Day 158: Saturday 23 August – Istanbul Here We Come, by Ken

We secured Mabel and left Autocamp Istanbul in Smarty hoping Mabel would be OK for the 5 days we would be in Istanbul. It was slightly worrying that the camping ground was practically deserted, but then it was tucked away in the middle of nowhere and few people would know it even existed.

Something that we hadn’t reckoned on was not living in Mabel during our trip, we therefore didn’t have an adaptor for a continental plug socket. I came up with the cunning plan of driving to our hotel in the centre of Istanbul via Atatürk Airport which serves the European side of Istanbul. I felt sure we would be able to get one at a shop in the International arrivals area and it wasn’t much of a detour from the direct route into the city.

From the camping ground we took a narrow country road pausing for a while to allow a shepherds to clear their flock of sheep off the road. We were soon on a very busy dual carriageway heading into Istanbul, the road got even busier as we turned south towards the airport. We were glad we had left Istanbul until the end of our time in Turkey and this wasn’t our first experience of city driving in the country.

Pause While Sheep Are Moved Off The Road

The Roads Got Busier As We Neared The Airport

We found the international terminal car park where I left Jane with Smarty and went in search of an adaptor. I had to clear security just to get into the terminal building where I found I could get a cup of coffee, pick up a rental car and book an hotel. But that was it. I tried the departures area which made that at Heathrow seem like Blenheim airport on a quiet day – it was just a seething mass of people. Not surprisingly there was nowhere there either that I could by an adaptor. I thought I would try the domestic terminal and got half way there on travelators that were the pedestrian equivalent of Turkish roads. They were absolutely chaotic and I gave up and headed back to Jane.

The road from the airport into the city was surprisingly free of traffic and we were soon on Kennedy Cadesi that wound itself along the waterfront. We must have passed very close to the park for camper vans that Koray said had closed. Satnav instructed us to turn left into the old city. Unfortunately, the turn didn’t exist and we had to drive a long way before finding a left turn we could make. We immediately found ourselves in a rabbit warren of narrow streets, often wide enough just for two cars to pass and sometimes narrower than that. There was no way we could have got Mabel in there. For a while progress was limited to walking pace as we followed a couple of pedestrians pulling a suitcase behind them.

I Don't Think There Is Any Way We Could Have Driven Mabel In The Old City

No Room To Get Past These Pedestrians Even in Smarty

After a lot of ducking and diving through the maze of streets satnav announced we had reached our destination, but we couldn’t see anything resembling a hotel. Other cars were parked in the street so I followed suit and set off on foot in search of the El Fida suites. Calling in at an hotel close to where we had parked I was told I was in the right street, but they hadn’t heard of El Fida. I kept walking and spotted an electrical shop where I got an adaptor that would take a UK plug (Mabel’s sockets are all UK - they couldn’t supply her with NZ sockets) and we have UK to NZ adaptors). I returned to Smarty and gave Jane the good news about the adaptor and bad news about the hotel. I set off again in search of El Fida. When I returned 15 minutes later Jane had parked Smarty on the pavement to get her out of the way of traffic (but in the way of pedestrians). She had good news. As she was moving Smarty onto the pavement a man had come out of a building to ask if he could help. Jane explained we were struggling to find our hotel. It turned out we had parked right outside its front doors that gave no clue as to what lay behind!

We had arrived well before check-in time of 2:00 pm but the man on reception said they would have a room ready for us in 40 minutes. In the meantime he suggested we went up to the 5^th floor terrace and had some tea. We took his advice and armed ourselves with the wi-fi password. I poured two glasses of tea from a large dispenser with two taps. The tea was very strong and Jane couldn’t drink hers. After an hour I went down to check on our room, it still wasn’t ready and they would come up just as soon as it was. Approaching 2:00 pm we were told the room was ready and I went downstairs to check in. The man on reception said he had a special room for us. I asked about parking for Smarty and was told she was OK where she was but could I leave the keys with him. I asked why and got the response that was a very good question that he struggled with an answer for. He didn’t get the keys.

Smarty Parked On Pavement As Seen From Hotel Terrace

We were shown up to our special room on the fourth floor. It obviously hadn’t been touched since the last occupants checked out. The man returned five minutes later with the key to another room that was ready. The room was small with room for not much more than a bed but it looked OK as did the small bathroom. We were shown the features that included a minibar that was completely bare. I tried my newly acquired adaptor, the UK plug wouldn’t fit but to my surprise the NZ one did.

After a quick unpack we headed out for a late lunch in one of the fish restaurants that filled a square close to the hotel that I had come across during my earlier fruitless searches. There we had a rather ordinary meal of sardines, calamari and salad.

After lunch it was time to begin familiarising ourselves with Istanbul. We started walking up a steep hill to the tram stop at Bayazit. Crossing our hotel’s street we were pleased to see Smarty was still there on the pavement. Above her was a red sign bearing the name ‘Elfida Suites’. If only we had looked up!

Smarty On Pavement, The Man In A White Shirt Is Standing At The Entrance To The Hotel And
The Hotel's Name Is On The Red Sign Half Way Between The Man And Smarty

We stopped at an Information office next to the Bayazit tram stop to ask about an Istanbulkart – a smartcard that can be used on trams, buses, ferries, trains and the metro at discounted fares. We were directed to a nearby kiosk where we were told we only needed one card between us. The card was 6 lira. Next we needed to put some money on it and went to machines next to the tram stop. There were two types of machine, one dispensed tokens, the other labeled “Elektronik Bilet Dollum Cihazi” was the one we wanted. The first one we tried had an “Out of Order” sign on it and we joined a queue at another machine. That at least enabled us to see how it functioned. It all looked very simple – place the card on a reader, a screen showed how much credit you have, insert banknotes into a slot, wait for a beep and the screen displays your new credit.

