We continued our journey Westwards to Turkey, a city that sits on the cusp between East and West (literally – when you cross the Bosphorus, you are crossing the line between the European and Asian continents). It’s a city that infuses, if not assaults, the senses. First, there are a lot of people – with 12.8 million inhabitants, it’s the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and the fifth largest city in the world. I wasn’t expecting this. The city sprawls and sprawls, despite the fact that it’s population density seems quite high (i.e. there are crowds of people everywhere). Secondly, the city is aplomb with markets selling dry goods, spices and food, as well as juices bars and cafes – they are literally everywhere you go. Nowhere is this more apparent than the famous Spice Market and Grand Bazaar. For a sugar lover like me, the Turkish Delight (which comes in tens of varieties), baklava and dried fruit were a huge treat. We did kid ourselves into thinking that the dried fruit was healthy, but after coming off a dazzling hour long sugar high, we had to admit that it probably wasn’t.

Turkish Lanterns

Thirdly, the dynamism of the Turkish people themselves makes the city alive and exciting. It’s a city where you can visit any number of sleek lounges to enjoy a $20 cocktail (Istanbul is not cheap) with fashionable locals, or visit the excellent Modern Art Museum, showcasing a great exhibit by the designer Hussein Chayalan. On the other hand, many of the women wear headscarves and conservative clothing, there are fisherman along the length of the central Galata bridge, and it would not be out of the ordinary to observe a devout Muslim, dressed in traditional clothing, praying on the street.

An Olafur Elaiansson light at the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art.

Women waiting for the bus

We also visited a couple of the remarkable historic sights in Istanbul (of which there were really too many to count, let alone visit). After our time in Uzbekistan and India, where we spent much of our time checking out important historical buildings (largely religious), we decided to limit our traditional sight seeing to a few places. First, we visited the Basilica Cisterns, the largest of a number of underground cisterns in Istanbul. The cisterns, which are 500m below ground level, feature 336 marble columns. They might also look familiar because they were featured in the 1963 James Bond film ‘From Russia with Love’.

We also visited the spectacular Hagia Sofia. I’m not sure that these pictures will do justice to the absolute scale and grandeur of this famous monument (another WHS). The Hagia Sofia was originally an Orthodox Patriarchal Basilica during the Byzantine era, then was converted to a Mosque in the fifteenth century, and finally secularized in the 1930′s and converted to a museum. What makes the building so interesting is that they have excavated the original Christian frescoes, which now co-exist with the traditional Islamic carvings and art. It’s breathtaking.

We have been endlessly entertained by tourists posing for photos along this trip – glamour shots!

We also visited the Topkapi Palace, the most famous palace in Istanbul, built during the 15th century for the Sultan of the Ottoman empire. It is composed of four complexes and hundreds of rooms, although not all of them are accessible. Another WHS, it is quite beautiful, especially the harem (although after paying steep entrance fee to the palace, upon entering the site they make you pay extra for the harem, which seems sneaky). We particularly liked the tiles in the harem, which were quite varied and intricate, as well as the stained glass and mother of pearl inlaid throughout the palace.

The (understated!) Baghdad Palace

Inlaid Mother of Pearl adorned many of the doors

The harem roof

After a long time in crowded, chaotic cities with no sidewalks, it was great to be in a slightly less crowded, somewhat less chaotic city with enough sidewalks that you didn’t fear for your life every time you took a step into the street. As such, we spent a lot of time in Istanbul walking around the different neighbourhoods and experiencing the day to day life of the city. We’d both read Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul (I highly recommend it) before arriving in Turkey, and his memoir/tribute to his childhood home was great fodder for explorations, particularly on the Asian side. Here are some shots of the city – I’ve tried to include a variety from both the European and Asian side, and reveal the juxtaposition of Old vs. New and East vs. West that make Istanbul so interesting.

Wooden houses are still sprinkled around the city

Turkish flags are everywhere in Istanbul – these ones are along the an old aqueduct

Fishmongers

A delivery man bringing clothes to a local shop

A typical alley in Galata

Outdoor cafes are very popular – even as the temperature dropped to 5 degrees celcius

A flim (or commercial) shoot outside our hotel

The view from the Galata bridge to the old city

Dilapidated wooden buildings