Three days in Istanbul

When I was planning a trip to Russia, I found that tickets from Moscow to Istanbul and back were hardly INR 18,000. So I decided to take a whirlwind one-week tour to Turkey. 

After all, Turkey was home to the most ancient human civilizations ever discovered. Gobekle Tepe dates back to 11,500 BC to 7,500 BC. 

In comparison, the rest of the ancient civilizations are relatively new (Mesopotamia dating back to 6,500 BC, new evidence placing Indus Valley settlements at 7,500 BC, Egyptian 6,000 BC, Jericho 9,000 BC.

In fact, it may have predated most civilizations, because archaeological digs in Anatolia, at Aşıklı Höyük are dated to 9000 BC.

My interest wasn't in ancient history (humanity has been around for 250,000 years) but in the Turkey of post-coup attempt Erdogan, of a country where the military  iis trusted as the guardian of  Atatürkçülük, since Kemal Ataturk’s demise in 1938. I wanted to see how a country that has seen centuries of Greek, Byzantine and Ottoman rule can change in less than a century.

I started with Istanbul (almost the second capital after Ankara). I went on a bosphorus tour, watched whirling devirishes, was oddly moved by the poetry of Rumi, went to Hodjapasha and was enthralled by belly dancers, saw the Hagia Sophia and Sultanahmet, and did whatever could be done in three days!

Turkey has got spotless trains that are on time, and train stations. So have China, Vietnam, Russia, Indonesia, and countless other countries. Introspecting, perhaps this thing we have for the great Indian Railway is just that - misplaced pride about our stinking toilets and dirty trains, seems to be a Indian sub-continental trait.

Their buses and trams are equally beautiful.

Bye-lanes of Istanbul

Still walking

What is it about artists that makes me stop and stare away? Even I did sketches from photographs, reasonably well. To create from a live model requires far more artistry than most of us are capable of.

Buying an Istanbul Pass is easiest to travel by bus or metro. At Sultanahmet, the heart of historical Istanbul.

The Hagia Sophia - a Greek Orthodox Basilisca later converted into an Imperial Mosque, and now the Ayasofya Museum.

The Ottoman Emperors still left the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus alone. They had plastered over most iconoclastic images, and this one may have been restored after the Hagia Sophia was made a a museum. Under Ataturk, finally after centuries, carpets were removed and underlying marble floor decorations could be seen. Several mosaics were uncovered when the plaster was removed.

The Hagia Sophia (it means Holy Wisdom) suffered under the Byzantine iconoclastic period when relics and icons were destroyed. It was ransacked by the Crusaders, It suffered two earthquakes and two major fires after which it had to be rebuilt. It served as the last refuge for men, women, boys and girls from an invading Sultan Ahmet. The Fall of Constantinople was well documented with the rapes and slavery that followed.

In May 2017, there has been a call under Erdogan to convert the Museum back into a mosque after 80-odd years. If so, will we again see white plastered walls instead of the Virgin Mary and Jesus? Who wins - Christians, Muslims, or Kemal Ataturk, the secular Father of the Turks?

The Blue Mosque at Sultanahmet


A street hawker

Craftsman working the glass

Spice-seller. Wherever I went, people were willing to pose for me! How do I take candid photos? I don't! I just catch them moving for the camera.

Bosphorus Night Cruise takes you off the shore, gives you dinner, some "Turkish" folk dancers, some cheap performers including  so-called belly dancers, and tries to take money for alcoholic drinks from you. Except for the dinner, and some great local singers, I found it not worthwhile.

 Bosphorus at night, with the lights of Istanbul.

Egyptian Spice Market

 Egyptian Spice Market

 Egyptian Spice Market

 This was the month of Ramzan, and they had special offers on gulu gullac.

 You have to pay to piss! I have yet to see public defecation and urination anywhere else apart from the sub-continent, but then, I have seen only a few places. I still have hopes that some poor country in Africa is worse than our golden country.

 A Turkish Bath near the Hagia Sophia - I wavered at the thought and backed out on price. It cost the moon. The Turks have their baths normally the way we do - in their bathrooms.

Sultanahmet Koftesi is from the 1920's.

 You can see a family resemblance in the cook and the overhead portrait. No?

 At Mahmut Pasa Grand Bazar, one of the ancient Bazars in Istanbul

On my way back to my hostel

At Hodjapasha, where the best performances of the Whirling Devirishes and Belly Dancers happen.

 A statue

This one is a life-like statue 

 Turkish Coffee

 Views of Istanbul

 On my way to Bursa from Istanbul

 Views from Bursa

 Aerial view of Bursa - the old Capital of the Ottoman Empire