Istanbul - A Bruner Family Favorite

The kids loved the little whirling dervishes

Everyone in our family loved Istanbul:  Jeremy's favorite things were the succulent lamb dishes, the crisp winter weather, and the clean and well-maintained city streets.  (He likes red meat, and he doesn't like heat or dirt.)  Talia's favorite things were her own bedroom in our comfy two-bedroom apartment and the view of the Blue Mosque from our window.  Eden's favorite things were walking through centuries of beauty and history - and the food.  My favorite things were the city's gorgeous skyline and scenic waterside setting, the pistachio pastries dripping with honey, and using our apartment kitchen to cook up the catch of the day from the outdoor fish market.

After getting settled into our apartment, one of the first things we did was to wander down to the Galata Bridge to admire the views across the Bosphorus to the Asian side of the city and the views across the Golden Horn, the picturesque inlet to the Bosphorus that forms a natural harbor that has protected merchant ships for centuries.  The older part of the city lies on one side of the Golden Horn, capped by the hilltop Suleymaniye Mosque.  The more modern part of the city lies on the other, marked by the striking cone-capped Galata Tower.  At the foot of the bridge, one finds the fish market, docked boats offering transport and entertainment, and vendors selling roasted chestnuts, fish sandwiches, and amazing little honey-soaked donuts on a toothpick. We returned to the bridge multiple times during our stay in Istanbul - to gaze at the scenery, to watch the crowds of fishermen, and to buy fresh seafood for dinner.  

View of the old city and Suleymaniye Mosque

Galata Tower and the modern part of the city

Looking across the Bosphorus towards Asia

Fulfill all your Turkish nationalist shopping needs!

Another hilltop mosque in old Istanbul

Some of that ended up in our kitchen

Hey little fishie!

As for visiting historical monuments, a natural starting point for us was the Blue Mosque, only a few hundred feet from our apartment.  It's real name is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, but it gets its more popular name from the blue tiles of its interior.  It was built by Ahmed I in the early 17th century, and was a controversial project at the time since there was no war booty to pay for it.  The layered domes and multiple minarets typify the Ottoman style of mosque.  This style took much from Byzantine church design - not surprising, given the important role that Constantinople played in the evolution of Christianity for over 1,000 years.  Part of the fun of roaming around our neighborhood was to catch different views of the Blue Mosque's elaborate domes and soaring minarets.

 

 

 

A bird unexpectedly flies into my umpteenth picture of the Blue Mosque!

The Blue Mosque was built right across from the very building that most influenced its design, the Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofia in Turkish), which served as the cathedral of Constantinople - and the largest church in the world - from the year 360 to 1453, when the Byzantine Empire fell.  The current building was actually the third church constructed on the site and dates to the 6th century.  It was used as a mosque from 1453 until the 1930s, when it was turned into a museum.  Having survived earthquakes, fires and attempts at desecration, it stands today as one of the greatest examples in the world of early Byzantine architecture and is said to have changed the course of Western architecture.  What I found particularly striking was the vastness of the interior and the brilliant golden Byzantine mosaics (which had been covered for centuries with plaster while the building served as a mosque).

 

Topkapi Palace is another first-class sight that was within easy walking distance of our apartment.  The palace was initially the Ottoman seat of government, and it served as the official residence of the Ottoman Sultans for about 400 years (1465-1856), although it lost its importance at the end of the 17th century, when the Sultans started to opt for their new palaces along the Bosphorus.  Inside the Palace, which at its height housed as many as 4,000 people, there was a strict, ceremonial code of conduct to ensure imperial seclusion from the rest of world.  Today, the Palace displays room after room of imperial clothes, weapons, jewels, and miscellaneous trinkets, and there's also an extensive exhibit of some of the holiest Muslim relics in the world.  Jeremy's favorite items were "the largest diamond I've ever seen!" and the Topkapi Dagger, whose golden case is encrusted in precious stones.  For me, the real treat was the opulently tiled interiors, which represent both the height and excess of Ottoman design.

Scenic spot on the way to Topkapi

Just outside Topkapi

Gate of Salutation

View from Topkapi as the rain starts to fall

Rainy view of the Hagia Sophia from Topkapi

In addition to the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, and Topkapi Palace, it was also an easy walk from our apartment to the Grand Bazaar, which was established in the 15th century and is one of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world.  We ran into a couple of smooth-talking carpet salesmen - as Jeremy remarked, "Daddy, that man really wanted to sell us a carpet!" - but all we managed to buy was a couple of cherry sodas.  We also walked to the Basilica Cistern, a creepy underground water storage facility built in the 6th century.  Apparently, they used whatever materials they could find for its construction, including several large Medusa heads taken from a nearby building.  One theory was that they put the heads sideways and upside-down to negate the power of Medusa's gaze; another theory is that they were put this way merely so they were the right size to support the columns above.  Another nearby sight was the Istanbul Archeological Museum, which houses a fabulous collection of ancient Greco-Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, and Middle Eastern art - including one of the best collection of sarcophagi I've ever seen.

