Istanbul

Well here I am, finally got packed, organised, prepped and left London Luton to Istanbul on Saturday 27^th February. I arrived in Istanbul in fairly drab weather with the pilot informing us that it was exactly the same conditions as when we had left London...not what I was expecting at all! After an hour longer transfer to the hostel, which in itself was fairly hairy, I quickly settled into the flow of things and went out to dinner with a fellow group of travellers at a local (in terms of its relative location to our hostel rather than authenticity of its cuisine) restaurant. I had Kofte el shabab  aka sausages and chips, ethnic? Think not... Anyway the company was outstanding for one can always be assured a flowing conservation with such nationalities as Canadian, American, French, German, English and Argentina!

The next day I went with an English girl called Rebecca to a number of sites around Istanbul. We started at the blue mosque which was exceedingly impressive from the outside, six minarets, a large dome and covered in a stone of a light blue, yet seemed to let itself down inside just being rather bland. However this is the case in most mosques I gather to prevent any distractions from worship of god. We then took a tram to the Galata tower. Whilst not the highest tower I have ascended, probably about 50m or so, we had great views of Istanbul. However whilst the visual vantage point was acceptable, the acoustic vantage point was something else as we managed to luck out in arriving at precisely the right time for one of the 5 daily calls to prayer. Whilst obviously normal in a Muslim city like this, to which one quickly becomes accustomed to (even at 6 in the morning), at the top of the Galata tower we were treated to not just the calls of the local mosque but to the hundreds of individual mosques which dot the landscape and their echoes which all merged into a incomprehensible chorus. Quite an amazing site! We then had lunch in a small cafe in which Rebecca understandably felt slightly uncomfortable at the start being the only woman subjected to the piercing gazes of the fellow male dinners until a group of female tourists walked in (shared the blame so to speak). We then tried to visit the modern art museum however twas closed on a Monday so ventured onto the spice market, neither of us particularly needed spices at the time so made our way back to the hostel for another dinner then Karaoke! The next day along with a Argentine named Balouti visited the Hagia Sofia, which was arguably the most interesting of the attractions in Istanbul at over 1000 years old and having formally been a church then a Mosque. Its internal structure was something to behold unlike that of the blue mosque. Next we visited the Tokapi palace which was “just” a site of former Kings. Galleries of diamonds, gold and other precious stones were of particular interest as were the various Pavilions or as we would call them, over the top summer houses.

The following day myself, Balouti, Rebecca and Darway (an American traveller) took a boat cruise down the Bosporus strait lunching on the Asian side and exploring the quaint town which if heavily reliant on the daily cruise stopping at its shores for tourist revenue was still very pretty. We hiked up a small hill to visit the fortress that looked across the strait, however were saddened to find that the internal structure was closed off for archaeological excavations (bloody academics). We still enjoyed the views and the external structure of the castle before returning to the boat.

After visiting several other tourist sites such as the Grand Bazaar and the Hagia Sofia mausoleums I felt I had “seen” Istanbul so I chose upon recommendation of fellow travellers to go see my current residence Pamukkale. An overnight bus and an in depth conversation with a 40 something Japanese engineer in which we primarily discussed the current economic and social ills that currently plague Japan I arrived in Pamukkale. I was met by a guy from my budget hotel I was staying at who had apparently been waiting for me ( I believe this to be to ensure my custom at his hotel as the place was dead). He whisked be back to the Hotel Dort Mevsim and then directed me to the springs and ruins I had come to see and what a sight they were! A whole mountainside covered in this brilliant white Calcium carbonate deposit. I arrived on a fairly overcast day and for one moment the sky significantly brightened up and the whole area seemed to blind one’s eyes. After paying the entry fee I made my way up a dirt track to the start of the calcite trail where upon I was instructed to remove my shoes and make the final 500m hike up the side of the moist calcite hill barefoot. The hot mineral loaded water upon cooling had deposited its chemical content and formed various pools with a blue so brilliant and turquoise that it rivalled that of any picture postcard Maldives shoreline!               Upon reaching the summit I was able to explore the roman ruins that had been built upon a plateau which were remarkably preserved/reconstructed. However the amphitheatre was exceedingly exciting and impressive in size. I then hiked back down the calcite hill to the hotel. I enjoyed a dinner of chicken casserole and rice cooked by “momma” and Turkish tv consisting of Morris style dance routines being clapped along by male politicians and generals interspersed with breaking news reports. Not the 9’oclock news indeed!

