Destination: Istanbul, Turkey (Part 2)

Is Turkey located in Europe or Asia? Perhaps the Middle East? These are common questions that come to mind about this unique country. I admit, I had a hard time deciding just where Turkey belonged upon setting foot, all the while going on a roller-coaster of a ride throughout the country. I’ve come to learn that Turkey is one of the those places (like Russia or Georgia) that shares a mix of continents in their culture, language, and geography, and one could say that it’s a “transcontinental” country, in that respect.

Like with its country, Istanbul is also a unique case in itself. It’s a massive city that straddles Europe and Asia, but also has cultural similarities with its Middle Eastern neighbors. Interestingly, I was told that only 5% of Istanbul is part of Europe, whereas the remaining 95% belongs to Asia. Much of the touristy sites in town are located on the European side, though. In a way, it was kind of fun to visit Istanbul, knowing that one minute we could be in Europe, and the next in Asia.

My friend and I had explored a bit during our first full day in Istanbul. We’d gone on a guided tour that took us to the hot spots– the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, the Hippodrome, Topkapi Palace– so we didn’t have the need to revisit those places upon returning to the city following the six or so days spent in the rest of the country (more on them later). We would spend an additional three extra nights in Istanbul, as means of seeing the city more on our own.

We arrived back in Istanbul in the wee hours of the morning, utterly wrecked from the overnight bus we’d taken, along with the chronic fatigue we’d accumulated over the days on the road going from one city to the other. We wanted nothing but to crash and sleep away the exhaustion, but we still had a Bosporus cruise tour scheduled for that afternoon.

It was also a matter of finding our way to the hotel on our own, which easily took about 45 minutes from the bus station where we were dropped off (Esenler). We had to catch the metro towards the city center, making a transfer before walking the rest of the way over. While it wasn’t that confusing to navigate, being sleep-deprived and carrying our luggage didn’t make it the most-pleasant trip over.

We soon arrived at our hotel, checked in, and had a couple of hours to rest in our room. The hotel was much better than the one we’d stayed in during our first day: it was cleaner, and no bed bug scare! Location was perfect, breakfast was complementary and delicious, and we had incredible views from the terrace with the Blue Mosque on one side, and the Bosporus on the other.

 

Our Bosporus cruise tour was to start at 12:30, so we headed downstairs to the lobby to wait for our pick-up. We waited…and waited…and no one showed. By 13:00, I contacted the tour and found out that they’d forgotten about us! I think there was a mix-up in the tour dates, as they’d assumed we would be touring the day before (although we weren’t in Istanbul then).

Although it was a bit disappointing, our tour coordinator was fantastic and subsequently booked us for the same tour the following day, as well as offering complementary shuttle rides to the airport (we would’ve originally had to pay for them ourselves). Massive kudos to our coordinator, and the mix-up turned out to be a blessing in disguise– even more!

That said, we had a full day to explore Istanbul on our own. We headed out and wandered Sultanahmet Square before heading to the Grand Bazaar. We hadn’t had the chance to go inside it during our first day in, so we decided to check it out this time around. The Grand Bazaar is one of the largest and oldest covered markets worldwide, and we’d been told that one can get easily lost in its 4000-plus stores specializing in clothes, jewelry, spices, food, and just about anything else you could imagine.

My friend and I stayed on the main passage of the Grand Bazaar, as we didn’t want to risk getting lost. It was a massive market, with dozens of smaller passages that branched out into even smaller ones, like trees. We strolled the major passageway, filled with tourists doing their shopping or just admiring the grand, decorated archways for their photos. The vendors were pretty aggressive, pushing us into their shops to get us to buy their goods. One even hilariously quipped, “Hello beautiful ladies, what can I say to get you to buy something you don’t need?” That made my day!

We eventually stopped by a Turkish delight shop, where my friend and I sampled a few sweets before she decided to purchase an assortment as a souvenir. I’m not the hugest fan of Turkish delight, but I admit the ones we had (including a chocolate flavor) were pretty good. And of course, when in Turkey, why not try them out?

Soon after, we headed out and made our way back to our hotel, passing through Sultanahmet Square (and coming across this colorful cafe, where I ended up having a baklava-tea break on my last day in town). We returned to our hotel, still tired from our overnight bus ride, and had a lie-in for the rest of the afternoon.

It was in the early evening that we headed out again for dinner, to a restaurant just around the corner from our hotel. The restaurant was really nice, as the food was very affordable and served with a complementary baklava for dessert in the end. We went twice during our time in Istanbul, both of which I got different kebabs that were absolutely heavenly. I’m not a huge meat eater, but I’ll say those kebabs– juicy and tender– made me love meat again.

My friend and I spent the next afternoon on the Bosporus cruise tour. We took the tramway to the waterfront, where we met our guide. Climbing aboard the ship, we spent the next two hours cruising through the blue waters, taking in the views of both the European and Asian sides.

Our guide drove us afterwards to the Pierre Loti Hill, named after the 19th-century French adventure writer who’d visited Istanbul and wrote about his time there as a friend to the Ottoman court. Today, there’s a cafe at the top named after him, along with some of the best free views of the Golden Horn and the city. The views were quite stunning, and it was a pleasant end to the day’s tour. It was a tranquil first night back in Istanbul, as we could recuperate from our long travel from the rest of Turkey and prepare ourselves for more exploring in our last days in town.

The last installment of Istanbul will be up soon!

 

— Rebecca