So I had a few days free of vacation, and Turkey was one of the quickest places to go to. So why not? Well, the weather's a bit cold, and rainy. We had a buddy that was coming back from the US on his home trip, and we tried to plan it so we could meet up, and he could just extend his layover by a couple days, and the weekend. Unfortunately, we missed our timing a little bit, and he was a day late.
It wasn't a terrible thing, it gave me and the other guy, Jacob a chance to scope out the place, know where our housing was, and to get a general gist of our surroundings. It was a pretty good spot, kinda in the middle of the nightlife, the main mall street. Best of all, it wasn't incredibly hard to stumble back to in case of getting lost later on.
So we did what any normal person who had been stuck in Saudi Arabia for a while would do. We got a large bottle of scotch (gold label Johnny Walker) checked in, and had a few drinks to warm up for the day. By the time we got settled, the rain had gotten a little better, and the day started warming up. We walked down the main street, the Istiklal cd south until we found something that peaked our interest. In this case, this meant beer bar, and tower. The beer bar, the Eskici Pera just so happened to have a happy hour, and wifi. Oh, and a hilarous boob sign.
Just enough for us to find how to get to the Galata Tower. So the Galata Tower was built back in 1348, 67 meters tall, and was originally built to replace an older one destroyed in a previous war, but with the same purpose. Fire-spotting. We didn't see any fires while we were on top, but got some pretty good pictures of what Istanbul had set for us.
I don't remember exactly what we did that night, I'd imagine something with beer, checking out some of the nightlife (people stayed out till late, even on a weekday) having a beer and a live band.
The next day we decided to take a taxi out to the northern side of the city, near the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge bridge. We got dropped off at the wrong place, so we got an "opportunity" to do a little detour up the pier, which had some large boats, and pretty gorgeous views.
At the end of the walk, we found a higher recommended breakfast spot, with a good view of the Asia side of Istanbul. Was the breakfast good? It wasn't bad, the Turkish Coffee was pretty good, and the sausage was really greasy. Good for a cold day, on the brink of rain (again.) The birds liked it.
Within five minutes of the restaurant was a giant fortress. Nearly no visitors, as the rain was starting to drizzle, but this wouldn't stop us! We weren't going to be come back any time soon, so what's the harm of a little rain. We had discovered the Rumelian Castle. This pretty huge castle sitting on top of the side of a hill, was built back in 1452. It lost its strategic importance once a larger fortress was built closer to the black sea, a couple of hundred years later. It did sink one ship this one time. That's the only history I could find. We did see a big tour ship go by, singing some football chant. The echoing from the castle was pretty neat.
The bridge that you see in the background of the other picture is one of the bridge that separates the Asia side of Istanbul from the European side. We didn't venture over to the Asia side, as there wasn't much to see, it's kinda where people live, and that's really about it. The business side, tourist side, and party side can all be found on the Europe side. Plus you may have to pay to take bridge over. Not worth it in such a short time frame.
After lingering around a little bit, we headed towards a good happy hour, as we waited for Andrew to finally arrive from the airport. We were in the esteemed Ortakoy area of Instanbul, known for beautiful views, good food, and lots of people trying to get you to go into their restaurants/bars. As we walked around the area, people from everywhere were yelling, telling you how great their food was. They must have seen it written on our faces, everyone was telling how great their happy hour was. It's not always a terrible thing to be the kid everyone wants to have in their restaurant. It was pretty fun, some good food and drinks, while we watched the world go by around us. Cats licking themselves, while people sold children birdseed to feed the army of pigeons and some dogs who just tried to keep dry.
It wasn't a terrible thing, it gave me and the other guy, Jacob a chance to scope out the place, know where our housing was, and to get a general gist of our surroundings. It was a pretty good spot, kinda in the middle of the nightlife, the main mall street. Best of all, it wasn't incredibly hard to stumble back to in case of getting lost later on.
So we did what any normal person who had been stuck in Saudi Arabia for a while would do. We got a large bottle of scotch (gold label Johnny Walker) checked in, and had a few drinks to warm up for the day. By the time we got settled, the rain had gotten a little better, and the day started warming up. We walked down the main street, the Istiklal cd south until we found something that peaked our interest. In this case, this meant beer bar, and tower. The beer bar, the Eskici Pera just so happened to have a happy hour, and wifi. Oh, and a hilarous boob sign.
 |
| It makes a good point. I had a beer though. |
Just enough for us to find how to get to the Galata Tower. So the Galata Tower was built back in 1348, 67 meters tall, and was originally built to replace an older one destroyed in a previous war, but with the same purpose. Fire-spotting. We didn't see any fires while we were on top, but got some pretty good pictures of what Istanbul had set for us.
I don't remember exactly what we did that night, I'd imagine something with beer, checking out some of the nightlife (people stayed out till late, even on a weekday) having a beer and a live band.
The next day we decided to take a taxi out to the northern side of the city, near the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge bridge. We got dropped off at the wrong place, so we got an "opportunity" to do a little detour up the pier, which had some large boats, and pretty gorgeous views.