Anyway apologies for not beginning this blog sooner after leaving the UK; indeed I am currently sitting by the empty pool in my hotel in Pamukkale about to go the bus station to catch an overnight bus to Kapadocia. The reason I give for this is a) my chance to write was severely limited in Istanbul due to socializing with other guests at night, b) the chances I did have I chose to read my book “The Count of Monte Cristo” and c) I did start writing this post a few days ago but my computer froze and I lost all progress, maybe 150 words, and was so disheartened that I gave up! I shall endeavour now to publish one every few days (and to save as I go along!) as I have found it difficult writing this to remember exactly what I have done in Istanbul on each day due to the time elapsed, not alcoholic amnesia as some of you may suggest!

A couple of side notes which may or may not be of interest.

The first is advice for male solo travellers in Istanbul about a particular con (to which I was not a victim but a Swedish guy was in our hostel). This guy call Sam was approached by a man in the area around the blue Mosque posing to be a business man from Southern Turkey who suggested they visit a bar for a couple of drinks. Sam believing this to be the culture agreed and they ventured into a taxi who this friendly business man. Upon entry to the bar he suggested the two of them buy some ladies a few drinks. At the end of the night they were presented with a bill amounting to 4000 Turkish lira, which when split amounted to 2000 (about £800) for Sam. Not knowing the currency rates he had to withdraw from an atm to which he had help from the other guy who seemed to know intrinsically about the limits and how he could get as close as possible to the amount. The turk agreed to pay the remainder as he “had enjoyed sams company so much”. They parted ways in their separate cabs and Sam realised the next day he had been conned as his bank account statement stated he had spent €1000. Turns out actually many people are regularly victims of this particular con!

The second is an insight into travelling and tourism brought about by a discussion with a fellow hostel dweller Alex in Istanbul. In the period of time leading up to a gap year one is bombarded with information from various companies about “volunteering jobs with elephants” and “local cultural travels off the beaten”. Indeed I was particularly interested in them.  He argued that these were falsities and in fact the tourist trade at its very best being able convince travellers that the restaurant tucked away into the hillside was hardly visited by the western world serving authentic local cuisine and was how locals ate and traditional, or that the school the people were going to build in Africa for orphans was in dire need of their services. In fact he argued that these schools were simply profit making exercises for the travel agencies and heads of school for how many businesses would crave to have someone pay to carry out manual labour on their buildings for a number of months. I disagreed especially with his cynical capitalistic point of view on the schools stating that whilst it is true that the agencies profit from the experience but many of my friends had not done this volunteer work through an agency and the work is still volunteer in nature and therefore beneficial to both the school and the volunteer concerned.  He argued that to really see a culture and country one must travel independently of commercial enterprises and off the beaten track as possible however one must embrace the fact that the moment you step outside your own country (or to some degree your home town) you are a tourist and should not be afraid of being used as such. Anyway I wouldn’t have shared this discussion if today I hadn’t after breakfast started talking to the son (not older than 7) of the hotel, he was very friendly and invited me over to the computer; believing I was having a “cultural bonding session with a local” we sat down at the computer to which I found out that I was player 2 and he was player 1 in the Cartoon Networks Tom and Jerry Super Big Cheese bounce game. Did I feel used for half an hour? Sure thing I did, but I still enjoyed kicking his ass and bouncing that cheese!