Istanbul

We had a really excellent day exploring Istanbul. It's over 25 years since I went to Istanbul on a long weekend trip with somebody that I thought was my friend at the time. But with with hindsight.... Well that's another unimportant story for another time...

All that time ago I did have a brilliant time and loved the city. I loved the mix of east meets west - It left me intending to return sooner than later so I was really looking forward to revisiting.  

I was a bit unsure about how Dr Fred would take to the place because it is enormous, it's bustling, it's noisy, it's smelly. There are lots of exciting backstreets and of course there are a lot of tourists - And I was determined to visit the Grand Bazaar...

Istanbul didn't disappoint - but I have to say it was a very different city to how it had been all those years ago. It seemed even bigger, and was definitely more full of visitors. I had started with a plan that packed the day in! I was going to take us to a lot of historical sites - but I soon realised this was not a practical option for us two old gits. I had spoken to one of the other speakers and she had advised me against visiting the Hagia Sophia as it has a few years ago reverted from being a museum - a testament to the different cultures that make the city so magical - it is now once again, a mosque, and all the beautiful (christian) mosiacs are now covered up. I decided to be content with viewing its magnicence from the outside - still stunning and still exuding a historical significance. 

We got off the ship and through the port - this in its self is no mean feat. Its a new port built to accomodate all the new cruise ships expected in the future - its very like an airport - its vast and takes about 15 mins just to walk through. The frustrating thing is that all the port shops, the art gallery and the resteraunts are literally the other side of a retractable wall only feet away from the actual ship. This wall raises when a ship is in port and disappears when there are no vessels docked. Once upstanding this wall allows complete security and necessitates the whole (2700 steps) underground march through endless corridors, escalators, and stern faced security guards - eventually to emerge a few metres from where we actually left the ship...... on the other side of the wall!!!

After discovering that for some not obvious reason the tram stop was closed... we walked the next stop got on tram no 1 and headed off for the Blue Mosque. 30 years difference was very evident by the increased numbers of visitors. It was extremely busy - we had to queue for quite a while but once inside its really quite overwhelmingly beautiful.

Even with all the people there there is a sense of calm and tranquility. There are a lot of notices giving clear infomation about history and importance of the Islamic faith. Admission is not allowed unless kegs,shoulders and (for women) heads are covered. 

For us its the architecture that we find fascinating. The use of huge decorative soaring minuets surrounding incredibly ornate domed roofs - repeated across the city skyline is very exotic and the Blue Mosque is a stunning example of this. The carvings both inside and out and paintwork are perfectly executed. 

We soaked up the beauty of the mosque, the beautiful mosiacs and the luminous colours and eventually went back outside, shoes in hand, back into the sunshine and tried to get our bearings... 

The surroundimg district is just cafes and endless souvenir shops. We walked through the busy streets, ignoring the insistant invitations to eat and drink. On every corner there were fascinating buildings. Some old and battered in complete contrast to the huge stone domed mosques and official looking buildings. 

Tucked down a side street was on of the 24 gates allowing entry to the Grand Bazaar.

I was surprised we had to go through a security gate - some people (- not particuarly dubious looking) were even scanned with hand held scanner... 

The Grand Bazaar felt very diffent to how I remembered it. Still very grand with gorgeous vaulted ceilings and in parts ornate pillars and paintings - but it seemed very sanitised. Really just a collection of tourist tat...

there were a few places selling antiquey, flea market, esoteric bits of 'junk' but not many.

There was some deliniation of the different district selling carpets or spices or brass... but it wasn't so obvious. We wandered for half an hour or so - but it was very claustrophobic and a lot of people were smoking so it was stuffy and a bit stale. We got to the middle and started across the other side. It was such a warren that even then somehow, we just kept gravitating back to the middle... So eventually we just walked in a straight line to find an exit gate.

We came out very close to where we went in which was at least the right side for heading back across town towards the river. We started a slow meander back to the ship.  

This was the old town and it's full of stunning archtecture. It's not a place where Turkish people live, I think now it's entirely For tourists. We found the old Roman milestone marking the start of the A68🤣.

There are still very clear commmercial districts. For instance we walked through a street that was just selling art supplies, Fountain pens, paper, paints, notebooks... A stationary collectors dream... the pelicans were advertising pens. 

We stopped for a coffee and sat on the street (on a chair not the actual street) Dr Fred had a proper Turkish coffee. Came in a tiny cup with a glass of water Half of it was sludge He enjoyed it and that's the main thing

- It was a nice place to sit even though we were on the roadside. We have a great view down the hill across to the river And it's quite good to sit and people watch - a real mixture of tourists and people working the area whizzing up and down. 

Having the river in our sights meant we were definitely heading in the right direction. We carried on down the hill through the winding lanes. It wasn't long before we got to the Galatta Bridge. We did pass a sign that we thought must be for Yorkshire people. It said ''ey up sultan''

The bridge was full of people fishing. Hundreds of them down each side. We couldn't work out how they could possibly not get their lines entangled. They each had buckets which were full of fish, It was busy and It smelt strongly of fish but in astrange way it was quite atmospheric. 

Once over the bridge we decided to detour off the main street just to see what it was like down the smaller streets. It was pretty much as we expected to be honest. Cheaper looking hotels, There were seedier looking hotels🤣 And then we hit a road that was completly dedicated to plumbing supplies -That was exciting - 🤣. For a very short time it was a little less touristy. But then we started to hit where they'd built the new Port. It became quite grand again. Every street seems to have a beautiful Mosque on it. In the distance we could see the new modern art gallery and that was where we were heading. 

It was quite a relief to get into the art gallery. Air conditioned, spacious, hardly any people. It was a very interesting space. It had a viewing gallery on the top floor which had an area around it the was flooded due to last nights rain... it was full of seagulls.

The rest of the building was well laid out I'm with some colourful art. Not all of it was stuff that I particularly liked, but I felt it did actually deliver as a modern gallery.

Some of it was not maybe stuff that I would have on the wall at home But it was quite interesting to look at There was some fun and quite intricate collage work.

There was an intractive mirror room. These seem to be very much on trend at the moment but it was entertaining and we stayed in there quite a while trying to catch good photo opportunities. 

I thought the pop up installation of red string - almost cobwebby was quite good fun - not entirely sure of the rationale behind the vintage suitcases 'spun' into the web but thats modern art for you!!!

We were seriously suffering with museum leg by now. We had left the ship just after 9.00 and only had a short coffee shop... we realised if we headed back we might catch the last of the afternoon tea. 

In the art museum, from the viewing gallery, we were looking directly onto the ship - possibly less than 10 meteres.. over the 'wall' - it felt like if we took a running jump we would have covered the gap... however it was not an option and in fact we limped along to the cruise ship entrance.. up an escalator... down several escalators... went down long corridor and back up another one.... went up and down the sectioned off queueing bit for security..... not another passenger in sight... through security , up, down escalator, corridor to finally emerge the other side of the wall! Tedious... just a bit! And, too late for afternoon tea. 

We were worn out but experiencing Istanbul was a joy. I had thought Dr Fred would hate the noise and bustle - hes so not a city person but in fact he had really enjoyed the day out , fully appreciating the splendour and history of the city. Istanbul had worked its magic once again.

We both would have loved another day to explore further - we just were not able to cover enough ground. As the sun went down and we left the harbour the skyline was stunning and I felt quite sad to be going.... I hope we can return one day.... 

Next stop Malta after 2 sea days