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.
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| 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!
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| Galata bridge and Tower |
