Turkey: Istanbul and Van

Spring Break Day Eight (continued from part seven)

I hadn't done too much planning as to where exactly I would go in Turkey other than Istanbul, but I didn't feel the need to visit Istanbul for more than two days. It was an fascinating city for sure and there was much more I could have seen, but I was more interested in seeing some of the more remote parts of Turkey on my trip. I knew there were great places I could visit in Turkey like Ephesus, Troy, and Cappadoccia, but Eastern Turkey was high on my priority list, and I only had a few days left of my spring break.

I decided the next morning to fly into Van, a regional capital in Turkish Kurdistan, since domestic flight tickets are pretty cheap. (Van is pronounced waan). There were buses to take to Van, but they had a 22 hour trip, which did not seem like much fun. Before I bought my flight ticket, however, I had to locate an ATM where I could get my card to work. The previous night I tried several dozen ATMs in Taxsim, but none of them accepted my North Brookfield Savings Bank card. It has a PLUS sticker on it, but it didn't work at any of the PLUS-affiliated ATMs for some reason. I remembered it had worked at the CitiBank at Atatürk Airport, so I took the tram across the city to find another CitiBank. It was very inconvenient, but I eventually got some money and bought my ticket. The travel agent was confused why I was going to Van. I was aware my itinerary was a little unusual.

My flight was at noon, and I left my hotel around 10AM and rushed onto the tram and the metro. The travel agent assured me I would have plenty of time to get there after I bought my ticket, and she was right. I was the only foreigner on my flight, and I think the only foreigner in the entire domestic terminal. It was a little under two hours by air to Van. As the plane prepared for landing, I could see the landscape out the window, which was really amazing. Snow-capped mountains surrounded Lake Van, Turkey's largest lake, which was flanked by flat, brown plains. Getting out of the plane, it looked and felt like a remote place. It was cold, but there was a "wide-open" feel to it.

The airport in Van is small, with only one gate. There were military personnel doing security checks at the exit, but even here the "white phenomenon" came into effect. They checked everyone's passport but mine. The airport is located about 10km out of Van, so I had to take a taxi into the city. The cab driver spoke no English, but I showed him a map of where I wanted to go, and he brought me there. The only problem was it cost a whopping 25 lira, metered.

I had a list of hotels I wanted to check out, and I navigated myself into this place called Büyük Asur Hotel, not far from the center of the city. The manager spoke some English, but with such a strong Kurdish accent that I could almost not understand him. The room was a modest 40 Lira per night (about $25 USD) including breakfast, but it was clean and comfortable. I'd recommend it to anyone staying in Van.

After settling in, I went to the tourist office which was located adjacent to the hotel. It was supposed to be open, but it was locked. The tourist industry isn't too big in Van. My primary concern was finding an ATM. I had brought enough money to buy a way flight back to Istanbul and a little extra, but not too much. Unfortunately, my card didn't work at any of the banks in Van. I wanted to visit the Armenian monastery located on an island in Lake Van, but considering the price of the taxi ride and my ATM dilemma, I decided I would be more conservative with my money.

Downtown Van around my hotel.



My hotel room.


Instead I ventured around Van for the remainder of the day. It's a fairly big city with over 250,000 people, most of them Kurdish, not Turkish.

There is a national museum located near the center of Van, but when I arrived, it too was locked despite the fact that it was supposed to be open.

I went to a nice restaurant that evening which served some excellent food. I ordered lamb kebabs. I don't remember what it came with, but there was plenty of it. I ordered tea with every meal I had in Turkey, since Turkish tea is world famous, but it wasn't that different than the tea I had in Egypt. I had some sort of dessert, though I have no idea what it was called. Turkish desserts are small but very dense, and usually consist of some sort of pastry soaked in honey. I saw a saw a group of women eating there who were clearly not from Turkey - the only foreigners I saw the entire day in Van.

I went to a few different Internet cafes to see what they were like (and to surf the Internet). At one point the whole street lost power without any explanation. Luckily my hotel remained powered.

