Day 18 – Tuesday June 30th – Istanbul
I must confess it was so nice to know that we didn’t have to rush today. Today was the first of three full days that we have available to us in Istanbul. Our original Hotel booking was in the Basileus Hotel, which is about 300mtrs from the Blue Mosque, which is in the old historic peninsular of Istanbul. By the time I actually made the booking on the net, the Hotel was very helpful but indicated that we could only be accommodated on three of the four nights required, but that they had booked us into the Hotel ‘just up the street’ for the same price.
The Erguvan Hotel is a very lovely, spacious Hotel. The room is lovely, with both Hotels located in the narrow, cobbled lanes between the ‘Little Sophia’ and the Blue Mosque. We actually liked the Erguvan, especially the restaurant on the rooftop which allows beautiful sweeping views of the harbor and the old city skyline. This morning we got going slowly. I was happy to go the rooftop for breakfast and catch up on the blog while waiting for Julie.
The breakfast was a delight, a sumptuous experience as we are now accustomed to experiencing. We sat right on the edge of the balcony, a massive seagull sitting on the ledge just nearby waiting for a few crumbs. The scene was delightful as the sun shone down across the city and the harbor.
The day was getting away. We had a list of things to see. We finally headed out to explore Istanbul, leaving our bags packed for the staff of Hotel Basileus to transfer us to their Hotel by the time we returned in late afternoon.
Istanbul as a settlement goes back as far as 7,000BC initially by the Greeks, then King Byzas settled here and the settlement took his name ‘Byzantium’ until the 2nd century AD when the Byzantine empire was taken over by the Romans. By the 4th century with Constantine as Roman Emperor, he transferred the capital here from Rome, naming the city after himself – Constantinople. This lasted until the 15th century when the Ottoman’s took over, naming the city Istanbul. Under the Sultan Mehmet, stunning monuments sprang up including the massive Blue Mosque.
We headed first for the ‘Little Hagia Sophia’, built in the 6th century as an Eastern orthodox Christian church, and converted to a Mosque under the Ottoman Empire. It is absolutely stunningly beautiful inside, one of the most important Byzantine buildings in Istanbul, and only about 100 metres from our Hotel.
We then weaved our way up steep, cobbled laneways into the Sultanahmet, the main market place of old Istanbul and named after the Sultan Ahmet) with a matrix of narrow lanes full of shops, restaurants and narrow stores selling every kind of wares habitual to Turkey. The Blue Mosque, Palace, and the magnificent Hagia Sophia are all located in this area. We headed to the Blue Mosque. Surprisingly, there were some tourists but no queues to speak of. The weather was pleasant and warm, and basically a lovely day.
Throughout the day I think we were befriended by at least six gracious helpers who walked with us, wanted to be our guide, and ended up being carpet showroom salesmen trying to sell us Turkish carpets! We were very gracious to all, but it was hard to deter them from getting us to go to their store where they had plenty of original carpets. Nothing deterred them.
I asked one if he knew he looked like Tom Cruise, and that he should forget selling carpets and take up being a movie star! He walked away laughing. I asked another persistent salesman what his name was. He said ‘Ali Baba’. I said that’s amazing because my name is Mohommed A’lley (my nickname at school). He couldn’t better that, so he walked away laughing as well. Another came trying to sell carpets – I said I will buy one only if it is a genuine flying carpet! He walked away, with a smile. We will go through it all again tomorrow.
The Blue Mosque (real name Sultan Ahmed Mosque, dominated in blue tiles) is an amazing architectural achievement which dominates the Sultanahmet skyline. It was built between 1609 to 1616 during the reign of Sultan Ahmed I, and contains his tomb. Julie had to wear a veil, and I was required to wear a sarong to cover my otherwise bare legs.
We walked the plaza in the warmth, and decided to sit in a lovely Turkish café for soup and tea, which was wonderful, before tackling the Basiilica Cistern, the largest of several hundred cisterns that lie underground in Istanbul and built in the 6th century by Justinian I, the Byzantine Emperor . It was actually constructed as a Basilica in the 2nd/3rd centuries, and converted to an underground basilica in 6th century. Once you descend into it (like an underground railway station, it opens up and actually resembles a magnificent Basilica with multiple dozens of massive granite columns holding the rock ceiling up. It mainly supplied water to the great Palace of Constantinople, now the Topkapi Palace from the time of Ottoman rule.
We wandered to the Palace (all easily accessible within the Sultanahmet) but it is closed on Tuesdays, so we made a brief visit to the Tombs of the Sultans – basically a series of more Mosques.
The day was getting late so we strolled back to the Hotel through the narrow cobbled streets, careful not to be knocked over by the cars that race through these narrow streets. It was good to rest in our Basileus Hotel, and to be very graciously looked after by the manager.
We took a stroll for dinner to a rooftop restaurant nearby, but I stopped off for a hair ‘trim’ along the way at a street level barber. He was a lovely guy who had no English. He understood the idea of ‘trim’ and took it all very seriously, including serving me tea while he cut my hair. Just when I thought it was all over, and before I realized what he was doing, he starting waxing my ears and face with hot wax! Then he dabbed cotton buds in the wax and stuck them up my nose, at which time Julie walked in to see this spectacle. She thought it was all very funny! The barber seemed only to be encouraged by Julie’s presence, so very dramatically he ripped off the dried wax from my left ear, which I thought the skin had come with it…then my right ear and I was about to scream…then the right cheek followed by the left. My face was raging….but the coup de gras was still to come. I’m thinking ‘not my nose’ and at that moment he grabbed the cotton buds and ‘rip’ and I just about hit the ceiling. He was smiling with great delight as he eyed my other nostril with its two cotton buds protruding. ‘Rip’ he goes again, and I was just about on the ceiling! He then posed so Julie could take the photo, with a grin that showed his utter satisfaction of a job well done. It cost a very reasonable $12!
Dinner on the rooftop was lovely, as we watched the sun set over this magnificent city. It was another great day, with more to come tomorrow.
From our 3rd storey room in the Basileus Hotel, just down the road from the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, we send our love. Until tomorrow….
KRA
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