Istanbul, Turkey

Saturday 28th May:

This was our first foray into a country that you wouldn’t consider third world but is also nowhere near as advanced as other nearby European countries. With the way the world currently is, although we had already booked the trip months ago in the weeks leading up to it we had been a little nervous about going.

A lot of this could be attributed to our checks of the Australian Government’s Smart Traveller website, where the advice for Turkey provided a lot of doom and gloom. Strangely enough though, other people we know who had recently travelled said they loved it. Pairing this with the UK Government’s more positive travel advice, we decided that we would be undeterred.

Having departed Heathrow on a late Friday night flight, we didn't touch down in Istanbul until after 4am Saturday. We jumped into a taxi, with a driver who wasn't overly convincing that he knew where he was going, and sped off towards the city. A Turkish blanket adorned the back seat and seatbelt clackers were seemingly absent.

The road network leading from the airport into Istanbul was an odd maze. From a well maintained multi-lane motor way, more and more construction fences and concrete barriers gradually appeared. Despite all these obstacles, the road was very poorly lit – how the driver had any idea where he was going was commendable. Bizarrely speed humps were also a feature, and when slowing down for one said speed hump a dog came out of the darkness, barking viscously and chasing the car. Straight away we were worried that there were going to be vicious stray dogs all over the city.

The drive from the airport to the hotel should have taken at most half an hour. By the end of it, we’d been in the taxi for over an hour and driven past the Blue Mosque (officially known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque) three times. The driver had spent so much time driving around lost that it was already dawn, and busloads of worshippers were arriving at the Mosque.

As we later realised, the driver managed to get so close to the hotel that he was literally one street away from it, but decided that he didn’t know where we were and so instead we drove around for an extra half an hour, with intervals of him stopping for extended periods of time to consult the map on his phone. Eventually we got to our quirky little hotel and hit the hay.

Upon awaking again, it was around 12:30pm and we decided to head out to the Grand Bazaar. The number of stray cats and dogs wandering around was quite staggering. There are estimated to be up to 150,000 stray dogs within Istanbul. Apparently these ownerless animals are icons of Istanbul and locals have fought Government plans to rid the city of them. And yet nearly all the dogs we saw appeared sad, neglected, and broken. Very few of them seemed to move, they seemed exhausted and spent most of their time just lying around sleeping. The cats on the other hand were more groomed looking. Coming from a culture where having pets is so commonplace, the sight of these animals was truly disheartening.

Out the hotel door and at the first set of lights, a man dropped a brush in front of us so we picked it up and gave it back to him. In our fatigued state, we completely forgot that we’d been told this was a scam. Once you’ve given the brush back, they try and force you into paying them to polish your shoes. Once he started up a conversation with us while pulling his belongings out of the bucket and flipping it over to sit down, we knew what was going on and so made an escape.

The Grand Bazaar is a huge covered market, one of the oldest in the world, with a labyrinth of passageways leading through around 4,000 individual stores. Admittedly, many of the stores sell the same things – there are countless vendors selling leather goods, fake designer handbags, mosaic glass lights, and Turkish sweets. It would have to be impossible not to get lost in here. See something you like and want to have a think about it and come back later? Good luck finding your way back. After we’d picked ourselves up a little Turkish lamp we found a door out (not the same way we came in), and headed back towards the hotel.

Later in the afternoon we headed down to Sultanahmet Square, an historic square with manicured lawns and a large fountain, framed on one side by the Blue Mosque and on the other by the Hagia Sophia. We went across to the Blue Mosque, known by this name due to the extensive blue tiles lining the walls of the interior, where entry is free and women are provided with head covers to abide by the Islamic dress code.

Afterwards, we strolled across to the other side of the square to the Hagia Sophia. Once a church, later a mosque, and now a museum, the Hagia Sophia was a more disappointing experience than the Blue Mosque. Not only did we have to line up and then hand over money for a ticket, once we were inside we found that there was a significant amount of scaffolding and hoarding, meaning that much of the sight was obscured.

Later on we strolled down to the waterfront area near the Bosphorus strait. Istanbul is very unique in that it spans two separate continents, Europe and Asia, and the Bosphorus is the divide between the two. Countless fishermen stood on the bridges with their lines in the water below.

On Sunday we rose early, booked for a day trip to the Gallipoli peninsula. Gallipoli and Istanbul are not exactly close by, depending on traffic it can take anywhere between 4-5 hours.

Being at the site of the World War I battlefields was quite a strange experience emotionally – we weren’t quite sure how to feel. The lives lost here are obviously a great tragedy, and yet the battlefields of Gallipoli are now a serene site, immaculately maintained and with stunning scenery.

Our guide was very knowledgeable, providing background information and context whilst still providing an unbiased tour.

We visited the Lone Pine Australian Memorial and Chunuk Bair New Zealand Memorial, ANZAC Cove, Brighton Beach, Beach Cemetery, Ari Burnu Cemetery, Johnston's Jolly (where we saw original Allied and Turkish trenches and tunnels), 57th Regiment Turkish Memorial and The Nek.

The long drive back to Istanbul took even longer with heavy weekend traffic and to add to the time, we had to take two rest stops at service stations. Here in Turkey it would seem that despite the extreme risk of danger, lighting up and smoking at the service station is acceptable. Safety first. Miraculously, the bus and its smoking driver didn’t ignite and we eventually made it back to the hotel around midnight.

The next morning, we went for a Turkish bath. Having seen the brochures and learning that they are an ancient Turkish custom, we thought “why not?” We were caught off guard here because what actually happened was definitely not in the photos in the brochure. We were a little surprised…

Highlights:

- Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque) at night
- Hagia Sophia at night
- Lost taxi driver cruising around with us in circles
- Grand Bazaar
- Stray cats and dogs everywhere
- Sultanahmet Square
- Went inside the Blue Mosque
- Went inside the Hagia Sophia
- Strolled across the Europe-Asia divide
- Tour of Gallipoli battlefields
- Turkish baths