Turkey – Part 2

First of all I have to warn you that this is setting out to be the longest blog post of all human history, I have a whopping 40 photos to share with you, many stories and antidotes too. So go get yourselves a cup of tea, some cookies and settle down for a nice long scroll.

Previously Jady and I visited many strange landscapes in Cappadocia, tanned ourselves in Fethiye and after the last 1 of 3 overnight bus journeys, we made it back to Istanbul in 1 piece.

Day 6

We somehow arrived at our hostel, after getting a mini bus, a tram, walking and a map of Istanbul in German… We dropped off the bags and headed out to see some of the most famous sights of the city.

Lunch was kebaps with tea.

First stop is Aya Sofya, also spelt as Haiga Sophia, meaning holly wisdom. Aya Sofya was first a basilica, then a mosque and now a museum, there have been 3 Aya Sofya built, the current one standing is the 3rd one, finished around December 537. Excavations have revealed remains of the previous 2 Aya Sofya under the current one and since it was converted to a mosque, almost all of the interior had been plastered over several times during different periods. Much of what we see today were once under plaster. Aya Sofya had been and still is under much needed restoration, when we went, a few sections were covered with scaffolding.

Above the altar

The main dome, Jady counted about 17 stories of scaffolding! So much work just to get to the top and the work hasn’t even started yet.

Intricate details

Layers, plaster with mosaics poking out below

The most famous mosaics of Aya Sofya, much of the mosaics have now fallen off.

Exterior of Aya Sofya

After that stroll, I felt like I needed a good scrub, after much contemplation since this 300 years old Turkish bath isn’t cheap, I decided to take the plunge, while Jady headed back to the hostel for a nap. So I paid, I headed in, they handed me a towel, pointed me to an individual change room and told me to strip off and put on the towel. So I did but left on my undies, locked the door to my change room and walked out in my wooden clogs and was like “where do I go?” I was pointed into the hamam, an older lady told me to sit down at one of the wash stations, gave me to little metal bowl and motioned to me to pour water over myself. That I did for about 20 minutes in the hot sauna like room. Now the room is beautiful, the floor is all marble, the main dome contains many small skylights with more smaller domes around it above the many wash stations. In the middle is a big marble slab where you get scrubbed and massaged. So 20 minutes later, my older lady appeared again and led me to the center slab and scrubbed me! Gosh I never knew I had so much dead skin… Then was the oil massage, then back to the wash station where she wash my hair and generated mountains of foam in the process. When I was rinsed clean and told to sit there a while longer to enjoy my new cleanliness, Jady arrived! She couldn’t fall asleep and decided to have a proper scrub after all.

Obviously I couldn’t take photos inside the hamam, so here are some photos of semi naked Kate Moss in this very hamam.

After feeling so fresh and so clean we headed across the bridge to Beyoglu in search of dinner. Beyoglu is the modern trendy part of the town, clustered with Turkish style tapas restaurants, bars and clubs.

Main strip of Beyoglu

Day 7

In the morning we headed to the Topkapi Palace where many Sultans resided. It also contains many artefacts close to Muslims hearts, like the cane of Moses, beard of Prophet Muhammad, sections of Kabba’s door from Mecca etc. I found the palace a bit small and definitely not as grand as I had expected, comparing to Beijing’s Foridden Palace, but nontheless it is very different and very interesting.

The baroque styled decoration added on in later periods are quite curious

Inscriptions as you enter the Harem, the inner court where the sultan’s mother, wives and children resided

Harem courtyard

Palace entrance

After much sightseeing a nutrious lunch was needed, we had some very tasty Turkish meatballs (don’t ask me why they aren’t round), pickled peppers, beans salad, bread and ayran, a yoghurt drink that’s slighty savoury.

After lunch we visited the grand bazaar, I was expecting so much more but was very much let down in the end, I thought I’d be trigger snappy happy but it didn’t happen. The bazaar now is so geared towards tourists, selling most things that are made in china, hassling you in every language conceivable, it doesn’t have much charm for me.

After lots of walking in the bazaar what we needed is to sit down, have some tea and relax and we did just that. We tried a strawberry Turkish water pipe. Jady had tried it in Camden, but didn’t think much of it, but one of the guys we met in Goreme said the stuff in Istanbul is good. Indeed a few consecutive big puffs will get you positively mellow and light headed. This courtyard tea house is fantastic and gets quite busy at night, most customers are male with a sprinkle of women and a sprinkle of tourists. Waiters walk over and puts on fresh charcoal for the pipe, trays of tea, you just plop down on your seat and get comfortable, everything will come to you.

