taste buds were in overdrive with all the yummy baklava and Turkish Delight I crammed into my mouth! :)
Halls of the Spice Market
You could get pretty much any spice you want - I bought some saffron and, of course, Apple Tea!
That night was probably the most fun I've had in a long time... Kristin and I ventured out to a Turkish Restaurant where they play live Turkish music. The atmosphere was so lively and fun! The people were all, again, super friendly. And the food, well, it was pretty good too! We spent quite a few hours there just enjoying the music, and even dancing a bit. We also tried a local liquor, called Raki... kind of tastes like Ouzo, which I'm also not really a fan of. I found that if I just chugged it down, it was okay... which also might have led to a bit of tipsiness... but who cares?? :)
Raki - not so yummy!
The sweet, sweet couple sitting next to us... they didn't speak much English, but we ended up having a really fun time with them. They knew all the songs, and were singing along. Truly a special experience!
KJ getting her groove on...
Saturday, we slept in a bit after the night of Raki, and then hit the Grand Bizarre... which is a shopper's paradise. :) There were miles and miles of shops... so fun! I got a big part of my Christmas shopping done... yes, for next year! :) We spent several hours there, and it was fun to see all the things that are special to this country - carpets, beautiful glass lanterns, pillow cases, and woven things like towels. I had to once again get another suitcase to bring back all of the things that I bought. Yikes! That evening, we had one of the most relaxing experiences I've had since I moved here... the Turkish Bath. Now, okay, I admit, I was both excited and a little aprehensive to go to this place. I think Americans in general are pretty conservative about public nudity, and I personally have never been one to go topless at a beach... so I was a little freaked out. Thought about doing more shots of Raki before entering, but decided that alcohal was probably not a great idea before going into a steam room. Anyways, got inside, paid my fee for a "bubble scrub" and an "oil massage", and then proceeded to get changed into my bathing suit... all of it, at this point, because I saw some other women in full bikinis. "Whew", I thought. Kristin and I entered the steam room, which was built in the 1500's for the sultan's mother. This place was amazing... let me try to describe it, because, obviously, no pictures were allowed. So, you walk in, and it is a big room with a huge dome in the middle. Under the dome, there is a huge marble heated slab, where a bunch of women, in different states of undress (some, were, gulp, all the way naked!). All around the room were different little alcoves with fountains, where you are supposed to sit and pour water over your body to soften your skin. So, KJ and I laid on the marble slab for a while, then softened our skin for a while, and then it was time for the "bubble scrub". This topless woman comes over to me, yanks off my top (there goes that idea), and proceeds to scrub the hell out of my skin with a loofah. I don't think I've EVER been this exfoliated in my life. I'm not sure I truly enjoyed this part of the experience... I was still kind of traumatized about being topless (even though everyone else was... I'm weird, what can I say?), but it was over before I knew it (I think the whole thing lasted about 10 minutes). Next was the oil massage. I collected my things and began feeling a little more comfortable with the topless thing... walked out into a room to dry off, then into a massage room... there were about 6 massage beds lined up - so much for privacy. I had about a 30 minute massage, then went back into the steam room to rinse off. Now, this was a little traumatizing, but a lot liberating. KJ told me about a Turkish bath in Amsterdam, and I think I'm ready for it now. I felt all loose and jello-y afterwards - it was a really nice way to end the evening (okay, we had more amazing food after the bath house, but that was really the highlight of the day for me)!
And that brings me to our last day... KJ and I split up today, because I wanted to go for a long run (in preparation for RoPa), and she had a church she wanted to check out. I think there is nothing better than running in a new city... you get to see so much when moving a little quicker on foot. Today was by far the best day weather-wise, and I had a true moment of "travel bliss"... I was running along the waterfront, the sun was shining on me, the waves were crashing, and "Beautiful Day" by U2 came on in my iPod. What a perfect ending to a wonderful trip. I could have gone on running for hours, but kept it to a little over an hour, then got cleaned up and walked around a bit more. Before I knew it, it was time to come home... I will never forget this wonderful weekend!
Travel bliss... running along the Bosphorus Strait... ahhh!
