Short Visit to an Energetic City
Trip Start
Nov 02, 2006
1
35
44
Trip End
Dec 19, 2007
Istanbul,
Turkey
Monday, September 3, 2007
I normally don't mind flying too much & am pretty good about getting to the airport on time, but this was my 3rd early morning flight in 3 days & the night before I got home around midnight. So I was a bit slow in the morning. Now that its Sunday, I've been on 8 flights in 5 days (Sat was my break). A bit much, even for me.
Good thing Istanbul was definitely worth it. I met up with my best friend, Kat, who I only get to see about once a year since we left college
01 - Taksim Square
. But, we do meet up in some great places: Hawaii, Australia, Scotland, Jackson Hole and now Istanbul. It was a short, but sweet trip, full of great views, beautiful mosques and generally lots of energy (except for Sunday mid-morning, which was extremely quiet). Its not surprising the city is so full of energy with the population being somewhere between 12 and 16M. I've read that a large part of that population is also under 30. Istanbul is clearly secular as there was a large mix of attire. Unlike in Oman, we did not stand out in Western clothing. Even the more traditional muslim attire for women varied from just a colorful headscarf to the full head-to-toe black with just the eyes showing. I don't recall seeing a single man in the same type of attire as I saw in Oman. Walking around, we also noticed that groups of people were mixed - there would be a group of women with some in Western attire, some with just a headscarf, some in long sleeves & long dress plus the headscarf, etc. And I only saw about a dozen women in the full head-to-toe black during my time there - they were also tourists, taking pictures and pointing out sights amongst themselves.
In general, the city seemed not 100% European and not 100% Middle Eastern, which makes sense. Every street was not overwhelmingly beautiful with amazing, old buildings that had been restored, but Istanbul had its fair share
02 - Aya Triada Greek Orthodox Church
. Views were particularly breath taking as you could really see the masses - building after building on every hillside.Leaving Istanbul also proved adventurous for me, including almost missing my plane. I left plenty of time for the return to the Istanbul airport, but about 15 minutes into my ride, there was a sound as if the taxi ran over something. The car seemed to work, so the driver kept going. But this sound happened again 2 minutes later & then 30 seconds later. So the driver pulled over on the highway & got out to check it out. I guess he didn't see anything because he got back in & kept driving along the right shoulder (there wasn't really one). He was driving really slowly, but every once in awhile, the sound would happen again. The timing was not consistent and neither was the volume - but by this point I was again stressed out that I would not make my flight. Or that my taxi would just break down & I would not be able to communicate with the driver, who did not seem to speak much English, and therefore be stuck by the side of the highway for hours.
Upon finally getting to the airport, the meter was way more than the 35 YTLs the hotel quoted, but I just gave him the rest of my Turkish money & went inside. Phew!
I'm posting some of the pictures, but the captions might still be changed since Kat has the books with the correctly spelled names & identities of all the places we visited.
