Istanbul, 5-12 September 2013 - Istanbul, Turkey
Istanbul, Turkey
Introduction
My first stop on the road is the ancient transcontinental city of Istanbul. Founded around 660 BC and known as Constantinople when the capital of the Roman and Byzantine Empires and then of the Ottoman Empire after it fell to Sultan Mehmed II in 1453, this is a city with considerable historical significance and brimming with beautiful millennia-old mosques. The gateway to Asia (or Europe, depending on which direction you're coming from) and the only crossing point between the Mediterranean and Black Seas, Istanbul is also the driving force of the Turkish economy. It truly is a place where East and West meet, and at times clash, as shown by the recent civil disorder there and in the rest of Turkey. The appearance of Turkish people on the streets of Istanbul, in particular of women, couldn't span a greater spectrum, from women in full burkhas concealing even the eyes to women dressed in short skirts, who tended to be younger. Anyone who like me has a keen interest in history should definitely pay this city a visit. On top of that, fantastic and (importantly) consistent weather in the high twenties and very warm and hospitable people. Still I have yet to come cross a nationality that are better hosts than the Turks.
Journey to Istanbul
I must say that I was rather impressed with my flight with Turkish Airlines. The mild sense of confusion and animosity I had felt towards them, or rather the employees of their 'Miles & Smiles' reward scheme, for spelling my surname 'Benneth' and giving me a DOB of 1968 when they set up my account had now disappeared. Excellent food (complete with an on board chef!) and a very warm and friendly service. Such is the Turkish way.
After being picked up from Ataturk airport by my good friend Barlas a.k.a. 'Beerlas' we had a mad, virtually stationery journey to Koray's flat, sitting in traffic for the best part of three and a half hours. It turns out Istanbul is an incredibly congested city, and the demographic statistics make this no surprise. According to Barlas the population of Istanbul has increased by 5 million to 17 million in the last 5 years and the city already has a high level of car ownership. Whilst driving we passed some of the main sites of the recent protests and riots against the hardline, religious conservative President Erdogan and his government and Barlas explained what happened at each place. For example we passed several flights of steps painted in a rainbow of colours, which were very aesthetic on the eye. In their wisdom the government authorities had decided to paint a particularly popular and prominent multicoloured flight of steps grey in the middle of the night. Word spread on social media and within a couple of hours opponents of the government turned out in force in the middle of the night to repaint these steps and hundreds of other grey ones throughout the city in rainbow colours.
Upon arrival it turned out that Koray lives in the transsexual part of Istanbul. Not that this matters at all, I just simply find it funny that such a district could exist in a predominantly Muslim country. Anyway I could have sworn it looked like he was wearing eyeliner in the dim light. He knocked up a nice chicken, rice and potato meal for the three of us before going to bed. Koray very kindly let me sleep in his bed whilst I stayed on the western side of the city. I slept alone that is: he slept on the couch meantime. Turkish people really do go out of their way to make their guests feel at home.
The sights
Barlas was very kind and generous with his time and took me to several of the main sights in Istanbul over 2 days.
On the first day we visited Park Gezi and Taksim square, the epicentre of the recent protests and civil disorder. Park Gezi and Taksim Square had been occupied by the rioters and all entry routes which the police had sought to use had been blocked. He told me how the police had fired tear gas into the crowd and was even using the canisters containing the tear gas as bullets. Apparently this is illegal, as tear gas must be used no closer than 100 metres to a crowd. Barlas was in the front line of the fighting against the police and said that it was like a war zone. Even medical stations were set up behind the battle lines by the protesters to treat their injured. Some were even deployed as makeshift medics, throwing a ready made solution onto the faces of those suffering from tear gas exposure.
We briefly saw Dolmabahce Palace by the Bosphorus, a fine piece of architecture with much beautiful detail on the entrance. In the late afternoon we heard the calls to prayer from nearby minarets. I had never heard such a sound before, but they give a certain atmosphere to the place. They also seemed to serve to me as a reminder that I was in a Muslim country and made me think of the Crusades.
