Istanbul trip 2023

Part 1 of 2

Jul 27, 2023

I went to Istanbul.

To explain why I went to Istanbul, I should tell that you that I also went to Morocco. I’ve wanted to go to Morocco for the last 15 years of my life, and this year, I did go.

The thing about Morocco is that it’s hard to fly there from the States — there’s very few flights that are direct, at least not from Atlanta. I don’t like the stress of the failure points that are connections, and I usually shell out extra for direct flights. For Morocco, the advice is to do a longer layover in a European city. So, looking at my options, I decided to swing by Turkey for a 4 days and visit my friend Kristin, and her husband Mac, whom I had yet to meet.

It turned out Istanbul was my favorite visit of the whole trip, even beating out Morocco — for reasons I’ll go into in the Morocco post(s). I want to go back to Istanbul one day.

While in Istanbul, I stayed in a small house on the edge of a large forest north of the city. This was the view outside my window.

This isn’t THE forest, but it’s a kind of forest…

This part of the city was more poor than others — at least, it seemed so to me. Don’t quote me on that. There were chickens and roosters and goats and so forth, but the area is built up enough that it felt odd to have farm animals. Hearing them was relaxing, though.

This is the view of the road. It’s the blue house on the left, where I stayed.

When I showed up on Saturday, this whole road was transformed into a farmer’s market / bazaar. We had to go through someone’s bag shop (purses, suitcases, etc) to get into the house.

The next day, Sunday, was a runoff election. We went sightseeing all day, and when we got back we could hear gunshots going off. I was worried; I wasn’t sure if the election news was good or bad, if they were angry shooting or happy shooting, or how xenophobic the election participants had been... I had no clue!

There was a man standing under the awning in front of the green house up there. As we turned the corner, we saw him firing off what looked like an automatic rifle down the street, in the other direction, pop pop pop pop. And with wide eyes, I said, “Get in the house,” and fast-walked in. We stayed indoors the rest of the evening, while people continued to shoot guns and drive by with loud, happy music. (Turns out they were happy.)

It was an interesting evening.

Elsewhere on the street…

The mosque, which would play the call to prayer at regular intervals (as all mosques did).

There were cats everywhere. It was the same in Morocco.

The first Sunday when Kristin and Mac took me out, the weather was awful and I didn’t get amazing pictures of the mosques.

But the architecture is still gorgeous…

The beauty in all the details is dizzying. It’s the sort of thing that brings tears to your eyes. It’s humbling. Peaceful.

This mosque is the Blue Mosque. I thought that this was the mosque that I’d had on my desktop background for 4 years, but that was actually the Süleymaniye Mosque, and I saw that later. That’s near the end of this post.

Inside these mosques, you’re required to cover your hair if you’re a woman.

Renovations of the interior were just completed after 5-ish years, so it was a busy spot.

It’s really impossible to capture the beauty of these ceilings on camera. Some of these, I just zoomed up on the detail — that’s the one area a camera lense can improve on reality.

I love how that vertical pattern erupts from the bricks. And, you could hardly even see this from the floor of the mosque.

The way the gold catches the light.

The texture of the stone.

Okay, let’s take a break from the mosques! We’ll get back to them.

Roman stuff

It turns out the Romans were also in ~~Istanbul~~ ~~Constantinople~~ Byzantium. They moved the capitol here. This is called the “Stone of Million,” and was built in the 300s. It used to be a triumphal arch.

It’s funny because people are generally just walking past it, ignoring it.

It marked the miles to different locations in the Roman/Byzantine Empire. “All roads lead to Rome.”

There’s this dump right next to it.

Under the ground in this area, there was a cistern built by the Romans — the Basilica Cistern. Constantine and Justinian both took part in building then expanding this (200-300 AD).

Funny story: it costs about $25 to walk through this thing, but I didn’t actually pay. I couldn’t find the entrance, and I mistook the exit for the entrance and just wandered in against the flow of traffic. Of course, at a certain point I knew it was the exit — but I kept going because, if this had been a Disney theme park, someone would have said, “Hey, this is the exit, don’t enter this way,” and I would have said, “Great, can you tell me how to find the entrance?” and everything would have been okay.

Sometimes the quickest way to figure out the right way to do something is to do it wrong and wait for someone to correct you.

But, no one corrected me! None of the guards gave me the time of day. (Yes, I tried to get the attention of one, but he kept talking to other people!)

Anyway, I bought something from the gift shop, so. It’s all good.

It’s so cool to imagine this place without those bars, just the stone.

Galata tower

This was a watchtower built in the 1300s during the Ottoman period.

I’m scared of heights, and going out on the deck was difficult. I forced myself to do it, but I couldn’t enjoy it and quickly slunk back inside. The railing is so low that if feels like you’re going to just flip over the side.

That’s the Suleymaniye Mosque up there.

These chains are interesting. They were used over the course of six or seven centuries (800-1400ish). They extended over the river and prevented ships from entering the bay/harbor.

An assortment of memories

Istanbul is hilly and made for some interesting streets.

This is a university bookshop. Browsing cats.

This is a Russian style house. Istanbul used to have a lot more of this style of architecture in its very recent history.

We ate at this cafe near the Basilica Cistern.

Baklava (delicious!). Black tea.

Kristin, trying to figure out where the cotton candy is. There was a Turkish kind of cotton candy she wanted me to try. Because this was the election runoff day, a lot of places were closed, and the city was pretty empty.

The “Spice Bazaar.” It’s a touristy spot. Locals shop elsewhere.

A cafe I wrote at — a few hours here.

Apparently these steps are a hot Instagram spot.

Men washing and removing their shoes outside of a mosque.

Finally, two more mosques

First, the Süleymaniye Mosque. This is my favorite mosque. Easily. I love the size of it! It’s intimidating. And I love the colors inside.

Inside…

Adore those pink stripes.

I wish I’d had more time to spend in this one, but I did sit on the floor for a few minutes. Notice the woman praying below, to the right.

Next, the Hagia Sophia. This was built in in 537 AD, which is nuts. It’s crazy how enormous this mosque is! It doesn’t seem possible it could have been built so early. It feels like something this big should have been built in at least 1500.

(This is not my photo! I just neglected to take an external.)

This was a Christian mosque. People associate this style of architecture with Islam and the East, but it began as a Western thing — or at least, it began as a Christian thing.

Inside, you can see the original Christian images.

This was the foyer where we took off our shoes.

In the main hall. It’s huge! Two floors of columns.

I believe there’s more Christian imagery around, but it’s been covered up. Controversially, the latest person in charge of Istanbul has remade this building into a functioning Muslim mosque.

Which feels sad to me.

After about 2 minutes in this room, I got kicked out. They were starting the call to prayer, and this is the men’s place of prayer.

The woman prayed here, in a smaller room to the side.

It felt sad to be kicked out of a place that’s more in line with my own religious heritage than the people who have claimed it. As I navigated the streets around the mosque, the call to prayer filled the air above.

Normally, I find the call to prayer to be mysterious and beautiful, but in that moment I thought the man’s voice was shrill and nasally, and far too loud.