My destination this weekend was Istanbul, where I would be meeting my friend fainerz (rebecca) who is studying in Tel Aviv. Two nice Jewish girls in a Muslim city, makes for a great story. So I traded in my opal chamsa for my Tiffany bean and was off.
Thursday: the day of travel. In order to actually get to Istanbul I had to take a train to Rome, a bus to the airport, a plane to Istanbul, and a cab w fainerz to the hostel.
I went to my 9am with my luggage in hand and couldn't stop looking at the clock to see if it was time to go. At 11:30 I bolted out of the door. It was a gorgeous day (supposed to be 70) and I would’ve loved to take a nice stroll to the train station but instead I had to haul ass so I could make the 12:14 train. I somehow made it there in 25 minutes, although I was sweating and completely out of breath.
The euro star trains are really nice, what I would assume Amtrak to be like but I've never taken it so I wouldn't know. Anyway Got to Rome and found a place that had a bus to the airport. It was 6e and took an hour so why not.
The bus: ho.ly.crap. It smelt to high hell of B.O. and was sweltering. Not to mention there were plenty of open seats and some Italian man felt the need to sit RIGHT NEXT to me. As if it wasn't hot enough. Really.
Get to the airport and to the terminal no problemo. Then I get a call from my mom telling me there was a bombing in Istanbul that morning. Go figure. When I get to my gate I see fainerz texted me but at this point I can't read what she wrote. The 2 hours waiting in the terminal consisted of me panicking that she could no longer go and trying to scamper up some change so I could use the Internet machines in the airport. Alas, it was time to board the plane. No turning back now, just praying I wouldn't be traveling Istanbul on my own. The plane ride was fine. I luckily had the whole row to myself so I stretched out. I was woken up by one of the flight attendants asking me which meal I wanted! The flight was only 2 hours and they gave me dinner, this is my kind of airline.
When we landed I had to go get my Turkish visa, for certain countries they mandate you get a visa even if you're only staying for a night! I paid my visa and then went to check the arriving flights for when fainerz would get in. She was scheduled to get in an hour after me but the longer I waited the less I saw her. Of course being that I had no Internet on my phone and hadn't spoken to her, I started to panic and may have even had a mini break down in the Ataturk airport. Yes, it happened. Much to my surprise, VERY few people speak english there so no one knew what I was trying to say. After I calmed myself down fainerz walked out of customs and I literally jumped on her (and maybe cried a little, too) I was so happy. We then proceeded to get completely ripped off by a cab but by the time we realized it we had already paid and were too tired to argue. Our driver Adam ended up being really nice and giving us an additional driving tour of the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque which were right by our hostel. It was so pretty at night and we couldn't wait to see the inside the following day. When we got to the hostel we immediately made friends with the man at the front, john, who showed us to our rooms. After getting settled we figured it would be a good idea to get some lira so we could actually pay for dinner and what not.
It just so happened that our hostel, Bahaus Hostel, is situated on the cutest cobblestone street, lined with restaurants, right near the Blue Mosque in Sultanahmet (and area in Istanbul). As we walked along the sidewalk, we quickly learned how things work in Istanbul: outside of every single business in the city, an overly obnoxious Turk will be standing on the street outside, hollering whatever he can to get your attention, whether it be “Hello, you are so beautiful!” or “Miss can I show you something?” or “If you only have a minute...” If you give these creeps the time of day, they will always try to make a deal with you. Fainerz and I laughed the whole walk down the street. We then bumped into 2 men who were American and showed us to the ATM which happened to be right next to the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque. We got the best view of them since they were well lit and no one was in sight to bother us.
After getting money and thanking our new American friends, Fainerz and I made our way back to the hostel. At this point it was about 2:30AM so most of the restaurants were closed, except for one. The man came outside and would not leave us alone. Being the friendly Americans that we are, Fainerz and I made some conversation, although not without changing our names so he couldn’t stalk us, and were on our way back to the hostel. John greeted us and then we made our way upstairs and met another worker at the hostel whose name was Ooor (or that’s how he pronounced it). We chatted it up with him in return for some soup that was not too tasty but I ate it anyway. After that we were so drained and just passed out in our beds. I didn’t move once all night.
We woke up at the wee hours of 8 on Friday, ate the complimentary breakfast the hostel gave us, and were off. As you are about to read, the day was never ending but somehow our adrenaline kept us going.
We began Friday at the Blue Mosque, one of Istanbul’s most famous attractions. We removed our shoes and went in the visitor’s entrance—there are two entrances since the mosque is still used for prayer. It was exquisite, the walls and ceiling painted and tiled with brightly colored patterns and adorned with stained glass windows. The exterior is even more magnificent.
