Day 4 in Istanbul
Our fourth day in Istanbul, a Monday, we had arranged to see the major sites of Istanbul with a Turkish tour guide we met at the afternoon worship service the day before. What was interesting was that he had studied Spanish for a few months in Guatemala, as more languages equals more opportunities for work. Being more confident in Spanish than English, he spoke to us almost exclusively in Spanish throughout the day. We met in the morning and walked to the Galata Tower, where, unlike the previous night, there was no line. In fact, it wasn’t quite open yet, so we were the first ones up. We didn’t want our youngest walking around the top by himself, but he didn’t like being carried either. “I’m going to fall,” he said when he was up in my arms. So we didn’t stay up on the rim for long. But we did enjoy the view.
We then made our way to the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) cathedral, some of the two most visited places in Istanbul, and for good reason. The architecture of the Hagia Sophia is stunning. How did they manage to build such high, soaring domes in 537AD? It served as an Orthodox Christian cathedral for close to a thousand years! And it was the largest cathedral in the world for almost that long as well. When the Ottomans took Istanbul, the Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque. I would gladly attend an Orthodox worship service there, but it is now a museum. Our kids especially loved climbing the ramp up to the balcony level. Do you know something? Graffiti didn’t start with spray cans in modern America. The Hagia Sophia includes graffiti written centuries ago by a real life Viking. A Viking. Below you also see a more respected form of art, the mosaic, shot from an unusual angle. You tell me how the photo works. I’ll also give you a detail shot of a piece of the mosaic.
The Blue Mosque is also impressive, having been modeled after the Hagia Sophia. Our tour guide said that the architectural style of cathedrals changed, while mosques, following the influence of the Hagia Sophia, continued to include domes in their architecture. I found the calligraphy at the Blue Mosque and elsewhere beautiful.
Over lunch I asked our tour guide about his faith. As I expected, he said that being a Christian in a majority Muslim society is not easy. Every citizen has an identification card, which includes religion. Changing one’s religion on the ID card can cause problems, he said. And having one’s religion listed can make it hard to find work.
I wondered if he ever got tired of touring the same sites of Istanbul week after week. “No,” he said. “I really love my city.” He has done a good bit of traveling himself. How did he like the food of Guatemala and America and Albania etc? “Yeah, they’re good, but I really like Turkish food.” He is a true Turk and true Istanbullu. I found Turkish food alright, but for Rebecca it was hard to find good vegetarian dishes, which she prefers.
In the afternoon we visited the basilica cistern, an impressively large underground cistern for water storage. It is now empty, except for a foot or two of carp-filled water. Our kids loved this place. It was dark, cool, and mysterious. I was able to play with the settings on my little camera and get a decent picture of the inside of this place.
We then headed to Topkapi Palace, the home of the sultans of the Ottoman empire. The courtyard is beautiful, but one of our sons said immediately, “This place looks and smells like grandma’s backyard.” I think that is praise for grandma’s gardening and disdain for the palace. All the kids were bored at the palace. Rebecca and I could have wandered and explored for longer.
Working for the sultan could be a dangerous job. I read that during one period only two of seventeen officials died a natural death. The heads of executed officials were commonly placed on posts around the courtyard. The people, however, apparently saw such punishment as evidence that the sultan was keeping good order. The sultan’s palace was grand, but our earlier guide from day one thought it was not as impressive as the castles of Europe. The kitchens included pots of impressive size, however. And the jewels would be impressive for those who are into that sort of thing.
The museum at the palace claims to have some interesting pieces: the beard, tooth, and footprint of Muhammad; the turban of Joseph; the staff of Moses.
After exploring the palace for some time, I was feeling tired. And not just tired, exhausted. Jet-lagged, to be precise, something I have never experienced before. We had dutifully followed a protocol for eliminating jet lag that involved fasting and feasting involving diet, caffeine, and sleep. It seemed to work for most of the family, who slept a regular night’s sleep in Istanbul, which is 10 hours later than California. But it didn’t work for me. Some objects, like those silly Segway scooters, are kept in balance by gyroscopes. I felt like the gyroscopes in my brain were out of kilter, and instead of keeping me balanced were pulling me to the ground. I laid down in the grass and was about to doze off when an overzealous security guard called to me and motioned for me to get up. We saw others laying in the grass nearby. I guess I look suspicious when I nap. Just outside the gates I found a spot for a power nap in the grass.
Below the palace is a beautiful garden, which we walked through on our way back towards our part of the city. Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera ran out of juice so I don’t have any pictures. Our two oldest surprised me when we got out of the park and palace area onto the busy streets when they said, “I like this. I didn’t like it back there.” For some reason the feel of the palace and park bothered them. The busy streets were preferable.
