I picked Taksim as the neighborhood to stay on the recommendation of my friend Erol, who said it's the happening neighborhood for young people. That is no doubt the case, but I haven't met anyone yet -- the hostel is not exactly a happening spot and I didn't go out of my way to talk to English speakers I overheard throughout the day -- and frankly, after undersleeping last night and nine hours of walking around today, I'm just going to pack it in.
What a day, though. What a city! Istanbul lives up to the hype. I walked down Istiklal Caddasi (street) to the Bosphorus and then crossed the bridge. I knew from the map the guy at the hostel gave me, and from talking to Erol and others, that the main sights are all pretty close together. So I just picked the first big, old, mosque-looking building I saw and walked in. Turned out to be the New Mosque (ca. 1650). Gorgeous, lesser-known than its sibling the Blue Mosque. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I took my shoes off and walked into the main hall of the New Mosque. It's gorgeous. This became a theme.
After a few minutes gaping, I walked back out into the sunlight and across a small courtyard to the Spice Bazaar. Wandered around, checking out the spice wholesalers and all the other shops hawking their wares. It's crowded and close but not overwhelming at all. Not that I'm easily overwhelmed by crowds or chaos, I guess, but it felt orderly somehow. I wandered out and then walked around trying to find my next destination. This turned out to be the Topkapi Palace museum. Twenty bucks later and I was again agape, exploring the huge grounds, many buildings, and staggering objets d'art that the Topkapi offers. Some of the stuff is incredibly cool. They've got 500-year-old caftans worn by Ottoman sultans, jewel-encrusted cups and scabbards and tons else, ebony thrones with mother-of-pearl inlay, gifts from faraway rulers like the Chinese and Russians. And then a whole wing dedicated to relics and other religious objects: the sword of King David (yes, that King David), Abraham's sauce pan (yes, that Abraham), Moses's staff (you get the idea), the Prophet's swords and bow, and on and on! Like all relics the provenance is a little dubious, but they make no allowances of that kind in the displays. David's sword is dated as ca. 10th century BC. Abraham's sauce pan as ca. 19th century BC. They've also got old pieces of the Kaaba in there.
Objet'd out, I made my over to the highlight of the Topkapi: the harem. Turns out this refers not just to the concubines who kept the sultan happy and bore him children, but to the whole private residence of the sultan and his retinue: concubines, his mother, his sons, his eunuchs watching over everything. The architecture and decoration in this part are just unreal. There was a lot of gasping.
After that I visited the big brother of the New Mosque, the Blue Mosque. It's similar just bigger and more spectacular. The Hagia Sophia is closed on Mondays so I went to the Grand Bazaar. It is Borgesian in its apparent infinitude. There are points inside where it doesn't seem to end, but rather to repeat in all directions like a fractal. I successfully avoided buying anything that I don't need, although I did stop for tea at a cafe with wifi, so I could check to see whether my colleague Kishwar had written back about dinner. He had not. I moved on.
More wandering took me to a little cafe, where I sat outside and drank some hot spiced red wine. Finally I retraced my steps, more or less, and ended up back on Istiklal. Had dinner at a restaurant that TripAdvisor recommended, called Faros. It was good but extremely generic: convert the prices to USD and you could plop the whole thing down in any decent-sized city in the US and it would not be out of place. I had tagliatelle with chicken and mushrooms and rocket salad with the largest sheets of parmesan I've ever seen tented over the top and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. And a beer. Like I said, tasty but unexceptional.
And now I'm back in the hostel, it's 9:20 PM, and I think I'm going to watch an episode of Sherlock or some other movie and call it an evening. I'll head to the airport around 10 tomorrow morning and be back in DC by dinnertime. What a trip!
What a day, though. What a city! Istanbul lives up to the hype. I walked down Istiklal Caddasi (street) to the Bosphorus and then crossed the bridge. I knew from the map the guy at the hostel gave me, and from talking to Erol and others, that the main sights are all pretty close together. So I just picked the first big, old, mosque-looking building I saw and walked in. Turned out to be the New Mosque (ca. 1650). Gorgeous, lesser-known than its sibling the Blue Mosque. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I took my shoes off and walked into the main hall of the New Mosque. It's gorgeous. This became a theme.
After a few minutes gaping, I walked back out into the sunlight and across a small courtyard to the Spice Bazaar. Wandered around, checking out the spice wholesalers and all the other shops hawking their wares. It's crowded and close but not overwhelming at all. Not that I'm easily overwhelmed by crowds or chaos, I guess, but it felt orderly somehow. I wandered out and then walked around trying to find my next destination. This turned out to be the Topkapi Palace museum. Twenty bucks later and I was again agape, exploring the huge grounds, many buildings, and staggering objets d'art that the Topkapi offers. Some of the stuff is incredibly cool. They've got 500-year-old caftans worn by Ottoman sultans, jewel-encrusted cups and scabbards and tons else, ebony thrones with mother-of-pearl inlay, gifts from faraway rulers like the Chinese and Russians. And then a whole wing dedicated to relics and other religious objects: the sword of King David (yes, that King David), Abraham's sauce pan (yes, that Abraham), Moses's staff (you get the idea), the Prophet's swords and bow, and on and on! Like all relics the provenance is a little dubious, but they make no allowances of that kind in the displays. David's sword is dated as ca. 10th century BC. Abraham's sauce pan as ca. 19th century BC. They've also got old pieces of the Kaaba in there.
Objet'd out, I made my over to the highlight of the Topkapi: the harem. Turns out this refers not just to the concubines who kept the sultan happy and bore him children, but to the whole private residence of the sultan and his retinue: concubines, his mother, his sons, his eunuchs watching over everything. The architecture and decoration in this part are just unreal. There was a lot of gasping.
After that I visited the big brother of the New Mosque, the Blue Mosque. It's similar just bigger and more spectacular. The Hagia Sophia is closed on Mondays so I went to the Grand Bazaar. It is Borgesian in its apparent infinitude. There are points inside where it doesn't seem to end, but rather to repeat in all directions like a fractal. I successfully avoided buying anything that I don't need, although I did stop for tea at a cafe with wifi, so I could check to see whether my colleague Kishwar had written back about dinner. He had not. I moved on.
More wandering took me to a little cafe, where I sat outside and drank some hot spiced red wine. Finally I retraced my steps, more or less, and ended up back on Istiklal. Had dinner at a restaurant that TripAdvisor recommended, called Faros. It was good but extremely generic: convert the prices to USD and you could plop the whole thing down in any decent-sized city in the US and it would not be out of place. I had tagliatelle with chicken and mushrooms and rocket salad with the largest sheets of parmesan I've ever seen tented over the top and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. And a beer. Like I said, tasty but unexceptional.
And now I'm back in the hostel, it's 9:20 PM, and I think I'm going to watch an episode of Sherlock or some other movie and call it an evening. I'll head to the airport around 10 tomorrow morning and be back in DC by dinnertime. What a trip!
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