Istanbul: The Black and White Thriller

I guess the announcement came pretty late, because by when I was prompted to wear my seat belt, put the seat back in upright position and open the window seal, I was already uber-excited by seeing a piece of green land infested with beautiful domes and surrounded by peacock blue water from the window of my flight from Prague to Istanbul. Istanbul! Yes, crossing the names and the associated history of Byzantium, Constantinople and Istambul, this is the city joining Europe and Asia, and dividing them too! This is the city which is ruled by Shariyat, and by hot-pants too! This is the city which is enveloped by blue Byzantine mosaics, and 1600 years old walls, and 1200-800 years old Church-turned-Mosque-turned-Museums, and also enveloped by skyscrapers, huge shopping malls, and might be few of the most happening streets in Asia! This is the city of duality!

I had my Hotel booked just beside the historical Kariye Muzesi (Museum), which houses the finest example of Byzantine mosaics in the whole of Turkey, and I reached my hotel almost hassle free (though had to use my best faculty to avoid at least 30 taxi driver’s irritatingly persuasive nature, thanks to my sweet Indian Railways practice!). Crossing the initial hindrances of a fan-less room, no free drinking water and 75 rupees a cup of Turkish tea, I decided to walk a bit in the evening, because it was already 6pm and I did not have time to go to the main city centre, and it is not advisable for single male travellers also to roam around in Istanbul at night (Strange, no? Single female is actually much safer than single male!). The hotel where I stayed, houses one of the finest (and costliest) Ottoman cuisine in Istanbul, named Asitane. The live Turk music in Asitane open air restaurant, which was being played from right below my window, did not take much time to make me drift into the dreams of exploring the wonderful city for the next three days.

As I did some homework about where to go and how to go, it was pretty easy next day morning for me to go to the nearest bus stand (bus station as they say), buy an Istanbulkart (the all mode travel prepaid smart card), top it up with 12 YTL, and get down at Sultanahmet Square. Up to this point everything was fine, things got complex when I asked the pedestrians about the way to reach the Sultanahmet Mosque or Blue Mosque, and three people showed me three different ways, and one lady ran away as I approached her with my inquiry. Eventually, I found the tourists more reliable in terms of understanding my language, and after half an hour, I reached Sultanahmet Mosque (Camii, Turkish word for Mosque, pronounced as Jaamee), which was actually a five minute walk down south from where I got down from the bus.

Crossing the tram lines, I entered a garden, and just after entering there, what caught my eyes and left me speechless was not Sultanahmet, it is Hagia Sophia, a Mosque-turned-Museum, made in order to compete with the fame of Sultanahmet Camii. So there I was standing, in double mind, on my right hand side was the famous Blue Mosque, and on my left was Hagia Sophia, it was 10.15 AM, tourist buses have already arrived and I am almost surrounded by cross-flowing processions of multicultural cacophony. Making up my mind took some time, and then I turned right to Hagia Sophia, consoling myself that I will come back here tomorrow again to see Blue Mosque, so no point jumping inside this sea of strange tourist groups and ruin your finest Ottoman experience.

Hagia Sophia! It was magnanimous, both in size as well as in grandeur! The Byzantine stained glass, the blue-white mosaics, the fantastic flooring, and the magnanimity of silence! I was clean bowled by Istanbul on my very first day of city trip, but I didn’t know there were so many yet to come.

Finishing the visit of Hagia Sophia, I went on walking towards the famous Grand Bazaar, and seriously, I had underestimated the “Grand”-ness of Grand Bazaar. Built in 1461, it has around 4000 shops inside, and those who could not find a place for them inside, made the shops surrounding the closed roof market, and they are no less than 4000 either! It has some of the finest shops of Turkish hand woven carpets (they are world famous, and yes, damn expensive!), gold and silver jewellery, antiques, coins, junk jewellery, Turkish lights, Turkish mosaics, Turkish speciality leather shops, and Turkish memento and souvenir shops. It has 7 gates, and after roaming around for 3 hours inside it, when I am trying to find the gate from where I came inside it, I found it as a wonderful maze too! In my fifth attempt, I found the gate from where I came in, and luckily enough, there was a fine Kofte shop in front of me, where I had my lunch (rice, which is called as pilav, and bread are complimentary with kebap/kofte in almost any roadside shop there, and the street food is a.m.a.z.i.n.g) in less than 7 YTL!

From Grand Bazaar, with the already heavy bag with camera and accessories, even heavier with the uncontrollable shopping I did in Grand Bazaar, I started walking towards the seaside, and I reached Eminonou, in 10 minutes. Sun was too scorching by then, and it was getting increasingly tough to walk in that sun, and suddenly Istanbul, with its typical character of opposites, presents me with the peacock blue Bosphorus strait in front of me, with a gush of cold breeze, seagulls, fishermen on the top of Galata Bridge, and the series of fine seafood cuisine restaurants in the lower tier of Galata Bridge! What else a solo traveller can wish for! As you can imagine, that place took my another one and half hours, mostly just by staring at the amazing view of Europe on my left and Asia on my right, and occasionally munching on the delicious fish preparations made in authentic Turkish way (a bit expensive they were).

Taking a bus from Eminonou, I came back to Edirnekapi, and then walked to my hotel, and needless to say, I was dead tired by the overwhelming joy, uncontrollable excitement, and continuous walking.

