Istanbul is one of those cities that during your school years you hear about as it as has been a major point of interest in ancient history and in the Ottoman Empire. However, it is one of those cities that I never thought I could visit until the opportunity arise when my ex-husband planed a business trip to the city and I decided to tag along.
Turkey is a country located in two continents in Southeast Europe (3%) and West Asia (97%). Ankara is the capital of Turkey and it ranked sixth in the world for tourist as it contains 17 UNESCO World Heritage Site with 51 still pending. Turkey has been influenced by Romans, Ottomans and Byzantines making the most unique mixture of architecture and food. Turkey requires an e-Visa for some countries with the purpose of tourism (www.evisa.gov.tr), however, you also are able to get the entry-visa at the airport but it is expensive and the queue can be too long. UK citizens are exempt of visa.
Istanbul is the largest city of Turkey and the centre of the country’s economy, cultural and history. Istanbul was founded as Byzantium in 660BCE and was renamed Constantinople in 330CE. It served as imperial capital for 16 centuries for the empires of Roman/Byzantine between 330 to 1204, Latin between 1261 and 1453, and Ottoman between 1261 and 1922. Istanbul is home to various UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
As part of my research, I check out all the most seen places of the city as this trip was designed to visit as many places as possible. The currency for Turkey is the Turkish lira and it is recommended to exchange at the airport just after landing, as who has the time to search for it. My adventure started on Thursday 17th April 2014.
On Day 1, I left London Heathrow around midday as it was going to be a long day as the flight trip is round 4 hours and then Turkey is 3 hours ahead. The flight was uneventful, however, arriving to the airport there was a huge queue for passing immigration. The queue took me around 90 minutes and my ex-husband sent a taxi to collect me and was worried about the lateness. The problem was the UK citizens do not require visa but you need to get stamped on arrival and this takes time.
After the long wait at the airport, I took a taxi ride to the hotel in order to meet him as this was his last working day. I arrived to the hotel around 9pm and left my things in the lobby in order to have dinner, while waiting I enjoyed my first Turkish tea and became a fan since that moment.
After dinner, he had a social outing with his colleagues and I took the opportunity to explore every part of the hotel in order to find the best spot for a night photographic session. I was lucky enough to find a nice terrace where I was able to see the bridge joining Asia and Europe all lighted up, it was an amazing view.
After my photographic session, I finally arrived to the hotel room where I unpacked and got ready in order to star my Turkish adventure the following day.
On Day 2 and after an amazing traditional breakfast, we checked out of the hotel in order to move to another one closer to the city centre and walking distance of everything.
After checking in at our new hotel, we were ready to start our Istanbul adventure. We decided to walk around and explored every single store on surrounding the hotel as this would be our local area for the next days. We arrived to the Ayasofya around 3pm.
The Ayasofya is a place of worship. It was designed by the Greek geometers Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. It has had many functions since construction as it was a Byzantine Christian cathedral, a Latin Catholic cathedral, a mosque, a museum, and again a mosque. Each function has added new and distinctive characteristic to the building making this a unique building even among the other city’s mosque. The building was completed in 537 and has a length of 82m, a width of 73m, and a height of 55m. The building was added to the UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites in 1985 as part of the historic areas of Istanbul.
After exploring every floor of the Ayasofya, we decided to have a small side road snack for lunch. Then we crossed the road and entered the Blue Mosque. However, this is an active mosque and I forgot my headscarf so I had to improvise by putting on my jacket because it had a hoody and I was able to enter after this. We entered the Blue Mosque around 5pm.
The Blue Mosque, also known as Sultan Ahmed Mosque, has a Sunni Islam affiliation. The building was designed by architect Sedefkâr Mehmed Agha and was completed in 1616. The building has a length of 73m, a width of 65m and a dome height of 43m. This building is also part of the UNESCO list of Istanbul. The best part are the interiors which are hand-painted blue tiles, hence the name.
After exploring my first every working mosque, we were ready to have dinner. We decided that we should searched for a nice local restaurant and our search lead us to the Arasta Bazaar which was next to the Blue Mosque.
