Istanbul

Istanbul was one of my most anticipated cities. It is a city that is separated by the Bosphorus and it means that it is on the European and Asian continent. It is the most populous city in Turkey and is one of the largest cities in the world with a staggering 14.16 million. To put things into perspective, Australia's total population is 23.13 million.







I stayed in a small hotel in the old district, Sultanhamet, which was very close to the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque) and the Hagia Sophia. This meant that every time I went out to explore, I needed to walk through the park which was a little uncomfortable. Safety is usually not something that is at the forefront of my mind but cutting across a park at night does heighten my sense of awareness. It was quite jarring to see the stray dogs in such a busy city like Istanbul and interestingly enough, the citizens do care about the animals. There were bowls of water and kibble left out and it seems that the locals do like the strays.

The first stop in Istanbul was the Blue Mosque. I had never been inside a mosque before and really didn't have any expectations. From people's comments, I knew that the Blue Mosque wasn't very blue. But it was still incredible to see the tiles inside.









The Grand Bazaar is an indoors market selling a variety of goods such as: fake designer bags, trinkets, turkish towels, Turkish delight, tea and spices. It was definitely an experience. Even in Sydney, I have a problem with my sense of direction at Paddy's Market since the same store repeats on every corner. The Grand Bazaar is massive and the same few stalls repeated which made it very confusing. Haggling is not in my nature and it is definitely needed when shopping there since everything is overpriced. Even some stalls "final" prices were still overpriced. For example, there was a magnet being sold there for 3 lira (after haggling) and the exact item was sold in a shop nearby for 1 lira, no haggling required. The only purchase I made was for Turkish towels and in hindsight, I should have made a lower counter offer. The man's first price was 45 Lira, followed by 35 Lira when I ummed and ah-ed over the price. I made a counter offer at 25 Lira and he quickly accepted. In hindsight, I should have said 15 Lira. D'oh. I say that because I bought other better quality Turkish towels from a homeware store for 23 lira. Novice at haggling.




'Hamal' or porter who carries all sorts of stock on their back with that presumably uncomfortable and dangerous posture. Every one of them that I saw were at least over 50 which made me a little sad about the long term impact of their profession on their body. An article here.

I absolutely loved the food in Turkey however Istanbul was a little disappointing (in the central area that I had stayed in). Like a lot of big cities, I found the food quite expensive (relatively of course) for the quantity and quality.