Today we were going to the Hagia Sophia, which meant an early start before the queues got ridiculous. Each day we have been in Istanbul, we have looked at the queue snaking its way around the grounds, thinking "we have to avoid that if we do the Hagia Sophia."
So we got there about 8.30am for a 9am open, and had only about 15 people ahead of us in the queue. (We were all originally standing in the wrong place, and a tour guide gently shifted us to another area.)
Meanwhile, this month is the Tulip Festival month here in Istanbul. As I said previously, tulips originally came from this country (not The Netherlands!) and they're a bit put out that Amsterdam gets so much attention from them - and want a bit of attention back. All over the city, tulips of all colours have been planted and it looks really beautiful. However, yesterday we noticed that something was going on next to the Hagia Sophia and a lot of tulips in containers were being laid. This morning it was finished and they were gearing up for a grand opening - a giant Ottoman carpet made out of tulips! I had a quick peek at this from the ground while we were in the queue for the museum.
The Hagia Sophia has a long and varied history, at various times being both a Christian church and a Muslim mosque. Now, it is a museum even though many people would like to see it returned to a mosque. It's main significance is that when it was transformed from a Christian place of worship into a Muslim place of worship, the Christian mosaics and other relics were only covered over, not destroyed, and so upon renovating you can see these different motifs side by side.
When the gates opened at 9am we made our way inside, as the first handful of people to enter. It was very beautiful inside, although almost half of it was under renovations and scaffolding at the moment. I had read about this so I expected it, but I wonder if many people were disappointed. The ceiling was adorned with the kind of lighting one normally finds in a mosque, and at the front, a mural of Mary and Jesus was side by side with large Muslim placards. I found this quite interesting, and took a lot of photos.
We walked to the front, and found a kitty sitting there behind a barrier, intently cleaning itself. It didn't care there were all these people there, it just needed to keep on cleaning. It drew quite a crowd - it knew it was out of reach, and we nicknamed it the Mosque Kitty. Another one strolled passed, clearly pregnant or recently so.
After a lap of the mosque, we found the ramp that takes you up to the first level. It looked pretty original as the stonework was very haphazard. From the top, you could see more Christian mosaics on the wall, as well as one which depicted the Sultan and his wife donating money to the Hagia Sophia.
We didn't end up spending an awful lot of time in here - I think if it had been in one piece we might have stayed a little longer but with half of it under construction there wasn't a lot of point, so we made our way out again onto the courtyard. A TV crew was setting up around the tulips, with a lot of "one, two, one, two" - in Turkish, of course, to test the microphones.
On our first visit into Istanbul we had popped into the front courtyard of the Blue Mosque but hadn't ventured further into the gardens. As we were nearby we thought we might have a look, even though the Mosque itself is shut for renovations. Everything is undergoing renos at the moment - must be so it's ready in time for tourist season in June!
We sat in the outside area of the mosque for a little while and people watched. From this angle, we realised that adoring the walls were placards explaining various aspects of Islam, from the connection to Mary and Jesus to the meaning behind the hijab. Once we were done sitting, we made our way around and read all of these boards - I especially found it very educational because I knew next to nothing about Islam. It even pointed out all of the connections to Christianity, and also showed step by step instructions of how one is supposed to wash before prayer time.
While we had been sitting, we made a plan. We would walk through the Blue Mosque, around through the market behind the mosque and then down to the water front. Then we would make our way around the outside tip of the peninsula to the ferry terminal, where we would catch the super cheap Bosphorus ferry for a couple of hours. Easy!
The market wasn't busy, and we didn't go inside any shops. We did duck up one alley and I saw a man with the dondurma icecream. I asked how much, and he said "5 Turkish lira". This was far, far cheaper than what we had paid before and so I impulse got us an icecream each. I do like this icecream!
While we were there, we saw a tourist stall and just got our magnet and postcards to get it over and done with. At the end of the market, we turned up the street and started to make our way towards the water. On the way we met an actual kitten which was playing with a piece of meat someone had given it, and a couple of very, very, friendly cats who didn't want us to stop patting them.