We walked past Galata Tower, the location of the first successful flight according to Barlas. He said that it wasn't first accomplished by the Wright brothers, rather by a man who jumped from the top of this tower and glided for around 60 kilometres. So I have to say that I question whether this real counts as flight.
The Basilica Cistern used to store the city's water supplies and consisted of several stone columns and a large amount of water covering the whole floor. As a result you had to walk on a raised wooden gangway. Despite the two heads of Medusa on two columns this venue somewhat underwhelmed me.
The Grand Bazaar is a vast market established by Sultan Mehmed II, selling all sorts of things such as jewellery, clothing and spices. The piles of colourful spices were particularly impressive and were very aesthetic indeed. I didn't buy anything here as I already had a lot of luggage and had at least 3 countries to go after Turkey.
Before entering the Blue Mosque we had to remove our shoes, something I had never done before upon entering a place of worship. I had also never been in a mosque before (as far as I could remember) so I was intrigued as to how it would look inside. In essence the mosque seemed to be one huge room with a very high, decorated ceiling. There were also very low-hanging chandeliers, I believe installed by the Ottomans. However I have to say that I was more impressed by the exterior and the architecture than the interior and the in my view rather modest decoration.
I visited Topkapi Palace alone, one of the main homes of the former sultans of the Ottoman Empire. There was a lot to see in the two hour window I had and unfortunately there was a vast number of fellow tourists at every turn, which made for rather unsatisfactory photos. But it was definitely a grand palace with beautiful grounds. I spent a lot of time in the armoury, which displayed weaponry ranging from the 5th century to the 18th or 19th as I recall. There was even a Hungarian sword measuring 8 foot long, which I doubt even Norden would have been able to swing!
I also visited Aya Sofia alone. An enormous mosque dating from the 5th century A.D., I was blown away by its sheer beauty. It is without doubt one of the best sites I have ever seen. I was simply awestruck. It used to be a Christian place of worship until Sultan Mehmed II conquered the city, a major turning point in the life of the city. As a result there are still several beautiful, detailed mosaics and frescoes depicting Jesus or the Virgin Mary with baby on the walls and ceilings. I believe these were covered over in a form of plaster by the Muslims, which inadvertently preserved them, enabling them to be displayed today. The walls and ceilings were also covered with other beautiful mosaics and frescoes and stunning decoration.
We did a tour of the Bosphorus aboard a ferry. From here there was an excellent view of the coastline and the many grand buildings and mosques that line it, such as the Rumeli Fortress at the narrowest point of the Strait.
I also took a boat with Eda, my second Turkish former au pair, to visit the Princes Islands off the eastern shores of the city. We disembarked at the largest island, Buyuk Ada and took a horse and cart tour of the island, stopping off at Eda's favourite bar on the coast. We drove past many huge houses on the island as apparently many wealthy people live here. Eda and her family were fantastic hosts to me on the eastern side of the city.
Turkish Baths abuse
When Barlas, Koray and I were walking around Besiktas I saw a sign for Turkish baths. I had never been to Turkish baths before so I was intrigued. Barlas and Koray didn't want to join me but I went ahead not knowing what to expect nevertheless. I had to strip off in a little room which really confused me. It had windows so the employees of the baths could see me getting changed which alarmed me somewhat. I walked into the baths wearing just the thick fabric they had given me which resembled more of a table cloth or rug than a towel. The baths were made almost exclusively of marble but I found a standard sauna room there. I lay in there minding my own business until an old man stormed into the sauna and started bawling at me in Turkish. He then beckoned me over and quite simply started manhandling and mishandling me, the whole time loudly groaning and shouting at me in Turkish. And thus begun my 30 minutes of simultaneous pain and pleasure. One minute he would grab me by the shoulders and arms and force me to the ground, the next minute he would without any warning whatsoever throw hot or cold water in my face. He put on a massive glove with a sand paper-type material on the palm side and proceeded to scrape me all over. It was borderline bearable, borderline painful. When he proceeded to raise each of my legs and rub my inner thighs I started to get very worried indeed. At one point he hustled me onto a rug on the marble and gave me a semi-painful massage, where he made me use an upside down water container of all things as a pillow which was very uncomfortable and awkward on my neck. Throughout my legs and feet kept touching the extremely hot marble surface. In fact, throughout the whole experience I was trying my best not to laugh out loud as I found the situation so funny and bizarre. He also spoke no English and I spoke no Turkish and the lack of ability to communicate made the situation even more testing. Now I know why Koray and Barlas said they don't like visiting Turkish baths. I reemerged from the baths traumatised, with a very red face due to the heat and scrubbing, and very, very confused. I was duly rinsed by them and quite rightly so. However, in a strange way, I could see myself going to a Turkish bath again.
