Just came back from a fabulous trip to Istanbul - short, but indeed a very exciting one. We lived a very Istanbullu life thanks to the lovely ladies who take care of us during the time. We did very little touristy stuff, but instead dined in the finest restaurants and cafes, chugged shots and shots of raki, listened to some fine music and lazed around in comfy cafes smoking nargillas. Istanbul is a beautiful city and the mosques and the Bosphorous and of course the wonderful women, gives it a very exotic feeling. Its flavours are rosewater, pistachio, almond and cinnamon - all rich, complex and redolent of the exotic east - but its packaging is different, reminiscent of the elegantly boxed treats sold in Paris. East meets West here, all in one delicious mouthful.
Day 1 - Friday 6th April
Arrived at the Sabiha airport at around 2am in the morning. If you are staying in the heart of Istanbul, I advise you not to take a flight to this airport. It took me about 2 hours to reach my hotel and it was a nightmare getting back to the airport while leaving also. George came down in the morning and we went on some sight seeing expedition.
We started off in Old Istanbul where we stayed. Most of the tourists stay around Sultanahmet and many never make it out of Sultanahmet. This is definitely a shame, but it does have a concentration of major sights, shopping precincts, hotels and eateries within easy walking distance. The heart of Byzantium, Constantinople and the Ottoman empire, it's the area where emperors and sultans built their palaces, places of worship and major public buildings.We started off with the Sultan Ahmet Camii (or better known to tourists as the Blue mosque). Sultan Ahmet I set out to build this monument that would rival and even surpass the nearby Aya Sofya in grandeur and beauty. The mosque's architect, Mehmet Aga, managed to design this elegant building with a visual wham-bam effect. Although there are several other mosques built very elegantly, the Sultan Ahmet one does strike out and gives it the alluring charm to Istanbul. Inside, the stained-glass windows and Iznik tiles immediately attract attention.
We visited only two other monuments - Aya Sofya (exterior) and the Topkapi palace, the reason being our tendency to hit the bottle and also to experience the local life. Aya Sofya is the most famous monument of Istanbul. The Topkapi palace is the subject of an award-winning feature film, an opera (Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio and a blockbuster social history (John Freely's Inside the Seraglio When we visited the palace, there were so many tourists, including lots and lots of kids, and after a bit of wandering, we went straight to the Topkapi treasury, which we were interested in. The Treasury, features an incredible collection of precious objects made from or decorated with gold, silver, rubies, emeralds, jade, pearls and diamonds. In the first room, you will find the jewel-encrusted sword of Suleyman the Magnificent and the Throne of Ahmed I, inlaid with the mother of pearl. In the second room, the tiny Indian figures, mainly made from seed pearls, are well worth seeking out, as are the bizarre and vaguely sinister relics of the Arm and Skull of St John the BaptistAfter the long walks around Sultanahmet, we decided it was time to come back to the hotel and soak in some rum. After chatting with a couple of other backpackers, we headed out to Taksim square where we were supposed to meet Pinar and Hande, George's friends of UMich. After chugging a glass of Mojito in an upmarket establishment, we went to a local restaurant, Sofyali, which served arrays and arrays of mezes. You can understand why Turks love to eat, the food is unbelievably delicious. Flavours explode in your mouth and definitely satisfy your tummy. We were the noisiest bunch in the restaurant. The other important item on the table was Raki, the effect of which is demonstrated in the adjacent pictures.
Dinner at Sofyali: 1) From left to right, Hande, myself, Pinar and Georgeee, all sober in the beginning
2) And, more join the band
Day 2
The next morning we had breakfast in a small eatery at Kale next to the Bosphorous. Once again, we were delighted by the food and the fine tea that constantly kept coming to our tables. The bread with honey and butter, unstructured salad. One thing you will observe in all the restaurants in Istanbul is that they are always full. Meals are indeed treated with respect and the supposedly the idea of eating in front of a TV or from a freezer is absolute anathema to the Turks. The next 2 days, we basically lazed around in sheesha cafes and in the night we partied like crazy in an exclusive club playing 80's music.
The amazing delicacies! - Breakfast at Kale
Cold and smoking the sheesha in Tophane...
1) George and I in a ridiculously expensive cafe (7 euro for an espresso!)
2) Outside the Museum of Modern Art
1)Playing cards - well, we all got a chance to become shitheads
2)Bahar pondering on what to do, when she had all aces on the table???
photos by Arun George (Copyright, 2007)
