The sights of İstanbul

So – getting back to İstanbul – there is so much to see and do it is hard to know where to begin.  But the city is divided naturally into sections so it is best to focus on one area in a day; this is what we did.

The historical heart of İstanbul is on the European side, south of the Golden Horn waterway.  Topkapı Palace was the home of the Sultans from 1465 until the nineteenth century.  It was home to up to 4,000 people and contained mosques, schools, a hospital and workshops, as well as a 400-room harem.  The ‘crown jewels’ are on display there – including thrones made of solid gold and an 86 carat diamond.

the gateway to Topkapı palace

Right next to this is Ayasofya, the stunning church which later became a mosque and is now a museum.   Finished in 537 on the site of two older churches, it was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years.  The dome, which is 55 metres above the floor and not supported by any columns, was one of the most ambitious structures of its time.  Although various earthquakes have caused the dome to collapse, it has always been rebuilt and still stands almost 1500 years later!

Ayasofya

 

Just along the street from Ayasofya is the entrance to the Yerebatan Sarnacı – an underground water cistern open to the public.  What is so amazing about a water cistern you might ask?  This one was built in the sixth century under the command of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian.  It contains 336 marble columns, brought water from 19km away for use at the Byzantine palace and later at Topkapı and can hold up to 80,000 tons of water.  Bet you’re impressed now!

That’s another thing that makes İstanbul so unique – the histories of the Byzantine  and Ottoman Empires converge here to make everything bigger and grander.  One of the stories I love is that of Sultan Mehmet – known as The Conqueror – and how he took Constantinople from the Byzantines.  His Ottoman troops put the city under siege from across the Golden Horn, but they couldn’t access it by boat as the Byzantines had put a boom across the entrance to the waterway.  His solution?  To build a road of greased logs and make his men carry the ships and boats – estimated to be about 80 in number – over land! After his victory Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror made the city the capital of the Ottoman Empire and had Topkapı Palace built as the home of the Sultans there.

 Another place worth a visit in Istanbul, and one that gives you a view over the site of all this turbulent history, is the Galata Tower.  Itself built in 1348, it is situated on the European shore but north of the Golden Horn, looking across towards Topkapı and Ayasofya.  I have to admit to having an attack of vertigo when I stepped out onto the parapet – but the walkway IS 51 metres above the ground with only a waist-high wall around it.  Not wanting to miss out, I made a slow and very tentative tour of the whole walkway and then disappeared inside.  Luckily, Cem took the time to take some photos!

view from Galata Tower

İSTANBUL!

I have been feeling very ashamed that the boys have visited London many times and know most of its major sights but had yet to see İstanbul.  We decided it was time to correct this and took a night bus from Ankara to İstanbul on Thursday.  I haven’t been on a bus in the Uk for a long time but I suspect that the bus system here is rather superior.  Our journey was just 5 hours on a bus with wide, reclining seats (only 3 in each row) and a television for each passenger, a half-hour stop and a change of driver.

In the three days we have been here, we have managed to cram a lot in.  I visited İstanbul myself about 17 years ago and I enjoyed it but I can’t believe now what a relatively mild impression it made on me.  Possibly it was because I had just returned from visiting southern Africa and had cultural ‘overload’, or perhaps it was because I was on my way to spend a summer in Fethiye and decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life; whatever the reason, I managed to forget a lot of it.  Now, I am completely wowed by the city and am going to recommend everyone to visit!

What has so amazed me?  Firstly, the layout of the city.  You can look at a map and see that it is divided by the Bosphorous into two halves popularly referred to as the European side and Asian side (Turks prefer Anatolian); but until you are here it is hard to appreciate the importance of this.  The Bosphoros is a strait that joins the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea (which opens into the Aegean), with a width of up to 3km and incredibly strong currents.  It makes the Thames look like a little stream!  Tankers and container ships queue up, their shapes looming in the distance, waiting for permission to pass through with oil from Russia or Chinese goods coming in to the docks in İstanbul.  Add to this the numerous ‘vapur’ or ferries carrying people and cars across the strait and out to the islands, cruise boats giving people the waterfront tour of İstanbul and many little fishing boats buzzing amongst them and you will start to understand what a busy waterway this is.

Kaan on the ferry

The ferries are a piece of İstanbul culture, the standard journey to work for many people but also great fun for us tourists (you couldn’t say the same about the London underground!).  You leave one side of the city (nominally one continent!) and cross to the other, getting a great view of the such sights as the Dolmabahçe Palace, Haydarpaşa Station and Aya Sofia.  You can get a glass of tea from the çaycı to warm you up and if you stand outside you can throw bread for the seagulls whose aerobatic skills are stunning – they caught every piece the boys threw in midair!

The other thing about its position straddling the water is that the mega city of İstanbul, ‘the largest metropolitan city proper in Europe’ (Wikipedia) has districts near the centre that resemble small seaside towns in character. Places like Bebek and Tarabya along the European shore, have the boats, the fish mongers and the water-front promenade.  In addition, they are full of traditional wooden buildings – very quaint and very beautiful, though I guess very expensive too!

