Turkish Delights - mosques, markets, mussels and music at Munzur

Firstly I have to say how impressed I was with Turkish Airlines - friendly, professional service, quality food, and we were lucky enough to have a brand new aeroplane, fitted with our own individual television sets built into the back of the seats in front of us, complete with headphone sets supplied FREE OF CHARGE!  I managed to watch several short documentaries on Vietnam, India, and rather appropriately, Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.  The airline had given me a good first impression of Turkey, and with the exception of the slight hiccup with the visa at the airport, that impression remained throughout my trip.

"We'll give you a visa but you can't pay for it in our currency!"

Much like me, you'll probably not have read the following information in a guidebook, so take note...at the time of writing this, it is not possible to buy a Turkish visa and pay for it in Turkish Lira!!!  We queued for about 40 minutes for the privilege of finding out!  Another anomaly we discovered when chatting to some Australian travellers whilst in the queue for the cash machine that would dispense euros, is that if you happen to live in the UK but are not British, you cannot pay in English pound sterling!  So, to recap, the currencies accepted to pay for your Turkish visa are euros, American dollars, and English pound sterling.  However you cannot pay in dollars if you're not American and you cannot pay in pound sterling if you're not British, so your best bet is euros.  The price of a visa, again at the time of writing, is 15 euros.

Day 1 : Arrival in Sultanamet

Sultanamet (the city's historical centre) is dead easy to get to on the metro and tram from Ataturk airport.  Catch the metro as far as Zeytinburmu, and then changeon to the tram line to Karakoy and hop off at the Sultanamet station.  We bought an Istanbulkart (travel card) at the airport, which is definitely a worthwhile investment if you plan to use public transport during your time in the city.  It works much like the Oyster card in London, you pay a deposit for the card, you can top it up in 5TL increments, and you just have to swipe the card every time you enter a station.  Unlike the Oyster card though, this one can be used for more than one traveller, as you only swipe it when you enter a station.  It just deducts a flat rate of 1.75TL per journey.  So, it's not really worth using if you're only travelling one or two stops, and to be honest 2 stops on the tram is not that far and the walk is often much more enjoyable.  There are only a few places these cards can be purchased from (which is why we got ours at the airport) but you can top them up at numerous stations, and they can be used on the buses too.

We arrived into Istanbul (having spent the best part of 2 hours at the airport queuing for visas/ATM's) at around 8pm, so we just spent our first evening sat up in the rooftop bar at our hostel, sipping an Efes beer, admiring the stunning view of the Aya Sofya, lit up beautifully against the blackness of the night sky, and plotting our itineraries for the next few days...

Day 2 : Getting lost in Sultanamet

The itinerary plan for today was to book tickets to see the famous Whirling Dervishes at Hocapasa Cultural Centre for the evening, check out the Grand Bazaar in the morning, and then do a walking tour of Sultanamet in the afternoon, taking in the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya & Basilica Cistern.  Not too ambitious I thought...
Now I'm not a bad map reader and I generally have a pretty good sense of direction (which I think comes from having travelled a lot), but it took us around 2 hours this morning to find said cultural centre!  It was exactly where Lonely Planet said it was on the map, the problem was that the Turkish don't seem to be fans of actually labelling their streets, so it's difficult to know where you actually are half the time!  Moreover the Hocapasa Cultural Centre is tucked down a tiny sokak, in an old converted hamam, and you cannot see the sign above the door unless you actually turn down this sokak and are standing pretty much in front of the building!

We also must have taken a wrong turning towards the Grand Bazaar, because we ended up at the Spice Market up near Eminonu.  Having now scrapped our original itinerary, we thought the Spice Market was as good a place to start as any.  The Spice Market is a pretty good culinary introduction to Turkey...a huge array of herbs and spices and teas, and meats and olives and cheeses, and fruits and nuts, and Turkish delights of every colour under the sun.  We sampled a mixed box of Turkish delights, giggled at the "Turkish Viagra" (figs with walnuts inside), and enjoyed a bit of banter with the guy who sold us some curry paste, who incidentally did a much better 'Brummie' accent than I ever could (I live in Shrewsbury but Birmingham is the nearest city that foreigners tend to recognise.)

