Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not
Constantinople
Been a long time gone,
Constantinople
Now it's Turkish delight on a
moonlit night
Every gal in Constantinople
Lives in Istanbul, not
Constantinople
So if you've a date in
Constantinople
She'll be waiting in Istanbul
Even old New York was once New
Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can't say
People just liked it better that
way
So take me back to
Constantinople
No, you can't go back to
Constantinople
Been a long time gone,
Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the
works?
That's nobody's business but the
Turks
Don’t believe it for a
second. Istanbul has, miraculously,
managed to hang on to both identities – the ancient and mysterious
Constantinople and the modern, European Istanbul. It’s a fascinating, but crowded and frenetic,
city, worth a short trip.
And that’s what we did. Last week was spring break here so my running
buddy, Dave, and I decided to visit the extraordinary city of Istanbul where
dervishes whirl, muezzins duel from countless minarets, and continents are
crossed several times in a day. (It was
that or stay in Tbilisi and drink. Since
we’ve mastered that skill, we decided to apply our hard won knowledge to other
cities to see if we could drink like the locals there. Spoiler alert – we couldn’t. Not even close.)
Founded in 660 BCE as Byzantium,
modern Istanbul is a city of 14 million people, the second largest city in the
Middle East (behind Cairo) and the third-largest city in the world by
population within city limits (Shanghai, then Lagos). It is a Moslem city, the fourth most populous
Muslim city in the world (Karachi, Dhaka, Cairo, then Istanbul), but it’s easy
to forget you’re in a Muslim city when you’re there. While I’d say a third of the women wear head
scarves, the remainder is dressed very European. There are bars, clubs, cafes, lingerie
stores, liquor stores, and European restaurants on every block. While the muezzins announce prayer calls five
times a day, unlike the Middle East, stores don’t shut their doors and life
doesn’t stop until after prayer time.
Some stores shutter their front doors and one café asked us if we wouldn’t
mind waiting until after prayer time to be served, but for the most part,
religion is transparent in Istanbul, completely unlike other Muslim cities I’ve
visited.
The weather during our stay was
typical spring weather – rainy, chilly, and a bit windy. We had one nice day out of the four we were
there, but no stupid rain shower is going to keep us from doing the tourist
thing. Not a chance. So after a typical Turkish breakfast at the slow
food restaurant next door to our hotel (note the awning), off we went.
There are five absolutely “must
see’s” in Istanbul. They are the Aya
Sofya mosque, the Blue Mosque, the Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar and spice
market, and the Bosporus Strait. There
are, of course, lots of other “minor” sights – the Basilica Cistern, the
Beyazit Mosque, Ortakoy neighborhood, the Galata Tower, and Suleymaniye Mosque –
but if you have limited time or energy, the “must see’s” will quench your
thirst for something Istanbul-ish. We,
of course, being of unlimited energy, common sense, and an unquenchable thirst
for all things Istanbul-ish, saw all of these as well as the top
five. We started with the Bosporus
Strait neighborhood. The Bosporus Strait
(Bosphorus if you’re European; Bosporus is the Turkish pronunciation) bisects Istanbul
and separates the continents of Asia and Europe. It’s about 19 miles long and is one of the
heaviest traveled waterways in the world.
By walking over the Galata Bridge, a distance of maybe 400 meters, you
go from Asia to Europe and vice versa.
The bridge is a haven for fishermen, water and juice carts, and
shoeshine men. Thus began our first
adventure.
Dave decided to take advantage
of the “American only!!” offer of a shoeshine for 5 Turkish lira ($1 = 2.2 TL,
so 5 TL is roughly $2.25). The guy did a
nice job, tucked his shoeshine kit under his arm, smiled at Dave, and held out
his hand for the 5 lira. He must have
worked in a binoculars store for a while, because he sure saw Dave coming. Dave pulls out his cash and peels off bills
looking for a 5 TL bill. When he peels
off a 50 TL bill, the shoeshine guy, obviously related to Usain Bolt, snatched
the 50 lira bill from Dave’s hand and took off into the crowd, shoeshine kit under
his arm. We stood there; paralyzed with
astonishment for about 3 seconds before we took off after him, just long enough
to let him meld into the crowd (I did mention Istanbul has 14 million people,
right? Well, on this day, it seems every
one of that 14 million were between us and the shoeshine guy.). We thought of coming back the next day to
look for the guy, but decided to write off the 50 TL as tuition costs at the
School of Street Smarts. Probably the
best $23 Dave ever spent.
