Unfortunately this post won't be nearly as long as it should be; I'm just a little too busy now to write as long of a post as Istanbul deserves. I'm hanging out with the fam, watching Turkish soap operas, and doing homework due tomorrow, so this will mostly be pictures accompanied by stories. Overall though, as you can imagine, our three days in Istanbul were incredible, especially our last day, a free day to wander around the city. I really do miss it now, and this weekend only strengthened my determination to come back to Istanbul soon, hopefully to work and, at least for a time, live.
We arrived early, at about 7, having taken the overnight train from Ankara (about a 7-8 hour trip), and immediately took the ferry over to Europe:
Gunaydin, Istanbul! As tired as I was, it felt so nice to be back. The rest of the morning, we did the touristy Sultanahmet things. With the execption of Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia- yeah, I use the Turkish spelling now), nothing was really that special. Aya Sofya is truly one of the great buildings of the world, and I can't imagine ever coming to this city without stopping by to wander through for a few hours. Words and pictures truly can't express how incredible it is:
The miraculous dome (it's still not really known how it was built, in the 6th century), still somewhat obscured by scaffolding, as it was last summer. So many of the city's sites (including Sulemaniye Camii, still closed) are under renovation in preparation for the city's being honored ast the European Capital of Culture for 2010. Sounds vague and meaningless, but it is economically (ie tourism), politically (EU?), and socially significant; hopefully I'll be back next summer to see the city in its...cultural capitally magnificence.
After lunch, I took the ferry over to Asia to see my friend Sena, a student at Bogazici University who studied at UNC in the fall of '08. We had a great time, and she showed me some neighborhoods in Asia I hadn't seen before. The Asian side, despite its almost utter lack of historical sites, really is beautiful and the parts on the water are such nice residential areas. I was exhausted returning to Europe, so after a quick dinner I went to bed.The next day, we started with a tour of Dolmabahce Palace, the extravagant Ottoman palace built in European Baroque style in the mid 19th century (1843-1856). Though the claim that this palace was what bankrupted the empire is incorrect, its luxuriant excesses certainly didn't help the faltering empire's finances. It's really beautiful and impressive from the outside, especially its incredible position right on the Bosphorus, but if you've ever seen a European palace, or even a really nice hotel lobby, it's not that amazing.
View from the balcony towards the old city; minarets of Sultanahmet are visible on the horizon.Still, Dolmabahce was a good time. Mostly, I was looking forward to our Bosphorus tour, something we kept meaning to do last summer before we ultimately ran out of time. The trip itself was really fun, but the best part was the end: delicious fish lunch and then a quick hike up to a Byzantine castle to see the view of the Black Sea (first time!). The view of where the Bosphorus opens up into the Black Sea was an incredible site:
Looking south, back toward Istanbul.
God it was so nice up there.
The next day was the best day, our free time to explore the city. I had a bunch of items on my agenda, and my friend Jon tagged along to see my favorite parts of the city. Our first stop was to the doner stand that we used to go to every day last summer. The donercis couldn't believe it when they saw me walking up and were even more surprised when I was able to say more than 'Hey how are you!' in Turkish. It was pretty great. Here's Tuncay and I:
Plus the place is huge now! There's an upstairs dining room and they now have pilav (!!!), a outside drink cooler, fresh ayran, and new awnings. Plus a name; I don't think it was called Eryilmaz Kardesler (Brothers) last summer. I'm really happy for them and I'm pretty sure that our continuous business last summer helped more than a little with their little expansion project. Look how awesome it is now:
Here's Jon, who spent the better part of the day trying to steal all my Turkish friends, with Tuncay:
After our doner stop, we had our failed expedition to Sulemaniye, after which we swung by Kapalicarsi (the Grand Bazaar) on our way to Yeni Camii. Walking through, I decided to stop by Adnan & Hasan's carpet store, the store we visited last summer because Hasan is good friends with Prof. Shields. I was a little unsure of myself, but I'm so glad we stopped by- Hasan is such a great host (gave us tea of course) and told us really interesting stories from his 30-odd years in the Grand Bazaar, including the times when Kofi Annan and Hilary Clinton visited his shop. After a quick stop in the tiny but beautiful Ottoman mosque of Rustempasa, we finally got to Yeni Camii, my favorite mosque in the city:
I could spend all day in this place:
And here's the view from Eminonu (Yeni Camii's neighborhood) across the Golden Horn to Galata:
After Eminonu, we wandered around the tip of the city (Seraglio Point, as it's still orientalistically known I think). Somehow last year we never made it to this part of the old city, even though its about a 20 minute walk from Galata. It's a beautiful setting, and tons of people gather to sit on the rocks or even swim in the water (not really something I'd want to try without a lot of preparation). It was a really nice find:
This is looking north, up the Bosphorus (with Asia on the right and Europe on the left) with Bogazici Bridge prominent in the center.
Finally we wandered back through Sultanahmet, getting a rare view of Aya Sofya from behind:
And at last made our way back through Galata to the hotel:
After a quick doner dinner on Istiklal, we walked around a bit to enjoy our last hours on the city. We found a beautiful little used books and old maps store right on Istiklal (can't believe I never noticed it last year). Most of the stuff was in Turkish, including the old maps, which I loved. I ended up getting an Ottoman world map from 1895- a copy, obviously, but still really cool looking. In talking with the store owner, I also managed to get a discount- he couldn't believe I knew about the Second Balkan War (1913, duh, who doesn't?!) and when I went to pay for the map and some old postcards, gave me about 25% off- a "tarihci indirmi," he told me- historian's discount.Again, it was a great trip, and returning to Ankara was a little hard, especially because this week is going to be pretty grueling: class 6 hours a day every day, and we don't leave for the Mediterranean until next weekend. It's nice to be back with my host family though, and back to delicious Turkish home cooking. Love and miss you all so much, and I can't wait to see you in less than 4 weeks!
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