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| Fainerz and I outside the Blue Mosque |
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| Interior of the Blue Mosque |
Fainerz and I then walked across the street to see the Hagia Sophia, one of the most well known attractions in the city. Another cool thing is that the mosque was originally a church. The Muslims left most of the Christian artwork in tact, so you can find a mosaic baby Jesus sitting right about the structure that points towards Mecca.
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| Inside of Hagia Sophia |
Since Topapki Palace was right next to the Hagia Sophia, we hit up there next. It’s a large estate that housed the Ottoman Sultans for centuries but is now mostly a museum, displaying weapons, clothing, jewels etc from the Ottoman Empire. The coolest part was the 86-carat diamond, the most expensive in the world. We were looking at some of the old jewels when these two Muslim girls started talking to us and explaining the significance of everything. It was like a private tour! At the end they asked for our names, I'm pretty sure they though we were muslim so we were a little skeptical to write down Gold and Fainberg but did it anyway since we'll never see them again. The weather was really nice at this point so we just wandered around outside through the courtyards and sat looking over the Bosphorus straight.
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| Basilica Cistern |
Next we went to the Basilica Cistern, an under-ground water reservoir from the 6th century. It was incredible! So well intact. A quick attraction, so cool to see. They also had a medusa head which derived from an ancient story they used to tell (I don’t remember it though).
At this point Fainerz and I were starving so we wandered down past the Basilica onto a random street that had a bunch of restaurants. We sat down and had Turkish Kebabs for lunch. They were delicious and it was nice to be able to rest our feet. We made friends with the people sitting next to us, one of them who was from the US and on his way to Israel so Fainerz and I obviously spent 20 minutes talking about how great it is and all the places he needed to go.
We then made our way to the Galata Bridge. There are 2 levels—on the upper level, tens of men were fishing and we could see their fishing poles hanging into the water and reeling in fish. Quite the view! From the Galata Bridge you can also see the Bosphorus bridge which connects the Asian side of Istanbul to the European side (Istanbul spans two continents, how cool?!) Once we walked across we decided it would be neat to go to the Dolmabahce Palace. Little did we know it was about a 1.5 mile walk and cost 40TL to get in. We arrived at the Palace which looked gorgeous from the outside but were too tired to deal with a mandatory tour (if you get a ticket you must take the tour) so we walked the 1.5 miles back to Galata and climbed the Galata Tower instead. The tower reminded me on the Duomo in the sense that you can see all of Istanbul and the view is stunning. The Mosques stick out all over; a gorgeous view. We also had perfect sights of the Asian side and European side, which made for awesome pictures.
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| 1 photo, 2 continents By now it’s 5:30 and Fainerz and I were completely burnt out so we cabbed it back to the hostel and passed out for a good 2 hours. After napping and showering we headed to dinner in Galata since the nightlife there is popping. We ate at a very authentic Turkish restaurant where they gave us a free shot of Raki (aka the worlds most disgusting alcohol ever). We then walked around for a bit and ended up at a bar called Purple Shot where we, of course, made friends with the people who worked there. They then proceeded to ask if Fainerz and I wanted to go out with them but we were a little sketched out so we headed home. While we were walking from the cab to our apt, we ran into our friend from the first night who offered us to come into his restaurant. There was no one in there but for some ridiculous reason Fainerz and I walked in, sat down, and started talking to him and his friends. Things got pretty sketchy from there. They made us drinks but were SO WEIRD. I was convince we were gonna get kidnapped so we bolted and headed back to the hostel where Ooor was upstairs with some other people from the hostel. He was looooving fainerz and I couldn’t help but giggle at this one way street crush. |
Saturday we had a ‘late’ wakeup at 9, but snoozed until 9:30 because we were so tired. It was raining and cold which happened to work out for us because we were doing all indoor activities.
First we went to the Suleymaniye Mosque. There are tons of mosques in Istanbul but this one had specifically been recommended to me. The mosque really was my favorite, with all of the color and intricate designs. Absolutely stunning.
From there we went to the covered spice market. In the Spice Bazaar, we were again introduced to a new way of attracting attention. They would yell “Hello, Spice Girl!” or “You so spicy.” Really? We know were at a spice shop. Enough with the puns. Some try to guess your nationality (these were the ones we were asked): “Australia?” “Hola Chica!” “Italiani?” NOT A REAL WORD, YOU MORON (although I was please to hear I look Italian since it’s now my home). About 5 people even though I was Turkish and started speaking to me in the mother tongue! Fainerz must have gotten “Brazil?” a million times and I have no idea why, but every time someone said it I died of laughter. If you let them know you’re from America, they try to either tell you someone they know from there, or guess which state. “Indiana?” “Arizona?” “Nebraska?” Really, choose a more random state. I couldn’t even make this stuff up if I tried. Additionally, if you give these creeps the time of day, they will always try to make a deal with you. Which is exactly what we did once we made it to the Grand Bazaar; Spanning 60 blocks and hosting 1,200 shops, this covered market is just a shopper’s paradise…which is why we spent three hours there. Getting lost in there is inevitable. There are store after store with candles and jewelry and scarves and dishes and everything you can imagine. As fun as shopping was, it was EXHASUTING because you have to bargain for EVERYTHING.
