Trip of a lifetime: Three nights in Istanbul

We got into Istanbul fairly late in the afternoon following a one hour flight from Athens. We enjoyed a white knuckled taxi ride to the Athens airport, including speeds of 90 kph in a 60 kph zone. The driver was telling us how bad things were in Greece and that he was meant to retire15 years ago, which would put him roughly 80ish! There was lots of horn tooting going on largely directed at us but the driver seemed oblivious or perhaps he couldn't hear them.....

Navigating the Athens airport was pretty straight forward, the information staff were very helpful. The rain stayed with us.

Our first look at Turkey was quite surprising. I don't know what I expected, but from the plane it looked very fertile, lots of agricultural land.

The city was busy, although when we arrived, the Turks were celebrating the Feast of the Sacrifice which goes is for four and a half days, where lamb meat is distributed to the needy. It is a public holiday which meant that the Grand and Spice Bazaar where closed while we were in Istanbul which was a tad disappointing.

We were staying in the old city.

Lots of curvy, narrow streets which seemed to go round in circles. I found it quite disorientating.

We had a short walk around where we were staying and then headed back for dinner. There was quite a tangible atmosphere particularly when you hear the Muslim call to prayer at 5.30 am. They are required to pray five times a day.

I was looking forward to the food. This dish was like a pasta filled ravioli and a yoghurt, lemon and pepper sauce. Really interesting flavours, a tangy sauce.

Next day was an early start with a tour guide. We were by ourselves, and the guide was really informative with fantastic English.

This was our first stop. The Topkapi palace was the residence of the Ottoman sultans for 400 years from 1465 - 1856. It was also the place for state occasions and entertainment. It is now a museum containing things important to Muslims, and collections of porcelain, robes , weapons, armour and jewels. At its peak there were 4000 people living in the palace community.

This is a model of the complex as it was in its heyday.

Quite beautiful architecture.

And many ornate ceilings and domes.

I know, food again, but this was a pistachio cake which I had to try as Turkey is the home of pistachios. Delicious nutty flavour in the cake part and filled with cream, crushed pistachio sprinkled on top.

Next stop was the Ayasofya.

This building built in 537ad, began its life as an Eastern Orthodox Church. It was later changed to a Roman Catholic Cathedral in the Latin era, and then when the Ottoman Turks arrived, they fancied it for a mosque. The architecture famous for its Byzantine nature has withstood earthquakes due to its unique brick construction. It is now a museum where there are pieces of significance for both the Christian religion, and Muslim pieces side by side.

For instance, here we have a mosaic of The Madonna.

This picture is taken from the second floor balcony, note the round plaques in Arabic on the walls. The walls are covered with marble and other stone, some of which were plunder from war campaigns from other historic sites as was the custom in those days.

Not far from here was our next stop, The Blue Mosque.

The Blue Mosque is so named for the blue tile which decorate the internal walls. The mosque was built between 1609 and 1617. It was built primarily as a worship place but also included hospital, school, market and a soup kitchen. It is currently a working mosque, although has huge numbers of tourist traffic. There are strict dress codes even for tourists which included hats off for men, scarves to cover hair for ladies and shoes off for everyone.

Quite beautiful inside and this also gives you an idea of the beautiful blue handmade tiles up in the domes and ceilings.

This is where we left our tour guide and caught the tram back to our hotel. We did have a look in a couple of shops, but I got a bit freaked out by the Shopkeepers very aggressive marketing techniques. I will also remember the very persistent techniques of sale by the Rug shop owner our guide took us to.

The next day was our trip to Gallipoli. We left Istanbul at 6.15 am for the five hour trip, passing along some lovely coastal views. I did not expect to see this in Turkey.

Following lunch, we had an orientation to Anzac Cove by our tour guide.

This is the beach where the Anzacs mistakenly landed about 1 km from where they should have been.

Now it is a peaceful place of rememberance of courage and terrible carnage. The cemeteries are well maintained and people visit them respectfully.

These are the cliffs that the Anzacs were confronted with when they were landed, which were protected by relatively few Turks who held the high ground advantage.

This is the famous Lone Pine.

One of the entrances to the Turk tunnels.

Simpson's grave.

One of the Turkish memorials.

Who would have thought this could be a scene of death?

We left Gallipoli around five. This was our dinner stop.

Then back to Istanbul by 11 pm.

After getting packed up for our trip home, we headed out again for a quick spot of shopping in the morning, and I am happy to say we had a much nicer shopping experience. In fact who knows how much I might have bought if we didn't have to catch a plane in an hour!