Istanbul 2008

I had started feeling sick after the visit to the Cistern. The next morning, chills accompanied my unabating desire for a hot bath and chicken soup. There was no way I was going to give in though, so I dressed, had some tomatoes and bread for breakfast and we discussed with the owner, Abrahaim, where we should go for the day. He insisted that we take a boat tour that stops along both sides of the Bosphorus at several points. This tour takes you to the Black Sea and back and takes an hour and half each way. Sounds good! To our surprise, he asked us if we would like to see something "special" in his basement.

He opened this little door next to the front desk. The smell of damp musty- ness hit my lungs like wet dank wind. It was almost overwhelming as we descended turn after turn of poured concrete steps. unexpectedly, the space opened up into a huge cavernous domed ceiling which was the perfect remains of one of seven, of the most ancient Christian bascilica's in Istanbul. It was breathtaking. Here we were, in Istanbul, looking for ancient history and we were sleeping on top of some of the most historic known in the city. The church has been filled in with dirt so the level that we were standing at was about 12 feet off the original floor. The brick and morter, (which looked like it had just been formed last week), in addition to the traditional domed ceiling and brick arches, were paramount to the new hotels structure/integrity from the last big earthquake that rocked Istanbul 10 years ago. The hotel didn't suffer even a crack in the drywall after the big one.
What a spectacular, lucky day....it was absolutely quiet and I felt a massive energy just sitting there. Thousands of years old, I could almost feel the breath of hundreds of ghostly church patrons on my neck.
That made our trip and we couldn't thank him enough for sharing this with us.

We began to make our way to the ferries again to get on the 10:20 departure up the Bosphorus. The chills were getting worse and I was having trouble finding the energy to be as motivated as I should have been. We stopped by the Serkeci train station-home of "the Orient Express" fame and wandered in and around the free museum and the platforms-which are as active today as they were then. Of was a very quiet morning there and pretty much void of people. Finally I had to tell Tim I needed to get some rest.
I went to bed and everything is hazy for about 12 hours or so. Tim went to the Grand Bazaar while I sweated and slept. It was obvious I had a flu. Later that night, Tim brought me some Freshly made tomato soup and bread which totally set me up for another round of sleeping. I woke at 2 am and my fever had broke. I was euphoric. Later on I found out that Emre, the breakfast waiter had gotten the soup especially for me and at no cost. I thought that was really cool.

Well this leads to our last day. It poured rain like I've haven't seen in along time, packed up our things, said our goodbyes to the staff-who were all so fantastically friendly, and heated up for the insane taxi ride to Taxim, where we would catch our shuttle to the Sabina Gokcen airport.
It's on to Spain!

28 degrees and sunny
Camlica ("Cham-lijahh") is a local favorite as it sits on one of the highest points in Istanbul with breathtaking views of the city from horizon to Black sea to Agean sea to horizon. It's a well manicured park-fairly difficult to get to as it is frequented mostly by locals.
We caught the Ferry at Euskadar (1.40 TYL) and then a local city bus (1.40 YTL) up to the Camilca area, hiked up a steep hillside for twenty minutes then took int he incredible 360 degree view.

We sat on a bench and relaxed for once rehydrating ourselved from a very hot day. On our way back down we decided to walk towards the main street to get some "Cappy" Cherry juice that Tim found at a supermarket a couple days back (he's hooked). we got off a stop before our ferry stop and found a little market area where the women were much more conservatively dressed. I was covered neck to toe but it was apparent to a few older women that I perhaps was not entirely dressed (IE: Where's your headscarf?). I was never made to feel uncomfortable.
The food stalls were like nothing we had ever seen. Fresh fish and meat stalls, vegie and fruit stalls as well as local designer goods. I saw vegetables here that I'll probably never see again!
We made our way back to the Ferry terminal to board the Eminonu ferry back to our district. we hopped on board (literally)---you only have one chance to get it right-defintly not for the "slight of foot"!!
While we happened to be in this area, we stopped by for some more of that Turkish coffee in the Spice Market.
Full of java we headed for the Basilica Cistern-an ancient Roman built chamber that covers about two city blocks, underground. The aquaducts would drain into this huge chamber and would provide water to ancient Constantinople (now Istanbul). We found the upside down Medusa head under one of the Cistern pillars. There is a bunch of stories of why Medusa was placed upside down, let alone at all....but I like the story that tells of the Christians wanting to eradicate all things Pagan....so they placed her head upside down in a symbolic effort to "drown" her every time the Cistern filled with water.

