Istanbul, Turkey

Where to start? We’re 10 days in (we think), have lost track of the days and the hot air balloon flight in Cappadocia blew our budget but then we hit Syria which is still an incredibly cheap country to travel in. We can get by on £10 each a day easily. We’ve had trouble updating the blog and heard rumours that certain sites (i.e. facebook, some blog sites) had been blocked. So we're a bit behind but catching up where there is a decent internet connection. Anyhow, we (and our luggage) arrived in Istanbul on time and as planned and that was cause for a celebration in itself given the hoohah at T5 since it opened. Had a bit of trouble finding a place to stay [E: We traipsed past six or seven hotels before finding one with a vacancy. The reason: hordes of Antipodeans had come over to mark Anzac Day a few days earlier. And did my Kiwi girlfriend give me a heads-up on this? I don’t think so!!!!]. but the city was super busy what with Anzac Day just been and then the Turkish Formula One on here in a few weeks time. I’d LOVE to stay and see if we could score tickets but the timing isn’t quite right and I don’t think Euan shares my enthusiasm for motor racing! Something that was immediately obvious was how much Istanbul has changed since I was here 7 years ago and even Euan commented that things were more expensive than he had expected. The new Turkish Lira means we’re not carrying round millions in our pockets and the change from the US$ to the Euro as the alternative currency is another sign of Turkeys pending move to the EU. Another change was that we weren’t being harassed and hassled by the carpet selling folk – maybe it was just us, I don’t know, but my guess is that the increase in tourists have seen their businesses improve and there is no need to harass unsuspecting folk off the streets and into their shops – I recall being almost held hostage in one shop last time I was here!

Aya Sofya has lost none of its beauty and with the outside now restored, it really is impressive, particularly given it was built around AD 530. We stayed in Old Istanbul for the night and the following day visited the Basilica, an incredible underground cistern used around AD 330. Allegedly people who had houses on the ground over the basilica could drill water and even catch fish from holes in their basements. Good story but whether its true or not….! Anyhow, there were some big fat old fish in the basilica in a wonderful fish playground. Unfortunately it was just too dark for photos but the basilica was huge – 90x120m and 12 rows of 28 columns with an amazing vaulted ceiling – each four pillars supported a central bricked vault. In Aya Sofya we couldn’t quite comprehend the mosaics and frescos, many of which were larger than life. What was more difficult to comprehend was how some folk could actually bring themselves to graffiti and gouge their initials into this amazing artwork. The sheer scale of the place was on a par with St Peters in the Vatican City and the age of the place was shown in places by these massive slabs of marble that had huge dips in them from the 1000s of feet that had walked on them over the years. The Blue Mosque is equally impressive both inside and out but is much younger. The detail in the ceiling and high up on the walls is difficult to pick out as you can’t go higher than ground level so its unclear whether the patterns are tiles or mosaics – suspect they’re tiles though. The two buildings were built so close together – only a few hundred meters separate them and whichever way you turn you can’t help but catch sight of them. Very impressive.

Decided to vacate Istanbul after a day and took an o/night bus to Gȍreme in Cappadocia. A bearable 11.5 hours but somewhat more drawn out by the bus driver stopping to pick up passengers in weird places (the edge of the motorway! Whats all that about??) and getting lost (he did at least four U turns across multiple lanes of traffic…). We will be back in Istanbul for a few days before flying out on 20 June.

Aya Sofya (built 527-565AD)


Blue Mosque (built 1609-1619)


Inside Blue Mosque