Architectural jewels, the Ottoman past, a religious ceremony and Europe-Asia hopping: the must-sees and must-dos of Istanbul sums up what was packed into our third day. I also almost got killed on this day and am very lucky to be alive to tell the tale.
Itinerary of the day: Hagia Sophia → Basilica Cistern → Topkapi Palace → Whirling Dervish performance at Galata Mevlevi Lodge → Kadıköy (dinner at Ciya Sofrasi)
On the second day of Kurban Bayramı, most operation hours are back to normal with the exception of the Bazaars. The Grand Bazaar and the Egyptian Bazaar, both tourist favourites, would remain closed for all four days of the holiday, so I left that for the end of the trip.
Yesterday we realized how much of steep competition it was to get into Hagia Sophia, so today we were determined to get an early start and got in line before the gate opened. We were one of the earliest visitors at 8:45AM, but the queue formed fast.
After entering the main gate, visitors who had no tickets still have to buy them. Since we bought the Museum Pass yesterday, we went straight through security check. Hagia Sophia was quite strict with their no tripod policy, and my Gorillapod was confisticated (it would be returned at the exit), even though it's not really a tripod.
I hurried my parents to walk into the nave as soon as we entered, so to stay ahead of the crowd, since most tour groups would spend some time explaining the outer gallery. This strategy was successful and we managed to get an hour of quiet visit.
In the nave, we first see the large, Byzantine style dome, and the round-disks called medallions. On the medallions inscribed Allah, prophet Muhammad, and the names of the first Caliphs.
There were many mosaics and a few frescoes to be found in Hagia Sophia. Some of them were destroyed during the sack of Constantinople, and more by earthquakes. After the conversion of this building into a mosque during the Ottoman period, the Christian imageries were mostly covered in plaster, which later were uncovered and restored.
When we got to the second level, I still couldn't believe how uncrowded it was. The second level galleries boasted some very impressive mosaics and was not to be missed.
From this level we got another view of the nave. The dome structure was Byzantine, but now covered in Islamic calligraphy. The entire left side of the nave was unfortunately under restoration, and took away a lot of the pizazz.
The Hagia Sophia spanned through so many centuries, and the different mosaics added during different time periods provided a great walkthrough of Byzantine art history.
The Empress Zoe Mosaic, dated to 11th century, depicted a Byzantine emperor and his empress offering donations to the church and Christ himself (self-insert, Byzantine style).
100 years later, the Comnenus mosaics. Even though the subject matter didn't change much, the art style had evolved. The faces and anatomy were more natural, and the gradation of colours became more gradual and softer.
Created another century later, dated 13th century, was the famous Deësis mosaic. Although badly damaged, this mosaic was deemed the beginning of Renaissance of Byzantine art because of its life-like depiction of human features and angles. The usage of cooler green tones in skin, 3/4 angles and the flowing hair were not present in the previous mosaics.
There were other interesting things to be found in Hagia Sophia beside Mosaics. One of the railings on the second level had Runic inscriptions left by a Viking. We tend to think Vikings as chaotic looters, but there was a group of mercenaries, called Varangian Guards, working for the Byzantine Empire.
Norsemen called Constantinople at the time "Miklagard" (The Great City), which was mentioned in Ch.106 of the manga Vinland Saga. In the story, the main character and his crew planned to travel to Constantinople from Iceland.
A view seen from a window on the second level galleries.
Hagia Sophia could be enjoyed in a normal pace in about an hour. By 10AM the crowds started to pour in...and we were ready to leave.
Hagia Sophia has been on my bucket list for a while now and I could finally cross it off!
Next we visited Basilica Cistern just across the street. Again, still many people queueing but we didn't have to wait too too long, maybe about 15 minutes.
Basilica Cistern was a large underground water reserve which provided filtrated waters for the palace and surrounding areas above. It was built during Justinian's time and continued to be used in Ottoman times. Even today, it still provided water to Topkapi Palace. The Valens aqueduct we saw yesterday transported the water to be stored here.
This sight was not included in the museum pass, and the admission price was a bit hefty, but still worth a look, especially for photographers. The whole underground area was very dark, so a tripod was required to take good photos. Gorillapod was allowed, but not full-height ones.
Perhaps because a water reserve was not meant to be looked at, the columns for support were taken out from various other ancient buildings and kept that way. Most columns were Doric style, but some were Corinthian. One had this "peacock-eye" carvings over it.
Two had the base of the head of Medusa, which the source was unknown. There are several stories associated with why these medusas were used, but they were most likely used to add height to the columns, hence the different orientations.
Basilica Cistern took half an hour to tour, then we headed to our next stop, Topkapi Palace. Since it was already close to noon, I expected the palace, being the no.1 tourist stop in Istanbul, to be full. I was right.
