Hey everyone! We're currently in Bremen, Germany at the hostel after a day of sight-seeing. We really like it here in Bremen; it's small and quiet: a nice change from the insanity of Turkey...
We arrived in Istanbul on the evening of the 3rd. We split a cab with some other young tourists and made our way to our respective hostels, which were in the same area. The cab ride took over an hour, and after some issues with finding our hostels, we finally arrived just as night had set in. Our hostel was located in the Sultanahmet region of Istanbul, which is where a large portion of the landmarks are located. It's considered to be "the old city" of Istanbul, and we couldn't have asked for a better location. That evening, we grabbed a quick bite to eat, and went to bed.
The next morning, we went directly to the train station to buy train tickets to our next destination. The night before, we decided that we wanted to go to Selcuk, where the ancient city of Ephesus is located. When we walked up to the window, the ticket seller told us there was no train to Selcuk, and we needed to figure something else out. Luckily, there was a woman standing by the window, who told us we could take a ferry and a train to Izmir and then a bus to Selcuk. We went ahead an purchased the tickets to Izmir, even though we wouldn't leave for two days after we had booked our hostel. We noticed later, that the woman was wearing a "North Texas" t-shirt, as in the University of North Texas in Denton and we immediately struck up a conversation. After a bit of talking, she agreed to show us the city and we ended up developing a good friendship with her while we were in Turkey. Her name was Nur, and she just finished up her Ph.D in Art Education at UNT. She had a four year old daughter named Selin, who would join us later. The first thing we did together was go to the Grand Bazaar. It is one of the oldest markets in the world (opened in 1461), and it still thrives today (mostly on tourists, like ourselves). After this, we went to the spice market, which has been open since the 16th century. Here are some pictures from the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market.
After this, we took a walk across the canal, and over to Taksim Square area. This might be one of the busiest places I've ever been in my life. It's a good time to note that Istanbul has a population of over 16 million people. The whole city feels like Time Square at five o'clock, twenty-four hours a day, everywhere; even then, people seem to concentrate in and around Taksim Square. We got a bite to eat off one of the main side streets, then walked over to another shop where we ate baklava. It was awesome. After this, Nur went to pick up her daughter and Ashleigh and I window shopped for a bit. When we met back up with Nur, and met Selin for the first time, we set off for the canal and spent the rest of the evening hanging out around there. We also took a boat ride to the other side and back. Here are a couple of pictures from the evening.
(taken by Selin)
The next day, we went to the Museum of Archaeology, which houses artifacts from all over the region. There were soooo many artifacts... too many. It was probably the fifth case of Trojan pots before we decided enough was enough. Before we got bored, we saw some really cool stuff from Sumeria, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Assyria. The first picture is a tablet fragment, which has Hammurabi's Code inscribed in Cuneiform on it.
After this, we walked over to Hagia Sophia. It was a church originally constructed during the Byzantine Era by the Emperor Justinian between 532-537 A.D. This might be a good time for a short history of Istanbul, as it really plays into the history of Hagia Sophia. In the early 4th century, the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capitol of the Roman empire to the future site of Istanbul and renamed the city Constantinople, after himself; Constantine is also noted as being the first Christian Roman Emperor, ending Christian persecution in Rome, and also making it the official religion of the empire. The move effectively created two capitols of the Roman Empire: Rome in the West, Constantinople in the East. Given that the empire was in decline by this point, the western half fell to Germanic tribes in the mid 5th century. However, the Eastern half lived on for another thousand years; from my understanding, these people still considered themselves to be Roman, but historians refer to this era as the Byzantine Empire, or the Justinian Empire. So when Hagia Sofia was built, it was originally a church, and the biggest in the world for about a thousand years at that! In 1453, the Ottomans took over Constantinople. The primary religion of the Ottoman Empire was Islam, and Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque. The Ottoman's held power until WWI. When the empire fell, and the Republic of Turkey was founded, Hagia Sophia was turned into a museum for all to enjoy!! Given all of that history, Hagia Sofia is a remarkable place to visit. It has signs from both Byzantine and Ottoman rule: Muslim and Christian traditions housed under one roof, imagine that! Unfortunately, there was a huge scaffold in the middle that obscured a significant amount of the architecture. They're restoring a portion of the building, and the scaffold has been there for quite a while. This was hands down our favorite site in Istanbul. We took lots of pictures, here are a few of them.
While we were there, Ashleigh got a migraine, so we decided to call it a day. The next day, we set out to see the Blue Mosque. When we arrived, there was a prayer service going on, and we decided to wait until the service was over. I should also mention that our visit to Turkey happened during Ramadan, which is a very holy time for many Muslims. People from all over Turkey and Eastern Europe travel to Istanbul to pray at the Blue Mosque and other holy sites. It was an interesting time to be there, I just hope we didn't upset anybody by our presence. Anyway, we took a walk around the corner to the Mosaic Museum, which houses works from an excavated Byzantine palace. We really enjoyed the museum (it was cheap, too! only five lira a person, about $3!!!). We both developed an affinity for Byzantine mosaics during our trip to Turkey. Here are some of our favorites. I think we both agree, that our favorite is the mosaic in the second picture.