The walk around the outside was quite pretty. On our left was the palace walls, on the right, the ocean and in the distance, Asia. A few people were sunbathing on the rocks, although no one was swimming. I saw one man in a wetsuit deposit a massive bag filled with mussels onto a rock, but that was it in the water. Further around, we went through an open gate and saw many fishermen set up along the edge. As we got closer, we started to panic that there was no way out this side, and the fishermen were staring at us.
No matter - we found a path that led to a broken fence so we squeezed through that - it was how the fishermen got in in the first place! We kept walking until we were near the ferry terminal.
We finally got scammed. It had to happen eventually, right? A man infront of us dropped some things out of his hands, a brush, and after we crossed the road he was very thankful, and insisted that we let him polish our shoes, "gentleman to gentleman". I thought he was offering for helping him pick up his things. Nope. After he did our shoes, he demanded 90TL from us, which we literally didn't have. We gave him 50 and some change, and told him to piss off, pretty much, for tricking us. A bit of a waste of money, but at least it wasn't more!
We hurriedly continued onto the ferry terminal, and found the shop we wanted to buy tickets from. Not open yet. We figured it might open at about 2pm for the ferry at 2.30, so we walked along the waterfront until we got to the belik ekmek (fish sandwich) place that we had tried originally. We got 2 of the sandwiches from here and they were just as delicious as the first time! The super fresh bread and fresh fish, and he had tried to pick out as many bones as possible. After people watching for a while, we wandered back to the ferry terminal and joined a short queue waiting for the ticket office to open.
There are a lot of Bosphorus cruises. One we had been considering was €15 for 2 hours, and a few others we saw around started at about €15 too. Dan had done some research that morning and found a company that did a 2 hour cruise, but without a spoken tour, for 12TL. That's approximately €2.40. Um, yes please! A large queue formed behind us, and at 2pm the office opened for us to buy tickets. When the door opened for everyone to board, there was a massive surge forward as everyone literally ran onto the boat to try to get the best seats.
I ducked and weaved my way around people and raced up the stairs, and managed to nab two seats at the very back with a completely unhindered view. Score! Dan followed behind and commended my seat grabbing ability.
The two hour cruise was really lovely. At some points it was so warm I had to take my jumper off, other times the wind was extremely icy and I was freezing. We took a lot of pictures, as the ferry travelled from Eminonu right up to Istinye, with a couple of stops in between. Most of the view consisted of insane amount of housing - they think as many as 20 million people live in Istanbul (although it's "only" 14 million on paper) and the apartment blocks and mansions spread as far as the eye could see. Every where you could see 1, 2, 3 or even up to 6 minarets from all the different mosques (Istanbul has about 3000 mosques), and we passed under 2 bridges. Highly recommend this little cruise if you want a cheap view of the water! If you want to know what you're looking at, this isn't the cruise for you.
Oddly enough, the water was filled with jellyfish. It was kinda gross, I don't know how many of them were still alive, but it probably explains why practically no one was swimming earlier!
Back on dry land, we caught the tram back to near our hostel, stopping at the tulips on the way. The overpass had been opened to the public by now, and it was free, and there was no queue, so we quickly climbed up and took a few snaps of the tulips arranged like a Turkish carpet.
A short break in the hostel before we ventured out for dinner. Normally when we travel, we like to try multiple different places to eat. Here, we found a place so perfect that we went back three times. This time when we walked in, the waiters recognised us! We just couldn't stay away - the price was excellent, the food was so tasty and there was a massive selection to choose from. Tonight I had the tomato kebap, Dan had the "Alien Art" - whatever that was supposed to be, and both were really tasty. We of course got the delicious bread and dip again, and free tea at the end.
This time, we were offered dessert and I thought, stuff it! I don't have room but it's our last night. We ordered something called "kunefe" (or kunafeh) which is literally cheese, covered in what we think was desiccated coconut and soaked in honey. It. Was. Delicious. it was a round wheel, and the waiter said we should cut it "like a pizza". It was very rich and very tasty and just the perfect piece de resistance.
