FourSquare Map of Istanbul Stops

Today was all about Istanbul tourist attractions. I began the day with an email from the State Department stating that they had blocked nonessential travel for government employees in Turkey because of the heightened risk of terror attacks at major tourist destinations in the wake of the coup. …and with that I headed out to hit them all.

The first stop was Taksim Square. On its own, not very interesting. I found it interesting, however, because this is where all of the major political rallies are and in the wake of last weekends coup attempt there has been one just about every evening.

You probably cant read it in these photos but the banner says something that roughly translates to “Nationality is Supreme” or “The Nation is Supreme.” My vague understanding is that this is kind of a Turkish “slogan” and means that the people are their own rulers… more benign than it sounds. These signs have sprung up everywhere since the coup. Like… suspiciously fast.

From here I walked down Istiklal Cadessi which is a major street/pedestrian mall/tourist trap. Not that interesting, just a lot of shops and cafes. What you’d expect.

Off of this street is Galata Tower which is such a tourist trap that it could almost be a caricature of a tourist trap. That being said, the view of the city from the top is gorgeous (although you’ll pay to go up there) and the tower itself is beautiful as well.

From here I walked over to the more historic part of town which was insanely packed. For some perspective, Istanbul proper is about twice the size of New York City which makes it something like 30x the size of Denver. This is not including suburbs. I walked over to the Spice Bazaar (which I had originally planned on skipping altogether) and was totally blown away by the place. It was a total sensory overload; the variety of aromas, colors and languages being spoken was awesome. The whole thing was basically exactly like you might picture it.

Having been sufficiently impressed by the Spice Bazaar I decided to walk over to the Grand Bazaar and see how that stacked up. The history behind the place and the sheer size… something like 65 streets with 4,000 vendors and about 500 (?) years old was amazing. While it was very cool, I didn’t think it was as neat as the Spice Bazaar.

Intellectualy, I knew that vendors in both these places had a reputation for being aggressive but I had no idea what that really meant. It turns out everyone here has an uncle, or a cousin or a brother who lives in Denver… I mean, what are the freakin’ odds!? By the time I recaptured my bearings enough to know what was going on I was sitting in the back of a Turkish rug store with some guys having tea and negotiating the price of some rugs that I had no intention of buying. After I got over the novelty of it all, I finally recovered enough to make my escape which I also learned is literally impossible short of just standing up and walking off while you’re talking.

From here I managed to get back on my planned schedule and head over to the Basilica Cistern. At this point I had walked about ten miles so simply being in a cool, dark environment was a huge relief. This was probably the coolest thing that I saw in Istanbul, though. The space is something like 100 x 140 meters and is supported by over 100 columns. It’s dark and they play music very softly around the space. The whole thing is extremely relaxing. Or at least it would be if they scrapped the guys in the corner trying to sell pictures. It’s so dark that my pictures didn’t really come out but take my word for it – awesome stop.

After this I headed over to the biggest attractions and hit the Hagia Sophia. The evolution of this place is interesting, starting out as a Christian basilica it was converted to a mosque and is now a museum. While it was an impressive space I was a little underwhelmed having just come from the Cistern. It’s also undergoing renovations so some of the grandeur is lost. …although the scope of the scaffolding they have up is impressive in its own right.

Now completely exhausted, hot and tired I was too tired to look for lunch so I just defaulted to the closest, safest option I could find. The Four Seasons. I had a great four course lunch that probably would have run me $150 in Denver and (as recent experience taught me) $500 in Geneva. In Istanbul, though, $60. After some time to rejuvenate and re-hydrate in their quiet courtyard it was back out into the crowds and heat to finish the last two major tourist stops.

Across from Hagia Sophia is the Blue Mosque. Believe it or not, I had never been in a Mosque before so that in itself was a very interesting experience. Cooler than either the Hagia Sofia or the Blue Mosque, though, was the afternoon call to prayer. This happened right as I was crossing the square between the two and the call and response between the two places over the loudspeakers was pretty impressive.

Seriously flagging at this point, I managed to walk over to the last major tourist attraction –  the Topkapi Palace. The palace itself is very pretty but the best part of it was the views of the rest of the city.

Now exhausted, I took a cab back to the hotel to rest. Later in the evening I managed to venture out to a local restaurant, Mahir Lokantasi, for dinner. The staff didn’t speak English nor could I read the menu so they just brought me some lamb, cheese pita thing that was excellent. And that put a cap in an all around exhausting day.