I had expected Van would be conservative, poor, or backward in some way. This was not the case. It was a very modern city that felt safe, comfortable, and even trendy in a certain respect. The people seemed happy and friendly. My American appearance stuck out strongly among the Kurdish population, but nobody seemed to mind. Van does not command a fraction of the excitement level of Istanbul, but just seeing the other side of Turkey was exciting enough for me.

A park near central Van at night.

Turkey: Istanbul and Bosphorous Strait

Spring Break Day Seven (continued from part six)

After waking up, I had breakfast at another one of the many restaurants in the district and made my way to the Ottoman palace complex, only a five minute walk from my hotel. Known as Topkapı Sarayı, it served as the seat of the Ottoman Empire from the 15th to 19th centuries. It sits at the north of Sultanahmet on a hill above the Bosphorous Strait, on the European side of Istanbul.

The palace itself is completely intact and the landscape on the property is well-groomed. The size of the palace campus is overwhelming. On the site are a number of different buildings, though I don't remember their names. Perhaps the most impressive displays are the Treasury buildings, which house enormous amounts of gold and jewels. The Sultans clearly loved their treasure.

There is a good view of the Bosphorous Strait and the Asian side of Istanbul from the palace.

The gate to the palace campus.



The lawn.



Various points from around the palace.








Overlooking the Bosphorous from the palace.



After visiting the palace, I took a walk out from Sultanahmet down to the docks where the ferry leaves. A man was selling tickets for a cruise along the Bosphorous for only 20 YTL, so I figured I'd see what it was like. It was a two hour trip along both sides of the Bosphorous, where I got to see nearly all of coastal Istanbul, so it was a good choice.

Views from the Bosphorous of Istanbul.





After the boat trip, I walked from the docks to Taxsim, which is considered "downtown" Istanbul. It's a very long walk; Istanbul is a huge city in terms of area. I enjoyed the area around Taxsim much more than Sultanahmet. There aren't any significant landmarks in Taxsim Square, but it is busy - busier than anywhere I've seen in New York City. Everything had a very Western feel to it, and I could hardly tell that I was in an Islamic city. I haven't visited any cities in Europe, but it seems like downtown Istanbul would not be too much different from its European counterparts. Veiled women in this part of the city were the exception rather than the rule, and everyone wore clothing that would look normal in a Western country. Despite this, it was still obvious that I was a foreigner, since no Turk or Kurd has the same skin and hair color as me.

From Taxsim, I walked a bit north to my destination, the National Military Museum. This one was well-labeled and didn't contain the obvious nationalistic bias like the corresponding museum in Egypt. It covered artifacts from the Byzantine Empire to modern day, though mostly from the early Ottoman Empire. I arrived too close to closing time to see the second floor, but I got to see most of it, and it was a worthwhile visit.

Exhibits from the museum.




There is a monument outside the museum to a soldier named Seyid Obasi, who reportedly lifted a projectile weighing 250 kilos by himself at a critical point in battle. It turns out he wasn't able to lift it again when he was asked to do it for a promotional photograph. I think the story is exaggerated, since the world record for lifting an object overhead is right around that weight.

Statue of Seyid Obasi.


I walked back to Taxsim after that and down Istiklal Street, a major road from the main square. The amount of people was incredible, many of them young adults just hanging out with their friends. I went to a restaurant called Haci Baba, which was somewhat fancy, though it was relatively inexpensive. Turkish cuisine has a reputation for being among the best in the world, and all of my dining experiences in Turkey supported this. After spending some time at an Internet cafe, I began the long walk back to Sultanahmet and back to my hotel.

After my first two days in Turkey, I was still unable to communicate anything meaningful in Turkish other than "thank you," but I began to notice some similarities between Arabic and Turkish. None of the basic words for communication bore any resemblance to Arabic, but some nouns were Arabic words that have been pronounced in Turkish. For example, merkezi corresponds to markaz, meaning "center." Camii (pronounced jamee) corresponds to jame'a, meaning "mosque." Askeri corresponds to 'askareya, meaning "military." I had learned the rules of how to pronounce the Turkish letters, so I was able to pick up a few words by reading signs and labels. The good thing about Turkish is that most of the letters are the same as in English, so reading is not a major barrier to communication like in Arabic.