At the end of the walk, we found a higher recommended breakfast spot, with a good view of the Asia side of Istanbul. Was the breakfast good? It wasn't bad, the Turkish Coffee was pretty good, and the sausage was really greasy. Good for a cold day, on the brink of rain (again.) The birds liked it.
Within five minutes of the restaurant was a giant fortress. Nearly no visitors, as the rain was starting to drizzle, but this wouldn't stop us! We weren't going to be come back any time soon, so what's the harm of a little rain. We had discovered the Rumelian Castle. This pretty huge castle sitting on top of the side of a hill, was built back in 1452. It lost its strategic importance once a larger fortress was built closer to the black sea, a couple of hundred years later. It did sink one ship this one time. That's the only history I could find. We did see a big tour ship go by, singing some football chant. The echoing from the castle was pretty neat.
The bridge that you see in the background of the other picture is one of the bridge that separates the Asia side of Istanbul from the European side. We didn't venture over to the Asia side, as there wasn't much to see, it's kinda where people live, and that's really about it. The business side, tourist side, and party side can all be found on the Europe side. Plus you may have to pay to take bridge over. Not worth it in such a short time frame.
After lingering around a little bit, we headed towards a good happy hour, as we waited for Andrew to finally arrive from the airport. We were in the esteemed Ortakoy area of Instanbul, known for beautiful views, good food, and lots of people trying to get you to go into their restaurants/bars. As we walked around the area, people from everywhere were yelling, telling you how great their food was. They must have seen it written on our faces, everyone was telling how great their happy hour was. It's not always a terrible thing to be the kid everyone wants to have in their restaurant. It was pretty fun, some good food and drinks, while we watched the world go by around us. Cats licking themselves, while people sold children birdseed to feed the army of pigeons and some dogs who just tried to keep dry.
We finally met up with Andrew for the night, got him caught up with what he missed, and went somewhere fun for dinner. It was very similar to what we eat in Saudi, mixed grill and kebobs, but it was good. Despite the look on Jacob's face, it was a nice way to end the night. We hit the nightlife again, but I went to bed a little early, the weather was starting to catch up with me.
We finally had all members to do our whirlwind 6 stop tourist trip in Istanbul. We had some confusion regarding pickup, going from "we'll pick you up," to "no, you need to be at the pickup spot, a kilometer away, hurry up you're late." Not good for the guys who decided to partied hard last night, and may have been a bit hungover. Ok, a lot hung over. Not a tour for the weary for sure.
So the itinerary:
Blue Mosque (Closed, boo!) Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace, the Hippodrome, the sunken palace of Basilica Cistern and the dazzling Grand Bazaar.
Each of the places had their own unique parts, the view of the Blue Mosque was pretty amazing, so I was glad we were able to see it, at least from the outside. The Topkapi palace was the home of the Sultans for about 400 years, decorated as you'd expect for a king. The Hippodrome was the sports area of the town, build way back in the 300's. The Cistern was exactly like it sounded, an underground Cistern, where water was collected way back in the day. It was neat to see some Medusa statues. All were pretty neat, honestly nothing too mind-blowing. For me it was too cold, rainy and bleary outside to really grasp how amazing these buildings were.
The one highlight (surprise, we were inside) was the Hagia Sophia. At least for me. The Hagia Sophia had a pretty remarkable past. It was created in 537 as a Orthodox Christian Church, converted to a Catholic church from 1204 to 1261, back to Orthodox until l453, and then converted to a mosque from 1453 until 1931, where it was converted to a museum. What I found really interesting about this building, aside from the fact that it was ridiculously big, was the fact that efforts were being made to restore the paintings that were covered over when it was converted to a Mosque. What was the result became a rich mixture of both Christian and Muslim symbols. Maybe to me it was a symbol that maybe we can all get along. Maybe it was the fact that I was dry for the first time all day. In either case, it's a breath-taking place that if you ever get the chance to see, you must.
The grand bazaar was pretty big, but we were veterans, nothing there that we couldn't have haggled anywhere else in the world. Plus at this point the guys were starting to fatigue. The van dropped us back off near the apartment, and we headed back to the house for a well deserved nap, I was personally impressed the guys were able to hang on that long.
We woke up for dinner to go to one of the "cool places" to eat in Istanbul, the 360 restaurant. Upscale, really high up in a building, fancy looking mashed potato spirals and weird acrobatic dance shows. I was very lost in the ambiance. Posh, with a hint of circus. Anyways, the food was edible, we were able to see how the fancy folk spent their time, and we headed out to the less fancy bar scene that we had been hanging out at. Much more our style, and cheaper too.
Istanbul appears to have quite a bit of potential. There were so many places that could have been green if it wanted to be. It did not have the stereotypical "really nice on the outside, but poorly executed" that I've come to expect from the middle east style of living. I'll have to come back when it's a little less cold to truly give an opinion of Istanbul, but overall it was a definitely worth the 3 day excursion.
http://hudang6234.smugmug.com/Europe/3-Dec-14-Turkey