Because tonight is our last night in Turkey, and tomorrow we make our way to a whole new country. Turkey has been absolutely, utterly, astoundingly amazing and I hope to make it back here again one day.
Until next time,
xx
So we got there about 8.30am for a 9am open, and had only about 15 people ahead of us in the queue. (We were all originally standing in the wrong place, and a tour guide gently shifted us to another area.)
Meanwhile, this month is the Tulip Festival month here in Istanbul. As I said previously, tulips originally came from this country (not The Netherlands!) and they're a bit put out that Amsterdam gets so much attention from them - and want a bit of attention back. All over the city, tulips of all colours have been planted and it looks really beautiful. However, yesterday we noticed that something was going on next to the Hagia Sophia and a lot of tulips in containers were being laid. This morning it was finished and they were gearing up for a grand opening - a giant Ottoman carpet made out of tulips! I had a quick peek at this from the ground while we were in the queue for the museum.
The Hagia Sophia has a long and varied history, at various times being both a Christian church and a Muslim mosque. Now, it is a museum even though many people would like to see it returned to a mosque. It's main significance is that when it was transformed from a Christian place of worship into a Muslim place of worship, the Christian mosaics and other relics were only covered over, not destroyed, and so upon renovating you can see these different motifs side by side.
When the gates opened at 9am we made our way inside, as the first handful of people to enter. It was very beautiful inside, although almost half of it was under renovations and scaffolding at the moment. I had read about this so I expected it, but I wonder if many people were disappointed. The ceiling was adorned with the kind of lighting one normally finds in a mosque, and at the front, a mural of Mary and Jesus was side by side with large Muslim placards. I found this quite interesting, and took a lot of photos.
We walked to the front, and found a kitty sitting there behind a barrier, intently cleaning itself. It didn't care there were all these people there, it just needed to keep on cleaning. It drew quite a crowd - it knew it was out of reach, and we nicknamed it the Mosque Kitty. Another one strolled passed, clearly pregnant or recently so.
After a lap of the mosque, we found the ramp that takes you up to the first level. It looked pretty original as the stonework was very haphazard. From the top, you could see more Christian mosaics on the wall, as well as one which depicted the Sultan and his wife donating money to the Hagia Sophia.
We didn't end up spending an awful lot of time in here - I think if it had been in one piece we might have stayed a little longer but with half of it under construction there wasn't a lot of point, so we made our way out again onto the courtyard. A TV crew was setting up around the tulips, with a lot of "one, two, one, two" - in Turkish, of course, to test the microphones.
On our first visit into Istanbul we had popped into the front courtyard of the Blue Mosque but hadn't ventured further into the gardens. As we were nearby we thought we might have a look, even though the Mosque itself is shut for renovations. Everything is undergoing renos at the moment - must be so it's ready in time for tourist season in June!
We sat in the outside area of the mosque for a little while and people watched. From this angle, we realised that adoring the walls were placards explaining various aspects of Islam, from the connection to Mary and Jesus to the meaning behind the hijab. Once we were done sitting, we made our way around and read all of these boards - I especially found it very educational because I knew next to nothing about Islam. It even pointed out all of the connections to Christianity, and also showed step by step instructions of how one is supposed to wash before prayer time.
While we had been sitting, we made a plan. We would walk through the Blue Mosque, around through the market behind the mosque and then down to the water front. Then we would make our way around the outside tip of the peninsula to the ferry terminal, where we would catch the super cheap Bosphorus ferry for a couple of hours. Easy!
The market wasn't busy, and we didn't go inside any shops. We did duck up one alley and I saw a man with the dondurma icecream. I asked how much, and he said "5 Turkish lira". This was far, far cheaper than what we had paid before and so I impulse got us an icecream each. I do like this icecream!
While we were there, we saw a tourist stall and just got our magnet and postcards to get it over and done with. At the end of the market, we turned up the street and started to make our way towards the water. On the way we met an actual kitten which was playing with a piece of meat someone had given it, and a couple of very, very, friendly cats who didn't want us to stop patting them.