While we were waiting in the queue a man came over and said to follow him, there was another machine without a queue. He took us to the machine with the out of order sign, removed the sign and topped up our card for us! We walked over to the tram stop to see which platform we needed to take a tram to Sultanahmet. There a man asked if he could help and explained it wasn’t worth taking a tram the two stops to Sultanahmet as there was a flat fare no matter how far you travelled.

Man Helps Us Load Cash On Our Istanbulkart

So we walked. Getting to Sultanahmet was easy, we just followed the tram tracks. From there we wanted to visit the Yerebatan Samici, the ‘Sunken Palace’ which is also known as the Basilica Cistern, a key part of the Old City’s water supply.. We found the cistern after walking through narrow back streets lined with restaurants with tables on the pavement. Most wanted us to dine with them. When we reached the cistern we were disappointed to find there was a long queue that we decided not to join.

Instead, we walked a short distance to Aya Sofya which I believe is the oldest cathedral in the world and was the largest enclosed space in the world for a thousand years . There we decided to hire a guide to show us around. Naihim was interesting, he had an Greek American mother and a Turkish father. He had inherited his mother’s dark colouring but his brother was blond – a result of his father coming from part of Turkey where that was a common hair colour. Naihim  gave us a potted history of the building which is the third to be constructed on the site. The first was razed to the ground in 532. Commissioned shortly afterwards the church had a unique dome more than 30 metres in diameter – until then basilica had pitched roofs. Constructed in five years, the building survived several earthquakes but the dome collapsed 20 years after completion. Reconstruction involved increasing the height of buttresses and the dome and filling in some of the windows. The dome collapsed again in 989 and was rebuilt in the form that can be seen today. In 1453 Mehemet the Conqueror captured the city (then named Constantinople) and the church became a mosque and remained one until it was closed by Kemal Attaturk in 1932, reopening in 1934 as a museum.

While a large portion inside the building was shrouded in scaffolding to enable earthquake damage repairs to be carried out, the building was extremely impressive with the huge and richly decorated central dome surrounded by similarly decorated smaller domes. Naihim’s tour was brief and he left us to wander round the upper floor of the mosque on our own.

Here's a taste of Aya Sofya:

Entrance

Virgin Mary, Christ and John the Baptist

We walked back past the cistern where the queue was just as long and sat in the shade planning what to do next. After a while a man came over and started talking to us – the usual “where are you from, where have you been”. All very low key, but then he suggested we might like to visit the family leather shop nearby. We did and over glasses of very refreshing apple tea Davut explained how they used leather from different animals according to how soft the garment was intended to be. The softest being lamb. I had been hankering after a leather jacket for a while and asked how much one would cost. The response was best to find something I liked and then talk about the price. Jane was on her feet in next to no time trying on jackets that were generally too short for her. That led to them being able to make something to measure that could be available by Wednesday. The taylor joined in and took a few measurements and said he could do something for a ‘Special Price’ (I’ve lost track of the number of times I had heard that!). We decided we would sleep on it and come back Monday if we wanted to proceed.

Davut walked us back towards where we had met him. By then there was no queue outside the cistern as closing time was approaching. Davut said there was still more than enough time to see the cistern and we decided to grab the opportunity. 

Believed to have been built by Emperor Constantine in the 4^th century and enlarged in the 6^th the cistern measured 140 x 70 metres and could hold 80,000 cubic metres of water. It fell into disuse after the Ottomans captured the city from the Romans but was rediscovered in 1545 by a Frenchman who had noticed fresh fish being sold in nearby streets. The locals showed him their ‘secret’ underground fishing spot complete with boats.

The cistern was restored in 1987 and ramps provide access to walkways suspended above approximately one metre of water. Discreet lighting gives the stone columns and the brick vaulted arches they support a golden glow. It is one of several cisterns in the area serviced by aqueducts, it really brought home just how ingenious the Romans were. In one corner of the cistern two of the columns were supported on Medusa heads, one was upside down, the other on its side. Popular thinking was they were relics of an older building and were deliberately positioned that way.

Here's some shots taken in the cistern:

Inverted Medusa Head

From the cistern we started walking back the way we had come following the tram tracks. It was well after 19:00 and we were feeling peckish. A man wearing a stovepipe hat was standing outside Faros restaurant. It was a gimmick that obviously attracted the attention of passers by, He told us Abraham Lincoln wore a hat like his which generated a response from me of “But look what happened to him”. “Shot by his secretary wasn’t he?” said the man. (I found out later the assassin was Wilkes Booth, an actor). Anyway, he had our attention, we looked at the menu, it looked good and we took a seat at a table on the on the pavement in a side street. We ordered lamb with almonds in a pomegranate sauce which was served with rice and was absolutely delicious. That was preceded by equally delicious Turkish bread that we dunked in olive oil.

Man That Drew Us Into The Restaurant In His Stovepipe Hat

Waiting For Dinner To Arrive

We made our way back to the tram stop at Bayazit which had been transformed into a busy pavement market. We were very pleased the walk from there to our hotel was downhill and delighted to see Smarty was still sitting where we had left her.

Pavement Market At Bayazit