We said goodbye to our tour guide when we were back across the Golden Horn (the inlet of water separating parts of the city) and made our way home. If my memory serves me right, we got dinner that night at a place that serves baked potatoes (called kumpir in Turkish) mixed with butter, cheese, and a variety of unusual toppings from which to choose: pasta salad, black and green olives, corn, pickles, pickled beets, hotdog slices. We found a few toppings that sounded appetizing enough. I’m not sure anyone finished their potato, which, with toppings, probably weighed a kilo. Our youngest, however, did finish his sandwich, which consisted of a hot dog bun piled high with french fries.
Day 5
We felt confident enough to venture out on our own on day 5. Rebecca figured out a bus route to Miniaturk, a fairly kitschy representation of Turkey’s main sites in miniature. It turned out to be a hit with our kids, not because of the models of the mosques and mountains, but because of the maze. They ran and climbed through the maze for an hour, playing some game of their invention. It’s strange that spending 24 hours a day together that Rebecca and I have so little time to talk. With the kids happily playing, we were able to sit on a bench and have a conversation.
The kids had all asked to go back to the bazaar that day. I guess the leeches were just too big an attraction. My friend in Istanbul sent me a message while we were at Miniaturk, however, telling me there had been a bombing near the entrance to the bazaar. It apparently targeted a police bus. Going to that area was obviously not a good choice. We didn’t feel unsafe then or at anytime in Istanbul. Our family worried more than we did. We simply changed our itinerary and did a boat tour of the Bosphorus instead. I was hoping to make it far enough to see the Black Sea at the north end of the Bosphorus. I was disappointed when we turned back before reaching a view of the Black Sea.
We missed our bus stop and so inadvertently explored a little further into the city, which was enjoyable. We ended up at a park, where our Frisbee was quite an attraction. Boys and girls were fighting for a chance to play with it.
An athletic youth walking through the park, stopped to do a routine of pull-ups and muscle-ups on the bar of the swing set. He enjoyed playing with our kids on the teeter totter too. I learned that his name is Abdul and he is alone in Istanbul, a refugee from Syria. “What city?” I asked. “Halep,” he said. I found out later that Halep is a variation of the name of the city we know in English as Aleppo, the capital of Syria. The city has been inhabited for perhaps 8000 years, but it currently the focus of civil war. This young man was sent to Istanbul by his parents, where he attends school. He said that when he needs money he calls his parents. What would you choose for your son, a lonely life as a stranger in Istanbul where there is a chance at an education and a future, or to stay with you in your home city which is being destroyed by war?
That night we had dinner at a vegetarian restaurant off the main drag in that part of the city. I ordered Aegean stew, having no idea what I would be getting. It was a cold medley of fava beans, artichoke hearts, and another ingredient that I can’t remember. Rebecca didn’t appreciate it, but I thought it was fine. Her stuffed eggplant looked fancy but was underwhelming.
Day 6
This was our day for travel from Istanbul to Cappadocia, “the land of beautiful horses,” so we said goodbye to our Airbnb apartment in the Beyoglu/Taksim neighborhood of Istanbul. We were glad to stay in a real apartment in a real neighborhood, rather than a hotel in a tourist district. Our children saw kids playing in the only place available to them: the street. Our kids have all played the video game Subway Surfers, in which you control a juvenile darting around, under and over obstacles in the subway system collecting coins and other prizes. Our youngest child found it rather fun to play Subway Surfers in real life, and the streets around our neighborhood made the perfect course. He squeezed between parked cars, jumped over posts, and ducked under clothes drying racks standing on the sidewalk.
We locked up the apartment and started in a rush to make the ferry across the Bosphorus, where our guide from day 1 was going to meet us, give us a lightning tour of Chalcedon, and get us on the right bus for the airport on the other side of Istanbul. We just missed the tram that would take us towards the pier. It turns out I had misread the ferry schedule, mistaking weekend and weekday schedules, so our ferry was leaving ten minutes later than we thought. But when we arrived at the pier I had to recharge our Istanbul Card (actually our guide’s) to pay for the ride. It took a minute to realize that the machine I was at was spitting out both coins and ferry tokens, not recharging the card and giving change. By the time we gathered up the tokens we had missed the ferry. Our friend on the other side was waiting when we got there, but instead of a brief tour we had to go straight to the bus. He got some bonus ferry tokens as a very small thanks for his great friendliness and hospitality.
We had so far only spent time on the Eurpoean side of the city. The bus ride to the airport took us through the Asian side, which we found much greener. What is more, the Asian side has a commodity that is non-existent on the western side: open space.
I told my kids I had one request for this flight: a window seat. I wanted to see the country, especially the mountains, from the air. Unfortunately, there was a sheet of clouds between the plane and the ground. Cappadocia, when we got there, was amazingly fun. I will post on that soon.
We certainly enjoyed our time in the historic metropolis on the Bosphorus.
I guess i should have waited for part 2. Sounds wonderful.