So ladies and gentleman, when I visited Istanbul on 6th of July 2012 for a long weekend, I fulfilled a long-cherished dream. A city like no other, Istanbul is overdosed with history, filled with pride, bustling with energy and dreaming of a glorious future. After all, before the modern settlement in the America's, it was the center of the world.
I went there for a long weekend, so i left Friday evening from Holland and i was back on Monday evening. I was joined there by my adopted sister Saima and her friend Tanzeen. Saima did most of the planing, and as always, it was flawless.
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| In front of blue mosque (or Sultan Ahmed Mosque) |
We stayed in very nice and cheap Piya Hostel, a 10-15 minute walk from most touristic sites. Saima flew to Istanbul from Toronto and Turkish airline left all her check-in baggage in Canada! Luckily the luggage was delivered to her in 2 days but she was very stressed about it in the beginning. But she did some shopping and managed pretty well. If I was at her place, I would definitely not be able to stay so calm.
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| Me and Tanzeen @ Baklava festival |
It was my first time meeting Tanzeen, saima's best friend. And it was great to meet and talk to her. Very smart, funny and straight forward person, someone whom you can easily make a friend. We had some great conversations about India, Pakistan and our lives in general.
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| One of the many clicks @ Sultanahmet Square |
Next morning, we had a filling breakfast provided by the hostel and left for sightseeing around 11. I wanted to leave earlier but 11 is the best you can expect when you are travelling with two other girls :P. We covered Sultan Ahmed Mosque, Aya Sofia and Basilica Cistern by 5 in the evening. They are all magnificent and dominating structures with weird mix of Christian and Islamic influences. Istanbul might be the only place on earth where Islam and Christianity have come to peace with each other to achieve a common goal: to create a prosperous and modern society.
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| Inside Aya Sofia, first a church, then a mosque and now a museum! |
In the evening, we went back to the hostel to rest a bit and then left for eminonu around 8 pm. Eminonu is the place where you go to take most of the ferry tours in Istanbul. It is an extremely crowded location, with locals and tourists everywhere you can see. They say that best fishes in Istanbul are served here in boats that make a fresh catch everyday.
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| One of the many fish restaurants by the sea @ Eminonu |
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| my favourite click! @ Fish restaurants, Eminonu |
We took the 1.5 hour boat ride which showed us the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. One of the things i highly recommend! We were completely exhausted by the end of the day, so we went home and crashed around midnight. Next day, we went to see the Topkapi Palace. It was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years (1465-1856). The palace is twice the size of Vatican City and half the size of Monaco. I usually don't go to museums, but this place just blew my mind. The amount of history stored in here is unprecedented (Prophet Muhammed's cloak and sword are just few examples). Presence of Saima and Tanzeen helped me a lot to understand the artifacts as they could tell me the stories behind them and their importance in the Muslim world.
We left Topkapi palace around 3 pm because we wanted to go to grand bazaar. Unfortunately, when we were outside the palace, we found out that the bazaar is closed on Sunday!! Ah, gross disappointment. I was leaving back to Holland next day @ noon! :( ... Oh well,next time.
So we decided to go and sit down at the sultanahmet park and eat watermelons. You can find watermelon outlets everywhere in Istanbul and they are most delicious! Turks love watermelon. But this was a very unfortunate moment for us. When we finished our watermelon and wanted to getup and leave, Tanzeen realized that her hang bag is missing. It had all her cash and documents including her passport. So for next few hours we were running around with Istanbul police trying to figure shit out. Tanzeen was obviously super stressed but police coordinated very well with us and we got things figured out fairly easily. Police didnt recovered anything but registered a stolen passport FIR and gave Tanzeen a letter stating the same. Next day tanzeen went to Pakistan Embessy in Istanbul with that letter and got a temporary passport. I hope this never happens to anyone, it is one of the worst situations you can get yourself into.
So all tired and upset, we went back to the hostel after all this drama. Tanzeen wanted to take some rest, so we left her there and i and saima went out to do some shopping for me as i was leaving next morning. Later that night, all three of us had nice dinner together and then went to bed. Next day morning, i did my goodbyes and left for the airport around 9:30 am.
Things bought: a turkish lamp, game of backgammon, postcards with whirling dervishes and lots of baklava :)
The best thing about this trip was a chance to hangout with saima again :D
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| Me and Saima posing as Ottoman royals ;) |
Hope you all are having a great time as well!
Yours,
Karan
