The Heather Jones Bucket List: New Thing #86 - Balkans Trip

June 25, 2015

I didn't sleep well in yet another foreign bed, but you kind of get used to it after awhile. Sort of. At least the "free" meal from our hostel made up for it. I say free, because we technically pay for it with our room rate, but at least it wasn't an extra cost. AND, it was probably the best hostel breakfast we've ever had. Fresh fruits and veggies, olives, cheeses, breads, jams, eggs, you name it. It was so nice not to have boxed cereal and canned fruit cocktail or just another pastry. I don't think my body knew how to handle all the fresh food!

Round 1!

Megan's parents had arranged a day trip for us around Istanbul with a tour guide they had used the last time they were in Turkey. This guide, Dalim, picked us up in our own air conditioned van with our private driver, Jim. Cold water bottles and hand sanitizer rounded out the amenities for the day.

Stop #1 - Topkapi Palace, or one of the major palaces of residence for Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years. And I thought my 115 year old house was impressive.... Dalim was incredibly knowledgeable about the palace, the grounds and the dozens of unique buildings sprinkled throughout. We spent a great deal of time exploring the area, and while I took a billion photos, I sadly don't remember much of what Dalim told us about it. Sorry, you'll have to Google it for more information.

The gardens around the palace grounds.

The Bosphorous Straight to the left that runs between the European side of Istanbul and the Asian (Anatolia) side (straight ahead). The Strait leads in to the Sea of Marmara (further right)

The Sultans picked a great view for their house!

Out to the Sea of Marmara

Column of the Goths

Great morning for a stroll through the gardens.

I feel like this bear was going to try to steal my soul.

Burial ground of sorts for old stones. Kind of sad.

The palace entrance. I wonder of Walt Disney got his inspiration for his princess castles from here. I half expected Rapunzel's hair to come tumbling out of one of those windows.

Topkapi grounds. The palace itself is in the center.

Just the palace itself.

Prepare yourself for lots of gorgeous photos of buildings.

Arabic

I'm obsessed with beautiful ceilings/domes.

Foot washing station.

This tree was dying from the inside out. With the two holes at the top, it even looks like it's in agony.

That's a heck of a couch.

The tile work is incredible!

Just three girls overlooking the Golden Horn.

Another big damn couch.

Little alcoves to hold all manner of Turkish items.

Obsessed.

Showing the old cistern.

What's with these trees? These two are growing together.

Another two trees growing together.

Stop #2 - Hagia Sofia (Aya Sofia), which means Holy or Saint Wisdom. It was once the largest church in the world as a Greek Orthodox basilica for around 1000 years, then turned in to an imperial mosque for around 500 years and finally converted into a museum in 1935. It was also briefly a Roman Catholic cathedral during the Latin Empire (for only 55 years), Three different versions were built. The first two were destroyed in separate fires, but the newest one still standing today was built to withstand a 6.7 magnitude earthquake.

Street vendor roasting chestnuts.

Freshly squeezed pomegranate, grapefruit or orange juice. Just like in the U.S., the pomegranate was more expensive, costing around $7 for a glass. The OJ was only about $1.75.

Hagia Sophia

Remnants from previous versions.

A few lambs representing the 12 apostles.

The Sultan used to arrive through this entrance. Look how big that door is! I didn't get a picture of it, but the marble floor through the entrance was worn on either side from where the servants and guards would walk (while carrying the Sultan). Hundreds of years of wear and tear made a significant change in the slope.

Muslim and Christian symbols and artifacts meshed well together.

This place was huge!

Beautiful dome (with some scaffolding on the left).

A rather hairy angel.

This chandelier might have been wider across than my house.

Christian cross above a doorway.

The Blue Mosque across from Hagia Sophia. (We'll visit there after lunch.)

Stop #3 - Lunch. We hopped back in the car for our next stop, but traffic was so ridiculous that we got out to walk instead. Our lunch spot wasn't far away, and Dalim recommended a few dishes for us try. We started with some flatbread in a yogurt/dill sauce that helped to cool us down. Nikki and I split two meat dishes since we couldn't narrow down our choices. One was meat over a pita smothered in tomato sauce, and the other was minced lamb and beef kebabs with bulgar rice. SO GOOD! All of it. I wanted another course.

Streets of Istanbul.

Haydari. A yogurt/dill sauce for dipping pita in that was really cool and refreshing.

Front left is Iskender kebab and the back right is Urfa kebab. Both delicious.

Dalim recommended an apple tea afterwards to aid in digestion. It wasn't really tea at all but more like a boiling apple cider. And I say boiling in all seriousness. It took forever before I could even drink it. Dalim clearly had burned off his taste buds years ago because he essentially pounded his. I, on the other hand, sipped it like a sissy until it had cooled off.

Delicous, but dangerous.