After the mosaic museum, we walked back to the Blue Mosque. The prayer service was over, and the mosque was considerably less crowded: more so this time with tourists. We were required to remove our shoes, and Ashleigh was required to cover her shoulders. Ashleigh had covered her head, but we noticed most of the tourist women had not done so, and it didn't seem to be a problem. The Blue Mosque was unbelievably beautiful, I feel that our pictures don't do it justice. It was amazing to see.
(You'd never thought you'd see it!!)
After the Blue Mosque, we wandered around Istanbul for a bit. We ate some food, went to Taksim Square, and wandered around some more. As the sun was setting, we made our way to Galata Tower. It was constructed during the Ottoman era, and served as a watch over Istanbul. This had to be the biggest rip off we have yet to experience on our trip. It was 15 lira a person to go to the top. The outer rim was tiny and crowded. Granted, we got some good pictures, but a lot of the came out blurry because people kept knocking into us. Anyway, here are a few of the ones that came out okay.
After the Tower, we wandered around some more. We kept noticing a mosque that stood at the edge of the canal. As we passed this time, we noticed the doors were wide open and it seemed as if visitors were welcome to enter. We're not sure what this mosque is called, but Nur kept referring to it as the New Mosque, so we'll just say thats what it's called. Anyway, we went in, this time Ashleigh covered her head and shoulders, and we both removed our shoes. The mosque was unbelievably beautiful. We snapped a few pictures and walked out; Ashleigh said she kept getting dirty looks and she felt a bit awkward. I know we weren't the only tourists taking pictures. We're thinking that she was an area that only men were allowed to be in. In both the Blue Mosque and the New Mosque, there were sections reserved specifically for women. They were not allowed to enter the main floor; instead, they prayed behind a wooden screen. We try to be open to different cultures and customs, but this definitely made us both uncomfortable. Anyway, here are some pictures; I think the lighting was working in our favor.
(not sure what Birlik Rahmettir means...)
The next day, we met up with Nur. We had planned on going to some small islands in the Marmarat Sea, about an hours boat ride from Istanbul, and swimming on the beach. The islands are considered to be a part of Istanbul proper; the city provides a public ferry service for relatively nothing (3 lira each way, a little less than $2). We met up with Nur and Selin, early in the afternoon, ready for a day at the beach. But as we got on the boat, dark clouds started to roll in, and by the time we got off the boat at the farthest island, it had rained just enough to cool everything off, so that it was too cold to swim. Since we were planning on spending the day at the beach, Ashleigh didn't take her camera, so we don't have any pictures. The island was such a relief from Istanbul. Cars aren't allowed on any of the islands (except for public service vehicles); it was unbelievably relaxing. We took a horse and carriage (the primary means of transportation on the island, besides bicycles) to a beach area, just to make sure we wouldn't be able to swim. After we confirmed that the water was absolutely frigid, we had the carriage driver take us to the foot of a sizable hill, where we could hike up to a restaurant that sits on the top. After a rather arduous hike, made worse by our flip flops, we made it to the top and had a relaxing meal, overlooking the Marmorat Sea. We could see the other islands as well as part of Istanbul. It was truly amazing. We regretted not bringing the camera. After dinner, we walked back to the port, ate some ice cream, took Selin to a playground, and then caught the last boat back to Istanbul.
The next day, we went back to the Grand Bazaar and bought souvenirs and Christmas gifts for everyone. I won't mention all we bought exactly (I don't want to ruin any surprises!!), but I got a really neat chess set for myself. While, Istanbul is an amazing place to visit, and if you're able, you should make the journey, the moment the locals find out you're American, they immediately try to sell you stuff. At first, we thought it was charming and kind of fun, but by this point we were absolutely fed up with it. The people in the Grand Bazaar are particularly ruthless. We spent the whole day fighting off salesmen and haggling; by the end of the day, we were stressed out, frustrated, edgy, irritated... the list of adjectives goes on. It was not the best way to spend out last day in Istanbul, but we got some really great stuff, for damn good prices! That night, Nur, Selen, her brother Sadat, and his wife Pricine took us out to a lovely all vegetarian restaurant. We then went to a cafe for tea, and Nur taught us to play backgammon. It was quite a lovely evening with lovely people. It made up for our experience earlier that day.
