During our annual trip to India, we flew Turkish Airlines this time around and decided to take a Day and explore Istanbul. Well, eventually what was supposed to be a Day turned to be 2 days, due to over booked flights. We had a simple agenda. We went in with a list of things we wanted to see and do. It turned out to be much more.
First off, Turkey is a beautiful country and Istanbul is great. The people are awesome, extremely nice and helpful. It is easy to get around as English is understood and spoken by most. Even if people (Taxi Drivers) who don’t speak English, make an effort to understand and communicate using sign language and local Maps. It is best to carry a Local Map of places you want to visit. It is easy to get a map. Make sure to know the names of the places you want to go to. Even if you don’t know the exact pronunciation, its fine, generally everyone knows the local name as well as the tourist name of all the places. People understand. The other amazing thing that I noticed in Istanbul, didn’t see a single fat person in the two days we were there. In general people look healthy. Women are beautiful, with big eyes and long hair. Generally it is said that the Taxi Drivers will always try to rip you off, make sure to bargain. In my experience, it is not as bad as it is made to sound online. Being an Indian helped, Turkish people love Indians, Indian food and Indian Songs. Internal roads and travel within the city is smooth. There are also options to take Trams or Buses.
We reached the Airport early in the morning. Let me warn you, getting a Visa is easy, just pay and get the sticker on your passport. But clearing Immigration is painful. Especially, if you are not an American citizen. So, the deal is, if you have a valid Visa for any European countries or a US Visa, Immigration is easy. But if you are a transit passenger with no valid Visa in your passport, it is hard to explain. My case was, I didn’t have a valid US Visa stamped, as I was travelling on Parole. I was carrying the Visa approval notice with me, but it took us a while to explain it to the Authorities. The problem is, they don’t want to talk to you. They are more interested in talking amongst themselves and figuring it out and stalling. Anyways, in the end it all worked out, but just be prepared for some waste of time if you are in my position.
Unfortunately, the weather was horrible. It was the start of winter. The day we reached, December 10th was the first day of Rains. The cold combined with the rains and the occasional snow is not fun. We were not prepared, my advice, if travelling around the time we did, make sure to carry heavy coats, gloves, rain coats, thick socks, warm boots, and umbrella. We had most of it but not all. We did suffer a bit in the cold. So, Winter in Turkey as explained by the locals is weird, they have Rains pretty much all Winter with occasional Snow anytime during the day. The snow is flaky and doesn’t really stick or accumulate but sure makes it colder than usual. Winters are muggy, wet and windy. Bad combination. Just be prepared.
We were on our way to India, so we were travelling with a lot of luggage. About 10 Huge check in Bags and 6 Carry-on bags. The entire trip was planned for Gautam + I, My sister + her Husband + Kid. So, we were 4 Adults + 1 Kid. We made a mistake of not explaining the baggage properly to the Car Rental place IstanbulAirport24.com. The car that came to pick us form the Airport, was not big enough to accommodate all our bags. The car Rental company is good and is recommended, just make sure to explain to them very clearly what all you need. They were on time, helped us with everything and they were nice. The Driver gave us a lot of local information on our way to our Hotel. We stayed in the old city, Sultanahmet. I would highly recommend staying in the old city. It is a good location considering most of the touristy places are almost walking distance from each other in Sultanahmet.
We stayed at Taskonak Hotel. Highly recommend this place. It is old but really well kept. The people are amazing. They are polite and the most helpful bunch. They kept most of our luggage in the holding room. They are extremely helpful and nice. Our room was small but had everything we needed. A clean bed and bathroom. We got ready and started our city touring. The weather was uncooperative. We went to this local place for Lunch, Tamara Restaurant & Café. This place is located on one of the shopping strips of Sultanahmet. It is a nice little place with decent food. The Freshly squeezed Orange juice is awesome and so is the Pomegranate Juice (if you like the fruit, you will love the juice, it is strong flavored). We decided to walk despite of the bad weather, given that for small distances it is hard to find a Taxi and we did want to check out the city.
The first stop was the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Mosque). It is the biggest Mosque in Istanbul which dominates the skyline. It is a beauty. It was a serene experience to be inside this Mosque. It is a gigantic presence, which echoes the soothing hymns during Prayer times. It was a nice experience. The architecture is beautiful with amazing carvings and lights all around. Glass Mural Windows being the highlight of the place from inside.
