Istanbul
Our hostel in Istanbul wasn’t exactly the nicest place to be spending 4 nights so we chopped it after one night and up graded to a nice place with our own room and bathroom. The hotel and backpackers area in Istanbul isn’t actually that well set up for backpackers, no internet cafes close and zero cheap food options. Basically its just very touristy, but right next to the big attractions of the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia and Topkapi palace.
So yeah our first hostel had 6 beds in the size of a closest and an aircon that leaked. Not so great, although it had a really nice rooftop terrace to smoke shesha and drink beer. When we arrived on the first day we were pretty tired but had a bit of a walk around down to the water and through some back streets, its pretty easy to get away from the touristy areas. We quickly stopped by the grand bizarre- the big huge market which was closing down when we arrived so we just had a quick look in preparation for another big shopping day later on. The other different thing in Turkey is that it actually has opening and closing hours which is a different concept after the middle east where things are pretty much open all the time. We checked out the Blue Mosque on the way back which is a very big and very impressive mosque, its beautiful inside and very ornate, in the evening they have a sound and light show which is free and a nice atmosphere with people selling food and tea where you sit and watch, we managed to watch it in German one night then caught the english version on our last night. It tells the story of the Sultan who built the mosque as a tribute to himself or something.
The main attractions are the Hagia Sofia and the Topkapi palace which we saw both, they were really expensive to see and the Palace was more worth it. Turkey had Sultans right up until the 1920’s or so, so the palace is where they lived which has now been turned into a museum. Its really beautiful and ornate but full of tour groups. I swear people become extra obnoxious in tour groups and barge around ignoring other people and pushing people out of the way. Its very very frustrating. At the palace there was this band performance who marched in in traditional outfits and did this big singing thing, it was really cool but the tourists were unbelievably rude, like the band was marching down the path and all these tourists were pushing amongst them trying to take photos and not getting out of the way, then when they formed a big circle and stopped for a bit all these people were literally hanging over the performers shoulders with their cameras in their faces and even walking right through the middle of the circle, it was too much to watch people be such idiots.
But the rest of the palace as really nice and lots to see. Its very much high season in Istanbul and it seems like there are lots of groups of Europeans who just come for a few nights and probably stay in this one area. The Hagia Sofia is an old church converted into a mosque then into a museum, its pretty big and impressive but they are doing lots of renovations inside including on the main dome so there is heaps of scaffolding everywhere. So it was nice but not really worth the $20 to go inside, they don’t have student prices in Turkey because I guess people just pay whatever to see these things.
One of our best afternoons was spent in another area of the city along this pedestrian only shopping boulevard, no bus loads of tourists and lots of cool cafes and shops, off on these little side streets is heaps of cheap shopping and I brought a few tops, all seconds from major labels for a couple of dollars. Its around 2km long and took us a couple of hours to get right up the other end, where we took the historic tram back to the other end and grabbed some food. Transport is good in the city and there are trams that go along everywhere for cheap. The city is set around the water on 3 different bits so you are always close to the ocean which is nice.
We did spend a decent amount of time at the market doing some shopping, prices are crazily more expensive than Syria and mum would have brought more stuff if we had known, like my shesha pipe I paid about $30 for and they were around $150 in Turkey. So I didn’t really buy much but mum stocked up on presents and things to sell back home. We had worked out that its actually illegal to import shesha pipes into NZ because apparently they are used for drugs-which is crazy really and if you told anyone that is places like Syria and Egypt they would think you were crazy as they are not at all for drugs, they are for tobacco. So we ended up unscrewing my one down to lots of different bits and hiding the tobacco in a tea jar for mum to take home- she just emailed to say that she managed to get it all through OK, so only a little illegal activity!
We also managed to get mum another bag to fit all the stuff she brought into-and all the stuff I am sending her home with! so we just had one more day left in Istanbul before mum would head home and I would continue up to Europe
Tags: TRAVELS 2008, Turkey
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