Topkapi palace (old palace) was the residence of Ottoman Sultans from 15th to the 19th century. It was quite big, so for most part, the crowd was not a huge problem. The exceptions were the "Treasury" and "Harem" sections, which had limited area and could get packed. The Treasury housed small items used in the Ottoman palace which were mostly studded with jewels. It had really long queue, so I opted out since no photography was allowed and I didn't have that much of an interest in jewelries.
The Harem section was surprisingly empty, probably because of the extra admission fee. This admission was included in the Museum Pass though, so it was not a concern for us.
Many had this impression that the harem was a lavish place, but the impression I got was that it felt secluded and small. The queen mother and the princes had their own sections and walkways, while everyone else shared this dorm-like apartment rooms.
The Ottomans had eunuchs mostly brought as slaves from conquered areas. White eunuchs were from Caucasia, Georgia, and Armenia, and black eunuchs were from Egypt, Abyssinia and the Sudan. I've read what's written in the tourist guide that the black eunuchs did not have to cut their penises off since their "evidence" of adultery with the harem women would be evident. Upon further research into this topic, I found out that wasn't really true, and the black eunuchs were still castrated since they would mostly be working at the harem. The white eunuchs which may have part of their genitals intact, were sent to the inner palace and away from women.
After we exited the harem, we looked around the general area of Topkapi Palace. There were explanations of what each of the rooms were, and there were simply too much information to absorb. Unless you are an Ottoman fanatic, I think 2-3 hours would be sufficient for most.
I could hardly remember the explanation of each rooms (which really were either the bedroom or bathroom of a certain sultan or prince, or the meeting room for different advisors), but really enjoyed the elatborate tile decorations.
We rested a bit and ate our packed lunch on an outdoor courtyard in the middle of the palace.
The courtyard had very good views of the other side of the Bosphorus Strait and the Golden Horn. We could see the Galata Tower on the European side, the Maiden's Tower on the Asian side, and the Bosphorus Bridge that connects the two sides.
Don't ever buy from the many street vendors outside of Topkapi Palace, unless you are ok with paying quadruple price. A midye dolma (rice stuffed mussels) here is 2TL each, and when I found the exact same thing on the Asian side, it was only 0.60TL each. The vendor even got very angry at me for not wanting to buy and told us to "leave, get lost". Gosh how I hate Istanbul vendors.
Aside from my complaint about vendors, fresh juice was one of the must-try street food in Turkey! We returned to Birlik Büfe for a second lunch, and tried their 1TL orange juice and 3TL pomegranate juice. Turkey's fruit produce is excellent because of the climate, and fresh juice was so common and readily available.
Even though we just visited Beyoğlu yesterday, we had to return again to watch a Whirling Dervish that only took place on Sunday. There were many options to watch Whirling Dervish on different days of the week, but I was determined to watch it at the most authentic venue, Galata Mevlevihanesi.
When the tram crossed the Galata Bridge, we saw the distinct skyline with the New Mosque, and the atrocious Istanbul traffic at afternoon rush hour.
We took a funicular on the southern side of Istiklal Caddesi, called the Tünel. It is the third-oldest and the shortest metro line in the world. The whole journey was 573 meters and the trip only took 1.5 minutes. While short, many people still rather take this metro than climb the steep hill of the same distance.
A miniature moving model of the funicular in the station, so cute!
Whirling Dervishes at Galata Mevlevihanesi didn't take reservations, and the only way to get a ticket was to buy on the spot. We got there around 3pm and all the tickets for the 5pm slot already sold out! Luckily (or not so luckily), they added an extra show at 6pm so we bought tickets for that.
While we waited, we wandered about the Istiklal Caddesi. We stumbled upon St. Antoine Church. It was tiny compared to the gigantic churches in Catholic countries, but we were surprised to see a church in Istanbul at all.
I decided to head to the nearby Galata Tower to kill some time. I'll never forget this tower, but for all the wrong reasons.
We walked though a nightmare of a tourist-rampant street to get there, only to find that the line to get in was ridiculously long.
We decided to head back, this time through a quieter street. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a metal chair fell on the ground about two metres in front of me. It fell into pieces, and one of the pieces hit the shin of another tourist walking in front of me.
My mom was shocked but she was calm enough to drag me on the opposite side of the street. Some locals walking near us started shouting at the top balcony of a three story-high apartment, where the chair was thrown off from, but that only caused another bookshelf to follow. By that time it felt like there was something shady going on in that balcony, rather than just a careless person disposing of their old possessions.