Stop #4 - Grand Bazaar. It's one of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over THREE THOUSAND SHOPS. Yeah, you read that right. Three thousand. This place was straight up bonkers. The streets twisted and turned like they had been added haphazardly, the aggressive vendors didn't hold back trying to get you to buy their wares, and everywhere I turned, I saw more stuff than I could ever imagine. It's been added on to over the years, but the oldest parts date back hundreds of years. Dalim took us through the gold, silver and jewelry sections to pass by the rugs, ceramics, silks, leather, and everything in between.

Walking the streets of Istanbul, heading to the Grand Bazaar.

Wholesalers could buy gold, silver, etc. here.

Andd....here we go!

The architecture is impressive.

All the streets looked the same, and about a billion different vendors sold the same types of things.

This map was on the wall, but you couldn't pick up a pamphlet or anything to help guide you through it. If Dalim hadn't been with us, we would have likely gotten lost.

Dalim didn't intend for us to spend too much time here, but he wanted to give us a few pointers on how to shop later in our trip. Haggling is the name of the game, and if you are offered an apple tea and take it, then you're pretty much saying you're going to buy something. We left feeling completely overwhelmed, and only moderately ready to actually go back tomorrow by ourselves.

Side note: While here, we stopped to use a bathroom (which required payment), and you could go in the Western or Eastern one. Let's just say the western one had a toilet, and the eastern one was just a hole in the floor.

Street corn, about $0.70 each.

Obelisk of Theodosius. This was originally the obelisk for Pharaoh Thutmose III in ancient Egypt, but was re-erected in the Hippodrome of Constantinople by Roman Emperor Theodosius.

Turkish pup!

Dalim also stopped to pick us up some baklava. Yum! (No, he didn't buy all of that.)

Stop #5 - Blue Mosque. It's official name is actually Sultan Ahmed Mosque, but gets its nickname from tourists because of all of the blue in the tile inside. It is still an active mosque, and we came during Ramadan. This meant we had to wait until the afternoon after the morning prayers were complete before we could enter. We knew we would have to cover our heads (women in mosques have to cover their hair by Muslim tradition). I had hoped that my capris would suffice for the legs since they covered my knees, but I was still given a swatch of fabric with velcro to secure it around my waist and hide my calves and ankles. After I fastened it into place, it really wasn't long enough to cover the bottom half of my calves or my ankles. Oh well. I still wanted to be respectful of a culture other than my own.

Another Muslim tradition is to remove your shoes before entering, so we were each given a plastic bag to carry our shoes around in. So, imagine, if you will, me wearing a scarf around my neck and shoulders, a bright blue skirt and my sock feet. Yeah, be jealous.

The inside of the mosque was just breathtaking. Unlike anything I had ever seen. I think I took about 385 photos just of the ceiling/tile work. I still don't think my photos don't do the place justice.

Fascinated by the intricate tile work here.

The darker lines in the carpet represent where to kneel for prayer, so there is some organization to where everyone lines up.

That ended our tour with Dalim and Jim, and there were fantastic. I'd highly recommend their tour company if you're ever in Turkey! We had to get a few remaining photos of the gorgeous day and beautiful buildings in this lovely city.

Dalim was awesome!

Hagia Sophia selfie.

After our tour, we freshened up a bit, and decided to walk across the Golden Horn to find a restaurant that our hostel had recommended to Nikki. We didn't really get many details on where it was, but it was supposed to have stunning views of the Bosphorous Strait and both the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. The walk over was fantastic, but after a half an hour of just wandering aimlessly, Hangry Heather was starting to emerge, and my feet were killing me. I should never have put my flats on. Even though we stopped a few times to ask for directions, it still took us entirely too long to get there.

Galata Bridge over the Golden Horn (an inlet off the Bosphorous that has a horn-like shape)

Fishing off the Galata Bridge.

Dinner is up there somewhere.

Galata Tower - a Romanesque tower built in 1348. We didn't really have time to explore.

Oh, THIS is the street our restaurant is on...

You can barely see it, but Megan is doing her happy dance.

It took us up some stairs, an elevator, and then more steps to get to the top, but it was totally worth it. It was a bit more elegant than I anticipated, but the views were spectacular. Worth the misguided trip around and the sore feet.

We found you!

The views were legit.

Just eating dinner in Europe with a view of Asia in the background. No big deal.

Bread and oil.

Kinda chilly up here at dusk, but the views were worth it.

Tomato, basil, eggplant and lor cheese penne. Delicious!

Compilation CD?!

While my feet were killing me, we couldn't find a taxi that was cheap enough to get us back (Dalim had given us a rough guideline of how much it should cost us), so I powered through and we just walked back across. The mosques all lit up at night were beautiful. It's a good thing we had eaten when we did, because due to Ramada, all the restaurants were packed to the brim after sundown. When we got back to our hostel, my feet were really swollen, and we were all pooped from a long day.