Inside the Grand Bazaar

Man selling carpets just outside the Grand Bazaar

The Basilica Cistern

It's a sideways Medusa head!

Sarcophagus detail in the Archeological Museum

In the museum courtyard

Another highlight of our stay in Istanbul was a 2-hour cruise along the Bosphorus.  It was a cold, windy and rocky ride, but extremely scenic - with palaces, castles, villages, mosques, and picturesque wooden houses lining both shores.  In addition to dividing Istanbul (and Turkey for that matter) into European and Asian parts, the Bosphorus is a critical shipping channel that connects the Black Sea to the north with the Sea of Marmara (which in turn connects with the Mediterranean).  Jeremy, Talia and I were all taking pictures up on the sun deck (yes, we have that many cameras!), before huddling into the covered part of the boat below with a friendly contingent of Russian, Brazilian and Italian tourists. 

Two final places in Istanbul are worth an individual mention.  First, there's the Kariye Museum, a small church that was initially built in the 5th century, then converted into a mosque more than a 1,000 years later, and is now a museum.  It contains some fantastic mosaics and paintings, and is considered a treasure of early Byzantine architecture and interior design.  There's a Muslim tomb just outside the museum (on the former mosque grounds) where a companion of the Prophet Mohamed is reportedly buried.  The museum is outside the city center near the old city walls, which we climbed for great views of the Golden Horn.
   

Photo by Talia!

Photo taken from the internet

Photo taken from the internet

Woman at the Muslim tomb

On the old city walls

View of the Golden Horn from the old city walls

In a completely different vein, there's Istiklal Caddesi, an elegant pedestrianized boulevard that forms the heart of modern day Istanbul.  Lined with late 19th-early 20th century buildings, the nearly 2-mile-long boulevard is filled with boutiques, restaurants, cafes, pubs, sweet shops, bookstores, and the like.  It makes for a great long stroll, with an atmospheric old trolley running down the middle of the road.   

Old school restaurant on Istiklal Caddesi

There's some fantastic sightseeing in Istanbul, but a big part of the fun is just walking around and soaking up the atmosphere.  It's a great walking city, with distinct neighborhoods, a lively street life, lovely wooden houses and stone buildings, colorful markets and storefronts, and historical mosques and monuments on seemingly every other corner.  There's also one of the best and easy-to-use public transit systems we've ever encountered - complete with trams, subways, buses, and even two funiculars.  Here are some shots from our wanderings around town:

Mosque interior

Another mosque interior

Friday noontime prayers, which spill out into the streets

Greek Orthodox Patriarchate

Jeremy enjoying his iPod Touch in a park

Inside the Spice Bazaar

Wanna buy a lamp?

Or a belly dancing outfit?

Our elegant neighbor, The Four Seasons Hotel

The infamous "Homework Rebellion" in our apartment

We typically don't end our blog posts with a plug a for a hotel near the airport, but we needed to find a place for a couple of nights after our return from southeastern Turkey, before leaving for India, and we weren't interested in staying in a large corporate hotel.  So, we picked the Yesilkoy Airport Boutique Hotel.  (Thanks for this great find go to Suzanne Allswang, an excellent travel agent and also Eden's mother.)  The hotel is a charming 19th century mansion in Istanbul's Yesilkoy neighborhood.  Even though it's just two miles from the airport, Yesilkoy is a quiet, leafy, elegant and picturesque neighborhood of graceful old mansions and trendy cafes and restaurants, right on the Sea of Marmara.  The owner of the hotel was perhaps a bit biased when he rhetorically asked why anyone would want to stay in the city center, but he did have a point.  Yesilkoy is a delightful area to spend some time and it's an easy subway ride to all the big sights of the city.  As our kids cried out in unison at the Yesilkoy playground overlooking the sea, "We want to stay here all day!"

Yesilkoy Airport Boutique Hotel

Hotel reception

In the Yesilkoy neighborhood

More from Yesilkoy

We want to stay here all day!

We're about halfway through our year-long journey and so far Istanbul is a Bruner Family Journey favorite. I recently asked Jeremy what in particular he liked so much about Istanbul.  He responded:  "Everything!"