Once again, I’m on the road to another distant place in the world. My sister, Milena, and I arrived in Istanbul, Turkey, nearly three days ago, after a gruelling set of flights via Singapore and Dubai.
Some quick history first. The city of Istanbul was named in 1453 by Mehmet II the Conqueror because either he couldn’t pronounce the word Constantinople without bursting into song (who can’t!), or because he was some sort of glorified foot soldier with the title of sultan. I’m sticking with the former. After being controlled by countless empires, such as the Romans, Greeks, Byzantines, Hittites, Assyrians, Ottomans and nearly even the Allied soldiers, surely you can understand how much history there is to be found in this place.
Bisecting the city is a big channel of water known as the Bosphorus, the official separator between European and Asian Turkey. Now that the goverment is so bent on gaining entry into the European Union, the Asian side is more or less neglected. Clearly everybody before the Turks knew this too, since all the attractions are on the West (European) side.
Milena and I have found a quaint little hostel with a roof terrace, in the center of the old city, and has spectacular views of the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and the water. Since the jet lag has affected us quite badly, we’ve been waking up at unruly hours and gone walking through the fog to view the glory of these buildings when they are deserted.
Like many of the mosques in the area, they were converted from churches after the takeover by the Islamic empires in the 13th century. Hagia Sophia, the “Church of the holy wisdom”, is over 1400 years old, but lost it’s wisdom when the Ottomans converted it into a mosque in the 1600s. Regardless, it really is one of the greatest architectural acheivements.
The two mosques are about 300 meters apart, and in between lies a series of green gardens with fountains, and Turkish men selling sweet bread, tea and roasted chestnuts. Nearby is the Topkapi palace, the residence for the Ottoman sultans for centuries. It was created in the 1600s, and was used by such rulers as Mehmet the Conqueror, Selim the Sot, and then someone the Magnificent. It’s huge, unimaginably littered with precious gems, jewels and gifts to the sultans. An interesting fact – all gifts and possesion of the sultan became property of the state once he passed on, whilst those presented to the females were theirs to keep. This means that the palace is very very very wealthy. The harem, or family quarter wasn’t actually the whore house that most people make it out to be, but rather a stylish and elaborate set of rooms with heated tiles and toilets fit for none other than the sultan.
Briefly, we’ve also been to the Grand Bazaar, a huge maze of shuq’s similar to the Arab quarter in the old city of Jerusalem, but on a grand scale like that of the chatachuk markets in Bangkok. Forts and old Byzantine walls line the city outskirts, which are practically unexplored and would make for great life-sized puppet shows.
In a couple of days we’ll be headed to the region of Thrace and the Aegean coast, where the wonders of Troy lie, and the beaches of Gallipoli and Anzac Cove are found.
