Why it's Istanbul not Constantinople
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2006
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148
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Trip End
Jul 15, 2008
Istanbul,
Turkey
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Istanbul, Turkey
In the afternoon we shop for cloths across the Golden Horn in the Tunel district, and climb the Galata Tower (10 YTL per person).
November 2, 2007
Today we go to the Basilica Cistern for 10 YTL per person. It was very impressive. We are having difficulty figuring out our route to escape Istanbul. There are a series of ancient Greek and Roman sites along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts we'd like to see. If we travel by bus we will just get to the cities close to the sites and then have to hire a taxi or tour transport to see the sites themselves. We considered renting a car, which would give us flexibility and allow us to just drive directly to the archeological sites. But we haven't driven since Australia and it could be a hassle
01-01
. We don't like the idea of joining a tour but we finally swallow our pride and sign up for a custom made 9 day tour that will take us to various site and end at Antakya (biblical Antioch, also called Hayat) near the Syrian border. Transportation, lodging, breakfasts (occasionally lunch as well), site fees and tour guides are all supposed to be covered for a total price of 1564 YTL. We will leave the evening of the 6th.November 3, 2007
We finally get worn down by all the carpet salesmen touting outside their shops. So we do some carpet shopping and pick up some Turkish tiles as well.
November 4, 2007
Now we have to ship out those carpets, tiles and some miniature paintings that Arvid could not resist. The Turkish Post Office has a restriction against shipping carpets, strange as that seems. So we have to use DHL: $290 for 14 kilos in a box measuring 25x50x40 cm. This is why we always choose to ship through the local post offices if we can.
November 5, 2007
One final party before we leave Istanbul. We met Ismail and Nama at Sezai's club and are finally getting together with them. They are close to our ages, which we like
01-02
. They own and operate a cargo ship. Ismail told us the tonnage but not being sailors it did not register with us. They only operate in the Black Sea, and Mediterranean, so we got an idea about the size from that. Nama works on the ship with Ismail as his assistant. They are shipping out tomorrow for Italy, so we are lucky to get time with them. They seemed like a good husband and wife team doing very unusual work. Sezai joined us and we all had a good evening even though Sezai often had to translate. We ended by finishing three bottles of Turkish wine back at the hotel before calling it a day about 2 AM. November 6, 2007
Arvid has been reading "1453" by Roger Crowley, a history of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople and now Arvid wants to inspect the city walls before leaving. We've seen the sea walls but not the important land wall, also called the Theodosian Wall. Ancient Constantinople had a perimeter of 12 miles and 8 of those were protected by sea. It was the 4 mile land wall that the Ottomans finally breached to take the city in 1453 AD. The Turks call this event "The Conquest." This morning Arvid goes off to find the remains of the land walls. Irina is not so curious and uses the time for the more practical mission of buying a digital camera to replace the one that is failing us. We meet up in the evening to catch our tour bus to Selcuk; our first stop.
