Istanbul - Part 2

This is part two of our visit to Istanbul. For part one, go here. As in part one, sorry about all the likely slow page load. It was really tough to choose from so many good photos!

On our third day in town, Monica took Diana and me with her to Istanbul's Grand Bazaar so she could pick up a jacket she bought recently. The 550-plus-year-old bazaar is quite...well...grand. They say that its 60 covered streets and over 5000 stores makes it the world's largest indoor market.

Just inside one of the entrances of the Grand Bazaar. Those red-and-yellow flags are for the local football (soccer) team, Galatasaray, which seems every bit as popular as Barça is in Barcelona.

We wandered around for about 45 minutes or so. I think you could pretty much live your entire life inside the market as everything you need could probably be found somewhere in the warren of streets. But, what I was most interested in seeing, believe it or not, was the roof as it was one of the settings in the recent chapter of the James Bond series, Skyfall. You might not remember but Daniel Craig road a motorcycle on the roof (if that link doesn't work, try this one) and inside the market during one of the many great scenes of a great movie.

A section of Istanbul's Grand Bazaar roof:

I was surprisingly excited to see the roof because I remember watching Skyfall and thinking about all the cool places they shot scenes (and I had been too - but that's for another story!). But, it got better...

Monica led us up a dark stairway and down an even darker hall to a locked door where a man with a key appeared. He let us in the door, which led to another dark set of stairs...

...until we emerged into bright daylight and found this view:

Yes, that's the Bosphorus and "downtown" Istanbul beyond. We spent about 30 minutes or so just walking around taking in the views. This is the difference going to place where you know some locals. We probably would have never gotten to enjoy this experience if it wasn't for our fearless tour guide.

Simply amazing! Thanks Monica!!!

If you look closely next to my right arm in the photo above, you'll see a small piece of broken concrete with black marks on it. A closer look shows that it's awesome stencil art of three whirling dervish, which was the closest I got to seeing this Turkish tradition. Maybe next time...

Monica's friend, who met us at the Grand Bazaar, took us to a local sandwich place that she likes. It was literally a hole in the wall where they were making and selling only three items. It was a very In-N-Out style place right down to the red-and-white colors and limited menu. Let's just say the sandwiches were as good as, if not better than, In-N-Out's burgers!

About a block or two farther down the same street, we walked by a store that had a line of about ten people waiting to buy from an open window. The business' name is Kurukavechi and they're a traditional Istanbul coffee roaster. It smelled like what heaven's probably like. We, of course, bought a couple of bags to bring home. It wasn't until I looked at the bag when we got home that I noticed Kurukavechi is ISO certified! Ha! Nothing like a "quality" cup of coffee!

Monica's friend took off and the three of us went to eat Kunefe, which is a dough-and-cheese dessert covered with a sweet, baklava-style, sauce and pistachios. Monica swore that this was one of the best in Istanbul and, based on my limited experience, I couldn't agree more.

Just so you don't think that all we did was eat and drink all day (not that there would be anything wrong with that), here's a photo of our last stop of the day with Monica at the famous Orient Express train station.

The Orient Express was a long-distance, luxury train that ran between Paris and Istanbul for about 100 years up until the 1970s. The reality was that I had heard of the Orient Express but I guess I just assumed it was a story/book/movie/etc. It never occurred to me that it was "real". Silly boy. There were were; it was a real train and it was a real place.

Monica headed home to meet up with the kids but we kept marching on. One of the Istanbul's landmarks is Galata Tower, which overlooks where the Golden Horn meets up with the Bosphorus. We were going to go up but the line was crazy long. Had we not been on the roof of the bazaar to enjoy the views earlier in the day, we would have waited. Instead, content that we had sufficiently enjoyed many great views, we continued on our way.