We wandered around the
neighborhood for a while and then after a refreshing cup of salgam (sour turnip juice with a
pickle), we headed to the Grand Bazaar and spice market.
The Grand Bazaar is just
that: grand and bizarre. The Grand Bazaar (GB for our purposes) began
in 1455 and is the heart of Istanbul. It
is huge, with 61 covered streets and over 3,000 shops which attract between
250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily. It’s
surprisingly easy to navigate, though; much easier than Tbilisi’s Dinamo Market
which is a rabbit’s warren of alleys and aisleways. Like products are bunched together – clothes on
this street, gold over there, silk down that way, etc. The only bad thing about the GB is the
aggressiveness of the shop owners. I
learned that the hard way when I noticed a leather jacket. I stopped to look at it and was immediately
accosted by the owner. Even though I said
I was just looking, he managed to convince me to come inside and try the jacket
on. It was a beautiful jacket, made of
Canadian bison, but the price was a bit extreme for me – 1500 TL or about
$700. I tried to leave the store, but
found my way blocked by the owner’s helper.
This gave the owner the chance to drop his price to 1000 TL. Still out of my price range, I smiled
politely and tried to step around the helper in a very narrow shop. He backed up but I still couldn’t get around
him. The price dropped to 500TL ($225),
then to 300 ($135). I would have paid
300 lira for the jacket, but now I was so aggravated (a polite way of saying I
was really pissed), I told the helper to either move or be prepared to get
knocked on his ass. He stepped aside and
I left the store, the owner shadowing me another 200 meters down the street holding
up the jacket and begging me to make him an offer. This sort of aggressive salesmanship is,
unfortunately, the rule rather than the exception in the GB, especially if you’re
an obvious American.
I did, however, run into an
interesting store where I bought some things for Debbie.
Right next to the GB is the spice
market where you can find everything you’d need in the kitchen in unlimited
quantities. The smell is
unbelievable! In a good way, that
is. The salesmen aren’t as pushy here,
but that might be because you don’t haggle in the spice market. The price posted is the price paid. Surprisingly, textiles are a part of the
spice market as well, and you can even take a tour of the soon-to-be world famous
zipper museum (how can it not be?). You
can tell it’s a good store when there are stuffed goats outside.
Day
2 was mosque day. The Aya Sofya mosque
and the Blue Mosque were both less than a five minute walk from our hotel. They’re both very beautiful, but constantly
crowded, and let’s face it, after a while all mosques start to look alike. They are, however, two of those things you have
to see so we spent most of the day dutifully oohing and ahhing at blue tiles,
thick carpets, amazing chandeliers, and hundreds of Japanese tourists taking
pictures.
Day
3 was probably the most fun day we had, mostly because we got away from the
tourist section of Istanbul and walked into the university section, a
neighborhood called Ortakoy across the bridge on the European side. Two highlights here: the seagull phones, and a street where every
stall sells stuffed baked potatoes. That’s
all they sell – stuff baked potatoes and Cokes.
My kind of place.
We
finished the day back at our hotel where we found, to our great joy, a reggae
bar. Yup, a reggae bar in Istanbul. We spent a great afternoon and early evening
there, sipping Turkish beer and talking to the locals. At the table next to us was a group of
Turkish school girls celebrating the 16th birthday of one of their
own. They invited us to our party and we
spent a couple of wonderful hours with what Dave would later label, “Rick’s
harem.” They had obviously dealt with
drunken tourists before because posted over the toilet was very specific
instructions.
So,
that was our week. We spent four great
days in Istanbul, despite the lousy weather.
I strongly recommend it as a tourist stop and offer my service as tour
guide. Especially if you’re interested
in seeing the Reggae Bar. The people are
friendly, they like Americans, prices are reasonable, and there’s plenty to
see. But no swimming in the fountains,
though.
Thanks
for reading.
