Well I now have a gorgeous new kitchen and peace and tranquility reign once more In Castle Random and I am sitting here with cup of tea to hand and deciding that it is time I inflicted my views on my Istanbul trip on you all.
Busy busy busy city, absolutely huge. I gather that once Turkey becomes a fully fledged member of the EU Istanbul will be the largest capital city, knocking London and any others off their perch and viewing just a tiny bit of it from a boat sailing up the Bosporus, I could well believe it.
We were fortunate in the location of our wonderful hotel, the Empress Zoe, which had been recommended to me by various friends, the location of which was well nigh perfect, being five minutes from the Blue Mosque, Haghia Sophie and the Topkapi Palace. The rooms are all very individual with dark wood and painted walls and the reception area has a lethal spiral staircase to be negotiated in order to reach our room. We were warned about this, but when I saw the actuality my heart sank. Still, needs must and by the end of our stay I was scampering, well, staggering, up and down quite happily. My daughter, Kathryn, managed them much better than me….
This was the hotel garden where we were able to eat our breakfast in the morning.
Hotel cats in abundance and staff very friendly. Recommended.
Blue Mosque first on list and stunning inside as expected with the blue tiles giving the building its popular name. Took our shoes off on entering and given a plastic bag to put them in and on way out passed over a large door mat which said in large letters Please Do Not put your shoes back on Here. Immediately tripped over a tourist who was putting his shoes back on Here ….
While the Haghia Sophia was also gorgeous the visit of the day for my daughter and I was the Topkapi Palace. Sun was shining and grounds were full of visitors sitting, sleeping, eating their lunch and just generally enjoying chilling out. Because it was such a good day this meant that when we visited each part of the palace the crowds were spread out and you never felt hemmed in.
As the grounds were also filled with the most glorious tulips (some so dark they looked black) the whole experience was not quite as hairy as I am sure it would have been the next day when it tipped down. The highlight was the visit to the harem which I have already mentioned briefly on Random and, while it was beautiful and fascinating, the thought that the women inside never ever stepped outside the walls surrounding them, made a shiver run down my spine.
One of the most fascinating places visited while were in the city was the Yerebetan Saray (the Basilica Cistern) a vast underground water storage system. Begun by Constantine, it was expanded by Justinian in 532 to ensure that Constantinople was always supplied with water. It languished in obscurity for years but was restored in the 19th century by the current Sultan and also in the 1950s. There is a story that a writer who came to Istanbul to conduct research on Byzantine, was told that people living around the Hagia Sophia were getting water with buckets they hung down in well holes, even catching fish. The gentleman in question, one P Guylius, entered the cistern via a staircase in the courtyard of a house and found the cistern which he wrote about in his travel books. Eventually restoration work took place in the 1980s and it is now a popular tourist attactcion. It is very spooky and atmospheric and I gather from the literature that it is also used as a venue for film locations. I spotted a mention that From Russia with Love, the James Bond move made in 1963 had been filmed here and I immediately remembered a boat sequence and recognised the columns. My daughter, Kathryn, informed me that a recent movie with Clive Owen, International, is filmed around Istanbul and uses this location also so that now goes on my DVD to see list.
The spookiness of it all is highlighted by the upside and sideways heads of Medusa carved at the foot of one of the columns, placed thus so that you do not look into her eyes and turn into stone. I could only have wished that fate on some of the pushing and shoving tourists around me who were all jostling and shouting and trying to get a good shot….
I waited until they had all gone.
More of Istanbul another day. Enough for now.
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