The next day, we got up early to catch our ferry and train to Izmir. Fortunately, Nur, who was born outside of Izmir, was on the same ferry. She was heading home to her parents house with Selin. We had no problems making the ferry, all though we were extremely tired from the night before. We noticed while on the ferry that Istanbul had experienced some flooding, from the rain the city had been having. It had rain the two days before, and the rain had just let up long enough for us to catch our ferry that morning. When we arrived in Bandirma to catch our train to Izmir, it was raining steadily. As we approached the train station, we noticed that the parking lot was flooded and the train tracks were completely submerged. We boarded the train anyway, and I quickly fell asleep. I woke up to Ashleigh tugging my shirt telling me that the train wasn't able to leave due to all the flooding. We found out later that the train was delayed because the tracks ran by an old building, which was thought to collapse from all the flooding; the train speeding past would only aggravate situation. We ended up being stranded in the Bandirma train station for five hours. The train staff was kind enough to serve us lunch and tea. Right after that, they put us on a bus that went to Izmir. The bus ride took about six hours; we were able to sleep through most of it. We said our good-byes to Nur and Selin, when we arrived at her hometown. It was a small agricultural town specializing in grapes, olives, and tobacco. The whole city was surrounded by mountains; the landscape was astounding. We wish her the best, she was a fantastic guide and a wonderful person; hopefully, we'll see her again in the future. We made the rest of the journey to Izmir, which conveniently dropped us at the bus station, where we hopped on a minibus to Selcuk. What was originally suppose to be a eight hour journey, ended up being fifteen. Needless to say, we slept great that night.
Selcuk (Sell-Chuck) is a fantastic town! We absolutely loved it! It was small and quiet, and even though it attracted a ton of tourist, it still felt very Turkish. We stayed at a great hostel, where we had a wonderful little room to ourselves. The hostel was operated by a very friendly and helpful staff; they offered free bike rental and free transportation to Ephesus. They also had a restaurant that served amazing vegetarian food, and a great rug shop, where Ashleigh bought a hand-woven Turkish rug for cost price. They were nice enough to send all of the stuff we bought in Istanbul back home for us. I have nothing but good things to say about that place. Anyway, here is a picture Ashleigh took of the roof top view in Selcuk.
The first day in Selcuk, we walked around the town for a bit and then went to the beach. We didn't take any pictures of the beach, because we didn't bring the camera with us, but it was a very nice. Not too crowded, no hotels, the water wasn't as blue as we were hoping, but it was still great to swim in. The next day looked like it was going to rain, so we decided to put off our visit to Ephesus and work on the blog and plan the next few weeks of our trip. While it didn't rain until late that evening, the following day, it rained constantly... Murphey's Law. We decided we needed to go anyway, so we brought our rain jackets and did our best to prepare for it. Ephesus exceeded our expectations. It was unbelievable! The first stop was the amphitheater. It was massive! I had Ashleigh stand at the bottom, while I stood at the top, and we tried speaking to each other; we could hear each other quite clearly: more so, I'm sure, if everyone else was silent. Right as we were leaving the amphitheater, the rain started to fall. We hid under some old columns while the rain passed. As it started to let up, we made our way to the old library. The facade, as well as, the old arches and columns, were incredibly ornate and detailed. It was truly amazing. By the time we left the Library, the rain started pouring again. We took refuge under a covered archaeological dig site, that housed dwellings of the ancient aristocrats of Ephesus. There were some very beautiful mosaics on the floors and frescoes on the walls. We stayed under the cover of the dig site for over an hour waiting for the rain to pass. We made our way through the rest of the old city, while it rained on and off. We saw some more great sculptures and columns, walked on an ancient marble road, and visited another amphitheater. We don't have any pictures of the rest of Ephesus after the dig site, because it was raining to frequently for us to feel comfortable carrying the camera around. After leaving Ephesus, we went to a museum in Selcuk, which housed objects found after excavating the old city. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but note the pristine bust of Marcus Aurellius at the end of the picture series; I was very impressed.
(Room of the Muses)
(Marcus Aurellius)
The next day we took a bus to Antalya, where we would catch a flight to Hamburg two days after. The bus ride took seven hours, and Ashleigh got her jacket stolen. It wasn't so bad otherwise, but we were ready to get off by the time we got to the last bus stop. Antalya is a beach resort town that resembles Miami. We stayed at a hotel in the older part of the city. The following day, we slept in and then spent the afternoon at a small private beach. It was very small and crowded, but unbelievably beautiful. The water was crystal clear and a nice temperature, their were beautiful rock formations everywhere; it was picturesque sans all the people, and beach umbrellas. Yet again, no beach pictures. Here is a picture from a tourist website, so you get an idea. Sorry it's so huge.
The next day we got up really early and caught our flight to Hamburg. I'll save our adventures in Germany for another post. This one's already lengthy as it is! We head to Berlin tomorrow, and then from there, we head to Krakow to visit Jack! We'll probably have some time to update then, so expect Germany pt.1 in a couple of weeks.
Gutentag aus Deutschland!
