During our first three days in Istanbul we had walked well over 40km, we were in dire need of a rest. Luckily, having to foresight to hire an apartment instead of a hotel room we had plenty of room to relax in. So one entire day was spent napping around, playing cards on the balcony and only venturing out to get some supplies from the shop. We also popped over to Forno, a local restaurant famous for their Pides. Life was good.
The next morning it was overcast and drizzly, so we got the tramway as far as we could, rather than walking all the way to Sultanahmet square. This worked out for the best as we soon discovered that the worn soles on Bens trainers did not mix well with the damp stone streets, although I found his occasional slides amusing I could tell he didn't, he was quite vocal about it in fact. Eventually we got to the square where the Hagia Sophia sits and it was time to join the queue, after getting some local treats to snack on.
Built in the 6th century, commissioned by Roman Emperor Justinian I, the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (Ayasofya in Turkish) started off as a church and was happily a church for around 900 years. Considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture, when Constantinople (to clear up confusion please click here) fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, Mehmed the conqueror decided to make it Istanbuls principle mosque instead of destroying it. He of course had the christian iconography plastered over, replaced with Islamic designs. Few other changes were made over the years, with buttresses added to help keep the original building standing whilst having the benefit of making it appear more mosque like. In 1931 the building was shut to visitors until it reopened as a museum in 1935, during this time prayer was not allowed inside the building. In 2020 it all changed again and the Ayasofya once again was reinstated as a mosque.
We queued for well over an hour before it was our turn to get in, it's free to enter and almost everyone who visits Istanbul pops by. To say the least, it was rather impressive. Soft light trickled through windows far overhead, the low chandeliers added a golden glow that highlighted the ornate arches, the cavernously high dome a feat of engineering, drawing the eye to the painstakingly detailed script written in its center. I just didn’t get the sense of awe I was expecting. Although it was prayer time and the call to prayer echoed through the mosque and city beyond, it didn’t feel spiritual to me. Maybe it was the hubbub of tourists, all gathered behind a rope, waiting to be let into the middle as soon as they were allowed. Maybe it was some of the men who were allowed into this area for “prayer” who were doing silly yoga poses for pictures, while the devout prayed quietly against one wall. The much smaller dimly lit Ladies room had a much different feel to it, I could feel the hush in the air and I didn’t venture in for fear of disturbing it.
Still up for more mosque visits, we headed over to the Sultan Ahmet Camisi (Blue Mosque), the direct rival to the Ayasofya that sits just across the square. After a crushing defeat against Persia in the early 17th century, Sultan Ahmed I decided to raise moral by building a large mosque to reassert ottoman power. Why he built it straight across from the Hagia Sofia was simple, it was the site of the former Byzantine Palace, and he wanted to build a mosque to rival the Ayasofya, a double snub to the long fallen Byzantine empire.
The queue to get in was only 5 minutes long, leading us through a metal tunnel into the mosque. Unfortunately for us, it was in the process of being restored. I mean, the clues were there, the lack of queue, the scaffolding covering the outside. What we could see looked very intricately decorated, but we really couldn't see much at all. The crush (I would call it a queue but it was far from anything organised) to get out of the mosque was at least double the time it took to enter. When we come back to Istanbul, I want to give the blue mosque another go, I’m sure once it’s been restored it’ll be lovely, but for right now I’d give it a miss. So for now, the Hagia Sophia wins in the category of best mosque on Sultanahmet Square.
We finished up our whirlwind tour of the SultanAhmet area of Istanbul with Topkapi Palace. A large sprawling palace overlooking the Marmara Sea, Topkapi was built in 1459 by Mehmed the conqueror and for two centuries it was home to Turkey's Sultans and their Harems. Even when the Sultans left Topkapi for their newly built palaces along the Bosphorus the royal mint, treasury, and library at Topkapi still remained in use. At the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, the palace was turned into a museum. Now only tourists walk the halls, taking pictures of the intricately tiled rooms, while listening to a semi-informative audioguide. Although there are hundreds of rooms that make up Topkapi Palace, only the ones deemed most important have been opened up to visitors. Why is it that it's always the off limit rooms that are the most intriguing?
On our last day in Istanbul we took it easy, we’d seen all the places we’d set out to see. There were so many more places we could have visited, neighbourhoods and new archeological finds, but we wanted to leave something to come back to, as we was sure we’d come again. So instead of heading out on another cultural or historical expedition, we set out on the search for falafel.
We found it at Buuzecedi Restoran, located by the Hirka-i Serif Mosque, on a street without another tourist in sight. The place was so popular there was a constant 10 minute wait for a table. The decoration was charming, the table settings less so, just a thin plastic sheet that is replaced after every meal. But the food, the food was amazing. A bit confused about what exactly to order, our helpful waiter took over and ordered us up a feast. There was falafel - of course - and humus, then a yoghurt, tahini dip that was delightful. The oddest, and in my opinion, best thing we were presented was Fette, flatbread softened in tahini, yogurt, aubergine, spices with a topping of various nuts. Not only was it something completely new to us, it was delicious and came in a gigantic bowl. To round off this meal we was given a packet of wraps to eat it with. We waddled out of there, and our feast coming to no more than £5.
To walk off our dinner we went to hunt down our favourite tea garden (Cay bahce). We’d stumbled across one, earlier in the week and we’d been searching for it in vain ever since. There were tea houses a plenty, and of course we visited them too, but there’s something special about a tea garden, especially one tucked away in a fallen down house in a city. Tea gardens are a traditional part of Turkish life, somewhere to sit and play cards, catch up with friends, all while getting a small glass of tea for under 5TL. We fell in love with the concept while we stayed in Turunc, South Turkey, for 3 months in 2020, often spending an hour a day sat under the eycaplitus trees playing cards.
Somehow, we found it. It was just as wonderful the second time, a little slice of traditional village life secreted away in the biggest city in Europe. We’ve marked it on the MapsMe App now, near Gül Cami in Fener, so if you’re in the area go in and ask for a tea (in Turkish, they don't get many tourists).
That concludes our Istanbul adventure, the taxi to the airport went smoothly and would make for a boring read.
If you're feeling a bit let down by the lack of (promised) cats in the last blog here's a photo of a street cat that moved in with us for the week...
Next stop, Jakarta Indonesia.
Trip date : Oct 2022
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