I will save the other delights for my next blog as I have to start packing to leave but it is safe to say I will make sure it’s not 17 years before I return!

Galata bridge and Tower

Beypazarı and baklava with 80 layers

Every year in the school holidays we come to Ankara to visit Cem’s cousins here.  The journey takes about 7 hours – it’s about 500km – and last Thursday when we drove up here we were worried the roads would be icy.  Actually, the only thing that was icy was the inside of our borrowed minibus, as we found out after we’d left that the heating system didn’t work properly.  Kaan was sat at the back bundled up in his coat and woolly hat!

On Sunday we loaded ALL the family – including mum, auntie, cousins and children into the minibus and went to Beypazarı, a town about an hour’s drive from Ankara.  It often seems to me that every town in Turkey is famous for something – usually a food item that is grown there, or a dish that is peculiar to there;  so for example, everyone who drives through Afyon buys ‘sucuk’ (spicy sausage) and if you go to Çorum you must try the ‘leblebe’ (chick peas).  Beypazarı goes further and is famous for a whole range of things.

Beypazarı

Firstly, carrots.  We drove into town and were met by an enormous, rather dubious-looking model carrot.  The shops sell carrot juice, carrot jam and carrot ‘sausage’ (actually a sweet sticky confection).  The town is also famous for a type of dry crisp bread that is bought as fast as the bakeries can get it out of the oven.

Beypazarı’s stuffed vine leaves are a speciality, due apparently to the high quality and sharp taste of the leaves growing there.  We bought a total of about 5kg and Cem (helped by the rest of us) ate about another kilo standing in the shop.  The shopkeeper actively encouraged this, giving us one of the pans of vine leaves to finish off and ordering in tea to wash them down with.  Don’t you just love Turkey?! 

We finished off the ‘meal’ with dessert in the form of baklava.  Though you can, of course, find baklava all over Turkey and neighbouring countries, Beypazarı’s apparently beats them all by having 80 layers of pastry.  I am not a big fan of baklava but this was lovely, with plenty of walnuts, not too much syrup and light despite the many layers.

The old town of Beypazarı is made up of distinctive wooden houses.  Many of them have been renovated, some turned into small hotels, and we visited one that has been made into a ‘living museum’.  Apart from the house itself, which was laid out and furnished as it would have been in the mid-nineteenth century when it was built, they had traditional crafts and activities in each room.

doing ebru - or paper marbling

I had a go at ‘ebru’ – the Turkish art of ‘marbling’ paper by sprinkling paints into a trough of water mixed with gum, swirling them together, then putting the paper on the top so it picks up the floating paint.  You can see my effort below- but go on the internet to see how stunning it can be!

my first attempt at ebru

Cem went for a different ‘art’ – that of lead pouring.  This is an old tradition where lead is heated over a flame and poured into water. It is said to banish evil spirits, while the shape the hardened lead takes allows the pourer to tell your future.  The picture below shows it being done (Cem is under the sheet) but unlike with my ebru, we will have to wait to see the results!

Cem having lead poured

School holidays

The school holiday has begun.  In Turkey there are just two terms to the school year – the first from September until mid-January and the second from February until mid-June.  The children have a two week holiday now between these two mega-terms.  It means that, though they have three months summer holiday, they don’t have any more holiday overall than schools in the UK.  But those long terms…the years I have been teaching in school or college  I have been nearly on my knees by the time the holiday came and even the students get very jaded and in need of a break. 

All the students in Turkey, from year 1 of primary to year 4 of high school get their school report on the last day of each term.  Kaan is in primary school where teachers are more lenient and his report was pretty much all 5s.  Emre’s crosses the whole range of marks from 5 for English (not as much of a cert as you might expect), to 1 for philosophy!  The standards are pretty high in schools here, both in the things they are teaching and the level expected, so for example, 54% in a test will only get you a 2.

Traditionally when students get their reports they take them to show family and close friends and – if they are good – get given little presents or money. Conversely students who have got bad grades will try anything to hide it, from forging reports and changing marks to running away from home!

Last week I wrote about our attempts at skiing at Erendağ near Fethiye, but you may have heard of bigger snow events in Turkey, with the winter ‘Universiade’ (university Olympics) being held in Erzurum.  Competitors from 58 countries are taking part in sports, including downhill skiing, ski jump, ice hockey and curling.  It is a big event for Turkey to be hosting and they are very proud of it. They have teams in most events, though they are fairly new to many of them.  Curling, for example, has been causing much amazement!

one of Turkish competitors in Universiade; Erzurum, Turkey

Erzurum is up in the north east of Turkey, where Cem’s family come from and near where we have been to ski in the past.  It has good snow and they have spent a lot of money on the facilities there.  There are also good ski slopes at Kartalkaya near Ankara and Uludağ near İstanbul.  The latter is now attracting some skiers from abroad.

The weather in Fethiye has been bright and sunny, but very cold.  So cold in fact that I have finally given in and let Cem put a wood-burning stove into our house.  These are the traditional way of heating here, where few houses have central heating.  They are not the most attractive addition to your interior décor but they do make the house nice and warm.  Here is Kaan, who is very smitten with it, feeding the stove.