Easter in Istanbul

J and I decided at the last minute that we ought to go somewhere for Easter weekend, but I was a bit hesitant since I knew everyone would be going away and booking so late would mean sky-high prices. At the same time, I couldn't pass up a four-day weekend, and it was our last trip together before I left for Asia so come Friday, we were on a flight on Turkish Airlines to Istanbul.

Why Istanbul? Everyone I knew who had gone there had raved about it (great knock-off Mulberry bags!), and I figured the crowds wouldn't be so bad since it's a Muslim country (Jesus who?).

I should mention that Turkish Airlines is now my favorite airline. They don't give a rat's ass that people are messing around with the overhead compartment - they're pulling away from the jetway as scheduled! The food is more than edible, and they provide actual metal utensils in economy class.

Our hotel provided complimentary pick-up service from the airport, and we checked in to the Rose Garden Suites in Sultanahmet, which is the historic quarter of Istanbul. The hotel looked deceptively small from the outside and was actually a sprawling set of buildings once we passed reception. Our room played up the exotic Aladdin theme to the hilt, and we also got a tiny balcony thrown in. The room didn't justify the price, but it was the only passable one I could find after scouring the web for hours and it was sufficient for our purposes.




The next day, we tried Turkish coffee for the first time at breakfast. J didn't know how strong of a drink it already is and requested it extra strong. Needless to say, it was a tough cup to swallow. We were pretty amped from the massive dose of caffeine and headed uphill to check out the Blue Mosque.

We soon found ourselves on what remains of the Hippodrome, a Byzantine stadium for chariot racing. Now, it's just a plaza with three very different columns, including an Egyptian Obelisk from the 15th century. There also happened to be a trio of musicians playing traditional music, which lent a nice flavor to the whole scene. A small German fountain with a very impressive ceiling anchored the other end of the plaza for some inexplicable reason.

And then we got our first glimpse of the Blue Mosque. It is truly one of the most impressive buildings I've approached - the cascading domes of the roof are absolutely stunning and the slate blue color is beautiful.


We joined the long queue to enter the mosque, and as it is a place of prayer, it's requested that visitors cover their heads and knees.


The interior was almost as impressive as the exterior, but it was hard to enjoy it as the entire place stunk of hot feet. Shoes are not permitted within, and the stench made it hard to stay for long.




Right across the way is the Hagia Sophia, a place I've read about in books as a small child, and I couldn't help but marvel at the fact that I was standing right in front of it!

The building was completed in the 6th century, and it now functions as a museum. The very impressive interior is an interesting mix of Christian and Muslim features. Islam prohibits images of man in its mosques as they're considered to be a distraction, but the Hagia Sophia has a beautiful mosaic of the Virgin and Child and important saints. J especially liked the arabic script, while I liked the stained glass windows, which were very different from the stained glass I'm accustomed to seeing in churches.

We wandered about for quite some time, as the museum is absolutely huge, but we also had to make a stop at the Basilica Cistern.

Also built in the 6th century, the subterranean structure held water for the city until it was eventually forgotten and only rediscovered when locals told of catching fish in their basement wells. A couple of people had told me how amazing it is, so I was eager to see what it was all about and more than bit dismayed when I made my way down below. The entire place was Disneyfied in that they had creepy music playing and the entire interior was lit up in devilish red light. The cistern's big draw are the two Medusa heads, which I didn't find that impressive. Don't be surprised if water drips on you the whole time or by the fish that still live in the cistern.

We still had time to see one more sight so we walked towards the Grand Bazaar, which houses over 25,000 shops. I was pretty disappointed as it seemed that all of the stalls sold the same crap that they thought tourists want to buy, and the place was jam-packed with people bargaining for knock-off goods.

I was pretty tired of getting jostled so we left for the quieter Arasta bazaar behind the Blue Mosque, where I nabbed a scarf for myself.

We were pretty famished by dinnertime as lunch had turned out to be a massive fail. We had bought some sandwiches at the shop across the way from the Hagia Sophia. It was a pretty obvious tourist trap, but it was still pretty amazing at how bad a restaurant could mess up a simple cheese sandwich. Anyway, we decided to take no chances and had dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel nearby. The food was excellent, and dessert was a fun treat to look at - they created a hard candy version of the sultan's insignia!

The next day, we headed to the grand-daddy of them all, the Topkapi Palace, and on the way, we saw some ladies preparing what looked like delicious dumplings. Yum!

It was a bit of a hike to get to the entrance of the palace, and the place was crawling with tons of tour groups, so much so that it was really hard to enjoy ourselves.

The palace is a compound of different buildings, and we had to queue for every single exhibit. A can't-miss was the jewel display, and J especially enjoyed the full body armor made completely of diamonds in the weapons exhibit. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed inside most of the exhibits, so you'll have to see the goods in person. Let's just say that the Turks were really into encrusting everything with gems and most of the furniture was inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

Every single inch of the buildings' interiors is covered with fancy blue tile, and the Turks didn't pass up the opportunity to gussy up basic practicalities such as lights, water fountains or windows.

We had big plans to take a ferry ride along the Bosphorus up to Ortakoy, but we were pretty tired from fighting the crowds so we just wandered around the park by the palace eating ice cream bars and gazing upon the many tulips that are planted all over the city, including a variety of the flower that I haven't seen before.

We spent the rest of the day sitting on a bench at the Hippodrome and watching the many street vendors selling grilled corn and candy and listening to the calls to prayer before settling for an unremarkable dinner at a restaurant hidden behind the handcraft museum.

I think at least another full day at Istanbul would've done justice to the city, but it turned out we timed our departure perfectly since it started pouring cats and dogs that night and the rain showed no signs of letting up by the time we left for our flight on Monday.

It was great being somewhere so different from our last few destinations, but at the same time, I don't think the city quite lived up to my expectations. To be fair, it had been so hyped up by everyone that some amount of disappointment was probably inevitable. I'm glad I visited, but I don't think we'll be returning any time soon unless I start missing the many stray cats that live quite well in the city.