Welcome to Istanbul - 16 million people ... one garbage bin.
Constantinople as it was once known, is incredible to say the least. It really is the bridge between the middle east and Europe, and vastly different to anything experienced culture wise so far. This blog entry may be quite the roller coaster.
After being welcomed to Turkey by the ever friendly border patrol guards (AKA the tourist inquisition) a mosey on into the heart of Sultanahment, the old district, and into the midst of hostel hell was on order. After being told the room reservation did not exist even though I had a reply to an email I had sent confirming the stay and then being told that it is such a busy time that "you really must book in advance" ....
...
... a hostel with space was found. However the hostel then proceeded to double book the beds, the solution to this was to be moved to dorm 101, otherwise known as the decrepit suite. What can you do except roll with the punches?
The shop vendors here are reminiscent of Indonesia, combining an eagerness to fire off a "hello there good sir, I would like to be showing my fine menu of this very morning" wıth a with a short memory. They also use the cute factor of kittens and cats to lure you in the store, which led me to firing off quotes from Cheech in "From Dusk to Dawn" some of you will know and love ...
Istanbul has absolutely no shortage of treasures; the Aya Sofia, a massive church built in Roman times, pillaged of everything that wasn't bolted down by the crazy hooligans of the 4th crusade, haphazardly converted to a mosque and then finally turned into a museum; the Blue Mosque, the biggest one in Turkey; the underground Roman reservoir Basilica Cistern, which looks exactly like the temple where Perseus kicks Medusa's butt in the original Clash of the Titans. I love that scene so much I had to show you a photo.....
In addition there is the sublime Topkapi Palace - the highlight of which is of course the Sultan's Harem. Those Sultan's sure didn't know how to run an empire but they sure did know how to party! A sultan with 300 children didn't spend much time on administrative duties!
Stumbling through the carefully laid network of corn and "Dirty Rice" vendors, one inevitably finds onseself at the Grand Bazaar ... the largest known network of rug salesmen in the universe. And I really do wish them all the best on the continuing mission to try and sell 5 x 5 metre rugs to backpackers now and in the future.
Istanbul has a mosque on virtually every 3rd block which makes for a truly impressive sound when the "Call to Prayer" relays through the city from east to west. Even the alley cats stop for a few minutes ... then go back to resuming "cute meowing mode" in every little bit of grass. Istanbul has one square metre of parkland per person ... which isn't a lot, so space for the cats is tight. This also might explain the small army of police dedicated to ignoring crime and focusing on keeping those pesky tourists off the damned grass.
The food here is awesome, but it is definitely worthwhile having a phrasebook handy to prevent the social blunder of ordering something you can't eat ... like say ... ram's balls. I personally also prefer NOT to eat raw mince kebabs even though that raw mince was surely lovingly hand rolled by a sweaty guy with a moustache while he has a cigarette in the other hand.
Raki, the Turkish national drink, is difficult to digest due to it's incredible aniseed power, however I love the apple tea and Turkish coffee is always available if you feel sleep is entirely overrated. Of course you cannot come to Turkey without enjoying a Hookah water pipe either - the middle eastern party bong.
So in summary, Istanbul is astonishingly cool and possibly one of the most amazing cities on Earth, the dervishes really do spin counter clockwise, dolphins do live in the Bosphorous strait, it's fantastic being a traveling vagrant and Baklava is super sweet.
Constantinople as it was once known, is incredible to say the least. It really is the bridge between the middle east and Europe, and vastly different to anything experienced culture wise so far. This blog entry may be quite the roller coaster.
After being welcomed to Turkey by the ever friendly border patrol guards (AKA the tourist inquisition) a mosey on into the heart of Sultanahment, the old district, and into the midst of hostel hell was on order. After being told the room reservation did not exist even though I had a reply to an email I had sent confirming the stay and then being told that it is such a busy time that "you really must book in advance" ....
...
... a hostel with space was found. However the hostel then proceeded to double book the beds, the solution to this was to be moved to dorm 101, otherwise known as the decrepit suite. What can you do except roll with the punches?
The shop vendors here are reminiscent of Indonesia, combining an eagerness to fire off a "hello there good sir, I would like to be showing my fine menu of this very morning" wıth a with a short memory. They also use the cute factor of kittens and cats to lure you in the store, which led me to firing off quotes from Cheech in "From Dusk to Dawn" some of you will know and love ...
Istanbul has absolutely no shortage of treasures; the Aya Sofia, a massive church built in Roman times, pillaged of everything that wasn't bolted down by the crazy hooligans of the 4th crusade, haphazardly converted to a mosque and then finally turned into a museum; the Blue Mosque, the biggest one in Turkey; the underground Roman reservoir Basilica Cistern, which looks exactly like the temple where Perseus kicks Medusa's butt in the original Clash of the Titans. I love that scene so much I had to show you a photo.....
In addition there is the sublime Topkapi Palace - the highlight of which is of course the Sultan's Harem. Those Sultan's sure didn't know how to run an empire but they sure did know how to party! A sultan with 300 children didn't spend much time on administrative duties!
Stumbling through the carefully laid network of corn and "Dirty Rice" vendors, one inevitably finds onseself at the Grand Bazaar ... the largest known network of rug salesmen in the universe. And I really do wish them all the best on the continuing mission to try and sell 5 x 5 metre rugs to backpackers now and in the future.
Istanbul has a mosque on virtually every 3rd block which makes for a truly impressive sound when the "Call to Prayer" relays through the city from east to west. Even the alley cats stop for a few minutes ... then go back to resuming "cute meowing mode" in every little bit of grass. Istanbul has one square metre of parkland per person ... which isn't a lot, so space for the cats is tight. This also might explain the small army of police dedicated to ignoring crime and focusing on keeping those pesky tourists off the damned grass.
The food here is awesome, but it is definitely worthwhile having a phrasebook handy to prevent the social blunder of ordering something you can't eat ... like say ... ram's balls. I personally also prefer NOT to eat raw mince kebabs even though that raw mince was surely lovingly hand rolled by a sweaty guy with a moustache while he has a cigarette in the other hand.
Raki, the Turkish national drink, is difficult to digest due to it's incredible aniseed power, however I love the apple tea and Turkish coffee is always available if you feel sleep is entirely overrated. Of course you cannot come to Turkey without enjoying a Hookah water pipe either - the middle eastern party bong.
So in summary, Istanbul is astonishingly cool and possibly one of the most amazing cities on Earth, the dervishes really do spin counter clockwise, dolphins do live in the Bosphorous strait, it's fantastic being a traveling vagrant and Baklava is super sweet.
2 comments:
Sooooo jealous right now. Istanbul is definitly on my wishlist of places to go. Sounds freakin awesome!
The Decrepit Room sounds almost as bad as the Icognito Room at the Clown & Bard Hostel in Praha... But unless there's dried blood on your pillow (at least until you discretely swap pillows with the bed next to you...), you're doing ok!
You're photos are looking damn sweet by the way. But I think you will need to photochop the Parliament House pic - it just doesn't look big enough.
And the big question... What was in the hookah?
We had to study the Aya Sofia in architecture history classes; I'm glad you got to see it!
Hookah's are soooo bad for you... you inhale 100 times as much smoke as you would from a cigarette, per se. There was an article in the news here about them recently because of the prevalence of hookah bars here (they only use tobacco of course... riiiight).
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