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| got spices? This wasn’t as big of a problem as I expected because Fainerz is a pro. Seriously, girlfrand knows how to bargain! We got drawn into a scarf shop and made friends with a man Huysein and his brother, Omer, who both spoke very good English. Fainerz and I were laughing up a storm with them. She even felt the need to teach him the phrase ‘Chicks before dicks.’ They were all loving it and gave us an apple tea on the house, a bazaar tradition and the greatest drink in the entire world (we had been waiting to get them for free all weekend!). After about 30 minutes talking and bargaining we were able to knock the gorgeous silk scarves down from 125TL each to 60! Huysein even said he’d never seen anyone bargain so well. Most of the men in the bazaar were the worst. Or the funniest, take your pick of adjectives. They’ll do anything to get business so the rest of our purchases worked out likewise. |
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| The man who let us get away with murder aka 60TL scarves |
After going H.A.M. at the grand bazaar we needed some serious R&R which led us to Cemberlitas Hammami, a traditional Turkish bath built centuries ago by Mimar Sinan, Istanbul’s most famous architect. The spa trip involved a nap on a hot stone in a steam room, followed by an amazing foot massage that I never wanted to end. As we laid on the hot stone we were surrounded by super fat Turkish women giving soap massages in their underwear. Fainerz and I laid there watching the other women cracking up despite the peaceful ambiance of the bath. After my foot massage I went back and laid down on the stone again and observed the actual bath, two small pools in a dimly lit chamber with arched ceilings and small skylights. Pretty damn legit.
Given the relaxing time we had, there was no way we were doing anymore walking so we headed back for nap time, yet again.
For dinner, we decided to hunt down some Turkish pizza being that pizza is Fainerz favorite food and as you all know I eat anything and everything. We went to a place called Meat House and it was absolutely delicious! Legit Turkish food and they gave us free apple tea at the end too!
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| Couldn't resist..had to post a pictures Our last night in Istanbul took us to Taksim Square, the pulsing, urban center of Istanbul. While our hostel had organized a pub crawl, it was extremely UNorganized so fainerz and I hit up a bar and then met up with our Turkish friends from the scarf shop (LOL). We found them and went to a club. The rest of the night was absolutely hilarious and quite bizarre and we ended up back at the hostel at about 3:30. |
Sunday we only had a short amount of time so we were up and at it by 8. We headed to the jewish quarter although there wasn’t much to do and the synagogue was closed. It was nice to see the synagogue (from the outside), but not an essential part of the trip. We then went to Ortakoy, a trendy neighborhood of restaurants and bars, right on the water; It was so adorable, I absolutely loved it and if we had another night there we totally would’ve gone for dinner and clubbing. The 2 hours of walking around was plenty for us by this point so it was back to the hostel to catch the shuttle to the airport, that is after saying goodbye to all of our new Turkish friends.
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| beautiful Ortakoy Got to the airport and through customs fine. Of course since we had spare time we went to find some more delicious Turkish pizza and eggplant delight. After I bid fair well to fainerz I went to the waiting room to board. The plane was delayed 25 min which wasn't a big deal and I passed out as soon as I got on the plane. I woke up an hour and a half later only to realize that we hadn't landed in Rome; we were still in Istanbul! The plane had been additionally delayed. Normally this wouldn't have been a big deal but the trains to Florence stop running early on Sundays. With this in mind I prayed for a quick flight, which it was since I fell asleep again and only woke up cause the attendant told me I needed to sit up for landing. Of course customs was insane and the lines were ridiculous. I literally ran from customs to find the bus to take me to the train station praying that I would be able to make the last train at 8:45. Sat on the sweltering bus for an hour again hoping there would be no traffic. |
Thankfully we made it there in like 35 minutes and I was able to book it to the ticket booth and hop on the 815 train back to Flo. Needless to say once I was home I was quite relieved. This weekend was absolutely amazing. Istanbul is adorable and I felt different, like I was on a different planet. I don't know how, but Fainerz and I managed to take Istanbul on fast forward and conquer it in 2 days and 3 hours. There was so much history I easily could've spent a week there. Hopefully one day my travels will bring me back!
Stay tuned for Mallory and Fainerz take Europe parts 2 and 3 (Florence and Rome), coming soon!
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