After the Spice Market, we again took an unintended tour of some more of the city's backstreets (i.e we got lost!), quenched our thirst with some gorgeous freshly squeezed pomegranate juice from one of the many street vendors, and finally arrived at the Grand Bazaar.  It's a beautiful old building, initially constructed in 1461, and even if you don't plan to purchase anything, it's obligatory to marvel at the architecture, the huge arched ceilings and labyrinth of alleyways, to watch artisans at work, and drink lots of tea!

Although I hadn't planned to purchase anything, I spotted a painting of a Whirling Dervish, created from hundreds of calligraphy swirls, and it prompted me to have a nosey inside this tiny little shop, with artwork hanging from floor to ceiling.  Deciding that I wanted to bring back a souvenir that wasn't going to add weight to the backpack, I tried my hand at bargaining - something I have had a lot of practice at in the past, but I'm still not entirely convinced I'm any good at it!  Still, the shopkeeper's asking price was 120TL and I paid 55TL (£20).  Will post a photo of it here once I've got it framed!

Our final stop for the day was Aya Sofya, commonly acknowledged as one of the world's greatest buildings.  Built initially as a church in 537, converted to a mosque in 1453, and declared a museum by Ataturk in 1937, this is an immense and beautiful structure, and definitely not one to miss.  The photograph to the bottom left here is the spectacular nave, as visually arresting as it is enormous.  The photograph to the right was taken out of one of the windows on the upper floor.  It shows one of the domes of the Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque in the background.  Istanbul's skylines are littered with minarets, and you are constantly surrounded by the muezzin's familiar prayer calls, which are an enchanting reminder that you are in a city where Europe becomes Asia ; where the west meets the east.

Our evening was spent at a Whirling Dervish performance.  Before I attended one of these, I was aware that it was a religious ceremony, but I suppose I thought that it had been adapted from that and was now more of a cultural show; entertainment for the tourists.  In a way I was glad I was wrong and that the ceremony was still just that.  The first part of the ceremony is completed in silence, the attendees are focussed, and show no sign of even being aware that they have an audience.  Music and chanting are introduced, gowns are removed and the whirling finally begins - and doesn't stop!  I was observing the absolute poise and control these dervishes have, holding both arms in the air, head tilted to one side, and spinning on one foot for what seems like forever.  By whirling, the adherents believe that they are attaining a higher union with God, and watching them certainly is entrancing.  I felt as though I was being held, bewitched, in an alternate zone.  My boyfriend Stu called that zone 'almost asleep', so I guess the Whirling Dervishes aren't for everyone!  I wouldn't say the performance was enjoyable or entertaining, but it was interesting, and is an important part of Turkish culture.

Day 3 : Topkapi Palace, befriending cats, sampling street food & enjoying some Turkish folk music with the locals!

Once again, our morning was spent trying to organise future travel plans.  Metroturizm (one of the bus companies that had been recommended to us for our overnight bus journey to Denizli) have a website in English, but you cannot make a booking through it if you do not have a Turkish credit or debit card.  One of the staff at our hostel tried to make the booking over the telephone on our behalf, but again they wouldn't accept my UK registered debit card.  So, short of missioning it to the bus station and taking another chunk out of our day, our only option was to use a travel agent (we used Walkabout) and pay the commission, which only turned out to be 2TL per ticket in the end!



It was a pretty miserable day when we rocked up to the gates of Topkapi Palace, so it was fantastic that this building had so much colourful, opulent detail to marvel at.  The palace used to be full of Sultans, courtiers, concubines and eunuchs, who lived and worked there between the 15th and 19th centuries, and wandering around the pavilions and courtyards really gives you an insight into the history and customs of a once mighty empire.

Time ran away with us in this immense palace, so we hopped on a tram and headed over the bridge towards Galata Tower and the modern side of Istanbul.  It's a pretty steep climb up to Galata tower from Karakoy, so we ordered some freshly squeezed pomegranate juice from a street vendor and sat down at a child-sized table on two of the tiniest stools I think we could manage to fit our bottoms on to, and befriended a cat, who awkwardly positioned himself half inside my open camera bag on my lap, and then proceeded to stay there!  The views from the Galata Tower were fantastic, and as the sun had now shown its face, it gave a beautiful blue backdrop to the expanse of the city down below.

