Toto, we’re not in Rome
anymore.
The minute I arrived in
Istanbul, I could tell I was in for a city experience unlike anything I had
encountered abroad. As I rode the bus from the airport to Taksim Square to meet
up with my friends, the kooks, Gina and Emma, minarets and mosques popped up
everywhere…smooshed into small neighborhoods, crammed between industrial
buildings, and perched on top of hills among dense construction. The bus (barely) made its way through
the tight streets of the city and dropped us off in the middle of a large
square packed with people. I made
my way down Istiklal, a large pedestrian street, trekking along behind a
friendly soccer riot, taking in the unusual and exotic smells of unfamiliar
(mostly unidentifiable) food from the shops and vendors along the way.
After finding each other
along the crowded street—you haven’t really seen a crowded street until you’re
in a city of over 13 million people (…NYC is 8)—we dropped my bags at the
hostel and set out to meet up with Neil Korostoff, one of the Penn State
landscape architecture teachers who was finishing up a year of research abroad
in Istanbul. Standing on the
bridge that spans the Golden Horn, the bay of Istanbul, Professor Korostoff
opened up a huge map of the city and pointed out the must-see’s, must-do’s,
and, most importantly, the must-eat’s for our week in Istanbul. He handed us a stack of guide books and
maps and took us for our first ferry ride across the Bosphorus Strait to the
section of Istanbul that is technically in Asia. We explored the street markets that were selling mountains
of spices, piles of fruit, and freaky, warty fish, while Prof. Korostoff gave
us the lowdown on how to use public transportation, basic Turkish phrases, and
Istanbul history.
Walking around Istanbul is
a sensory overload. We woke up each morning to music playing from the
neighboring instrument shops that surrounded our hostel, and five times a day
the call to prayer resonates across the city from all the mosques, echoing
through the streets, reminding you that you’re in Istanbul, incase you forgot.
Gina and Emma, like me, are total ‘foodies’, so eating easily became a central
focus of our trip. Our hostel served a traditional Turkish breakfast every
morning: strawberries, feta, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, bread, honey, and a
hard-boiled egg. Between sites and activities we tasted anything that looked
unusual or smelled interesting, so, like, everything we saw: kebabs, falafel,
honey-saturated fried donuts, a buffet of food and a bucket of bread,
mysterious, spicy burritos, pistachio coffee. We devoured fish sandwiches from
the carts along the river (twice),
ate our weight in baklava, and succeeded in our search for the legendary ‘wet
hamburgers’.
On our first full day, we
walked through the city to the historical center to see the Hagia Sophia,
originally built in 360 as Constantine’s first Christian church in the West,
and the famous Sultan Ahmed Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque, a massive
mosque covered in elaborate patterns and mosaics. I was completely blow away by the immense size of both
buildings, and the proportions were so unlike any space I had ever experienced.
We grabbed kebabs for lunch, strolled through the Grand Bazaar, and visited the
Basilica Cistern, an underground water storage basin that was once used to
supply water to the surrounding palaces and pools. We hopped a tram to the Suleymaniye Mosque at the top of one
of the city hills where we got a great view over the city and harbor and
devoured a bag of sour green plums that we bought from a fruit stand.
We spent a half of a day
exploring the Topkapi Palace, a massive palace and garden complex which was
once home to the Sultan and his 4000 attendants and royalty, and visited the
Harem, the private suite of the Sultan where he carried out both his business
and personal life. The rooms were
covered, floor to ceiling, in elaborate painted tiles and adorned with ornate
lanterns and furniture.
In Istanbul, people live
on the streets around the clock—playing music, eating and drinking, talking to
neighbors—and at night the city comes alive. We ended almost every day under
the Gallatta Tower (with a few beers and a box of baklava) where the open
square was covered with people sitting on the ground, singing along to their
friends’ guitars, cheering on street performers, and just hanging out with each
other.
Although we managed to
visit most of the main tourist sites and experience some of the local hang outs
and restaurants, I know there is sooo much left to discover. I’m already itching to go back…who’s coming
with me?
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| Sunset over the Bosphorus from the ferry |
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| Inside the Hagia Sophia |
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| Inside the Sultan Ahmed Mosque |
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| Basilica Cistern |
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| Suleymaniye Mosque |
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| The decorated ceiling of the New Mosque |
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| View of the city and harbor from the Suleymaniye Mosque |
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| Topkapi Palace Building |
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| Decorated dome inside the Topkapi Palace |
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| View of the Gallatta Tower from the water |
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| Fresh squeezed orange juice and pineapple slices |
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| Fish sandwich cart by the water |
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| The nightly Gallatta Tower hang-out |
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| Topkapi Palace and a full moon |