A metal chair might not sound like such a big deal, but imagine if that fell on my head? Its legs could probably pierce right through my skull? This was also not in some obscure sketchy neighbourhood, this was one block away from Galata Tower which millions of tourist visit!
<Actual Tripadvisor member quotes about Istanbul>
"Istanbul is the safest city on Earth!"
"Istanbul is far safer than any US cities!"
Whatever the Tripadvisor people say with their love affair with Istanbul, this was far from the safest city I've been to. I have given Istanbul the benefit of the doubt, but it kept disappointing me. Yes a chair falling from the sky was an isolated incident. Yes it could happen anywhere. It didn't change the fact that I was always on high alert in this city, guarding my bag and covering myself, and I never felt safe. I might have a very low chance of being held at gunpoint, but there is a reason why "avoid scams/harrassment/safety concern" are common TA forum topics of Istanbul, but not Auckland!
I tend to function and recover fairly well from a scare, so we quickly moved on to enjoy the Whirling Dervishes. This practice originated from one order of Sufism, the Mevlevi Order, found in Konya, Turkey. It is a form of active meditation that through repetitive spinning, one abandons the sense of self and become closer to God. As Sufism is far from the mainstream in Turkey, it was largely banned in Turkey as a religious ritual back in the 20's. Today, the Dervish orders mostly survive through tourism. The Mevlevi Sema Ceremony was proclaimed to be an Intangible Heritage by UNESCO.
In other venues, the Whirling Dervishes were often lumped together with other dances such as Turkish folk dance or belly-dance. At the Galata Mevlevihanesi, the main objective was to share the cultural background of the whirling, so it would be the only dance performed. The setting and acoustic of the building were beautiful, but the seating arrangement was horrible. The audience area was only enough to fit three rows of seat. We sat at the last row and the view was not that great, but at least I could stand up from time to time without blocking other people. Come early to queue to get a good front row seat!
Here's a youtube video of what the performance looked like with an unobstructed view (credit belongs to http://istanbul.for91days.com/). The whole show lasts about 30 minutes, and was just the right length of time. The musicians sits upstairs and I also really enjoyed the vocal and instrumental part of the Sema ceremony.
This was one of my most memorable activities in Istanbul!
For dinner, we hopped on a ferry to the Asian side of the city. Ferry is the heart and blood of Istanbul and no visit here is complete without some form of a ferry ride. I also think a visit to the Asian side of Istanbul adds so much of a positive experience and is the best thing to do in Istanbul, but I will elaborate on that in a later trip report.
The Karaköy terminal was under construction and the entrance was a little bit hard to find. A young women offered to help, even though she didn't speak English at all. I tried my best to recall the world " iskelesi (pier)" and she pointed us to the right direction. She was the first genuinely friendly person (excluding tourism related personnels) we met in Istanbul and it redeemed the city a tiny bit for me.
Istanbul is known for its traffic, so whenever it's convenient to take the ferry, take the ferry! It costs the same as trams and buses, but much more comfortable.
It was already dark by the time we arrived in Kadıköy market, and most stores were closed for the day. The area looked so authentic and interesting compared to Sultanahmet, so I was determined to return on another day.
The restaurant I chose was the well sought-after Ciya Sofrasi, claimed by critics to be one of the top ten in Istanbul. It specialized in Eastern Turkish food that are common in home-cooking.
The ordering process could be a little bit confusing for the first-timers, but the waiters were very patient to explain the process to us. The front part of the restaurant is divided into an appetizer (Mezze) part and a main dish part. After being seated, we went to the appetizer part, pick whatever we wanted, and the plate was weighed and priced. The printed receipt was passed on to a waiter to be summed with the total bill.
I liked the Mezzes a lot more than the mains, to be honest.
At the main dishes' part, we pointed to whatever that looked good and a chef wrote our order on a piece of paper. Then we hand the piece of paper to one of the waiters, and the chosen dishes would be brought to our table.
I couldn't tell the names of any of these dishes! It was a new experience, but my parents and I were all a bit disappointed, because we just did not like the general taste of the food! There were a lot of sour dairy, lamby meat and unfamiliar spices combination. Also many dishes were a bit cold. I don't know if this was what authentic Anatolian food is supposed to taste like, but it was not for us. All that anticipation for this meal, and the end result was quickly forgotten.
We took the recently opened "Mamaray" underwater tunnel subway to cross the Bosphorus and back to our hotel. There were only five stations but they span a large distance. This subway ran later and more frequent than the ferries, so was a good alternative for crossing the strait at late hours.
We pretty much touched all three sides of Istanbul (Old, New, Anatolian) in one day, which I do not recommend, but such is the nature of traveling. Things never turned out the way I anticipated. I was genuinely impressed with what I saw today, but man, Istanbul just won't let me relax!