From Galata tower, we walked up towards Istiklal Caddesi, a pedestrianised (except for the funicular that runs between Taksim and Tunel) 19th century boulevard.  Strolling along here gives you a colourful snapshot of local life.  There are vendors selling simits (sesame encrusted bread-rings), roasted chestnuts, misir (corn on the cob) and midye dolma (stuffed mussels), and we sampled them all!  We also stopped for a Turkish coffee and some interesting looking sweets at Hafiz Mustafa, so we didn't really feel much like dinner after that!  Instead we searched out Munzur bar & cafe, recommended by Lonely Planet for the friendly atmosphere and nightly live folk music.  It did not disappoint, so much so that we were two of the first people in and two of the last to leave!  We were sat next to an incredibly friendly Turkish couple, the girl had lived in Notting Hill in London for a few months so could speak some English but the guy didn't know a word.  However it didn't stop him wanting his photograph taken with Stu, and then taking a photograph of me with his girlfriend, offering us cigarettes all night and then attempting to persuade us to join them for some Turkish dancing, which seemed to involve linking little fingers with the person next to you, whilst each person at the end of the chain waved a white handkerchief in their spare hand.  I was game, but I couldn't convince Stu!  Incidentally the music was also fantastic, especially the first band who played (on 21.04.13, if anyone reading this knows their name?)  I would gratefully have purchased a CD, had they been selling them.

A little tiddly, we walked all the way back to the hostel and decided to stop for 'one last drink' before bed up in the rooftop bar.  We spotted the Australian girl, Elise, who we chatted to at breakfast, so we joined her, and were then joined by the Vietnamese girl, Lin, whom we'd met at breakfast too, a couple of American girls, the Australian girl's friend, who'd eventually made it after missing her flight, a couple of Swedish girls who didn't stop dancing, a regular at the bar and his gorgeous German Shepherd, and one of the staff who works at the hostel.  It was a fantastic, impromptu night, and we eventually crawled into bed at somewhere around 3am.

Day 4 : An over-priced Bosphorus cruise, the Blue Mosque and a 10-hour bus journey to Denizli

Today almost didn't happen...the alarm didn't go off (probably user error trying to set it the night before whilst inebriated), I woke up at 8:25am, and we were being picked up for our Bosphorus cruise at 8:30am, leaving us 5 minutes to get dressed, pack, and check out!  The Bosphorus cruise, we were told, would make several stops, on the Asian side and at Ortakoy, none of which it did.  It was a good way to see those far away parts of Istanbul we would not otherwise have been able to, and we did learn a lot about the history of the city, but I'm not convinced we wouldn't have been better off certainly financially, booking one of the Bosphorus cruises the touts down by the harbour near Eminonu were offering for 10 euros!  After the cruise we headed back to the hostel for a shower, via a small cafe near Galata bridge serving the city's favourite fast-food treat, the balik ekmek (fish sandwich).  More bread than mackerel but it certainly filled us up for the day and only set us back 5TL (£1.80) each.

Feeling refreshed, we headed over to the Blue Mosque.  Having not brought a headscarf with me, I had to borrow one of theirs - which resembled a small bed sheet - in order to enter the mosque, and would not stay on my head, no matter how much I persevered!  Looking up at the amazing ceilings and attempting to photograph them, was not really helping my efforts!  The Blue Mosque is Istanbul's most photogenic building, and it's the thousands of blue Iznik tiles adorning the walls that give the building its unofficial but commonly used name.  It's not built on such a grand scale as Aya Sofya or Topkapi Palace, but it's just as impressive in it's own right.


Having still got a few hours of daylight remaining, we continued to Suleymaniye Mosque, located just north of the Grand Bazaar.  Crowning one of Istanbul's 7 hills, this mosque sees far fewer tourists than Aya Sofya or the Blue Mosque, but it's a lovely, recently restored building in a really peaceful setting high above the city, and affords some beautiful views down on to Istanbul.  

As the sun slowly began to set, we wandered back towards our hostel in Sultanamet, stopping off at the popular Han Restaurant for some snacks, before heading out to the Otogar (bus station) to catch the 10pm bus to Denizli.  I'd loved my time is this vibrant, buzzing, colourful city, but I was looking forward to exploring another of Turkey's gems, Pamukkale.




Footnotes and Recommendations
Blog content and all photographs are the property of Kiara Gallop, and may not be copied or reproduced.  Views and opinions expressed in this article are solely my own
We stayed at the Cheers Hostel, which I can thoroughly recommend.  Please follow this link to see my review of Cheers Hostel on Trip Advisor.