Turkey adventure. Istanbul Day 1: the Blue Mosque, the Gulhane Park, the view across the Bosphorous, The Spice Market,

 

My husband is attending a conference in Istanbul, so I decided I needed to accompany him.  I need a new adventure ...and a chance to wear hijab!

We left Melbourne (population about 4 1/4 million) at 2.40am and arrived in Istanbul (population about 14 million) at 5.35pm on the 24/5.  Pity the trip didn't really only take 17 hours (Istanbul is actually 9 hours behind in Melbourne).  Emirates may have great lounges and the seats on the planes are passable in terms of available width, but I have a very sore coccyx from the thin hard seats.  Luckily,  the ticket forgot to inform us that we had a stopover in Kuala Lumpur as well as Dubai, so at least we had the chance to  break the extremely uncomfortable sitting down twice on the way over.

Ataturk airport proved to be as much of an exercise in disorder and queues as any other airport in the world.  We were very chuffed when the airhostesses told us that we would be fast tracked through the passport queue, but it turned out to be fairly slow.  The wait was only leavened by locals who broke the queues and argued loudly with the officials, and a German man who complained continually and regaled us all with tales of how the Austrians had saved the Germans from the invading Ottoman armies.  Once we showed our passports though, all we had to do was to collect our bags and leave.  There was no customs at all! 

My first impressions of Istanbul were: hilly, men very loud and with a sense of humour, diverse looking population, a lot of women wearing coloured headscarf and tesettur / a topcoat, and cafes everywhere.  Most tourists had not apparently read the advice that I had: bare shoulders, bare legs and bare midriffs abounded - much to the pleasure of some of the Turkish men and the disapproval of some of the Turkish ladies.  I felt hot but virtuously modest in my long pants and sleeved top.

After a much needed sleep we decided to explore the Sultanahmet area we are staying in and maybe focus on the Topkapi Palace.  That plan was scuppered when Bob got hijacked by his new friend, Omar, who insisted that we should go and see the Blue Mosque before it closed.  I recognised it as a scam to get us into a shop, but Bob had engaged in conversation for too long and was embarrassed about being rude, while Omar proved to be quite adept at turning my resentful bluntness into jokes, so we ended up in a line waiting to get into the mosque.  It is a beautiful 17th Century building

with gorgeous Iznik tiles (many of them blue- hence the name) and coloured glass windows adorning the inside.  There is a  large central area where the men pray, and smaller latticed areas for the women.

Very beautiful.

Because I am not a nice person, I wanted to sneak out the side way to avoid the waiting Omar, but we enjoyed the Blue Mosque so much that Bob felt we had to visit the shop, so we meekly followed Omar, who turns out to be a Kurd from Anatolia with a liking for Prime Minister Abbot and the USA because of their activities against ISIS.  I kept stopping to take photos of jackdaws, Turkish delight and flowers, but he hurried us on.

We got to a bazaar, where we thought his shop was but that turned out to just be part of his grand tour:

 
Once in the carpet shop ( just around the corner from the hotel we had left 1 1/2 hours ago) we were deposited with the big boss who proceeded to try and sell us several carpets which he swore were naturally dyed and hand made of wool (which I had my doubts about).  I rather enjoyed asking questions, looking at the admittedly beautiful rugs, and discussing the dimensions of our rooms at home, but we eventually we escaped without buying anything.

Blaming jet lag, Bob promised faithfully not to engage in conversation with helpful men again  and since we were now over guided tours, so we decided to follow our noses and explore.  We followed the wall of the Topkapi Palace gardens, passing houses which had been built against the walls, but which were now gently decaying

past an artist's shop

and entered the rather restful Gulhane park.

 We reached the road that runs along the coast but were disappointed to find that it was impossible to stroll along the Bosphorous.  We just encountered rather grotty looking tin fences and guard dogs.  Going towards the Sea of Marmara though, we did manage to get a view of  the eastern side of Istanbul over the heads of some fishermen trying their luck on the rocks, and through the doorway of a government building, but the best views were through the wire near the ferry terminals.

We then explored the wonderful Spice Bazaar.  How I wish we had something like this at home.  The most gorgeous displays of spices, nuts, Turkish Delight and other sweet treats, tea sets, soaps, gold jewellery, dried fruit, meat, offal, fish, and crowds and crowds of shoppers.  Pure heaven.  Gee, I wish I had a kitchen handy.  We got to taste some of the spice mixtures and they were delicious.

Next we headed up hill and realised just how unused to climbing our legs were.  However, it gave us a better understanding and view of the local population:  the women shopping for lace curtains and bedspreads, the men with carts pushing their loads up impossible high hills, the local office workers having lunch from the bains maries in the lokantas. The streets in the Yeni Vami Meydani, Saridemir and  Tahtakale areas seem to specialise in different types of goods- a street for clothes, another for shoes, one for bedlinen, another for stationary, one for caneware, one for sewing accessories. Reminds me of guild streets.

Collapsing slightly, we found much needed refreshment in a rather posh cafe in the rather  posh Nuruosmaniye street, then limped slowly back to the hotel for a well deserved rest.

Several hours later, after dinner I took Bob for a stroll through the back streets to get another glimpse of the sea..... and several seafood restaurants we ear-marked for future reference.  On the way there and back, we met huge families of cats going for evening strolls, and came across many local families socialising outside their homes in the cooler air.  Bob started getting twitchy about safety, so we returned to the domain of tourists and spruikers and collapsed into bed.