Istanbul...

On Galata Bridge

… was awesome! I loved the city; people were friendly, there was loads of public space, it was clean and green, and there were parks and walkways all over the place. I had such a good time there… great friends, great city and three very full days. The travel was probably the worst part – on Wednesday morning I took a bus to Bucharest’s Gara de Nord, and then a short taxi ride to the airport, where I waited for several hours for my TAROM flight to take me to Istanbul. Once there I waited some more; Angela was coming in from Cyprus and arrived a few hours after I did – but no problem! It was great to see her and the airport was great – full of friendly and helpful staff (and about three times the size of Buch’s airport), so even though the 12 hour travel day was a bit long, I was just happy to be there! The return trip was crazy, but I’ll get to that later. Anyways, so Angela and I met at the airport and took a bus to meet Julie and Angel at a metro stop 45 minutes away. Julie’s husband Jeroen is playing in Istanbul on the same team as Angel’s husband Scott; Scott and Steve played together in Greece a few years ago, and Julie played on the National Team (Canadian) and went to university with Steve – there are the connections. So! The four of us took a cab back to “My Town”, the apartment complex that they live in, way on the other side of the city in Asian Istanbul. We caught up, had a glass of wine, and then… sleep; I never knew an air mattress could be so comfortable or conducive to sleep, but I slept like a log (do logs sleep?) – Angela and I had our own large airbeds to sleep on and I was out like a light, only to be awakened by the morning speaker-blasted call to prayer.

On Thursday, Julie, Angela and I made the trek into the city, which involved taking a bus, a metro, a funicular and a tram – average time, one hour. It was a gorgeous day and we saw a ton; the Spice Bazaar, the Grand Bazaar, the New Mosque and the Blue Mosque. The Grand Bazaar was just that – grand. There were characters galore in there, feeding us lines left right and center: “Charlie’s Angels look please come into my store” and “Are you a model?” and “You want to come and buy stuff you don’t need?” and so on. People were so friendly, and though I can’t really say it was a mistake to pay any of these dudes any attention, it might have been. A merchant asked us how we were doing, where we were from and what my name was and I told him – this elicited the following response: “OOooooh so many women in Canada are named Heather I know so many Heathers I have met a hundreds of Heathers from Canada,” and on and on and on and on. Eventually the dude left us alone but we were cautious about not running into him again. (Side note of no importance – he had one of the worst mullets we’d ever seen.) The bazaar was full of scarves and gold and pillows and lights and colours and people people people; there was so much going on! None of us bought anything – perhaps it was too overwhelming… and we were happy to get outside and away from the cat calls. Next, we hit up the Blue and the New mosques, both of which were very impressive. Built between 1609 and 1616, The Blue Mosque is the only mosque (in the world?) built with six minarets, and is so-called because the interior walls are covered with ornate and painstakingly detailed blue tiles. I liked the grounds of the building almost as much as the interior – there was so much clean, well taken care-of public space: fountains, grass, trees, flowers, walkways… I haven’t seen much of any of those things in Romania. On our way to the new mosque, we strolled through another park steepled with three obelisks – all of which looked very, very old.

Some of the ooold old obelisks...

In the courtyard of the Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque

We took the tram to the new mosque (not really so new – built in the 1600s), located right beside the spice bazaar, and with covered, scarved heads and no shoes, took our time inside. The spice bazaar was just as busy as the grand bazaar, but much smaller and way less intimidating; we heard, “Hey, Spice Girls!” more than a few times, but none of the some-new, some-old lines we heard prompted us to spend any of our lira. We did buy some cashews, almonds, and yummy dried fruit at a busy stand at the back that didn’t need any verbal hooks to get us in the store; the display was more than enough.
The New Mosque - it was enormous!

On our way into the Spice Bazaar - you wouldn't know from this picture that it's a lot less hectic than the Grand Bazaar...


Our stand of choice in the Spice Bazaar... yummy!

