After 12 looong weeks of teaching, March 27th finally arrived and so did the beginning of a well-deserved 2 week vacation. I had dropped Snowy off at Alexandra's the night before so I knew she would be well taken care of while I was in Turkey, so I was ready to go. Since I do not teach the last 2 periods on Thursday I was able to request emergency leave and head to Dubai at 1:15 instead of 3:00. I made it to Vanny's by 3:00 and we waited for what seemed like an eternity for a taxi to the airport. We saw multiple taxis drive by without stopping and we wondered what the problem was. We discovered later that it was shift change time so that was why all the taxis were passing without stopping. We finally got a taxi, an airport taxi which are more expensive than regular city taxis, and we arrived with plenty of time before our 6:50 Fly Dubai flight.
The saying "You get what you pay for" is totally true. Fly Dubai is a discount airline and that is definitely evident; everything - baggage, food, pillow, drinks - is an extra charge. Unfortunately I don't have many good things to say about this airline, other than the fact that we arrived safely; which I guess is the most important thing. The seats are small and crammed close together, which is extremely unfortunate for someone with long legs. There was no room at all. Thankfully the middle seat was unoccupied so Vanny took the window seat and I had the aisle seat and the middle seat to sort of stretch my legs. We were seated by a large Indian family, I think they occupied the seats in front of us, behind us, and next to us. They were loud, passing crying babies to each other, and eating curry. It was a rather long, loud, and unpleasant 4 1/2 hours, but we arrived safely and on time. I don't think I'll ever fly Fly Dubai again; well I don't think I'll ever have the opportunity to choose that airline again anyway.
Once at Sabiha Gokcen International Airport, we headed to passport control. I did not have an entry visa and did not know that I needed one; I suppose I should have checked into that before leaving; I did check, I just didn't check to see if I needed to get one on arrival. Vanny had to get a visa before leaving so she was all set. The agent looked through my passport for a visa and didn't find one so he directed me to the visa station so I could enter the country. Fortunately there wasn't a line so I went right up to the counter to find out that they only accept euros or dollars, and of course I only had lira (Turkish currency) and dirhams, and they don't accept cards either. He directed me to an ATM where I could get Dollars. With dollars in hand, I headed back to the visa station so I could get a Turkey visit visa and then make it through passport control to meet Vanny on the other side. After collecting our luggage, we met our transport and headed to the hotel so we could check-in and get some much needed sleep.
Istanbul March 28-29
Our first day in Istanbul dawned chilly, rainy, and overcast. But, after being in the desert we enjoyed the change in weather. Topkapi Inter Istanbul Hotel is located right near a tram station so after putting on our warmer clothes and grabbing our umbrella (thankfully Vanny brought one:), we headed to the tram station. At the tram station we had to figure out how to get a card and how to get where we were headed. Despite being a major place for foreign tourists, everything in Istanbul is pretty much in Turkish so we faced a bit of a language barrier. But, the people are extremely friendly and willing to help, even if they don't know that much English themselves. We had many locals point us in the right direction, or ask someone who knew English to point us in the right direction. We bought our Istanbul kart (tram card) and boarded the right train, with the help of the security guard, to Sultanhamet where we were going to explore Taksim Square.
We got off the train and headed to the Blue Mosque, only to find out that it would be closed until prayer time finished at 2:30. As we were walking around Taksim Square we met a local (this local turned out to be a carpet seller - there are many of them who wander the square trying to get tourists to come to their shop) who directed us to the Basilica Cistern while we were waiting for the mosque to re-open. We bought another umbrella and waited in line, with a bunch of high school aged kids on a field trip, to enter the cistern.
The Basilica Cistern is the largest of hundreds of ancient cisterns that lie beneath Istanbul. The cistern was used to provide water to the Great Palace of Constantinople and Topkapi Palace. It was built to hold 100,000 tons of water, but it is nearly empty now; there is only a few feet of water, with carp swimming around the bottom. The cistern is amazingly beautiful. It is dark, but lit by 336 candles that line each of the marble columns. The water level continually changes due to rain and snow melt. On the day that we were there it was actually "raining" inside. We walked around the cistern for a while before getting our pictures taken in traditional Turkish clothing. The main attractions in the cistern are the Medusa columns. There are 2 of them, one upside down and the other on its side. There are many theories as to why the Medusa columns are placed the way they are, but tradition holds that they were placed that way to negate the power of the Gorgon's (a Greek goddess who could turn those who looked at her to stone). In reality they were probably placed that way because that is the only way they would fit in the cistern. 