The food & drink
I have always had a keen taste for Turkish food, but before arriving I was eager to sample the Turkish culinary delights in situ and furthermore sample the beverages, which I knew next to nothing about except that they have a popular beer called Efes. Most people in England seem to think that Turkish food is all about kebabs and döners and that their desserts are all about Turkish Delight, but they couldn't be more wrong. Whilst I did eat a few kebabs here, I'll talk about the other culinary delights I was fortunate enough to try.
Many communal dishes I had included a soft and spicy aubergine with a smoky aftertaste. An aubergine is grilled and smoked until the skin is charred black. The skin is then peeled off and the soft inside part scraped out and garlic and spices are added. Simply delicious and it also has an amazing smoky aftertaste.
My Mum likes halva. And I mean really likes it. Whenever she goes to the part of north London with a substantial Turkish community to visit our family friend and my third and final Turkish former au pair Dilek, she usually makes a point of bringing back some of this exquisite and delicious Turkish dessert. For those who don't know what it is, I believe it is made with cereals and a lot of sugar. I had it twice in Istanbul and both times cooked in different ways. The first time it was cooked in the oven in a ceramic dish and was white inside and golden-yellow to brown on top with parts of it burned black. It had the consistency of cement and was out of this world in terms of taste. The second time I had it with my first Turkish former au pair Hulya it was in small, almost crystallised pieces. It was golden yellow in colour and contained a few nuts. This was good but incomparable to the first time I had it.
A lot of communal dishes include fried onions covered in chilli, a very tasty form of yoghurt that is more savoury than sweet and a salad with cucumber, tomatoes and coriander with a dressing and chilli flakes on top.
Borek is another favourite, consisting of rolls of pastry with either cheese, meat or vegetables inside. Very tasty. I've eaten this in Turkish restaurants in England before and is one of my longest standing favourite Turkish foods.
Baklava is without doubt one of the best desserts in the world. And it is an art form. I saw a documentary about how to make baklava on my plane out of Turkey and it is incredibly difficult and complicated to make, requiring an exceptional level of skill and attention to detail. It involves around 10 extremely thin layers of pastry on top of one another and contains pistachio nuts and sugar amongst other ingredients. It is very sweet and oily and is quite simply a dream to eat.
I came across kadayif for the first time in Istanbul. It very much resembles the taste of baklava and contains rice, sugar and pistachios amongst other ingredients and is served as a square slab. Again, delicious.
I did buy some Turkish Delight but I'm saving that for consumption in Thailand or Vietnam.
When wandering the streets of Istanbul you come across several fruit juice vendors, where they put the fruit or fruits you desire to drink through a large hand-operated pressing machine. The fruit most on display and most consumed is pomegranate, which surprised me as it tasted like very sour oranges to me. Not a native fruit to the UK, I had first come across pomegranate complete with a hand-operated pressing machine at Dilek's house.
Ayran is definitely the best drink discovery I have made since being in Turkey. It is simply yoghurt mixed with water, with some sugar and vast quantities of salt added. It tastes fantastic, though perhaps a little too salty. Eda's homemade ayran, simply consisting of yoghurt and water, is much tastier without all the added salt.
