Leaving Armenia Part Two: Istanbul

We arrived in Istanbul around 6 am local time and decided to take an airport shuttle to our hostel because we had flown into the airport on the Asian side of the city and our hostel was on the European side. The guide book said that the journey could take up to two hour, but I thought that had to be an overestimation. In the end it took a little over two hours before we got dropped off in the Sultanahmet section of the city. The views driving across the Bosporus Bridge, the main way across between the Asian and European sides of the city were amazing. We arrived at our hostel around 9:30am, but we couldn’t check into our room until 1:30pm so we walked around a bit and got some baklava and ice cream and then relaxed on the hostel’s rooftop patio. By the time we checked into our room I was so exhausted that I took a three hour nap. Later we went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant with an excellent view of the water.


The Bosporus Bridge





After dinner I enjoyed some drinks at the hostel bar with some of our roommates – a brother and sister from Toronto and a guy who is Foreign Service Officer. Around midnight while everyone was getting ready for bed a stray cat made it into our room and hid under the beds. We managed to get it out and next thing we know he is back inside. I had to take my scarf and use it to lure the cat out from under the bed and we shut the door and shut the front door to the hostel. All this time Robby is half asleep in bed wondering what is going on. Somehow the cat managed to sneak in a third time while people are milling in and out. As one of the guys is taking the cat out a third time the guy working at the hostel front desk says we are being too loud and we are like well if you would shut the door we would not be trying to get a stray cat out of our room at midnight!

The next morning after a Turkish breakfast on the hostel patio we went to the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya. The location of our hostel was perfect – really close to all the major sites in Sultanahmet. The Blue Mosque was built between 1609 and 1619. Aya Sofya (Church of Holy Wisdom) was built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian and was completed in 537 AD. It was the grandest church in Christendom until the Conquest of Constantinople in 1453. It was converted into a mosque and the Byzantine mosaics were covers (because Islam prohibits images) and the mosaics were not revealed until the 1930s, when Atatürk declared the site a museum.


The Blue Mosque


Inside The Blue Mosque


Aya Sofya


Inside Aya Sofya

Next we explored the Grand Bazaar, which was not like what I was expecting. In my mind it would be this large outdoor market full of stalls and in reality it was inside and more like a mall made up of tiny little shops.

Hot and exhausted we decided to get some lunch. I enjoyed some pide (Turkish pizza – an oblong crust filled with tomato sauce, peppers, and diced bits of lamb) and a restaurant near our hostel with big couches full of pillows on which to enjoy the shade and easy breeze. We sat at the restaurant for about two hours relaxing with some apple tea and Turkish coffee.

Later in the day we went to the Basilica Cistern, which is an underground water storage area built by Constantine and enlarged by Justinian. There are fish that still live inside the cistern. Then we went on a walk along the waterfront and back to the hostel where we spent the evening enjoying the cool evening breeze off the water. During the day it was hot and sunny with a nice breeze and in the evening it was really cool.


Fish swimming inside the cistern


Medusa head to protect the cistern

The next day we toured Topkapi Palace, which was begun by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1453 and where Ottoman sultans lived until the 19th century.


Part of Topkapi Palace


Tile inside one of the palace rooms



Next we walked to the Galata Bridge that connects Sultanahmet with the Golden Horn. There are restaurants on the bridge and we stopped there for lunch (yummy stuffed mussels!!) before our Bosporus cruise. The cruise up the Bosporus was amazing – sitting on the deck enjoying the breeze, watching the teal blue water. From the boat we saw Dolmabahçe Palace (built between 1843 and 1856 as home for some of the last Ottoman sultans and where Atatürk died in 1938) and Ortaköy Mosque (built between 1854 and 1856 by Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid). It took about an hour-and-a-half to get to the opening of the Bosporus to the Black Sea. Once there we had about an hour to walk around before the return boat left. We stopped for coffee and pastries at a little café. Once we returned from our cruise we had a relaxing dinner near our hostel and a quite night.


On the boat!


Dolmabahçe Palace


Ortaköy Mosque

We spent out last day in Istanbul doing a little window shopping, enjoying the views from the hostel’s terrace, and preparing for our night bus to Selçuk

Next Stop: Selçuk, Ephesus, and Kuşadasi