Upon leaving the cistern, we were met by the local that took us to the cistern and brought to his carpet shop. Neither of us were really in the market for carpet shopping, but that all changed once we saw what he had to offer. Once inside the shop they offered us some delicious hot apple tea while they lectured about how the carpet is made and showed us the many different pieces they had to offer. They literally unrolled hundreds of different carpets and kept bringing more in for us to inspect. Not only did they show us the carpet, they explained how they were made and showed us how to tell if they were genuine organic carpets instead of fake organic carpets. Evidently there is a huge carpet market in Turkey and it's quite important to know how to tell if it's genuine or fake. After unrolling and displaying hundreds of carpets I settled on a piece that has Turkish symbols on it that I will hang over my sofa (when I get a place and have a sofa) and 3 pillow covers to go on throw pillows for said sofa. Vanny bought a table runner and 2 pillow covers for her mother. I know we didn't buy the expensive pieces that they probably wanted us to buy, but at least we made a purchase. The amazing part was the speed to which they cleaned up the "mess" made by all the carpets. There was one guy re-rolling the carpets and nicely stacking the loose pieces and he was done in under 5 minutes! One minute there were carpets all over the floor and the next they were all neatly put back where they belonged. With purchases in hand we walked back to Taksim Square to the Hagia Sophia. |
| The Hagia Sophia |
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| Inside the Hagia Sophia |
After touring the Hagia Sophia we went back to the Blue Mosque, only to discover that it was closed for prayer again. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, otherwise known as the Blue Mosque, was built in 1616 during the reign of Ahmed I. It is called the Blue Mosque because of the blue tiles that cover the interior walls. Since we could not get inside to see the blue tiles, we just walked around outside and then left to try to find the Grand Bazaar.
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| Small Bazaar |
Our cruise on the Bosphorus River, which divides Istanbul into European and Asian sides, wasn't all that great. The food was good, but that was about it. First of all it was freezing so we couldn't be outside enjoying the view of the city lit up and secondly there was a lot of down time. When we arrived we remained docked for quite some time. There wasn't any entertainment during this time, just light appetizers. Originally I thought we were waiting for all the guests to arrive, but that turned out to be false as no one came on the boat after we did. I'm still not sure why we stayed at the dock for as long as we did. Anyway, after the boat pulled out of the dock we were served dinner and entertained by belly dancing. Real belly dancing. It was quite funny; men came out dressed as bellies and began dancing! After their brief routine the real belly dancer came out. She was quite good and her part of the show lasted about 1/2 an hour before the men came out and performed a traditional Turkish dance. After that the show was over, but the boat ride wasn't. For a long time we remained in the middle of the Bosphorus, not moving at all, just floating around. Now I suppose this would have been lovely if we could have been sitting on the deck enjoying the view, but as I said it was freezing so that was not an option. Music was being played and there was dancing, but as I am not into dancing it was not fun at all. Both Vanny and I would have been happy with just a dinner cruise instead of all the wasted time. Disappointed and tired we went back boarded the bus that would take us back to our hotel so we could warm up and get some rest for day 2 of exploring Istanbul. |
| Inside of the Blue Mosque I suppose you can see the blue tiles on the ceiling |
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| Entrance to the Grand Bazaar |
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| Topkapi Palace |
The Topkapi Palace was the primary residence for the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years. It contains some important Muslim relics, Ottoman jewelry and clothing, and richly decorated carpets. We explored the Palace for a bit, definitely not as long as we should have, but we were cold and tired so we found the nearest train station, grabbed McDonald's for dinner, and headed back to the hotel to turn on the heat and get some rest for our early morning flight to Cappadocia.
And that is the end of the first part of my journey to Turkey!
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