Hora, in blog format

Istanbul (not Constantinople)

This post is a bit late, I was in Istanbul exactly two weekends ago. I was expecting the city to be exotic, and very different from any other place I'd ever been. But it was much more than I expected, there is so much to say about that city, that the best advice I have is to make sure you spend a few days there yourself before you die. Arriving at the airport was an adventure from the start. We had no idea that being Canadian you need to pay 45 Euros for a visa - luckily I had 50 on me. We also had to lineup to get our passports stamped, where an angry Turkish guard was snapping fingers at tourists trying to get them to line up properly. Then before we had a chance to take out some cash from an ATM at the airport we went to look for what bus to take. Turns out that at the Ataturk airport you have to pass through security just to ENTER the airport, so it was a bit of an adventure just getting money. We took a shuttle into the old city (on the European side), passing by a lot of people BBQ-ing on the grass next to the highway and along many old Byzantine and Ottoman ruins. The shuttle dropped us off in the middle of the street, and it took us about two hours to find our hostel. We walked a good few kilometers from the drop off point to the Bahaus hostel, in Sultanahmet.

Sultanahmet, or Blue Mosque - a five minute walk from our hostel
We noticed a lot of cultural differences during that walk. Everyone honks and drives wherever they want, crossing the street has nothing to do with when the lights are green but more with when you're feeling lucky to run across. Almost ALL the people on the street were men, and a large majority of the women we saw walking around were with a man and wearing a headscarf. A very shocking sight is to see a man wearing dress pants and shoes, a nice button up shirt with a tie, sunglasses and spiked up hair walking hand in hand with a woman whose eyes are the only body part you can see. Also, Istanbul was hot - about 22, 23 celsius, every day - and everyone was wearing a lot of clothes. In that weather I was hot in shorts and a tshirt, and the Turks were wearing jeans with a tucked in shirt, plus a jacket on top of that all... Also, there are a TON of stray cats in the city! At first I thought they were all kittens, but they're just small. And they are everywhere, all the time. Our hostel was awesome, on the first night we were there we had a free bellydancing show (add that to the shock value of the culture in the city - up until this belly dancer, the only Turkish women we saw were almost completely covered up), and the hostel had a patio on the roof from where we could see the Bosphorous and the minarets of the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet).

Exploring Istanbul was a lot of fun. The city is absolutely packed, being home to almost 33 million people (Istanbul is the city with the 4th largest population in the whole world - New York is 15th), with buildings crammed everywhere and people and cars squeezing in between them. The streets are filled with vendors of all kinds, there are people selling all sorts of kebabs and donairs, fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, freshly-squeezed juice, corn on the cob, roasted chestnuts, turkish delight, baklava, other candies, coffee, tea, seeds. My favourite street food however was the fried fish: along the harbours and bridges there were people frying fish, which they served to you in a huge loaf of bread, loaded with lettuce, onion, tomatoes and hot peppers, seasoned with salt, pepper and lemon juice. And they took the greatest care in making sure that you got the best fresh ingredients and that the fish has no bones, all for 3 liras (about $2.33 CAD at the current exchange rate). There were also outdoor restaurants, cafes and water-pipe bars everywhere! You could have an amazing meal right next to an old mosque with its minartes reaching towards the sky for under ten Canadian dollars. The bazaars are also a lot of fun, especially the Grand Bazaar. They sell all kinds of stuff there, and it's huge! At first it was a bit unusual having the guys come up to you trying to sell you something, or to quote them: "Hello friend, can I help you spend your money?" But in the end you realize that these guys are awesome - they're all so friendly, the Turks are by far the friendliest strangers in Europe. They are genuinely interested about where you are from, what you're like, how you like Istanbul, whether you've seen this or that. They like to talk to you about anything, one guy was telling us about the music he likes, how he used to listen to classic rock but now as he got older he listens to Mozart and Beethoven, and about how his kids don't like his music. They tell you about other jobs they've had, places you should check out, and all this even if you don't buy anything! When we bought some jeans, we talked to these two guys who were probably a little older than we are about Turkey. They told us how everyone loves Ataturk for separating religion and politics and abolishing shariah law (they really DO love Ataturk - everything is named after him, and there are memorials to him every second block), how the Turkish language is similar to Finnish and Hungarian, how because of the freedom in the country young Iranian women come to Turkey to party. They all speak great English too, some spoke to me even in Romanian.

Turkish couple enjoying a tour of the Bosphorous
Buying something from them is also a lot of fun. You can barter anything, and you're getting ripped off if you pay more than half the price they initially ask for. This one time, I wanted to buy a present for one of my cousins. I asked how much it cost, and he said 75 liras. I said that's too much, he asked me what price I liked and I said 20. He said that's ridiculous, so I said nevermind then and I turned around to walk away. I took three steps and he yelled after me, "You can have it for 30!". It took thirty seconds for him to cut off over half the initial price. By the way, I ended up paying 25 for it. I could keep going about this awesome city, but this is enough for now. Ask me to tell you more when I get back home! Click here if you want to see my Flickr set from Istanbul.