Istanbul

My first impressions of Istanbul weren’t particularly the greatest as I felt that it was very westernised, expensive and nothing like people talked it up to be. However, we only spent 1.5 days here as part of our tour and it wasn’t until we explored Istanbul on our own for 2 days after the tour that I fell in love with the place. Toma on the other hand fell in love straight away and was persistent in telling me that our last few days would change my mind- she was spot on!

Where we stayed was very backpacker central and the Turkish are able to make a buck charging travellers for expensive meals and creating some sort of holiday destination. It wasn’t until we did as we always try to do- live like the locals- that we were able to explore what the city had to offer. Thus, it left us wishing we had booked more days in Istanbul at the end, as we definitely didn’t feel like we had seen it all.

We come from Australia (7, 741, 220km2), a country with a population of approximately 22 million people and our population density is roughly 3 people per km2. Turkey has an area of 783, 562km2 with 70 million inhabiting the land, but wait- in Istanbul (1, 831 km2) alone there are 20 million people, not including tourists. Spread this vast population out and thier density is roughly 94 people per km2. That is one hell of a lot of people to cram in so you can imagine just how busy  the streets were. There is so much to do and see in Istanbul that we can’t explain it all otherwise we would have to write a novel so here is a few brief points about each place we visited whilst here:

Blue Mosque: Built in the early 1600’s by Sultan Ahmet 1 with the intention of rivaling Aya Sofya  it’s nickname comes from the luminous blue impression created by the magnificently tiled walls and painted dome inside. It does have beauty to it and definitely something you should see but not as good as Aya Sofya.

Topkapi Palace: This is where the Sultan’s used to live. It is massive, comprising of 400+ rooms and you can’t help but wish you lived there, even as a slave, back in those days. Although, the most spectacular exhibit there are the jewels that they keep on tight-lock security. All I can say is WOW! It is insane how people have this much money and feel the need to have these kinds of possessions. No photos though guys its simply not allowed!

Grand Bazaar and Spice Market: Everyone raves about the Grand Bazaar however we seemed to have enjoyed the spice market much better. There was even a super happy bonus for us as we saw the new James Bond being filmed as well as all the smashed up cars from a scene.

Underground Water system
Built due to the threat of a war this water system was made to store enough water to supply the town. Upside down Medusa heads where placed near main entrances to scare off any intruders as it was thought that if you saw this you would turn to stone. Pretty cool thing to see.

Boat tour between Asia and Europe
You can definitely do this on your own by getting the ferry over to Asia and explore what it has to offer yourself. This is something we didn’t quite get to do. One night though we did go out in Asia (felt so weird to say we went out in Asia and slept in Europe) and it was so fun. We never went back though as we ran out of time so we highly recommend this.

Aya Sofya: Now a museum, Aya Sofya was built in 532 AD as the ‘grandest church’ in the world then in 1453 it became a mosque and as Islam prohibits images of living creatures the walls were covered. For years after there were arguments regarding whether it was a Church or mosque and it wasn’t until the 1930’s that Turkey’s ‘greatest leader’ Ataturk turned it into a museum. It is really beautiful and moving to see a mixture of two religions within one building. We don’t know if it was just because it was our last day and sight seeing but this was one of our favourites here.