The next stop was a local Café called John’s, for some Turkish Coffee and Tea. John’s is a small establishment right across from the Blue Mosque. Turkish Tea is a huge presence anywhere you go. The small, slender glass cups on tiny saucers with brown hot tea are seen everywhere. We loved the taste and were hooked to it for all the time we were in Istanbul. Turkish Coffee on the other hand is not something which everyone would instantly like. Traditional coffee is served in a tiny cup. It is thick brown liquid which is bitter. You can get it with no sugar, some sugar or a lot of sugar. I tried the no sugar. It is bitter and very rich in taste. The coffee is always served with a glass of water, in case you need to gulp it down or rinse your throat afterwards. It is rich in taste and texture.
After some warming, we headed to our next destination, underground Besilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarnici). This was used as a water reservoir in the Ottoman Period. The water collected here is all rain water. It was used for watering the Topkapi Palace. The cistern has about 336 columns in 12 rows. Most of the columns are Corinthian or Doric in style. At the far end of the Cistern, there are two heads of the Medusa which are put either upside down or sideways. Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, the terrifying female creatures of Greek mythology. Legend has it that Medusa, with her hair of snakes could turn anyone who looked at her into stone. The origin of the heads is unknown, there is no written evidence. It is amazing to be down in this Cistern. It has a Gothic feel to it. It is again one of the very quite places. Even with so much happening around, it is still very quite. Water is dripping in all the passages. We did spend some time just exploring and taking pictures.
After all the activities, we were tired and still had some enthusiasm for Shopping. What better place to shop in Istanbul than one of the largest and oldest covered Market in the world, The Grand Bazaar (Kapalicarsi). IT has more than 58 covered streets and over 1200 shop. It is over whelming. There are shops for Jewelry, Pottery, Spice, Leather, and Carpet. It consists of 12 major buildings and has 22 doors. It is crowded, colorful and bright. Everything shines in here. My sister and I were in heaven. We loved it. We did pick a few things that we absolutely wanted to buy and decided to come back the next day. It will probably take more than a day’s time if one decides to go to every street in this market. I would love to go back some other time and roam the streets of the Grand Bazaar. It was mystic.
Super tired we returned to our Hotel. Everyone was sleepy and a bit jet lagged. It was like I derived energy from all our sightseeing. I started looking for things to do at night. My Bro-in-law found this place called Orient House, which is a Restaurant that features traditional Turkish show every night. The show includes: Belly Dances, Wedding Ceremony, Mystic whirling dervishes, Folk dances, Ottoman Janissary Band and a Entertainment show with a local singer. I cannot recommend this place enough. It was Brilliant. The show includes, dinner and 2 Drinks. Being vegetarians, we got a fair price of $80 per person, Kid free. There was a 3 course meal. The food was excellent and so was the show. We had a great time. The service was amazing. The entire show is amazingly coordinated. It was entertaining and relaxing. We all agreed that it was a good decision to go for this show despite being tired. We got a good dose of Turkish music, which is very lively and full of energy. They also served, Turkish Tea and Coffee. Trust me, this will be the best Money spend on a Turkish holiday. You will witness all forms of dances, songs and local traditions. It was a great end to an amazing day spend in Istanbul.
Our Hotel had a view of the Blue Mosque from the terrace. We clicked some pictures of the night view. It is beautiful. We had a long day ahead of us, so decided to catch up on some sleep.
Turkish meal in general has Cheeses (goat cheese being part of every meal), Olives, Turkish Tea, Juices, Freshly baked Bread and Fruits. The local bread is called Simit, it is a circular bread with sesame seeds on it. Variation of this bread is commonplace in every meal. Simit is hard and dry but really tasty. We also tried Lahmacun (Meat with dough). There is a vegetarian version of it, a thin flatbread covered with layer of spiced tomato, pepper, onion and garlic. Very tasty. We ate vegetarian Kebap. Grilled Veggies served with Rice and Kisir. Yogurt is another integral part of Turkish food. Even plain yogurt tastes real good. Yogurt and Honey is a popular combination. We ate a lot of good food. Turkish wine is also good. Light and mild flavored. Desserts include Baklawa. We ate various kinds of Baklawa made from different Dry fruits. Lokum (Turkish Delights) is traditionally eaten for digestion is a sweet/candy with range of varieties. Mostly made with Dry fruit and honey or fresh fruit and honey. All very tasty.
The next day we started with Breakfast at our Hotel (included). We filled up on a heavy Breakfast. The next stop was Topkapi Palace.