Turkey: Istanbul

Spring Break Day Six (continued from part five)

My flight to Istanbul was from Queen Alia Airport (just south of Amman) at 3:30 AM via Turkish Airlines. The flight went smoothly enough, though it did not compare to the almost luxurious feeling of the Royal Jordanian flight the previous week. I did not sleep because I needed to read up a bit on Turkey. I was slightly nervous flying into Turkey, only because I had not bothered to learn any Turkish and my Arabic wouldn't be much help there.

After arriving in the airport, I purchased a visa for $10 USD and then waited in the immigration line. Unlike Queen Alia Airport, this one was slow and inefficient, though the large number of flights arriving at the same time accounted for much of this. I waited in line for around two hours while lots of people held up the line with their passport issues. As I looked around me in line, I was amazed at how many different types of people I saw. I had never seen so many different ethnicities in large numbers in one place before. When it was my turn to be checked, it took less than thirty seconds for me to get my stamp.

The advantage of having to wait in line for so long was that by the time I was ready to leave the airport, it was past 7AM and the metro was running. I could have taken a taxi or shuttle, but I wanted to do things the long but cheap way. I bought two metro Jetons, though it took me more than a second to realize which was a Jeton and which was my change. The metro has its final stop at Ataturk airport, which is very convenient. I hopped on the metro and took it to the Zeytinburnu stop, where the metro transfers into a tram. The tram is basically like a metro, but it runs above ground, and very slowly. Conveniently enough, the tram makes a stop in Sultanahmet, which is where I wanted to stay.

I got off in Sultanahmet and walked around for awhile, trying to find the hostel I had been looking for. I was almost there when a man offered me a room in a place called the Ocean's 7 Hotel. It was impeccably clean and was even comfortable, and it would cost 10 euros ($13 USD) per night. I had no reason to refuse. The arrival stage in Turkey was over, and I did it without getting ripped off, lost, confused, or frustrated. In fact, it was easier than I thought it would be.

I walked around a bit and then got breakfast at a restaurant called the Pudding Shop. It was pretty easy to find a place to eat in this part of the city, as there were restaurants everywhere.

The skyline of Sultanahmet is dominated by the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque, both of which were only a few blocks away from my hotel. I first made a visit to the Hagia Sofia. The tickets were an expensive 21 YTL (around $13 USD). It's one of the most famous ancient buildings in existence, so I can't really add anything insightful on the Hagia Sofia that can't be found elsewhere, other than to say it is as impressive in person as it looks in pictures.

Interior of Hagia Sofia, ground level.



Interior of Hagia Sofia, balcony level.



Next I walked over to the Blue Mosque, which is only a five minute walk from the Hagia Sofia. It doesn't get nearly the fanfare as the latter, but it's almost as big and its architecture is just as impressive, at least in my opinion. Since it's still in daily use as a mosque, there was no charge to visit.

Exterior of the Blue Mosque.



Inside the Blue Mosque.




The Egyptian obelisk at the site of the former Hippodrome.


A few minutes walk from the Blue Mosque is the entrance to the Ottoman palace complex. I saved the visit to the palace for the next day, but located on the grounds of the palace are several museums, including the Istanbul Archeology Museum. The museum was well-labeled and there was an overwhelming collection of artifacts from the Stone Age to the Islamic Age.

Near the palace in Sultanahmet.


Shots from the archeological museum.





I returned to my hotel for a nap, as I hadn't slept since the previous night. When I awoke I made a quick trip to the Covered Bazaar, which is the largest non-open market in the world. It was neat to see all the things for sale, but nothing really caught my interest. After that I had a meal at one of the nice outdoor restaurants in Sultanahmet. The food was excellent Ottoman-style cuisine, though it seemed like all the restaurants served small portions at relatively expensive prices. I spent the rest of the night walking around the district and going to a few cafes.

Initially, I was a bit disappointed with the part of the city that I'd seen. The monuments I visited were great, but the Sultanahmet district was really just a haven for tourists. I was expecting to experience a sort of "culture shock" being in a country with its own language and culture, though it never really came like it did in Egypt.