Blonde in Turkey...

So, I am going to try my hand at travel writing – let me know how I do, its all new to me…

Istanbul, Turkey – Day 1 & 2

On first arriving here, I was happy that as a Kiwi I didn’t have to pay for a visa.  We met an Aussie in the passport control que and had to direct her to the visa line.  This was the first of many of the people we were going to meet on our trip.  In the que we stalked other Kiwis and Aussies, who were all there to begin the Topdeck 8 day tour of Turkey that would include ANZAC day.  We found 8 of us in total, enough to share a taxi with into the city centre and off we went.

In the taxi we all exchanged the normal chat – where at home were you from, do you know this person, are you living in London, how long for and when are you going home?  Turns out that I am a London veteran at nearly 4 years.  And I was the only one who intends to stay there longer than the end of the year.  I guess it’s true, everyone is heading home.

 

Whilst we were doing this I was drinking in my first look at Istanbul.  We speed past the old city walls, casual ruins among the new roads and fountains of the city.  We passed hundreds of mosques – the minarets looking so romantic, we just don’t have them in London.  On all of them were speakers, a modern addition.  I was longing to hear my first call to prayer. 

 

We arrived at our hotel, miraculously, I am not really sure that there are any road rules in this new city.  Our driver basically stopped in the middle of the road and we got out as traffic backed up behind us, he seemed very unconcerned.  I had checked out our hotel on the internet, it looked lovely, how wrong I would turn out to be.

Our tour guide Billy met us with a bemused grin, it seems that the scene in reception had been resembling Fawlty Towers for some time.  The lady yelling in Turkish was a nice touch.  We checked in after about an hour, it turns out that there had been a leak in some of the rooms so some people were staying across the road and the other tour group had to stay a lot further away.  Our room was on the 7^th floor and from there, if I stuck my head out the balcony door I could see the bay and also a lovely huge mosque.  The sunset from there was stunning. 

 

Random Roman Columns in the middle of the footpath

We had a few hours till our tour dinner, so a group of us headed up to the Grand Bazar.  As we walked along, it was lovely to feel the hot sun on my skin and also to see more ruins littered around.  Roman columns that you could just go and touch.  In fact there were people sitting on them smoking.  As we neared the Bazar, the clocks ticked over and I heard my first call to prayer.  It’s a haunting poetic sound that I would hear many many times, thankfully it never woke me in the middle of the night.

The Bazar is a chaotic, confusing labyrinth of streets and sellers, all calling for your attention.  They repeat slogans such as ‘do you want to buy something you don’t need?’ or they just blow kisses or comment on your ankles, either way they are wanting your money.  The trick is to haggle.  Something that I am useless at.  I managed to buy two tealights for cheap price.  It’s amazing that by the end of the trip I was having to remind myself that in British Pounds these items were cheap and not to be so annoyed when I could not get them for less Turkish Lira.  The traditional Turkish lights, crockery and tea sets are beautiful, and I was cursing myself for not bringing a bigger bag for shopping.

Our fishbowl came with fireworks

A little after 8pm, after a pep talk from our tour leader Billy and our local guide Alp, we all began the half hour walk to Sultanamhet, which is a more westernised area of the city.  The people there are more used to the western way of dress and culture.  On the way I stopped to take photos and was called out to by a restaurateur as I was running to catch up – I had apparently dropped something, they were pointing at it.  When I went back to ask what, he said to me ‘look there my heart’.  Laughing I ran back to catch up with the group.  This is what it was to be like for the rest of the trip, being blonde in Turkey is a gift and a curse.  You get special drink deals, but you also get attention you would rather not.  We ended up in this cute bar, where we all sat on the floor on cushions around a table, we ordered cheap cocktails and Katie and I even had a fish bowl.  And this is where the fun really began.  We proceeded to drink a lot, chat a lot and then when the shisha pipes arrived, smoke a lot.  During this time, our waiter/bartender took quite a shine to me.  When he started talking about how he comes to London twice a year, and that he would like to see me then I thought to myself that I was in a bit over my head.  He asked me to come back the next night when it was a bit quieter, yeah right.

The next day, we began with a hearty local breakfast of cheese, meat and cucumbers.  I had cornflakes with really delicious yogurt, along with a boiled egg.  A random mix but it was ok.  We were in for a long day of walking. 

Medusa in the Underground Cistern

We headed back to the Hippodrome area of Istanbul, where we visited the Blue Mosque, only after covering up appropriately, Hagia Sophia, Topaki Palace and the Underground Cistern.  Our local guide Alp told us a lot of history and pointed out many interesting things in these amazing landmarks.   I still struggle to take in the age of these monuments.  They were built long before NZ was even thought of and they are of such a grand scale.  Of course there were my favourite stairs, the ones made of marble that have bowed in the middle where they have been worn down by so many people standing and walking on them.  I loved all of these places, but my favourite was probably the Underground cistern.  It is beautifully lit, and a little spooky.  The best bit was the two Medusa heads.  The superstitious craftsmen had refused to put them upright as they did not want them to be turning anyone to stone, so they are upside down or on their sides.

We ended the day with a Bosphorus cruise.  It was starting to get a bit cold by then and the wind was a bit much.  It was also the first introduction that we had to Efes, a local beer.  From then on it would be a highlight of the trip.  I didn’t drink it of course, but there were cheers when it appeared from then on.  The cruise was lovely, we saw both the old and the Asian sides of the city as well as many more forts and ruins. 

 

After the cruise we caught a rush hour tram back to the hotel – we were squeezed in like sardines and it was the first time that I was patted, by a man with his arm around his wife.  Great.  We were all flagging a bit and our group of friends decided to head to a local café for dinner.  We had a great kebab from them the day before when we were waiting to check in and the dinner was lovely.  Later we would find out that apparently the kebab we had was likely to contain seagull.  There is no way that you can buy chicken for 3TL – which is a little over £1.  It tasted good to me! 

It was then off to bed, as we had a big day ahead of us the next day.  Apparently 13 hours on the bus...