Topkapi Palace is called Topkapi Sarayi in Turkish. It belongs to the Ottoman Empire. This was the primary residence of the Ottoman sultans for about 400 years. Everything there is old beautiful and historical. There are some huge trees in the yard that might be some centuries old. The place is a museum with collections of antics. There are beautiful Mural and glass work throughout. There are Swords, jewelry, clothes, Royal seats, etc on exhibit. It all is very well organized and you can opt for listening to the history by renting a multi-lingual head-phone. The admission fee is 20 Turkish Lira (15 USD). If you really want to look at each and everything in this palace in details, make sure to have at least 3-4 hours in hand. It requires a lot of walking within the Palace buildings. A lot of groups were roaming with Guides, probably a very good idea to hire a Guide if you are a History buff.
After the dose of History, we headed to Spice Bazaar (Misir Carsisi, or Egyptian Bazaar). It is one of the oldest bazaars in the city and second largest shopping complex after the Grand Bazaar. It is also known as the New Bazaar. It is a “L” shaped building consisting of 88 vaulted rooms, most of which are now divided into an upper and lower storey. There are Monumental Gateways at each entrance. The main entrance faces the Yeni Mosque. This is the first time I have seen so many colors at one place. It is beautiful. The place is super crowded with vendors calling you from all directions. As we entered the first emotion I felt was panic. It is very overwhelming. But then within minutes you see everything clearly and then it was all amazing. It sells Spices, Turkish delights, Teas, Coffees, souvenirs, etc. The place was buzzing with activity. Again I think to look at the entire Bazaar properly, you need a few hours in hand. Time being short, we tried to maximize as much as possible. We did our shopping for Turkish sweets, Teas and Coffee. We left from the Spice Market and were running short on time, so we split. Gautam and I headed back to the Grand Bazaar to pick up some things we had selected the previous day and my sister and family headed back to the Hotel to check out and get our luggage ready and Taxi to go to the Airport.
From the front of the Spice Bazaar you can get a partial view of the Bosphorus Bridge. Istanbul is 5th largest city in the world and it is the only metropolis in the world that is situated in two continents (Europe and Asia). The Bosphorous Bridge connects the two continents. We didn’t get much time to take the ferry ride to Asia, we just stayed in the European continent. This is though highly recommended. If I ever go back to Turkey, this definitely makes my priority list of Things To Do.
We took the Tram to go to Grand Bazaar from Spice Bazaar. It is fairly simple to understand the routes. The people are extremely helpful. It is also very fast and convenient. As all the major touristy places have Tram stations around the corner. It is also a very good way to explore the city. This being the very first time in my life I was taking a Tram ride, I was super excited.
We reached the Airport on time to find that our flight is over booked and we will have to stay another day in Istanbul. After the excruciating 6 hours on the Airport, finally we were scheduled to leave the next day with Baggage checked in to Bombay. This was a very bad experience and I was majorly disappointed in Turkish Airlines. After this I am a little hesitant to recommend Turkish Airlines. The way they handled the situation was very disappointing.
Our one night hotel booked by the Airlines was in Taksim. We stayed at the Crystal Hotel. And that’s where we met our first set of rude people in Turkey. All the time we had spend in Istanbul, I was very glad that the people were really nice and humble. Not true for the people in Crystal Hotel. They are rude and not at all considerate. The Hotel is nice but the service needs a lot of improvement, given that in general Turkish people are nice. We settled in our room and decided to explore a bit. Maybe find a place to try some Raki. It is a traditional alcoholic beverage flavored with anise. We found a local bar nearby and tried some Raki. It is a strong drink with a real strong flavor.
The next day was slow for us. We ate breakfast at our Hotel and decided to take it easy and try the Massage and Turkish bath at our Hotel Spa. Turkish Bath (Hamam) is the Turkish variant of a steam bath. We had a 60 minute massage followed by the Turkish Bath and end with a soothing Face Mask and Turkish tea. This was easily the highlight of our trip. We all were glad to miss the flight and experience this. I highly recommend this. There are places all around Istanbul that specializes in Turkish Baths. It is an extremely relaxing experience. We had a great time.
We had a crazy busy and hectic trip that we ended with some relaxing. It was a great trip. There is a whole lot of Istanbul and Turkey that needs to be explored, till next time. Its very hard to pick a few out of the many many pictures we took during our awesome trip, here is a glimpse.