By 3:30ish we were all pretty much done with the sightseeing, and ready to make the trek home. Julie warned us that it was best to try to get on the bus before the 4:00 sardine-bus-rush, and we made it in time for a few ounces of personal space. (We weren’t so lucky on Saturday… that was interesting.) “My Town” is right across the street from an outdoor mall, equipped with Western stores, coffee shops (Starbucks) and restaurants, and we hit up Num Num’s for dinner. Nummmmm… after over-indulging in a huge cheeseburger (num) we felt we deserved dessert (of course) – and went next door to Go Bongo’s where we ordered: a chocolate lava cake, mango souffle, candied pears and ice cream and deep fried ice cream with chocolate sauce. Seriously! There were five of us… but wow… it was serious dessert. We waddled home and I’m pretty sure I deflated my air mattresses just a bit that night with my over-capacity-full belly.

Eating dessert on Thursday night: Julie, me and Angela

On our boat tour!

Me and Angel - great to see each other after two years!

Friday morning Julie and Jeroen left for Ankara (Jeroen had a match on Saturday night) which left Angel, Angela and I to hit the town once again. The weather was amazing – it must have been near 20 degrees, and it was a perfect day for a boat tour of Istanbul - done and done! It was such a good choice – we saw so much of the city and it was great to be on the water… it was relaxing and beautiful and we got some great pictures. After two hours of that fabulousness, we grabbed some bread from a street vendor and checked out the spice bazaar yet again; we stocked up on nuts and dried fruit, and after stumbling upon a busy deli, decided to grab some things for an at-home Turkish dinner… which was the best decision ever. Moderately loaded up with goods, we walked across the Galata bridge to find the Galata tower, in the Beyoglu district. Built by the Genoese in the 14th Century, it offered amazing views of the city; it was such a perfect day for boat and tower… and by the time we’d come down from the tower’s heights, we were ready to get home, put our feet up and have a beer… and so we did just that. And then… dinner. At the deli we’d bought dolmades, dip, bean stuff, stuffed peppers, cheese and bread, and had, on the way home, bought a roasted chicken and a bottle of wine from the Real (grocery store) across the street. It was such a good meal – they were the best dolmades I’d ever had, and once again we went to sleep full and happy.

The view from the top of Galata Tower was amazing... and such a perfect day!

We woke Saturday to drizzly weather, but were undeterred on day three; we took the train, the metro, the funicular and the tram back to the city to check out Hagia Sofia and Topkapi Palace – both were amazing. Hagia Sofia was a church for 916 years, a mosque for 481 years, and is now a museum; it was purportedly built early in the 4th century, but the current structure is a result of several reconstructions. It was definitely the most memorable part of the trip for me. – besides the 86 karat diamond in Topkapi Palace, and other diamond, jade and ruby studded swords, cups and thrones. Anyways, it was also neat to see some Christian mosaics that are now being carefully uncovered, next to Islamic creeds, and spend some time in one of the most famous and historic buildings in the world.

Hagia Sofia



From there we headed through a gorgeous public park towards Topkapi Palace, the former home of Ottoman and Turkish sultans and their administration (and harems). It was enormous… we spent a good three hours touring the palace and grounds; again, it was gorgeous and green and so well taken care-of. The treasury really made me think of an Ocean’s 11 or plan-the-heist movie, because the treasures in there must be worth an absolute fortune. There was no photography allowed, so the 86 karat Spoonmaker’s diamond flashes only in my memory – or sparkles and blinds. There were daggers and thrones, cups and jugs, helmets and rings, Koran covers and boxes, covered and smothered in jewels – gold, diamond, pearl, jade, ruby… it was insane! The history and the value of so many of those objects just blew us away. And speaking of history and value, Topkapi Palace is also home to Moses’ staff and bits and pieces of the prophet – some of his hair, his fingernails and even a footprint; I’m not so sure how any of this can be known or what proof there could be of whether or not these are the real-deal things but… wow. And, really? Fingernail clippings? Anyways, there was much to be seen, and we saw most of it. After another full day… we made our way home on public transit. However! We failed to leave the city before 4:00 and were sardine-jammed on the 122C from Europe to Asia… it was one of the most uncomfortable bus rides of my life… blech. But! It got us home. We ate at Num Num’s again, had a few beers and, like that, the trip was over. I had a great time, saw a lot, and hung out with some great girls… it was a success! Yay. And since this is nearing epic proportions, I’ll save the rest for later – there is more. For now, let’s just say Istanbul in all of it’s splendour, casts a long shadow over Romania…

Nearing the gates to Topkapi