Sights and Sounds of Istanbul…

Debbie and I in Taksim Square...

Flower sellers line the one side of the square...

It’s amazing how differently you look at a city when you are no longer on your own… From the moment I collected Debbie (who landed at Ataturk Airport at the un-Godly hour of 6.20am…!); Istanbul took on a whole new meaning for me…

Not only was it a happy reunion for us both, but having someone from “home” to talk to again, lifted my spirits enormously… It took her arrival to make me realise how lonely a period I had been through of late…

On the ride from the airport, she pointed out things that I had ridden past without actually “seeing” before, and this made me sit back and take another look at the sights and sounds of this bustling city… Even though I had already worked out a rough two day tour of the city for her, and had also visited most of the places I would “guide” her to, I found myself marveling anew at the amazing landmarks that Istanbul is famous for…

"Seriously, Dude, where can I buy a magic carpet...? I've got a lot of distance to cover, and the price of petrol here is killing me...!!"

After a hurried breakfast at the hotel, we took a bus up to Taksim Square, where we strolled along the streets lined with restaurants, enjoyed freshly squeezed Pomegranate juice from a roadside stall, and then sat watching people stream by on their way to and from work…

Taksim Square lies west of the Golden Horn, an inlet branching off the Bosphorus Strait, where in ancient times, ships docked to offload their cargoes for sale in the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul…

We then took the Funicular, an underground tram for want of a better description, which slides downhill toward the harbour area of Kabatas. The Funicular is lowered by means of a huge cable driven pulley, and then winched back up again, and runs every few minutes… Each coach has three or four separate levels, and it is a strange experience being able to look over the heads of the passengers in front of you, while the coach glides through the tunnel to the lower station.

Nimble fingers demonstrate the fine art of weaving to Debbie...

I had finally got the hang of Istanbul’s public transport system by the time Debbie arrived, so getting around the city was not nearly as complicated as it had been for me the week before. From Kabatas, we boarded a tram that took us back across the Golden Horn to Sultanahmet, where we walked through the Hippodrome Park, visiting the obelisks and the fountains, before stopping to watch silk carpets being woven…

Debbie sat down alongside a weaver who was eager to show here how the carpets were woven, guiding her fingers in and out of the cords of the loom. The carpet she was working on was made from the finest Turkish Silk, and even though it was only a metre by half a metre in size, when completed, it would sell for about €5 000.00…!! A “very good investment” I was told, by the owner of the shop…

Had I had space on the Big Fella, I would probably have taken half a dozen… Yeah, right…!!

The Blue Mosque without rain clouds as a backdrop...

The sun was shining as we made our way, to the Blue Mosque, a far cry from the weather I had experienced on my first visit… This time, with not as many tourists lined up outside, we made our shoeless way into the Mosque, which is renowned throughout the world for its beautiful mosaic tiles that line it walls and vaulted ceilings…

The ceiling of the central dome, with it's blue tiles from where the Mosque takes its more commonly used name...

Four massive pillars reach up to the central dome, around which many other smaller domes lead off to a balcony that runs right around the entire mosque… It was one of those jaw-dropping experiences for both of us… In order to get a better view of the intricate designs on the ceilings, many tourists chose to lie down on the carpeted floor, and gaze upwards, snapping away with their cameras…

The huge vaulted ceiling with its intricate mosaic tiling left most wide-eyed and staring...

"Dude...!! Should we check out St. Sophia's...?"

I had not expected this much tolerance from the officials that walked among the groups, stepping over legs as they answered questions from interested parties…

But I guess they had seen it all before, and by the looks on their faces, I could see that they were very proud to show off their heritage…

Outside the walls surrounding the complex, we walked through a neatly manicured park, towards St Sophia’s Church, which had once been an Orthodox Church, and served as the Cathedral of Constantinople.

It was the largest cathedral for over a 1000 years, until the one built in Seville, Spain, was completed in 1520…

When the Ottoman Turks conquered the area, it was converted into a mosque, which was known as the Hagia Sophia, and remained so until 1935, when it became the museum it is today…

Its design served as a model for many other mosques, including the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, or Blue Mosque which we had just come from…

St. Sophia's Church and Museum, seen from the gardens that separate it from the Blue Mosque

This guy was charging €5.00 to be photographed... While Debbie distracted him, I got mine for free...!!

Walking through the streets of Istanbul with Debbie, took my mind off the little niggles I had been hassled with recently, and gave me the opportunity to relax and enjoy my surroundings.

This pile of mixed herbs smelt so awful, that we assumed it could only be used to drive evil spirits from the home...!!

It was great being able to break into Afrikaans occasionally to gossip about the strangers around us, or discuss prices we were bargaining over, without letting the stall owners know what we were talking about…

At the Spice Market, we wandered through the maze of passageways, the sights and sweet smell of Turkish Delights, incense and spice, filling our senses…

I found myself grinning from ear to ear at the experience of it all, something I had not done for a while…!!

We were invited to taste the sweets on offer at many of the stall which specialized in hundreds of varieties of Turkish Delights… I had no idea they came in so many different colours and flavours, and took full advantage of the generosity shown by the stall-owners…

Later that evening, I would regret having eaten so much of it, along with all the other food and beverages we tried on our second day out on the town…!! Once more, Imodium stepped into the breach…!!

The Spice Market sells.... Well, spices actually...!!

There's a new Sultan in town...!!

And some of the locals are not too happy about it...!!

A fruit seller pushes his heavy barrow through the streets of Sultanahmet

Turkish version of "The Cow Jumped over the Moon"... The far more dangerous, "The Lion Jumped over the Cactus"...!!

Our two day stay in Istanbul turned into a three day stay… This was not by choice, but rather came about as a result of my not checking the departure time of our flight to Dalaman in Southern Turkey… I was certain that the flight was at 8.15am, and we arrived at the airport well in time for the flight… That is if it was meant to take off at 8.15am…!!

The plane was actually already off the ground by the time we arrived, scheduled for departure at 6.40am…!! This was the first time I had ever made such a blunder in over 25 years of travel…!! I was more than a little bemused when we were told that the flight had departed, and it took most of the day for me to get over the cock-up I had made…

The Roman Aquaduct through which the busy Ataturk Boulevard passes... I was that mad at myself for getting the flight times mixed up, that I could have jumped off the bridge...!!

I had to buy another set of return tickets at a hugely inflated price, for the next flight which was later that same evening, and with 12 hours to kill, we decided to take a bus back to Istanbul (a trip that took one and a half hours…!!) and go back to our hotel to catch a few hours of sleep…

Crossing the Bosphorus on our bus to the airport... Into Asia proper...!!

The day turned into one long “Public Transport Experience” for us, and went something like this:

Taxi to Taksim Square at 5.45am (15 mins);

Bus to Airport (one hour),

Bus back to Taksim Square (one and a half hours),

Taxi back to hotel (15 mins)

Bus to Taksim Square (8 mins…!! We notified the local asylum that a lunatic had taken control of the No: 66 bus to Taksim…!!),

Bus back to Airport (one hour),

Flight to Dalaman (one hour),

Bus to Marmaris (one and a half hours),

Taxi to hotel (10 mins)…

We arrived at our hotel at about 11.00pm, having been up since 4.30am…!!

Debbie took it all in her stride, vastly amused that I, who am known for my meticulous planning, had managed to make a mess of what would have been our first day down on the sunny Turkish coast…!! I on the other hand, had shaken my head so often in disgust during the course of the day, that I needed a Voltaren to ease the strain on my neck muscles…!!

But it was all good in the end, and after a hectic few days in Istanbul, we were ready to enjoy the calmer environment of Marmaris…

©GBWT 2010