When you think of great cities in the world places such as London, New York, Paris and Rome immediately come to mind.  But if you dig a little deeper there are a few other great cities in the world that don’t get enough attention and absolutely one of them has to be Istanbul. Istanbul is the heart throb of Turkey, bridging east and west, sharing land in both Europe and Asia, an historic supercentre under it’s previous name Constantinople, a fabulous chaotic mix of people, cultures, customs, languages, religions and experiences.  And after almost five weeks in Türkiye we had finally arrived.

Getting to Istanbul was half the battle.  We finally left the nearby city of Bursa after Tramp acquired a new serpentine belt, necessary since the old one completely shredded and stopped us in our tracks.  But entering Istanbul, a megacity of about 15 million people, at rush hour across bridges and through underwater tunnels was an ordeal not to be repeated.  In the process we left Asia and passed back into Europe, battled unfathomable traffic jams and inched our way to our hotel which was in the historic district of Sultanahmet near the famous Blue Mosque.

Wait a sec, did you say hotel? What about Tramp? What about travel the fun way?  Well, as mentioned in a previous blog, Julie and I recently celebrated our 40^th wedding anniversary, an achievement we are both very proud of.  And what better way to celebrate such a momentous milestone than three nights in a flash hotel in one of the great cities of the world – Istanbul?  Let the celebrations begin!

And we need to mix in a bit of nostalgia here as well because as it happens, we were in Istanbul together way back in 1980 – 43 years and a few lifetimes ago.  But as we were about to find out, the place has changed a whole lot since then.

Our first night out, a late dinner after a grueling day from Bursa, gave us some insight into our upcoming Istanbul experience.  The historic district of Sultanahmet is packed with three and four star hotels, kitschy souvenir shops and endless restaurants, most with a ‘rooftop terrace’ so you can enjoy the spectacular views of the Bosphorus, Blue Mosque or Aya Sophia Mosque depending on which way you are sitting.

And every shop, every restaurant and every Turkish carpet store has a handsome fast talking charismatic guy out the front to try to lure you in.  Which is how we ended up in a great restaurant, enjoyed a fab meal and had interesting yarns with these waiters who all speak perfect English and provide a very Istanbul experience.  We haven’t seen this style anywhere in Turkey so far but, hey, we’re in one of the great magnet tourist cities in the middle of the high season so we embraced it.

If you are going to see the best of Istanbul in only two days you have to be smart about it.  The next morning we were some of the first people into the ginormous Aya Sophia Mosque, one of the most extraordinary mosques in the world.  Originally built by the Romans in the 6^th century as a church, it was converted to a mosque in 1453 when the Ottomans conquered Constantinople, changed to a museum and 1935 and reverted to a mosque again in 2020.  Today it’s immense size, multiple architectural and design features and accessibility to the public make it a fabulous structure to visit.

From there we headed up to the Grand Bazaar, one of the largest fully covered bazaars in the world.  The Grand Bazaar in my memories from 40+ years ago was that of a noisy, chaotic and colourful array of shops and salesmen selling wares much like they’d done for hundreds of years. 

Today it has perhaps lost some of it’s historic authenticity with window-front shops, clean walkways and modern wares like upmarket jewellery but still features 22 doors and a staggering 4,000 shops, hawkers trying to sell you all manners of things, familiar and offensive smells and sounds at every turn, boys with trays of tea running this way and that, and above all else, thousands and thousands of tourists wandering through the many streets and alleys, buying up things they don’t need and totally enjoying the whole experience.

Julie and I treated the Grand Bazaar slightly differently.  I saw it as a great travel experience while Julie saw it as a great shopping opportunity.  Either way we had super fun for a few hours and came away with a number of goodies that at the start of the day we had no plans to buy.

We then visited the Blue Mosque which has to be one of the most handsome religious buildings in the world, especially at night when it is lit up.  The Blue Mosque was built in the 17^th century with six minarets, a huge dome and thousands of painted tiles with floral patterns.  It is an absolute beauty.

But you know what they say, when in Istanbul have a Turkish bath.  And that’s exactly what we did, finding a clean and respectable hamam, as they are called, which apparently dated back to 1770, and totally immersing ourselves into one of Türkiye’s greatest traditions. 

And here’s how it works.  First, go into a little room, get all your gear off and wrap yourself in a clean but well-worn thin towel they give you.  Go into the sweat room, lie on a hot slab of marble for 30 minutes in 39C heat and turn into a sweaty ball of blah.  Then guys and girls are separated but the same process applies.  For me, a guy came in, naked but for a similar towel just like me, doused me with hot water and proceeded to vigorously scrub off a couple layers of skin with great relish.  He then applied a fun and frothy bubbly soap which he washed me with and also massaged me to the point of painful happiness.  Then he rinsed me off, sent me to the public lobby in my towel where I joined Julie who was similarly treated and we had a cup of tea.  Phew!  Sorry, no pictures.

That night we enjoyed drinks in one of the restaurant’s rooftop terraces and dinner at another place on the ground floor, watching the world go by while we were charmed and served and conned and entertained by all these Turkish men.  Great fun.

But the real gem of Istanbul is the sprawling Topkapi Palace, positioned on the peninsula of land between the Golden Horn and the Bosporus.  Built in the 15^th century and added to many times since, the palace was the home to the Sultan and his family, wives, concubines, guards, eunuchs, cooks, and the rest of his support team totalling about 4,000 people.  

Today it is an absolute world-class museum, not just showing off the Sultan’s lavish living and ruling quarters and his fascinating harem but also all the furniture, clothing, jewellery, weapons and relics of the Ottoman’s glorious empire which ran from the 15^th to the 19^th century.

One of the exquisite features of the palace was all the painted tiles. Here’s a small sample of what we saw.

Julie and I spent almost four and a half hours in the Palace, hitting every room and seeing every display, absolutely dazzled and amazed by the opulence and grandeur the Sultan and his followers enjoyed.  We had hit the Palace at opening time and first walked through the harem, learning all about how the Sultan kept and maintained the lives and living conditions of so many wives and concubines.  We then went through the rest of the Palace, battling a United Nations of frenzied crowds, using sharp elbows when necessary, wilting under the heat, loving the whole experience. 

Being a bloke I liked all the weaponry and war stuff in the museum. These gem-encrusted guns were particularly good.

Exhausted and bruised but still standing, we stood in another long queue and eventually entered the Basilica Cistern where first the Romans, then the Byzantines, then the Ottomans stored their drinking water deep under the bustling city.  Walking amongst the forest of 336 ancient pillars, each about nine metres high, that still hold up the city we marvelled at the engineering involved in shipping water up to 500 kilometres via canals and aqueducts to keep this city going.

We enjoyed another great night out as only you can in Istanbul.  With a hankering for more in this great city the next morning we visited the Spice Bazaar and and the impressive Suleymaniye Mosque before finally hitting the road.

The very colourful Spice Bazaar, photos above, and the impressive Suleymaniye Mosque which is shown from the outside in the featured image at the top and a couple of these internal photos below.

Our anniversary celebration in Istanbul had sadly come to an end and we were keen to give up the clean sheets, soft bed, ensuite facilities, room service and air conditioning and get back to good old Tramp who had been waiting patiently in the carpark below our window.  Where should we go next?