Istanbul, Turkey- May 2009
May Bank Holiday weekend had us journey to Istanbul for an amazing four day Holiday. We arrived around 5:00 PM Friday evening (four hour flight from London, two hour time change, one hour delay) just in time to check into our hotel and head out for dinner. I had booked a table the highly recommended, and more expensive than I thought, Mikla Restaurant. The views of the old town Istanbul were amazing as was the food and the sunset which gave us an excellent initiation to Istanbul. Neither of us happened to get the address of our hotel on our way out to dinner so the taxi from the restaurant got us...somewhere near the hotel...and we spent about an hour getting "acquainted" with our area of town.
Saturday we met our private tour guild Ningifer for a tour of the old town including the The Hippodrome, The Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sofia, Topkapi Palace, and the Grand Bazaar. We had the most amazing dining experience at a Kebap Restaurant called Hamdi et Lokantasi which overlooked the Galata Bridge and the "Golden Horn", the water way which separates the European side of Istanbul from the Asian side. It is called the "Golden Horn" because as the sun sets it becomes a golden color. It did not disappoint.
Sunday we met our guild and had a very cold, windy but informative Bosphorus cruise before the sun returned. We ate on a street called Nevizade Sokak, a street with fish restaurants lining both sides. Our pick was Boncuk because it was mentioned in our guild book starting with meze, appetizers on small plates like eggplant dip, humus, etc. We worked to fried calamari, then fresh bluefish simply grilled, head and all with mint and lemon finishing with a cup of excellent Turkish black tea. It just doesn't get any better than this.
We finished our day going through the sunken palace cistern and enjoying a performance from the Whirling Dervishes and a meal of Turkish "pizza" or pides. We had an absolutely fabulous trip and highly recommend Istanbul for a long weekend.
Monuments decorating the Hippodrome include the 3500-year-old Egyptian granite Obelisk of Theodosius, brought to Constantinople by Emperor Theodosius in 390 AD. You'll also see the spiral bronze base of a three-headed serpent sculpture brought from Delphi in Greece (the serpents' heads are in the Archaeological Museum just down the hill). At the southwestern end of the Hippodrome is the bare stone Column of Constantine Porphyrogenetus, dating from the 10th century. Istanbul's Byzantine Hippodrome was the heart of Constantinople's political and sporting life, and the scene of games and riots through 500 years of Ottoman history as well (map). It's now a calm city park called the At Meydani (Horse Grounds) because of its function in Ottoman times.
Istanbul's imperial Mosque of Sultan Ahmet I (Sultan Ahmet Camii) is called the Blue Mosque because of its interior tiles, mostly on the upper level and difficult to see unless you're right up there with them. Forget the blue tiles! The mosque (built 1603-17) is the masterwork of Ottoman architect Sedefkâr Mehmet Aga. It's built on the site of the Great Palace of Byzantium, on the southeastern side of the Hippodrome. With its six minarets and a great cascade of domes, the mosque is a worthy sibling to Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia) just a few minutes' stroll to the north.
The way to properly appreciate the splendid architecture of the Blue Mosque is to enter it from the Hippodrome (that is, from the west) so you can appreciate the Magic of the Blue Mosque.
The Church of the Divine Wisdom (Hagia Sophia in Greek) in Sultanahmet, Istanbul, is one of the most impressive and important buildings ever constructed. Its wide, flat dome was a daring engineering feat in the 6th century, and architects still marvel at the building's many innovations. Called Hagia Sophia in Greek, Sancta Sophia in Latin, Ayasofya in Turkish, it was built on the site of Byzantium's acropolis (map) by Emperor Justinian (527-65 AD) in 537 AD. Ayasofya was the greatest church in Christendom, and was meant to be. According to Prof. Robert Osterhout, it was built to surpass the gigantic Church of St Polyeuchtos erected by Julia Anitzia, scion of the line of Theodosian emperors.
