Interlude - Musings in Istanbul
We have had a great time here in Istanbul and Mehmet and Hakan who run Hotel Apricot, where we have been staying, are a good part of the reason why. They are so friendly and helpful - ans their help is really worth having - before the hotel, Hakan was a highly recommended tour guide for the whole of Turkey and Mehmet was a guide for Gallipoli (Gelibolu for the Turks), so we are getting masses of info from them about the places we want to see as we travel around. And added to that, they have taken us in almost as family while we are staying here, so we have lots of fun just hanging around chatting to them.
It took a couple of says for us to click with Istanbul, but now we're really enjoying it - infact it's starting to feel like home and we're really going to miss it when we leave tomorrow! I can imagine that the thousands (hundreds of thousands!) of visitors that come each year for just a day (on the multitude of cruise ships that come here) or for a couple of days only (on the 1 week - 19 day package tours) never get to feel this way as they are wisked from one tourist jam at the AyaSofia to the next at the Topkapi Palace! They never get the chance to see beyond the sheer mass of people, the chaos and the dirt (and it is dirty - rubbish bins never seem to be used to their full extent) - which is a big pity. We're very glad we have the luxury to take things a bit more slowly and have time to just sit around and adsorb what's going on - its made for some of our most interesting and enjoyable times.
Chris started this little routine - after a busy day wandering around and trying to contribute very little to the Turkish economy via the carpet sellers, we come back to the hotel which is down a (relatively for Istanbul) quiet side street, where we sit at little tables on the footpath, drink beer, and watch the world go by, while chatting to Mehmet and Hakan, the carpet seller guys next door and maybe some of the other guests and just watch life going on in the street. Most of the other guests prefer the roof terrace, which has a view across the rooftops out to the Se of Marmaris, but the street is definitely more fun for us!
Tina is also practicing hard at learning some Turkish, but we're not finding it as easy to pick up as Spanish, French or even Chinese - the words are just so different from anything we know, so right now please and thank you is about all we've learnt in 4 days - luckily heaps of Turks (at least in Istanbul) speak some English (and the carpet seller are fluent in English and at least 3 other languages, and are charming and amusing to boot - but guess you don't last long in the carpet business here with out being charming and witty!)
Impressions of Istanbul:
· Cats everywhere! Skinny (but not starving - we think it's the breed of cat) and quite small, but thousands of them, and all reasonably friendly - especially if you are sitting down eating! And dogs - but not as many as the cats. Restaurants feed them scraps and I think private homes as well - was explained to us that people like cats and dogs, but don't want hem in their homes, but no-one takes responsibility for them, so none are neutered - so more & more cats and dogs on the streets....
· Lots more women wearing headscarves than we expected (in the rural areas of Turkey, yes, but not so much for Istanbul). And there are hundreds of different ways to arrange them - all very fashionable!
· Everone is a carpet salesman or a tour guide!!
· Love the call to prayer - very evocative!! And surprisingly the 5am wake up one is most evocative - barely awake, listening to the echoing chants from all the mosques, knowing you'll fall asleep again in a few minutes.... Lovely!
· People!! Istanbul has a population of 15 million and then there's all the tourists, especially Sultanhamet - Eminonu - Bazaar area, which is tourist central....
· Cars - all racing around (if there's any traffic flow at all) or more usually in the narrow cobble streets where we are, jammed up in huge traffic snarls, with horns blaring and police sirens and loudspeakers yelling instructions, while 5 huge tourist buses block all traffic as they try to disgorge their loads. Its incredible how these Istanbul drivers can manoeuvre past each other or through the narrow streets thronging with people, with only inches to spare!
· The sheer mass of boat traffic up and down the Bosphorus each day.
· Hundreds of beautiful mosques and minarets all over the skyline
· The lovely old marble water fountains dotted all over the old part of the city. Gifts from wealthy citizens to the people of the city I read some where - a lovely idea, even if most of them are now no longer functional.
· Ottoman houses, some in need of repair, some beautifully restored, and many abandoned because (we've been told) its just too expensive to restore them and the owners can't tear them down because of preservation requirements - so they're waiting til they fall down completely and then they can sell the valuable land.
Istanbul Hotels
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