The walk around the outside was quite pretty. On our left was the palace walls, on the right, the ocean and in the distance, Asia. A few people were sunbathing on the rocks, although no one was swimming. I saw one man in a wetsuit deposit a massive bag filled with mussels onto a rock, but that was it in the water. Further around, we went through an open gate and saw many fishermen set up along the edge. As we got closer, we started to panic that there was no way out this side, and the fishermen were staring at us.
No matter - we found a path that led to a broken fence so we squeezed through that - it was how the fishermen got in in the first place! We kept walking until we were near the ferry terminal.
We finally got scammed. It had to happen eventually, right? A man infront of us dropped some things out of his hands, a brush, and after we crossed the road he was very thankful, and insisted that we let him polish our shoes, "gentleman to gentleman". I thought he was offering for helping him pick up his things. Nope. After he did our shoes, he demanded 90TL from us, which we literally didn't have. We gave him 50 and some change, and told him to piss off, pretty much, for tricking us. A bit of a waste of money, but at least it wasn't more!
We hurriedly continued onto the ferry terminal, and found the shop we wanted to buy tickets from. Not open yet. We figured it might open at about 2pm for the ferry at 2.30, so we walked along the waterfront until we got to the belik ekmek (fish sandwich) place that we had tried originally. We got 2 of the sandwiches from here and they were just as delicious as the first time! The super fresh bread and fresh fish, and he had tried to pick out as many bones as possible. After people watching for a while, we wandered back to the ferry terminal and joined a short queue waiting for the ticket office to open.
There are a lot of Bosphorus cruises. One we had been considering was €15 for 2 hours, and a few others we saw around started at about €15 too. Dan had done some research that morning and found a company that did a 2 hour cruise, but without a spoken tour, for 12TL. That's approximately €2.40. Um, yes please! A large queue formed behind us, and at 2pm the office opened for us to buy tickets. When the door opened for everyone to board, there was a massive surge forward as everyone literally ran onto the boat to try to get the best seats.
I ducked and weaved my way around people and raced up the stairs, and managed to nab two seats at the very back with a completely unhindered view. Score! Dan followed behind and commended my seat grabbing ability.
The two hour cruise was really lovely. At some points it was so warm I had to take my jumper off, other times the wind was extremely icy and I was freezing. We took a lot of pictures, as the ferry travelled from Eminonu right up to Istinye, with a couple of stops in between. Most of the view consisted of insane amount of housing - they think as many as 20 million people live in Istanbul (although it's "only" 14 million on paper) and the apartment blocks and mansions spread as far as the eye could see. Every where you could see 1, 2, 3 or even up to 6 minarets from all the different mosques (Istanbul has about 3000 mosques), and we passed under 2 bridges. Highly recommend this little cruise if you want a cheap view of the water! If you want to know what you're looking at, this isn't the cruise for you.
Oddly enough, the water was filled with jellyfish. It was kinda gross, I don't know how many of them were still alive, but it probably explains why practically no one was swimming earlier!
Back on dry land, we caught the tram back to near our hostel, stopping at the tulips on the way. The overpass had been opened to the public by now, and it was free, and there was no queue, so we quickly climbed up and took a few snaps of the tulips arranged like a Turkish carpet.
A short break in the hostel before we ventured out for dinner. Normally when we travel, we like to try multiple different places to eat. Here, we found a place so perfect that we went back three times. This time when we walked in, the waiters recognised us! We just couldn't stay away - the price was excellent, the food was so tasty and there was a massive selection to choose from. Tonight I had the tomato kebap, Dan had the "Alien Art" - whatever that was supposed to be, and both were really tasty. We of course got the delicious bread and dip again, and free tea at the end.
This time, we were offered dessert and I thought, stuff it! I don't have room but it's our last night. We ordered something called "kunefe" (or kunafeh) which is literally cheese, covered in what we think was desiccated coconut and soaked in honey. It. Was. Delicious. it was a round wheel, and the waiter said we should cut it "like a pizza". It was very rich and very tasty and just the perfect piece de resistance.
Because tonight is our last night in Turkey, and tomorrow we make our way to a whole new country. Turkey has been absolutely, utterly, astoundingly amazing and I hope to make it back here again one day.
Until next time,
xx
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