First things first, we need to buy tokens for the tram system (it's like an above ground subway) which is apparently a popular, efficient, and affordable means of transportation in the city. Once we have them, we go through the turnstiles and look at the map. Of course we think we are going one way so we look at the stops and think we know which train to take. Well we were all sorts of turned around and didn't get on the first train that came because we were so confused. It took my asking one of the security guards/staff there - which way to go. He told us we were in fact facing the right direction and it was only 4 stops away. Great! So we hopped on and took the train to the Aya Sofia, a church turned mosque.
We paid our entrance fee and were bombarded with tour guides trying to get our business. We were offered tours in English, Spanish, French, maybe even other languages. We opted for the audio tour instead - much cheaper, definitely reliable (it's run by the museum itself) and it would be fun. We could split up if we wanted to look at different parts of it, or stay together and listen to tracks at the same time. We spent about 90 minutes in total going through the mosque and listening to the audio guide when prompted by a numbered area. My brain doesn't really do history, so I don't remember a lot of the dates and the emperors and the architecture styles, but I really enjoyed taking pictures of the place because of the beautiful artwork. The calligraphy panels were probably my favorite part of the mosque, just out of sheer beauty and size. They were each 7 meters by 7 meters, which is huge! From far away they look like posters. On the second floor of the mosque, we were able to get a sense of how large the panel was because of its close proximity to the area we were standing in, and also because there was someone working on the restoration of one of the panels (they must do upkeep regularly and today was the day for this one particular panel) so we saw how big the panel was compared to a person! And it was huge! Man do I have an appreciation for the amount of work and measurement and technical skill that go into those puppies.
We left the Aya Sofia to head for the Blue Mosque, another famous and important site in Istanbul. Unfortunately, it was Friday at noon which is the height of prayer time in the Muslim world. So the place was not only packed, but the sign at the entrance said visitors are not welcome during prayer time. Out of respect, we didn't try to fight it or sneak in. I wouldn't appreciate it if I was about to read the Torah in synagogue on a Saturday morning and some people rushed in and said, "Oh don't mind us, we just wanted to take some pictures of the building, but go on, don't stop for us."
Instead we decided to head over to the archaeology museum. Now, we know history isn't exactly my thing, but it is definitely Steven's thing, so I kind of suck it up and know that I'll probably like or learn something from the museum. Turns out I really did enjoy the museum because a lot of what we saw was artwork and sculpture and pottery and statues. Again, I couldn't tell you what era these pieces came from, or if they were influenced by the Greeks or the Romans or the Ottomans or the Byzantine Era (are those the same maybe?) but I enjoyed looking at a lot of the work in the museum. We even saw the bones (and insides - GROSS!) of a king who had been mummified. I guess that preservation process really works!
By the time we were done with the museum around 2pm, we were both ready for lunch. As we left the museum, we were somewhat bombarded with restaurants trying to show off their menus and get us to sit down. Friendly yes, and a bit aggressive too, but very sweet, welcoming, and friendly - this is what we encountered for almost every meal of our trip. We decide on one restaurant which has meat, fish, and vegetarian options. I decide to go more authentic for Turkish food this time than pizza from last night, and go for the veggie kebab! Turns out some of the vegetables really were in some sort of stir fry, which, I was not complaining about; in fact it was the most delicious meal I had there. But only some of the vegetables were actually grilled, including a full eggplant, skinned and cooked, and the meal was served with fries and rice. Delicious! Our bread for the table came with 3 sifferent dips including olive oil, cheese, and a pomegranate syrup that I thought was interesting but Steven really liked it, so much that we asked for another dipping tray! We had such a nice time at the restaurant, and the wait staff kept refilling our waters which was so nice. Treated like royalty! They wanted to know where we were from and what we were doing in Istanbul and what we liked and when we were leaving. It was nice, I have to say, compared to the typical Israelis, who really most of the time couldn't care less! A different experience needless to say.
Despite wanting to go into a food coma, we really had to get back out and do more exploring. On to the Basillica Cistern, an underground water cave that was built may centuries ago. But don't ask me how many; I just know this thing is old. The second we walked down there, I was amazed and in awe and smiling and happy. I had no idea what this thing was going to be or what it would look like, but I was blown away! Tall columns and a huge pool of water - with fish! There was a paved path/platform going over the water for tourists to walk around. Everyone was taking pictures of the stone, the water, the lights, the coloring. It was just marvelous to see. We spent about 30 minutes there before heading out to the gift shop and being touristy suckers for souvenirs.
We began our walk back toward our hotel, not really knowing where we'd end up, but if we could find the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market, we'd try to check 'em out. On our walk, I saw a Starbucks Coffee, and almost had a freakout. Not because it's impossible that it's there, but it was certainly a surprise that it was there, and I also haven't seen one in so long that it just made me smile! Of course, I took a picture. Click happy you could say.
We find our way to the Grand Bazaar which we've heard is a bit of a tourist trip, kind of like the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, and cheap stuff for sale. I think in some ways, all of those descriptions were right. I had no intent really of buying anything there, unless I saw something that really spoke to me, but I wanted to go more for reasons of playing tourist and seeing what it was like, how authentic to Istanbul it was versus shops playing up to the tourists. It was quite a mix. The place was much bigger than Mahane Yehuda and had a lot more in variety of products. Lots of souvenirs, lots of ceramics (which I love!), lots of jewelry, carpets, bags, some clothing. One owner of a carpet store was really intent on getting us to buy a carpet. "We're from America, we have no way of getting it back there, sorry, we're not buying a carpet, but thank you." "Where are you from in America? My wife lives in America - in Arizona." "I'm from NY; he's from LA." "We work with UPS and DHL and we can ship to you no problem." Really buddy, just give up. Not happening. Anyway, it was funny and a good experience.