Overcast turned to hot sun and 25 degrees. This morning we woke to the the bellowing of voices again at 5 am. We got up straight away and went for another early morning walk-but this time in the opposite direction. Again, it was nice to see the city void of tourists. We passed several places that we assured ourselves we would vist again....so easily said.
After a bite to eat we headed to the Blue Mosque first as it is closed to visitors during prayer. We were early (8:45) so the line up of visitors was not too bad. We got there just before 5 cruise ships groups arrived....(thank heavans.)
Really beautiful-outstanding architecture. I will be honest though-I was a bit dissapointed by the atmosphere-void of anything sacred with the hustle and shoving of people. Artistically speaking-it was breathtaking, however I was hoping for something more.
Tim, with his amazing patience, accompanied me to the Aya Sophia or Hagia Sophia (mostly recognised in North America by that name). I was really hoping for no let down here as it was one of the main reasons for this visit to Turkey.
No let down. I finally got to see the mosaic of the Empress Zoe with Constantine-up close and personal. I looked at it for awhile. What an awesome experience and spectacular example of history.
Next we tried to locate those quaint coffee shops we had found earlier in the morning-but it was impossible-even with Tim's wizard-like way of remembering where things are in the greater scheme of things.
I dragged him into the the Islamic Museum of Art-even though we both relly needed a break. Exquisite examples of carpets dating back to the 1200's, ceramics. metallurgy, religious calligraphy script and bookbinding.
Starved at this point we walked down to Serkeci (home of the Orient Express train station) we found a hole in the wall place that was famous for thier white beans in sauce (that's as descriptive as the menu got). They were awesome and Tim had his fill. there were pictures of famous Turks eating these beans. We feel so priviledged to be in their company (!)
Full bellies, but tired and cranky we headed home exhausted---but not too exhausted to enjoy a couple of beverages on the terrace with a view of our own lovely old mosque under a full moon, the Zenep Sultan Mosque below.

After last nights amazing introduction to Istanbul and waking up to the call to prayer and The Hagia Sophia outside our wındow this morning-we were chomping at the bit to get going. Hazy, hot and humid we had breakfast on the hotel terrace. Well fed, coffeed and hydrated we set out on foot towards the Galata Bridge, drinking up the sights of the Eminonu ferry termınal and into the Spice Market to glimpse a bit of more to come later that day.
By the stone banks of the ferry termınals, where the Golden Horn meets the Bosphorus, men fıshed, younger well dressed men rushing off to work and younger women clad in designer sunglasses trotted by in heels on the cobblestone streets. I stıll don't know how they do it.
It was great to start our day really early as we saw what life is like before the onslaught of tourists.


By this time it was 30 degrees and we made our way across the bridge, vıa Tim's ınternal compass (ie: NO MAP) through the maze of narrow streets, teeterıng apartment buildings and ancient steps here and there, that webbed up the hillsıde. Finally we turned a corner and there it was. Built in the 1400's, we took the elevator (the circular staircase was being fixed----yıkes!). WOW-what view! 360 degrees of the cıty-a gazillion mosques, and ancient Aquaduct, modern towes that rival any North American city and buıldings half fallen due to a large earthquake some years ago.


Making our way back after sitting ın the Tower park for a bit, we headed into the Spice Market and had some Turkish Coffee-complete wıth bottled water, a couple of chocolate covered Turkısh delights, and a handful of chocolate covered coffee beans....all for $2.50 each (cnd) What a steal. Afterwards we strolled through the various market style booths of spices, figs, dates, sundried tomatoes, fabrics, nuts to cheap watches and cheesy toys. After turns and turns and sayıng NO a bazillion tımes to sales pitches we happened across the maın entrance to the Grand Bazaar....another amazingly large (covered) spread of kıosks of absolutely everthing under the sun.
We headed to the Palace and passed by a cool archeologıcal dıg.
By the time we got back to the hotel we were beat-and because of the jet lag we took a 2 hour nap. Feeling guilty after-we took the tram back across the Galata bridge to Flower Passage on one of the most modern streets ın the cıty. Lots of bars, cafes...alot lıke Robson st. or Yonge st. but no vehıcle traffıc and trıple the people!
The wind picked up really suddenly and lightning flashed across the whole sky---I haven't seen anything like that in a long time-and certainly not that frequent...it lasted for about an hour. Then the rain started.
We got back to the hotel just in time.

The fırst evenıng ın Istanbul. It took a long time for us to get here but the view alone was worth it! The computer connectiom ıs a bıt slow here-so detaıls to follow later. Havıng a great tıme! This picture was taken from our room at the Zeynep Sultan Hotel, which we recommend. Awesome location and great staff.