Hello Everyone,
Istanbul – We have traveled to Turkey several times in the past and I have written a lot about Istanbul. However, there are few new things to report as an update.
Our last visit was back before the pandemic. It had always been easy just to stop by Istanbul for a few days and “hang out.” The airport was close in and an easy cab ride to the historical district of Sultanamet, where the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace exist. Well, since our last visit, they have built a beautiful new “grand” airport that is almost 30 miles away. It now takes “forever” to get into town from the airport. You can now pay around $60 for a cab into the city or take the new Metro extension that goes to the airport [for just a few dollars]. We like public transit, so we opted to see how it worked to the new airport. It’s really impossible! This airport is so big it takes a huge amount of time just for the airplane to taxi into a gate from the runway. Then, we clocked about 2 miles walking from the airplane, through immigration and then to the Metro station. The Metro didn’t go all the way to Sultanamet, so we had to transfer on to two different trolley lines to finish the journey. It took 2 1/2 hours to get to our hotel. Maybe we should have opted for the cab instead? Not so fast. The terrible traffic jams in Istanbul can make your $60 cab ride take 2 1/2 hours, as well, depending on the time and the day. This kind of airport hassle is a major disaster for tourists. We’ll be looking for another place to stop for a few days on our way through in the future.
There is one huge improvement that is very noticeable here, though. The historical area of Sultanamet is now closed to most cars and tour buses. It is SO MUCH QUIETER AND CALMER now, without all those pesky vehicles clogging up the streets. Tour buses have become the scourge of most popular tourist destinations these days, but Istanbul has fixed this one.
We were told that tourism is a bit “off” right now. They say that the war in Ukraine is discouraging people from traveling here. Though Ukraine and Russia sit at the top of the Black Sea [about 600 miles from here], there doesn’t appear to be anything happening that is affecting life here more than anywhere else in the world.
One afternoon, at a restaurant, I asked a waiter about the toilet. He motioned to follow him. We went into the kitchen where he opened a drawer and pulled out a table knife. I started to get a little uneasy. Then he led me up three flights of steps in the building to a small door. He put the knife into a keyhole in the door and twisted it to open the door to a squat toilet. There was one good thing here, though. It had a no smoking sign on the door. A lot of Turks smoke heavily, but not indoors.
There is one more big new thing here. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has built the largest Mosque in all of Turkey, the Grand Çamlıca Mosque. Across the Bosphorus Straight, where it can be seen from most points in Istanbul. It holds 63,000 worshipers. We were told that Erdoğan has been president so long that he sees himself as the last Sultan and had to have this Mosque built in his honor [for $110,000,000]. Ever since Ataturk established The Republic of Turkey in 1923, it has always had a “secular” government and religion played no specific part in it. In 2014 Erdoğan was elected as president and began changing it to resemble an Islamic Republic, with him as the head. He has been elected three times, but the last time he just barely got a majority. A lot of the people are not happy about what is happening here. The signs of his tenure are visible. To me it’s not as fun and happy a place as it used to be.
I’ve added a few pix to the photo gallery if you would care to take a look at right.
Safranbolu – This city got its name from being an important, Saffron trade, caravan stop, on The Silk Road, the ancient trade route between China and the west. The Silk Road is long gone and most of the Saffron now sold here is from Iran. But, if you look carefully, you can still find locally grown Saffron for sale, but at a significantly higher price. This 5,000 year old city has now been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The designation comes with significant prestige and restoration funds, but the people here are no longer free to alter their properties, without getting permission and approval from UNESCO. The owner of our hotel told us that he had to wait a long time just to get approval to plant a garden. Its history and restored condition brings in tourists from All over the world.
Our hotel was in a restored “traditional” home. That meant it had some peculiarities to live with. Like, nothing was “square” in the building. Even light switches were crooked. The wooden floors creaked and there were no hand rails on the stairway. But, hey, you have to adjust a little to live “authentically.”
There were several very old Mosques on display as well as old mansions and craftsmen plying their trades in shoemaking, blacksmithing and copper bowl & cookware making. However, the most popular thing for sale in the shops was Turkish Delight. They sell the old regular cubes of the candy that most of us know, but they also have a different kind that is rolled up with different flavors of filling inside. I liked this kind much better than the normal cubed kind. And, they have modern flavors like Oreo Cookie, now.
The geology of the area is deep, long, narrow canyons, where they built the city along the sides and top. Some of the structures bridge over the narrow canyons. After two full days of walking around, up and down the hills we were starting to feel like mountain goats. The streets are made of flat stones set with their thin edge pointing up. It is very hard to walk on the sharp edges. Most of the streets have a center section made with the flat stones laid with their largest flat surface facing up, which is much easier to walk on. However, that means that you have to walk in the middle of the street all the time.
Strangely, there are hundreds of cats walking around the streets all the time. They are very friendly and appear to be well fed. Sometimes, when we are eating on an outside table, they will hop up on the bench and cuddle up beside you while you are eating. They don’t seem to be after the food, though.
I discovered a new kind of desert here. It is ice cream with half halva and a little tahini & peanuts on top. But, their halva is made with semolina flower and spices instead of sesame. Very tasty, to a desert lover like me.
Finally, the “call to prayer” that rings throughout the city 5 times a day is so ear piercingly loud that it can not be ignored. It blasts into the town from giant speakers at the mosque. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what it is saying. It just sounds like they are trying to see how long they can hold the same wobbly tone. There are a few photos of this city in the photo gallery at right as well and Carol has just published her blog about it here:
https://carolapucci-tips.blogspot.com/2024/09/off-grid-in-safronbolu-on-turkeys-black.html
Our last stop on the trip is Trabson, at the edge of the Black Sea, near Georgia. We’ll send something out about it as it is revealed to us.
And, do check out the photos on the right. Just click the top one to start.
Later………… your favorite travelers, Tom and Carol
Istanbul and Safranbolu Photos
Click to Enlarge and Read Caption