It really was mostly a tourist trap. I'm sure there are plenty of locals who shop there too, but it's the kind of place where in order to buy anything, you have to haggle with them over the price, and that's just not my thing. Also, I didn't really have all that much space in my bag going back to start buying up souvenirs. So I saved room for just a few special things. I took in the experience of the Grand Bazaar just by being there and walking around, but not dumping money into it. Sorry Istanbul.
After the Grand Bazaar, we decide to venture off and find the Spice Bazaar which apparently is not so far away. We are pointed in the right direction and end up finding another market; we must be in the right place. We find a small store that sells none other than...pomegranate syrup! 12 Lira later and we've got ourselves a Turkish delight! Not that kind of Turkish delight but still, we're very excited. We leave the market and find ourselves out by the water overlooking the Galata Bridge, all the boats out on the water, including 3 that seem to be cooking up some food, putting into "to go" wrappers, and sending it over to shore via some workers doing the handoff. When bigger boats go by farther away, the wake creates these huge waves and the boats are rocking back and forth so much so it looks like they are close to tipping! Somehow, the food does not slide off, no one goes anywhere, all the guys on the boat are just doing their thing. It's a pretty amazing setup they have over there. We watched the fiasco for about 20 minutes and decided to take a little walk over the bridge. There are fisherman almost the entire length of the bridge, despite the fact that it is dark out, so that was surprising. We got across the bridge and found the nearest tram stop to hop on and get back to the hotel. We wanted the free shuttle service to the Fish Market area, which includes live music, or so we were told.
It really was mostly a tourist trap. I'm sure there are plenty of locals who shop there too, but it's the kind of place where in order to buy anything, you have to haggle with them over the price, and that's just not my thing. Also, I didn't really have all that much space in my bag going back to start buying up souvenirs. So I saved room for just a few special things. I took in the experience of the Grand Bazaar just by being there and walking around, but not dumping money into it. Sorry Istanbul.
After the Grand Bazaar, we decide to venture off and find the Spice Bazaar which apparently is not so far away. We are pointed in the right direction and end up finding another market; we must be in the right place. We find a small store that sells none other than...pomegranate syrup! 12 Lira later and we've got ourselves a Turkish delight! Not that kind of Turkish delight but still, we're very excited. We leave the market and find ourselves out by the water overlooking the Galata Bridge, all the boats out on the water, including 3 that seem to be cooking up some food, putting into "to go" wrappers, and sending it over to shore via some workers doing the handoff. When bigger boats go by farther away, the wake creates these huge waves and the boats are rocking back and forth so much so it looks like they are close to tipping! Somehow, the food does not slide off, no one goes anywhere, all the guys on the boat are just doing their thing. It's a pretty amazing setup they have over there. We watched the fiasco for about 20 minutes and decided to take a little walk over the bridge. There are fisherman almost the entire length of the bridge, despite the fact that it is dark out, so that was surprising. We got across the bridge and found the nearest tram stop to hop on and get back to the hotel. We wanted the free shuttle service to the Fish Market area, which includes live music, or so we were told.
We get back to the hotel for a quick change of clothes and to drop off our belongings. The front desk tells us that the wait to "Kalamar" is just a few minutes; he would call the shuttle service. As promised, a few minutes later, our driver arrives and we enter the car. It's almost a mini limousine; I'm not complaining. This is seriously so cool! We get there and a boy around 12 years old greets us outside the limo. We follow him down a small hill and past tables filled with customers at dozens of restaurants. He brings us to the front of the restaurant, where they are expecting us, and show us to our table. Talk about being treated like royalty - again! I think I've seriously been dropped off on another planet. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into in terms of menu and price - this could be a huge wallet dropper, but as it turns out, the menu in this really nice restaurant in this really nice district, is just like the other restaurants in Istanbul so far - affordable!
I'm only going to be in the Fish Market in Istanbul once, so I ordered the salmon, what seemed to be the only fish item on the menu that doesn't come as a whole fish, head included. I just don't play that game. Steven gets the mixed meat plate - who knows what on earth is on that plate. We get a few appetizers/salads to share, the bread they gave us on the table, and it is all more than enough food. Everything again was delicious and the treatment was excellent. They also had a live band at the restaurant, like a mariachi band you'd find back home. But each restaurant here seems to have their own band. It's lively, it's noisy, and I really enjoyed everything about our meal as it comes to a close. Although they wanted us to order dessert (of course, who wouldn't want a customer to do that), we politely told them no thank you. They were happy to call for the shuttle service back to our hotel, but we asked if we could walk around the area for a few minutes before going back. "Take your time, take your time, enjoy." So we did. We took in the sights, listened to all the live music at each restaurant, and returned to get our ride back to the hotel.
I'd say that's a pretty packed schedule for one day, and one that I was still feeling not 100%. Vacations are made for sleeping or sightseeing; I'll take the latter in this case. Not letting a wasted minute go by!
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