A First Venture Into Turkey
It’s funny to look back now on my first visit to Turkey, in 2009. At that time it was my first trip out of America/Europe and it seemed so exotic. It was also the first (and last!) time I traveled with a group of friends. Since then I’ve spent more time in Istanbul than possibly nearby Melbourne and my perspective has certainly changed.
We were young then, just a few years out of college (I graduated in 2006) — I was traveling with my friends we’ll call M & D, and D’s new wife A. The first two and I were old friends but M & I didn’t really know the new wife, but D assured us she was an expert traveler. She had eagerly jumped into planning and six months out had literally every minute planned out, which was the first cause of some concern for M & I. I tried to make a suggestion once and she gave me such a snowstorm of counterarguments that I left her to the planning.
We arrived at the Ataturk airport (a beautiful thoroughly modern airport, since demolished in 2022), and caught a taxi to the city center. We didn’t know any better at the time but I’d later learn the airport had a great connection to the city tram network.
The airport (was) located well within the urban sprawl of Istanbul but southwest of the old walled city, so from the airport one sees the hill ahead heaped with buildings and dozens of minarets. To the right is the Sea of Marmara with rusty freighters steaming in and out of the Bosporus channel under plumes of black smoke. Then one passes through the ancient Theodosian Walls of Constantinople (yes yes take a moment to sing the song), still impressive after 1600 years, and into the old city. We marveled as our taxi navigated the narrow turns of the ancient streets, and flinched a few times at what we thought was surely too tight of a turn, and finally arrived in Sultanahmet, the oldest part of the city.
A had gotten us a hotel just across from the Blue Mosque in the very heart of old town, easy walking distance to many of the monuments. As it happens some of the mosque’s loudspeakers seemed to be pointed right into our window and the call to prayer woke us up every morning at 4 am, which made my compatriots grumble a bit, though I’ve always loved the warbling call of the muezzin. Certainly, it was a reminder that we were “no longer in Kansas anymore” (I’ve never been to Kansas).
We were also quickly introduced to the touts who like in many cities of the world afflict obvious tourists with an annoying persistence. And I learned A, “expert traveler” that she was, had her and D’s entire planned spending money on her, several thousand dollars, while I, knowing ATMs exist, had done as I’ve always done since, carrying no more than $200 at a time and topping up at ATMs as necessary. Fortunately, she was never robbed of it, but just the thought of carrying so much money while traveling did and does make me cringe.
We toured the beautiful Blue Mosque, with its impressive vast vault of open space inside — and my hat was stolen there, thus teaching me an early lesson that nothing is sacred (years later someone attempted to pickpocket my friend in the sanctuary of the Ark of the Covenant in Axum, Ethiopia, during the holiest celebration day there).
Also just by our hotel entrance, practically our front patio, was the ancient hippodrome, that had been the Roman horse racing track. Now it forms kind of an oblong plaza with the remains of various monuments that had been in the middle of the track — an almost 2500-year-old bronze “serpentine column” that had been relocated there from Delphi in 324 AD, and a 3500-year-old Egyptian obelisk relocated there in 390 AD, among other interesting things. Many statues themselves had been in turn looted from here to elsewhere in the long turbulent history, the endless musical chairs of monuments.
The Basilica Cistern is another cool thing located just beside the Hippodrome. It is entered through a nondescript doorway leading seemingly into the ground by the corner of the Hippodrome. The stone stairs lead spiraling downward until one comes into a vast underground space with rows of thick columns like tree trunks supporting the ceiling. It’s dark, with red lights providing stark moody illumination. There’s a few feet of water across the entire floor (holding water is, of course, its intended purpose), and a raised walkway through the cistern for tourists. Walking among the quiet columns in the orange dimness with the slow plop of drips all around is very calming and serene. Giant koi fish (which, I assume, eat tourists) silently drift through the water.
Next of course the famous Hagia Sophia itself is possibly the greatest Must See. Originally a church (“basilica”) from 360 AD (!) until the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, and then a mosque until now. When I was there in 2009 it was still open for tourists but I believe now it is just a mosque and not open to other than practicing Muslims. The inside is full of gilded decorations and quotes from the Quran, and ancient murals in soft pastels of scenes from the Bible — and one of my favorite things, hidden on an upper windowsill, Viking graffiti, Halvdan you rascal.
Also of note on top of the hill here is the palace of the Ottoman Sultans, Topkapi Palace. This is a geometric complex of gardens and airy palatial pavilions. A highlight is the tiled pools and baths of the sultan’s harem — which had titillated Western imaginations for centuries with visions of dark-haired Circassian beauties luxuriating by the pool, nubile odalisques plucking exotic string instruments. It’s still a beautiful peaceful place with an expansive view out to the Sea of Marmara with its whirling gulls and working freighters, but the melodious pluck of strings and coy looks of brown antelope eyes have been replaced by the distant sound of traffic and honking, and tourists making duck lips for selfies.
