Istanbul!

Update: We were allowed into Turkey, after all!

Tosh: Istanbul has been at the top of my travel list for a while; the city’s history as Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul is beyond fascinating to me. As we land, you can see the city spreading over the two continents, Europe and Asia, and understand why it’s such a strategically important place. After landing, we get introduced to Turkish bureaucracy when the officer turns Tut around for not having 180 days before her passport expires. We have to go back to another window to get a special visa. It’s a pretty entertaining charade of being sent from one station to the next, and we end up, literally, in a janitor’s closet (mops and all) with an officer sitting in a window who asks us to pay him $165 euro. We do, and surprisingly, it works to get us through customs.

I’ve booked a two day tour. We’ve only got a short time here; so, I wanted someone to help us navigate around town efficiently. We wake the next morning, and Barish, our guide, is already waiting for us in the lobby. He takes us first to the Blue Mosque, an absolutely giant building of incredible architecture. Jo and Tut have to cover their legs and hair to enter. Despite all my years playing in the dirt in the middle east and Afghanistan, it’s my first time in a mosque. The inside is simplistic and beautiful with lots of open space and simple mosaics. The decorations aren’t overly gaudy and ornate like the many catholic cathedrals we’ve visited in eastern Europe for the last few weeks.

The Hagia Sophia was next, and wow! The first part was built in 360AD and the rest was completed in 537AD and for over half a millenia, this was the largest building in the world. The architecture and history are astounding. As I just refreshed my knowledge on Sultan Mehmed II’s siege of Costantinople, I picture Emperor Constantine II exasperating over the coming loss and Mehmed entering the Hagia Sophia for the first time in victory. It’s a bit sad to see that the Ottomans didn’t preserve all the paintings in the building, rather electing to paint Islamic script over some of the frescos; but hey, victors get to choose, right? They actually did leave some of the Christian paintings in the building, and our guide tells us that there were more until an Italian guy came and stole them a couple of centuries ago.

On to the Basilica Cistern! The underground cistern is otherworldly and a marvel of civil engineering. It's a massive underground chamber held up by a forest of Roman columns, meant to provide water for the city. Things like this, practical things that made an ancient city run, are absolutely fascinating to me; I guess that’s the engineer in me. The cistern, fed by three aquaducts, could hold nearly 3 million cubic feet of water. Surprisingly, the Romans built it in the sixth century, and locals still drew water from it as late as the 16th century.

We go to another mosque afterwards, which is about the same as the first mosque. It’s interesting to see that they put ostrich eggs in their chandeliers, supposedly to ward off spider webs.

We head to the grand bazaar, which is basically a huge indoor Turkish-style mall. It’s pandemonium in there and fun to see. Afterwards, we head to the spice market, which is about the same. Jo then splits off to have a Turkish bath experience, and I take the kids to try every baklava and Turkish delight we can find.

The second day we visit the blah blah Palace, a massive building which was the home of the Ottoman Sultan. It is shockingly massive and beautifully decorated. Seeing the amount of wealth concentrated into one man’s hands simply because he was born a prince, it makes me wonder why popular revolutions weren’t rampart.

The city itself is bustling. Every restaurant has a hustler outside who insists that you must come into their restaurant; they’ve got a special deal just for you! Speaking of the food, it’s amazing. Unfortunately, it also give me food poisoning on the second night we’re there, and I spend the entire evening in the bathroom. After spewing from both ends for 8 hours overnight, I’m too exhausted to leave the hotel on the third day; so Jo and the kids go out to do some shopping and sight-seeing.

Jo: After worrying for a day whether we would be allowed into Turkey with Tut's soon-to-expire-passport, and a whole ordeal of getting her a visa, we finally are in Istanbul, spat out by a mad-house of an airport to an even crazier curbside. The amount of people, the noise and immediate culture shock outside of the airport are overwhelming. We try to figure out how to get a cab to our hotel and after half an hour of squeezing ourselves and our luggage through the impermeable hustle of sweaty bodies, noises and odors, we finally manage to get into a cab. The cab takes off, changing lanes into the left lane without looking (which is common practice in Turkey), but the other person already in the left lane also happens to be not looking. We crash literally five seconds after getting into the cab. The driver cusses in Turkish and we realize that we have to get out and start our search for a cab anew.

Tosh manages to call a Turkish Ueber, which is nowhere to be found. He is on the phone with the guy, who gives him directions towards a parking structure. At this point we are all exhausted and sweaty, carrying our heavy packs through the hot exhaust filled air. A man comes towards us calling "John?" -we found our driver! He does not speak english well and guides us into the parking structure, deeper and deeper through rows of parked cars. The only thing he manages to say is "this is very illegal. If they found out, I'd go to prison". Well, that's really reassuring. I prepare myself for the worst, and see Tosh getting his knife out. After quite a walk we get to a very rundown taxi. We get in reluctanctly. The drive is as crazy as the rest of our experience: no seat belts, rapid lane changes without any indication or consideration of other cars, full on breaks in the middle of the interstate - needless to say my adrenals are working overtime again and my hands are not the only thing sweating.

We somehow make it to our hotel to check in close to midnight.

Streets and town squares are still full of people, everyone is outside, drinking tea, kids running around playing, men and women chatting. It is bustling at midnight on a weekday!

The next few days we explore Istanbul with a walking guide "Boris" who speaks Istanbul English. My favorite experiences from Istanbul are the spice market, which is a vibrant bazaar for everything under the sun, and an evening at a Turkish Hamam (bath house). It is an amazing place to experience.

We are off to Hannover for a last stop to see family in Germany before flying home to Denver.

Miles: My god where to begin? this city was the most old city i have ever been to in my life and I have to say most beautiful too. All of the buildings where more than 1000 years old. the Hagia Sofia was so big and historical (did you know the hagia sofia claims to have the holy crapping grail) and it was ssssssssssssoooooooooooo beautiful. lots of cool mosques and did you know that the blue mosque is the best example of the 5 century (tour guide joke). The way religion influenced daily life really inspired me.

Tut: Istanbul was really cool it had a lot of old and historical buildings and castles. it also had a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot of stray cats.

Inside the Blue Mosque