A Byzantine mosaic in the Hagias Sofia depleting Christ, John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary. The Mosaic dates to the 16th century.
Here we enjoy lunch with our guild, Ninjifer, consisting of assorted meze (an eggplant dip, tomato and pepper dip, artichokes, humus, bread....and Turkish beer.
Istanbul's Grand Bazaar (Kapali Çarsi, or Covered Market) is Turkey's largest covered market offering excellent shopping: beautiful Turkish carpets, glazed tiles and pottery, copper and brassware, apparel made of leather, cotton and wool, meerschaum pipes, alabaster bookends and ashtrays, and all sorts of other things. Most guidebooks claim that it has 4000 shops
More goods on display at the Grand Bazaar
The Blue Mosque is our backdrop while having tea at our hotel's terrace restaurant.
The view of the Golden Horn from the restaurant Hamdi et Lokantasi.
the Rüstem Pasha Mosque, an architectural gem in the midst of Istanbul's bustling Tahtakale market taken from the terrace at the restaurant Hamdi et Lokantasi
The New Mosque at night. The Yeni Mosque, New Mosque or Mosque of the Valide Sultan (Turkish: 'Yeni Cami, Yeni Valide Camii') is an Ottoman imperial mosque located in the Eminönü district of Istanbul, Turkey. It is situated on the Golden Horn at the southern end of the Galata Bridge. It is one of the best-known sights of Istanbul.
The Blue Mosque at night as taken from the terrace restaurant of our hotel
Here I am with a plethera of spices from the spice market. Istanbul's Egyptian Bazaar (or Spice Market, Misir Çarsisi, built 1664) is filled with the fragrance of the exotic East. Spices, dried fruits, nuts and seeds, lokum (Turkish Delight) and other edibles fill most of the shops, though jewelry and other high-margin goods have begun to move in.
Sunday morning was an 1 ½ hour Bosphorus cruise where we set out from the Eminönü ferryboat docks (on the Golden Horn between Galata Bridge and Sirkeci Station) and head north toward the Black Sea. Beyond the Bosphorus Bridge there's plenty to see: Beylerbeyi Palace, the village of Çengelköy, Kuleli Naval Academy, Arnavutköy with its photogenic Ottoman yalis (wooden Bosphorus seaside mansions), and Rumeli Hisari (the mighty Fortress of Europe). At the narrowest part of the Bosphorus, Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror ordered the great fortress of Rumeli Hisari to be built on the European shore in order to control commercial and military traffic in preparation for the siege of siege of Constantinople.
Fisherman fishing from the Galata Bridge in the heart of Istanbul, spanning the Golden Horn from Karaköy on the north to Old Istanbul, centered on Sultanahmet, on the south. Crossing the bridge you look west toward Europe and east across the Bosphorus to Üsküdar and Asia. The New Mosque (Yeni Cami), is in the background.
Beneath Istanbul lie hundreds of gloomy Byzantine cisterns. They're left from the days when Istanbul was Constantinople. The grandest of all is Yerebatan Saray Sarniçi, called the Basilica (or Sunken Palace) Cistern because of its size (70 x 140 meters, or 2.4 acres), its capacity (80,000 cubic metersover 21 million US gallons) and its 336 marble columns.
The music that accompanies the whirling from beginning to end ranges from somber to rhapsodical; its effect is intended to be mesmerizing. Chanting of poetry, rhythmic rotation, and incessant music create a synthesis which, according to the faithful, induces a feeling of soaring, of ecstasy, of mystical flight.
Sunday night we witnessed a performance from the Whirling Dervishes. The rituals of the Rumi's followers (Whirling Dervishes) are among the enduring as well as the most exquisite ceremonies of spirituality. The ritual whirling of the dervishes is an act of love and a drama of faith. It possesses a highly structured form within which the gentle turns become increasingly dynamic as the individual dervishes strive to achieve a state of trans.
One more shot of the Blue Mosque and the gardens before boa.rding our plane back to London
