5.41pm 28th May, 2014
Today we are in old town Sultanahmet. We had an awesome breakfast at IST café, The girls and I had an urge to have waffles and omelets after 2 days of minimalist Turkish breakfast which is cheese slices, ham, bread, marmalade, butter, tomato, and cucumber.
So instead of eating at our B&B we walked down on Istiklal and discovered IST, a very urban café, serving a mix of Turkish and international cuisine. Out of the many things me and the girls ordered I would mention the Menemen which is made of egg, tomato, bell peppers, ground pepper, salt, oregano, and mint; for those familiar with Indian pallet Menemen is very close to Anda-Bhurji; and Salep which is popular drink from the land of ottomans, it’s some kind of a milk powder extracted from orchids.
After the awesome breakfast, we were ready to kick start our day. We headed to the tram station at Kabataş (pronounced as Khabatash) to take us to the graceful and mysterious old town of Sultanahmet. Sultanahmet is immense with its’ secrets and dark history, and a constant transformation and change of hands and rulers and power and cultures.
Hagia Sophia (pronounced as Aiya Sophia) is magnificent; it use to be a church till the Byzantine period, and they were converted into a mosque with the conquest of Ottoman empire. The mosque is so grand with its architecture and interiors, almost as if it was designed to mesmerize and empower. The Mosque is iconic to Turkey as it stands for the very cultural amalgamation that the Turk live by till date.
As I walked within the marvels of Hagia Sophia I was amazed by the number of wars this structure has witnessed and a number of destructions and reconstructions it has seen since the 4th century. The church has seen earthquakes, riots, wars, crusades between Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox and finally a complete metamorphosis into a Muslim Mosque
The structure is beautiful with mosaics and murals of Baby Jesus and Mother Mary, and Archangels. As you look at the walls and ceiling, it is evident that the Christian crucifix was removed, or detached from the church as you can still see an outline of where the cross use to be, also the calligraphic designs trying to cover the cross is very prominent.
Introspectively, what I felt at Hagia Sophia was a part of a structure, a society, a bigger plan, a small fry. Felt like my life and future were decided by some force way back in the history of time, and I am merely living through it as if fulfilling a part of the plan which was conceived centuries ago, written in history way back in time… I feel lucky to have stood in one of the oldest surviving structures on this planet, and I feel fortunate all the same.
After an hour and a half at Hagia, we walked across the street to the Blue Mosque or Sultanahmet mosque. I don’t have much to say about blue mosque as it was completely overshadowed by my experience as Hagia. It’s interesting from an architectural perspective, also this was the first mosque built in Turkey. Beautiful and graceful interiors with adorned with handmade ceramic tiles, and marble carvings.
Next stop – Basilica Cistern – a short walk from Hagia Sophia, also known as the Sunken Palace.
The Cistern is an underground dungeon of the water reservoir, which was used in the byzantine times, during the wars, as they would cut off the water supply and use the water from the Basilica cistern instead. The place is dimly lit, moist and dripping with water, it has 1000’s of columns to hold it up, built during the Byzantine times.
My friend Nupur mentioned that Basilica cistern reminds her of Harry Potter and the chamber of Secrets, with the mysterious Basilisc egg, and the secret diary…I kind of agree with her, it does look like straight out of a harry potter book. Perhaps J.K. Rowling had paid a visit to a place like this when she sketched out her books… who knows?
Interesting things to see in Basilica Cistern:
- The wishing column: throw a coin and make a wish… I did… will blog if about it if it comes true
- The tear drop column: column has carvings of several tear drops in solidarity for the soldiers who lost their lives.
- Medusa’s head columns: there are 2 columns that Medusa’s head as their base. For the ones who do not know Medusa she is one of the demon sisters who fell in love with the son of the Greek god Zeus, Poseidon; incidentally Athena – Goddess of strategy and intelligence, also fell in love with Poseidon.
Medusa was proud of her long black hair, and dark black eyes. Athena could’nt handle a little competition, so she cursed Medusa and turned her beautiful long black hair into poisonous snakes, and her once beautiful hypnotic gaze was now lethal enough to turn anyone who looks into her eyes into Stone.
Legend has it she drove herself insane, saw her reflection and died, other story says Poseidon killed her.
The 2 columns in Basilica Cistern hold the head of Medusa as inverted and rotated, some say this is to avoid the curse of the gaze, while some argue it’s pure physics.
Either/or… look out for Medusa, and you might want to make a wish at her columns too!
I would highly recommend Hagia Sophia and Basilica Cistern to all the travelers.
By this time we are all pretty tired and snappy from a long day of soaking in history and walking for miles within the same structures, so we sat by a beautiful café over looking the Hagia mosque, the name of the Resto Bar was Sophia Pita.
Nothing feels better than the first sip of chilled beer on a hot tiring day. While sipping on our Millers and nibbling on Pasta Arabiatta, we girls discussed our teenage desires to have a date at Basilica Cistern and what a perfect dimly lit romantic setting it would be for a perfect first kiss…*dreamy Eyes* (Note to reader, we area about half a decade over mark from our teenage years…but what the heck it’s a vacation!)
My friend, Smiti, even considered writing a short story based on a tour guide who becomes obsessed with Medusa’s pillars and lives and dies at the Cistern…. Her cathartic version of Hunch back of Notre Dame I guess…
Rested and re-energized we walk down to Grand Bazaar, on the route we found a young artist sitting by the curb, sketching out beautiful calligraphy on notebooks, diaries, frames, and artifacts. The Kids name is Tolga Musin, he is a student and part-time artists, I always promote young artists, so if you pass by the square between blue mosque and Hagia by the evening, make sure you check out his art, and maybe buy few things if they catch your fancy.
Grand Bazaar was crowded and buzzing with pushy salesmen, although I prefer shopping at Istiklal street. The ride home in Istanbul Tram was fun as well, over-all our last day at Istanbul was action packed and exhausting just like the first day 🙂
Istanbul for me is a town with a streak of melting cultures and backgrounds with a desire to be somewhere on the map. Introspectively, the city made me question where I was in life, and how well do I know myself?
It made me feel like I am a small fry in the bigger picture, my life and knowledge is just a pie in the sky. More than anything the History of Istanbul made me feel quite powerless, I felt like we are all part of a plan sketched out ages ago, defined by wars fought centuries ago, and deceived by power. Felt like I was struggling to find myself, my voice, my personality in a town which is bustling with Romance, Religion, Culture, Gastronomy, Art, History, Topography…
Overwhelming… that is how I would describe Istanbul.
An over whelming whirlwind of experiences, and in that mess exploration, I implored and found my desires, and basic reasons for satisfaction, calmness, and happiness.
Thank you everyone for your likes and reblogs, watch out for Part 3, travelogue from Antalya, Heriopolis, and Temple of Apollo…and some fun anecdotes. 🙂
LIFE, A COLLECTION OF EXPERIENCES. 
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