At one point, I looked up a small side street and saw a bride and groom walking up the hill. The combination of light and dark, the flags, scooters, signs, the bride and groom, all topped off by the tower, was a spectacular sight. I've taken a ton of photos but this, other than being a bit dark along the edges, is one of my new favorites. By the way, if you go to the Wikipedia page for the tower, it has (at the time of this writing) a photo taken from the same spot almost 150 years earlier. Very cool.

We were headed for Taksim square, which you may have heard of. Anytime there's a protest or demonstration of some kind, chances are it's happening there. The first time I was in Istanbul, I stayed nearby but, like I said in Part 1, the weather was horrible and I didn't see much.

We walked up the Istikal Caddessi, which is basically a large outdoor mall these days but I'm guessing it was the central market of sorts back in the day. About half way up, Diana pulled me inside an opening between buildings. There was a plaza or, I guess, courtyard is a better description, and a church. It was important for Diana that we stop together at Sent Antuan (Saint Anthony) for a reason that I'm not allowed to share. If you remember when we're all together sometime, you should ask her.

There was not much going on at Taksim the day we were there and it's not the most scenic place so I'll skip the photos. It was getting pretty late in the afternoon and we wanted to get back to Monica's so we went to the far side of the plaza where there's a bus (well, it's more like one of those airport rental-car shuttle vans) that goes to her neighborhood.

While waiting, I noticed this guy selling coffee out of his car (!!!) for 5 Turkish Lira (~$1.75 U.S.). Now, for Istanbul, that's like Starbucks' pricing but how could I resist? His front passenger seat was reclined and he had a propane-fired coffee maker from which he sells his brew. It wasn't the best coffee I've ever had but it was certainly a good experience and well worth the price.

Diana and I caught our bus about five minutes later but on our way we had one of those "we're-going-the-wrong-way" panic attacks. We stayed on the bus for a few minutes more but decided it was best to get off and try to catch a taxi or something. Well, the second the bus drove away we realized we were doing okay and should have stayed on. Oh well. Live and learn.

With the help of google maps, we were on our way again walking towards Monica's. It ended up being a good thing though as we got to see stuff we wouldn't have seen otherwise including the LOVE sculpture below, which is just like the one near where I grew up in Philadelphia.

For our last day in town, it was off to see the twin wonders: the Hagia Sophia and Sultan Ahmet (or blue) mosques. The Blue Mosque and a happy, world-traveling couple:

Both the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are impressive for their size and beauty but I couldn't help feeling like Hagia Sofia could be the palace on Naboo where Star Wars princess Padme was from:

Oh, and both are big, like really big, inside, especially Hagia Sophia:

Hagia Sophia, like the Chora church we went to a couple of days earlier, used to be a church. The juxtaposition of the (giant) Jesus and Mary frescoes and the (again, giant) Arabic script was awe inspiring. It made me think about how someone who attends services at the mosque today might have attended church services in the same exact location had they been born hundreds of years prior.

The final stop on our Istanbul tour was at the nearby Basilica Cistern, which was originally built to hold water for the church that used to be above it. Again, as with the Grand Bazaar, the Basilica Cistern was the scene of a James Bond film, this time the 1963 From Russia With Love. (I really need to try to write a story about all the Bond locations I've been to...hmm...)

The cistern covers about 100,000 square feet and can hold something like 200 million gallons of water. Yeah, it's big. And lovely, as you can see in the photo above. One of the most interesting things about the cistern are two columns that have Medusa heads for bases. On of them is upside down and the other is sideways but both are curious additions to a surreal environment. The whole thing reminded me of the cenotes near Merida, Mexico, where I lived a bunch of years ago.

With our quick trip almost over, we went back to Monica's to pack our bags. She asked if we wanted some coffee and we said yes. Little did we know that she would take us to a neighborhood place to get some fresh Turkish coffee prepared the traditional way.

Diana checking out the coffee-making process (so she can hopefully repeat it at home):

And so ended our trip. Thanks and a big hug to Monica, Olivier, and the kids for having us at their place for a few days. See you again soon in Barcelona! And then...in France!

Teşekkür ederim and güle güle Istanbul. We'll miss you!