A visit to the Grand Bazaar was my first introduction to the bazaar-type market, with its bustling crowds, an endless variety of different things being sold at booths, and especially, always a fascination to me, the sellers of spices with their mysterious products just in multi coloured conical heaps. I learned that I hate haggling (and still do), but, fortunately, my friend M turned out to love it so if I wanted to buy something he was happy to step up on my behalf and engage in the battle of wits and words.
All the laneways around Sultanahmet are lined with overpriced restaurants, but a short walk down the hill brings you to more affordable places. We crossed the inlet known as the Golden Horn over a bridge with fish restaurants on its underside. In the Galata neighborhood on the other side there’s yet more affordable food (I discovered the pide, the Turkish pizza, here). Up a narrow street lined with little restaurants, one passes the Galata Tower which one can climb for a great view of the city, or continues up the hill to come to the broad pedestrian-only road of İstiklal Caddesi, which if you walk its length brings you eventually to famous Taksim Square.
In 2009 well dressed Turks casually promenaded along the street perusing the modern shops lining it. It was a more innocent time back then, for me and for Turkey. Later when I was there in 2014 riot police armed like dystopian stormtroopers in black body armor patrolled the street, which was pockmarked with craters. Police “surveillance vans” slowly prowled around, but I digress. I’m sure it’s lovely now.
Beyond Istanbul!
After a few days in Istanbul, we flew down to Izmir on the Aegean coast, and took a train to Selçuk, by the ruins of Ephesus. Here we stayed in a lovely little hotel with a nice rooftop lounge area of couches and rugs in the grand Turkish style. I fondly recall drinking apple tea up there on the warm evenings. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the sewerage connection in M and I’s bathroom which issued a noxious sewer odor. This certainly encouraged hanging out on the roof, and once again had us thinking we were really third-worlding it (ah the naivety). When we finally mentioned it to the manager he was shocked and easily fixed a flap or valve that hadn’t fully closed.
The ruins of Ephesus stand just beside Selçuk, and are truly impressive in how much of them are still freestanding considering they are mostly around 1700 years old. Bible Enthusiasts will note that Ephesus features prominently in the bible as it was an important early Christian center… enthusiasts of the Older Ways will already be wiping a tear from their eye at the memory of the Temple of Artemis, one of the wonders of the ancient world, that was located here for 600 years until the archbishop of Constantinople had it destroyed around 407 AD, and no trace now remains.
I don’t seem to retain any photos of the famous “library of Celsus,” an impressive two-story building façade complete with columns and statues that remain standing (well it’s been recently rebuilt but all the pieces including statues were at hand to do it is impressive) that is the usual most photographed part of the ruins. But I do have a photo of a cool wasp I met there:
From Selçuk we went on a package tour to Pamukkale since it was the only practical manner to do so, being three hours distant. Pamukkale is the ancient city of Hierapolis, and there are ancient ruins there, lying ignored and neglected beside the mineral springs, but it’s the springs tourists come to see. Beautiful white terraces have been formed like layers of a wedding cake, as warm turquoise water burbles out of the ground full of calcium deposits.
Bathing pools have been constructed to allow tourists to bathe in the water and marvel at the shockingly pale, fat, AND hairy Russian tourists in Speedos. It is possible that they are only visiting from the nearby “Gate to Hades” — a cave from which lethally noxious gases emanate. Seeing that any creature who attempted to venture in died, the ancient Greeks called it Pluto’s Gate and built a temple around it.
This package tour also taught me one of my most enduring travel lessons. The food we’d had elsewhere and I’ve had since in Turkey has been delicious. Turkish food is more than just kebab. There’s manti, and kofte, and menemen and so much more. The package tour stopped at a tourist buffet on the way to and from Pamukkale and the food was all barely palatable examples of the cuisine I’d loved elsewhere. I had a similar experience years later with a package tour in Cappadocia. Considering most casual travelers rely on such package tour groups to see sights, it appalls me to think of the false low opinion they must have about local food. Sometimes a package tour is the only feasible way to see a place, but avoid them if possible and don’t take their food as representative of local cuisine!!
From there we found out A had planned for us to return to Istanbul by bus rather than plane (which would have been cheaper!) because it “sounded fun.” “I told you this plan six months ago!” she pointed out when M & I expressed that this didn’t sound fun. Yes well, in the blizzard of minute details she’d blasted us with six months ago, and her leave-it-to-me attitude about it, we hadn’t noticed. It was too late to change now, it was indeed tedious but we survived. From there we flew to Israel but that’s another story (M & I eventually mutinied).
Since then I’ve been to Turkey many times (I think I’ve been there literally every year, if only for brief airport transfers, from 2012 to 2017), including dating a beautiful antelope-eyed Turkish girl. It’s funny to look back at how scarily exotic it had seemed when I first went. Having traveled extensively since then, I now see it as comfortably above average, development-wise.
Politically though, over the years, I’ve seen Turkey slowly transform under Erdogan (in power about twenty years now) from a place as carefree as Europe to an increasingly less secular state drifting sadly away from Ataturk’s founding values. Police patrols, surveillance vans, waiters whispering desperately “Don’t ask me about politics!” The last time I was there, in 2017, I was taken down to the airport basement for interrogation and I’m not sure I’m keen to return after that.