The Arasta Bazaar is considered a small and simple traditional market. The bazaar offers a variety of classical handicrafts and touristy souvenirs. The bazaar was built in the 17th century during the Ottoman empire and it was found that the complex used to belong to a Byzantine Palace complex.
During dinner, we enjoyed a traditional Turkish dinner and we were lucky enough to see some Turkish entrainment with dance and music. After dinner, we decided to return walking to the hotel and we arrived around 11pm in order to plan for the next day and rest.
On Day 3 and after a nice breakfast, we were ready to start our day around 11am. We decided that the best way to learn everything that it is there to know about Istanbul was to take the tourist bus. Therefore, we walked to the Ayasofya as it was there where one of the bus stops was and we bought a one-day ticket. We were ready to start our bus tour around midday.
We took first the Blue route, which crosses to the European side via the Galata Bridge and cover most of the length of the Golden Horn. After almost completing the entire loop, we decided to change to the Red route and dropped at the British Consulate in order to go to the Hard Rock Café and walked around the area as this the most tourist place.
However, before starting this adventure, we made sure that we knew the time of the last bus as we needed to take the bus back. We walked around Taksim Square.
The Taksim Square is a major tourist area and is considered the heart of the modern Istanbul due to its famous restaurants, shops and hotels. This square also houses the Republic Monument which was built by sculptor Pietro Canonica and inaugurated in 1928.
After an amazing shopping experience, we were perfectly on time to take the last bus back and then we stopped at the Spice Bazaar stop. On our way to the bazaar, we saw some traditional road side snacks which we decided that we should have before continuing our trip to the Spice Bazaar.
The Spice Bazaar is the largest bazaar in the city and is located in the Eminönü quarter. The bazaar is the centre for the spice trade, however, over the time other type of stores have gradually replace the spice sellers. The building is part of the complex of the New Mosque with their revenues used for the upkeep of the mosque. The building was designed by architect Koca Kasım Ağa and completed in 1665.
We explored every place and we decided that this was the perfect spot to do amazing souvenir shopping. We tried those famous Turkish delights which these were different as this were made by pure honey and I realised that these tasted different as then one I tested before, and we loved them so much that we bought two boxes, one to eat here and one to take home.
After an amazing shopping experience, we took the tram back to the hotel area where we decided to search for a local restaurant in order to have a traditional Turkish dinner. In here was where I fall in love with the dish made of mincemeat and aubergine with tomatoes all oven cooked.
After an amazing dinner, we walked back to the hotel and enjoyed this night walk as everything changes at night with the street lights and the people are also different. Once in the hotel, we planned the logistics for the next day and went to sleep.
On Day 4 and after a nice breakfast, we were ready at 11am to start this day’s adventure. We decided to take the tram and stopped at Gülhane istasyonu as it was closest to our next stop. Our next stop was the Topkapi Palace area.
The Topkapi Palace Museum was designed by architects Mehmed II, Alaüddin, Davud Ağa, Mimar Sinan and Sarkis Balyan. The palace’s construction started in 1465 with an ottoman and baroque style, however, the complex has constantly been expanded. The palace has had many functions as royal residence, as accommodation for ranked offices and currently as a museum. The palace is part of the historic area which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Although we arrived by tram, the museum is in a hill that we had to climb up in order to reach. We arrived at the Topkapi Palace Museum around 2pm and we were only able to enter the Tiled Pavilion Museum. We were also able to walk around the site as not every museum on the site was opened. I was able to create amazing photographs as this is one of the best-preserved palaces that I have seen and also offers some amazing viewpoints of Istanbul.
After our amazing visit to the Palace, we decided to return to the tram station. However, on our way we decided to stop and have lunch as this street had some very good-looking restaurants.
After lunch around 3.30pm, we decided to continue exploring this area as they depicted amazing building with a very unique architecture. Therefore, we decided to delay our returned to the hotel and continued our walking tour of the area.
After our walking tour, we realised that we were closer to the hotel as we walked all the way back to the city centre. Therefore, we decided to continue walking in order to find a new local restaurant to try a different local speciality.