On my last night, Eda's husband Emre took his family and I out for a tranquil meal to a famous fish restaurant by the Bosphorus with a fantastic view of the Bosphorus bridge in the background. We had some amazing different types of fish that were caught only a matter of minutes beforehand. Unfortunately Emre introduced me to the infamous Turkish spirit raki - quite simply it tastes like liquorice and is disgusting!
Barlas' Big Barbecue
On the Sunday morning Barlas drove his two friends Farhat and Günce, Koray and I to his house 60 km from the centre of Istanbul. We ate out in the garden all day. We started with a Turkish breakfast, consisting of bread, meat slices and cheese with Turkish tea & coffee. There was also some delicious fig jam, made by Barlas' mother from the fig trees in their garden. During the day we played football and went swimming at the pool that belongs to the properties where Barlas lives. Barlas, Günce and I also had afternoon naps as the heat can make you rather lethargic. In the early evening we had an amazing barbecue cooked by Barlas' father.
Erasmus party succeeded by me having an absolute mare
On the Friday night Barlas and some of his friends from the ESN (Erasmus Students' Network) hosted a party in a bar. Lots of Efes and Tuborg beers were sunk and I got chatting to a lot of Erasmus students as well as the Turkish friends of the organisers. I was the very last person to leave the party as I wanted a big night whilst in Istanbul. Despite my best efforts to persuade others to come with me in search of a club I couldn't find any takers. So before long I found myself rather aimlessly roaming the streets of Istanbul in search of somewhere else to go. Somehow I ended up in a side street off Taksim Square in the dark and I started running, running like mad, running for no other reason than that I was completely lost in an unfamiliar city and everything all around me was dark. I probably looked ridiculous at this point. Part of me felt absolutely stupid running like this, but part of me also felt like James Bond. So I just kept telling myself that. Eventually I found myself in Taksim Square again, where I finally decided to get a taxi to Koray's house. However once again my lack of Turkish and the other person's (in this case the taxi driver's) lack of English led to a breakdown in communication and he took me to somewhere vaguely near Koray's house. I started to wander the area until I recognised the Vodafone shop near Koray's road. However, identifying Koray's road was one thing; identifying his actual building was a competed different ball game. After calling Barlas he gave me the suggestion to look at Koray's address which I had previously saved on my phone but had stupidly completely forgotten about. Upon now finding the right building the next thing was to work out which buzzer belonged to Koray's flat. He lived on the ground floor, but I had no idea if he was the only flat on that level. So of course I tried the bottom buzzer hoping to God it would be his flat. I was met with the voice of an angry Turkish woman barking something down the intercom. So I slowly tried the buzzer above and after much buzzing one of Koray's housemates eventually answered the door and let me in. Nice guy.
Other Turkish stuff
Koray, Barlas and I played backgammon in a cafe by the Bosphorus one afternoon. We drank Turkish tea in true Turkish style meanwhile. Both these things together made me feel very mellow. I had played backgammon in the past but not for a very long time. Whenever I think of the game I think of older Turkish men sitting on wicker chairs in the shade playing the game. However in this cafe everyone was at it. I thought it was cool that such a cafe centred on backgammon could exist. Anyway Koray lost against Barlas and the tradition in Turkey when you lose is that you have to carry the board with you.
One thing that was particularly cool about Istanbul is that they seem to love using air guns to fire at balloons. Barlas and I came across a stall or shop that allowed you to fire at balloons in rows. Later on the same day we came across a man with a table and two air rifles by the Bosphorus where we shot at balloons in the sea all stretched out in a line. It required a lot of skill, but as a former marksman with a good shot whilst in cadets it was no biggie for yours truly. We made a little competition out of it which was very fun.
One other things I noticed about Turkey is that they have a lot of stray cats and dogs just lying in sun looking very relaxed or roaming around slowly. It reminded me of being on the Greek islands as I've been to many of them and they always seemed to have lots of stray cats milling around, though never dogs.
Turkey is a fantastic country and is one of my favourites due to the culture, the great weather (OK I'm from England but even so) and above all the warm people.