Istanbul, Turkey visited
October 25, 2001
finalized December 5
In Istanbul, the sun rises over Asia and sets over Europe; in between, there's a city like no other. On our three day visit, we spent Saturday exploring the morass of old city markets, Sunday visiting mosques and historical sites (many of which are closed on Mondays), and Monday urban hiking through parts of the newer city. Our hotel, the Yigitalp, located in a busy clothing sales district in the older part of town, turned out to be a fine base for exploration. We could walk to the old city and the major historical attractions, but had a tram line nearby for when our feet tired or when we wanted to get to a different part of the city.
Our Saturday wanderings showed us that, true to its origins, Istanbul remains a city of tradesmen (and I mean men, women need not apply.) Aside from the fabulous and famous Grand Bazaar and The Spice Market (both catering mostly to tourists), shops, smaller bazaars, flea markets, sidewalk stands, and peddlers carrying their wares or seated alongside blankets covered with goods are everywhere. The sheer number of merchants is unbelievable. (Even with a population over 10 million, there seem to be way too many sellers.) But in many places it was shoulder-to-shoulder shoppers, mostly women, many with their hair covered, a few totally veiled. The result: a remarkable chaos. (Sorry still no camera, so imagine...) OK, now picture the occasional auto, van and trucks wedging their way through these narrow already-crowded streets! Yet, assisted by short toots on their horns, the drivers, incredibly, made steady progress through constricted passages and masses of people, and no one seemed to mind the intrusion. If you don’t like crowds or can’t deal with incessant invitations from merchants to “just take a look”, this part of Istanbul is not for you.
There must be something in the Istanbul air that makes you want to buy stuff. Those of you who know us also know that we are loath to purchase anything that will add what we’re already toting. However, by the time we’d left, we found room in our luggage for calligraphy, a wool sweater, spices, glassware and other trinkets. Sure, low prices were a factor, but we also suspect that the scent one of the many spices available is actually a “shop-rodesiac.”
Usually we prefer to wander on our own, but Istanbul has so much history, all unfamiliar to us, that we figured we needed help. On a surprisingly quiet Sunday morning (an amazing transformation from the previous day’s confusion), we set off with an knowledgeable private guide, Anna, (www.tourinturkey.com, e-mail: guide@tr.net) who showed us around the most popular historic attractions and provided welcome background on Turkey and Islam.
Highlights:
Our day with Anna ended in a Turkish tea and water pipe garden. The water pipe is a fixture of everyone’s mental picture of the Middle East as a result of Lewis Carroll’s caterpillar. It was a relaxing time, people sitting in groups on couches, Persian rugs underfoot, trellises and rain protectors overhead. We tried a pipe of narghile, dried something-or-other that came in fruity flavors like apple and strawberry. The narghile is lit by a few small hot coals, which are replenished every 15 minutes or so. The resulting smoke is drawn through the water, yielding a mild, aromatic vapor. An interesting experience, but perhaps not to everyone’s taste.
The domes and slender minarets of Istanbul's many mosques dominate the city skyline. That evening we had a most memorable dinner on the rooftop terrace of the Doy-Doy restaurant. A lighted mosque stood on the hill above us. Wailing calls to evening prayer echoed around us in the warm night. Our modest meal came to about $6.00. The view and atmosphere were MasterCard priceless. Incidentally, the $6.00 was a bit less than 10,000,000 Turkish lirisa. Currency with so many zeroes, the result of rampant inflation, is tough to get used to.
Monday morning, we took the tram to the last stop and headed off to the newer part of the city for a day of urban hiking. (I like this term because it aptly describes long walks in a city with no particular destination or goal in mind.) As it was several miles of very hilly terrain, I'd definitely call this a hike.
The new city on the other side of the famous Bosphorus felt much more familiar. Restaurants, shops, department stores and hotels lined wide streets, although wander a block or two off the main street and you were back into an “older” world. The display windows of clothing stores amused me. Typically they simply contained lines of closely spaced manikins wearing the clothes for sale. None of the minimalist or artsy or clever stuff you see at Nordies or Macy’s or high-end boutiques in the U.S. The Western version of “marketing” as perfected by our advertising whizzes hasn’t yet caught on here.
Another curiosity was that stores selling similar merchandise are generally clustered together. We descended one winding street on which there were dozens of shops selling musical instruments. Very few customers could be seen anywhere. Shopkeepers sat reading newspapers or chatted with other shopkeepers. I left wondering how anyone made a living under these circumstances.
In retrospect, we should have spent a couple more days in Istanbul and fewer at the resort. However, we had already decided a couple of days into our visit that we would be returning to Turkey, so our arrangements were fine. I’d guess that a month or more traveling around this intriguing country is in order.