After dinner, we decided that it was time to return to the hotel as it was already 8pm. We arrived to the hotel in order to plan the logistics for the next day and we were ready to sleep around 10pm as it has been a very tiring day.
On Day 5 and after a nice breakfast, we were ready to start this day’s adventure around 11am. As this was our last full day in Istanbul, we decided to finish exploring the area around the Ayasofya so we made our way to the Basilica Cistern.
The Basilica Cistern is the largest subterrain and ancient cisterns. The building is located 150m southwest of the Ayasofya and was built in the 6th century. The building is a chamber of 138m by 65m holding about 80,000m3 of water. The chamber is supported by 336 marble columns with a height of 9m each evenly spaced. The cistern provided the water filtration system for the Great Palace, other buildings within the First Hill and the Topkapi Palace until after the Ottoman conquest. Currently, it is only held with little water as it opens to the public.
After our amazing visit to the Basilica Cistern, we took the tram and stopped at Eminönü area as we decided to take a boat tour around the Bosphorus.
The Bosphorus is a narrow natural strait used for international navigation and it forms the continental boundary between Europe and Asia. The strait has a maximum length of 31km, a maximum width of 700m and a maximum depth of 110m. The strait connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara (by extension the Mediterranea sea). There are three bridges that connects Europe with Asia which are the 15 July Martyrs Bridge (suspension bridge) with a length of 1,074m, the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge (suspension bridge) with a length of 1,090m and the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge (hybrid: cable/suspension bridge) with a length of 2,164m.
After our amazing Bosphorus boat tour, we decided to find a nice place for lunch as it was already 3pm. We walked toward the Galata Bridge and we saw that below the road there were some restaurants so we made our way to those restaurants. We managed to find a nice seafood restaurant and we had an amazing lunch.
After lunch, we decided to walk in order to explore the Grand Bazaar which is located inside the Walled city.
The Grand Bazaar is the largest and oldest covered markets in the world consisting of more than 4,000 shops covering an area of 30,700m2. The building was dedicated to Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror and was completed after 1730. Currently, it is considered one of the major landmarks of the city.
After an amazing shopping experience, we decided to walk towards the city centre in order to find our favourite restaurant to enjoy our last dinner in Istanbul. After dinner, we continued our trip to the hotel in order to finish packing and planned the adventures of our final day in Istanbul.
On Day 6 and after breakfast, we checked out and left our luggage at the lobby as we had an afternoon flight so we decided to visit the Archaeological Museum at the Topkapi Palace’s outer gardens which was closed the last time we tried to enter.
The Archaeological Museum consists of three museums the main archaeological museum, the ancient orient museum, and the Islamic art museum which all house around one million objects representing all the eras and all civilizations in the world history. The museum was established on 13th June 1891 after the Ottoman sultan Abdülaziz was impressed with the archaeological museums in Paris, London and Vienna and decided to create a similar museum in Istanbul.
After our last-minute visit to the museum, we returned to the hotel around 1pm in order to pick up our luggage and made our way to the airport. We took a taxi ride to the airport and since my ex-husband was travelling business class, we were able to enter the business class lounge to rest and wait for our flight.
After an uneventful flight, we arrived to London Heathrow airport in a very good time and we took a taxi ride home.
Istanbul was an eye opener as this was the first Muslim country that I visited and to be honest I did not feel the discrimination, however, you need to very respectful when entering the mosque as you need to cover all your hair. But this is something that you need to follow every time you enter any religious building in any place of the world.
Istanbul’s architecture was breath-taking as I fell in love with the symmetry and the patterns of the decorations, and also with the amazing Turkish tea which is now my favourite. It is also the only city in the world where you could walk in Europe or Asia depending of the direction. Istanbul is full of history in every single place that you look, after this unexpected trip, I highly recommended that if you want to visit a unique city full of history, great architecture and amazing food you should considered this as your first priority.
Arasta Bazaar
Interior AyaSophia
AyaSophia
Interior Basilica Cistern
Interior Blue Mosque
July Martyrs Bridge
Topkapi Palace View
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