We were both amazed at how much smoke our lungs could handle

After much smoking, we felt a little peckish, so I went and hunted down a few pieces of baklava and turkish delights, since the tea house doesn’t serve anything other than none alcoholic drinks and water pipes. I believe at this stage, the turkish delights had already been demolished. The turks eat tons of baklava, while I can only eat 2 or 3 small pieces in 1 sitting washed down with plenty of tea, they will easily scoff down 4+ pieces in a few minutes flat. I got light heartedly made fun of while purchasing these baklava because I was buying so little, but I am little, I eat little… sometimes… u___u

After exiting the tea house because I wasn’t feeling so well, Jady and I got hit up by 2 Turkish guys. 1 said he lived and worked in Japan, doing exports, later on he said he lived in Istanbul. Shifty. Initially I adopted the don’t look, don’t answer approach, but Jady perhaps intrigued by the dude’s fluent Japanese asked him questions! Why Jady, why! Any man chatting you up on the street has only 1 intention, no matter where in the world… Anywho, we ended up walking with them to the Blue Mosque and sat out front chatting for a while. The dude’s friend’s name was apparently smile in Turkish and spoke not too bad Mandarin, including a bit of slang but maintains he’s never been to China and learnt by himself… When we refused their offer to go to Takism for a drink several times and got up to go into the mosque, we were given a quick wave and off they dissappeared into the crowd.

Inner courtyard of the Blue Mosque

By the time we entered the mosque it was about 8.30pm, in between pray sessions, we avoided the tourist groups, we almost had the space to ourselves, it was beautiful, peaceful and serene. We sat down on the carpet inside and just admired it for a while. Everyone has to removed their shoes and wear skirt or trousers covering their knees upon entering the mosque and women have to wear a headscarf, covering most of their hair and their neck. They have big pieces of fabric outside you can borrow for those skimpy dressed tourists.

And guess what when we left the mosque! Jady spotted Smile, one of the dudes that tried to pick us up, he was sporting 2 other Asian girls and was getting a photo take with one of them… Serial pick up!

Jady spotted this group of girls all wearing very colourful headscarves, she wanted a photo, so I suggested we sit down on the benches next to them so she can sneak a few shots in. After a little while, one of the girls in the group came over and offered us some sunflower seeds as they were all eating them and chatting away. Eventually we asked for a photo and they gladly obliged with the biggest smiles. They invited us to sit with them and we conversed in broken bits of English. They are all university students, meeting up for a prayer at the Blue Mosque. Bright, young and curious, they asked us where we are from, what we did and how we liked Istanbul. It was very lovely. Moments like this you realise what traveling is all about, seeing the place and meeting its genuine people, sharing some sunflower seeds, such a simple moment, yet one I hope to remember to tell my grandchildren about.

Blue Mosque at night

Aya Sofya at night

After a nap back at the hostel, we went to look for dinner. And look what we found, a boat on the side of the harbour next to the bridge, selling fish sandwhiches. Jady was sold the moment she saw those little plastic tables and stools, they reminded her of China. It was a balmy night and the smell of grilled fresh fish filled the air and we sat down to munch on our sandwhiches. At 7 lira for 2 sandwhiches it was one of the cheapest meals we had in Turkey.

A big family all sat down to eat at the table next to us, they were curious about us, we were curious about them, I took this photo of them where they happily posed. Then their dad said something to the girls we didn’t understand, but 1 by 1, 3 of the adorable girls came over and each gave Jady and I a hug. So sweet!

When we were done eating I gathered up the courage and asked the sandwhich seller for a photo, I was hesitant as he seemed grumpy, but a big cheesy grin broke out when I asked, he took the cigi out but I motioned for him to keep smoking. The guys on the boat spotted the photo taking and all of a sudden the serious mundaneness of flipping fish and filling sandwhiches stopped as they all bantered and laughed

Day 8

We explored the Spice Bazaar, also known as the Egyptian Bazaar, much like the Grand Bazaar, it is also very cleaned up, but since it’s mostly edible items, I have a higher tolerance level for all the hassling. I ended buying a big bag of sweets.

Accidently we stumbled into the maze like market streets between the Spice and the Grand Bazaar, where the Turks haggled and shopped. The stores sold anything from socks, to headscarves, genuine fake goods, crazy wedding dresses and anything in between. We spent a good few hours wondering up and down the little alleys. This was the most authentic part of Istanbul I saw, everything else to me were “meh”, not much special, but these streets where no one hassled us, I did get a little trigger snappy happy.

Guy selling mini hand held sewing machines

Jady contemplating her wedding outfit choices, will it be the green, purple, red, silver, pink or yellow? Oh lordy, choices!

After all that walking and sweets buying and trying to send them in the central post office, we felt we owe ourselves some tea and resting time. Guess what, our feet took us back to that tea house! Hohoho! This time we knew how it worked, we knew to change the coals regularly, to tap the top to get the dust off so you don’t inhale it, to order tea and water as the waiters come by. Though the effects this time round were much less than the day before, boo!

We killed so much charcoal

Day 9

Back on the plane to London.

Now now, it took me a whole day to write this post, I started around 11am and it’s now nearly 5pm… sure I did some scanning and had lunch inbetween, but still!

To end this crazy long post I’d like to share my favourite “Turglish” phrase that was said to me during my 9 days there, “Hello, hi, where are you going? Your shoes, they are walking!”