The next day started as planned, an early start to Blue Mosque, and I was right on time there, because the tourist buses hadn’t yet reached the place! And yeah, oh Blue Mosque! It is a must see in Istanbul, the quality of craftsmanship will simply hypnotize you once you enter the mosque, the history of last 1200 years will come in front of your eyes, and you, by all means, will be transported back n forth through the colourful history of Istanbul as long as you stay inside. After the Blue Mosque, I decided to follow the tram route, and started walking too, but soon realized that following the route from inside the tram could have been a much better idea in this heat! So I boarded the tram towards Kabatas, and reached in 10 minutes, crossing the Golden Horn strait, which is a branch of Bosphorus. In Kabatas is the famous palace of Dolmahbahce, which used to be the residence of the Sultans in the Ottoman era. Same, but a little bit more grand is the Topkapi Palace, but I chose to visit Dolmabahce only due to less crowd. Frankly speaking, I would suggest people to not spend 40YTL for this palace, because for the Indian travellers, who has travelled across India, and have seen the Sultan’s palaces, this will be nothing special an experience for them. Its just the grand show of wealth, and now being kept as a Museum, nothing much than the fantastic paintings on the walls (which the tour guide skipped introducing) are worth seeing. And yes, the Hamam (Turkish bath place), if you are interested in the nice small architectural marvel by the Sultans’ architects. For me, it was a page of history, but for many, I can understand its not so much a piece of art to appreciate.

From Dolmabahce, I went to the nearest place from where they arrange a cruise on Bosphorus, the Beyoglou Ferry Station. I had to wait for half an hour before the cruise started, and it took one and half hour to cruise by the European side, cross to the Asian side, cruise by it and come back to the European side. It was really fascinating to cruise between two continents, as long as you know you are doing that!

That day, I did not see much more of the city, I took the tram from Kabatas, came back to Eminonou, visited the famous Misir Bazaar (Spice Bazaar) once, and with the fragrance of exotic spices, and the identification of myself as a Pakistani citizen (as I was wearing a long kurta), I boarded the bus towards Edirnekapi, the day came to end a bit fast, but nonetheless, enjoyable!

My next day plan was Taksim Square, again another example of the dual character of the city, which houses all the big business offices, trade centres, big hotels, McDonald’s, Burger Kings, and the so called “cosmopolitan” face of the city. Its more or less like the Times Square (New York), or the Oxford Street (London), or Ropangi Square (Tokyo), but the beauty of the city is the coexistence of this area, with the careful maintenance of Sultanahmet, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi and all. I have never seen a city which entails so long a period in itself, with due respect to all! The speciality of Taksim Square, in my eyes, was the fantastic graffiti on almost each blank space on the wall. It was done with high precision, with a careful mix of carelessness, and they were so damn colourful!

I was walking aimlessly, through the tiny lanes and alleys, offshoot from the shining main street, interestingly lit by criss cross of light and shade, reflected from someone’s balcony, or obstructed by some roadside restaurant shade, and was watching the fantastic single bogeyed cute tram, people going to work, rushing for lunch, tourists clicking each other, students distributing pamphlets, some film school shooting tutorial is taking place, and in the midst of all those, suddenly, a tiny poster caught my eyes, with “Masumiyet Muzesi” written on it. The name sounded familiar to me, and when I reached nearer to read the English translation of it, I remembered that this is something I badly wanted to see in Istanbul, somehow it completely slipped my mind! Its the “Museum of Innocence”, the museum built by Orhan Pamuk based on his 2008 novel of the same name, and from what I had read about it, it takes you to a different level of storytelling. But, I had only read it, and believe me, it was a sheer understatement!

I walked down the steep lane for almost a Kilometre, forgetting that I have to climb it up with my broken knee, and I reached the less than ordinary red coloured three storied old house, called “Masumiyet Muzesi”. I bought the ticket by 25 YTL, and I went inside just to be greeted by a wall, which was ornamented by 4213 cigarette butts, chronologically organised, by the protagonist of the novel (yes, the novel is not fictional, it is based on the life story of Kemal Bey, who used to live in that house up to 2007 when he died)! Yes, 4213 cigarette butts, chronologically, with notes below each and every butt! You will see the bend of the butts, you will see the stain of lipsticks on them, and you can see a moving era in front of your eyes! The first shock was too much to take in, and I climbed up the stairs to the second, and then to the third floor, and I won’t discuss it much here, except that I was in a trance, each and every chapter has a shelf in that museum where the objects described in the chapter is being displayed, the comb, the empty bottle, the fruit soda advertisement, the lost earring during passionate love making, the sweater, the handbag, the Yeni Raki bottle, the sunglasses, the obsessive collection of show pieces… and the audio visual effect it adds to the already high emotional level of the novel is unparalleled to any of such experiences I have ever encountered! I think I climbed that more than a Kilometre with my broken knee in that trance only, and seriously I did not have any mood to spoil this experience of mine by anything else, so I quietly had my lunch, caught the bus, and came back to Hotel. That is, undoubtedly one of my best experiences in life, and as said by the protagonist himself, “As visitors admire the objects and honour the memory of Füsun and Kemal, with due reverence, they will understand that . . . this is not simply a story of lovers, but of the entire realm, that is, of Istanbul”…

The next day was my flight back in the afternoon, so I chose to give myself some time to reminisce of my fantastic three and a half days in Istanbul, and I listed that I did not see the Whirling Dervishes (remember Khwaja mere Khwaja song? That dance is Turkish, and those people are called Dervishes), I did not take the night cocktail dinner cruise on the Bosphorus, I did not see belly dance, I did not go to Kumkapi street for the awesome fish eating experience, I did not take the traditional Turkish Bath and I did not explore Istanbul at the night at all, as it was marked as “not to do” for solo male travellers. So, Istanbul, wait for me, I will be back soon!