Istanbul

Ferries across the Bosphorus

I have been looking forward to visiting this city for many years, its history, its landscape, the archaeological remains that just litter some parts of the city, some visited, some not. It's position as the crossroads of the world; straddling the divide between east and west physically and culturally. It was supposed to be the beginning of a great step into the unknown. The start of traveling in Asia, the beginning of the unfamiliar and the challenging contrast to what was so familiar and too easy in mainland Europe. It's that challenge thing again, I'm seeking experiences either consciously or unconsciously that will be difficult. At least I think so.
However, three factors have changed the route for me. The first is the cessation of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Iran following the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_attack_on_the_British_Embassy_in_Iran incident, the bandit-country nature of the border regions near Turkey and Pakistan. Secondly it's getting really cold here so I'm sticking to the coast where it's warmer and third my Indian visa is swiftly running out (it only lasts for six months).
So I'm flying to India on the 8th of January and sticking close to Istanbul until then. I'm actually writing this post in Izmir where I headed to get some slightly warmer weather. My travels until then will be confined to the western side of Turkey. 
The journey into Turkey was difficult to sat the least, which I enjoyed, but my travels here have involved too much tourism for my liking. In Istanbul there are literally weeks worth of things to do and see. Except I'm not happy doing just that. I can visit historical buildings and museums for a few days but aside from the learning about the place that goes on there isn't much living there for me to see. Also wandering around a (cold and rainy) city by yourself loses it's appeal after the third or forth day.
I am travelling because... Honestly I cannot say why exactly, but to experience new and interesting places through my own eyes and also through the impressions of the local people I meet along the way is important. That is what I takes me along the road to the next place. There is no guidebook for Turkey in my bag. No list of sights to tick off, places to stay or eat and definitely no key vocabulary.
So when the only people I have stunted conversations with are shopkeepers, cafe owners, hotel desk staff and those strange guys who are employed to start friendly conversations with tourists for the purpose of luring them into shops and selling them items for an extortionate rate- I'm not at my happiest.
You can tell when I'm having this kind of experience by the way I take many more photographs than usual.

Tourism at Topkapi

The Tower of Justice- more tourism...

Looks cold and wet doesn't it? It was.

Inside the council chamber, the sultan used to sit behind the golden window to observe the proceedings taking part in his name.

See? Just like that.

Ottoman Bunchuks, symbols of power a lot like a standard.

16th Century Armour, the irate guard caught up with me at this point and told me 'no photo'

Re-curved composite bows

Views from Topkapi across to the Galata tower http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galata_Tower

There were far more photographs taken, I didn't manage to get any from the inside of the room where the relics of various religious figures are kept, there were far too many security guards around for that so I couldn't better the picture of the hand of John the Baptist that my father took many years ago with my own of the staff of Moses. In all I spent around 4 hours at the palace and I didn't see it all, missing several important exhibits and the harem altogether. Then again, I am a lousy tourist.

Agia Sophia, more tourism, but wow! Just look at it!

There was one place that I simply HAD to go to and that was Hagia Sophia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia which was one of the big draws of the city for me. 1500 years of history on top of another several thousand years worth buried underneath. I can confirm that it really has to be seen, read up about it first, then just go along and experience the place. Cathedrals are built to awe the visitor and in this respect Hagia Sophia did not disappoint, with many of the original Byzantine mosaics restored and visible after being stripped of the later layers of plaster put there to cover the idolatry by the conquering Turks. 

Recently it was discovered that the four seraphim have faces under their gold masks!

The spot where the emperors of Byzantium were crowned.

Isis and Horus

Stereotypes :)

Oh look, a thing you can touch!

Christ Pantocrator with the Mary and John the Baptist

Breathtaking mosaics around the galleries

It was a little busy on the day I visited, so I cannot begin to imagine how busy it could be in the peak season. I would recommend a visit to anyone, I may even go back again myself! However I would think twice if there were so many visitors that stopping, staring and contemplating was impossible. That is, I believe, the point of visiting a place like this, it's that whole 'pilgrimage' thing again.

The Archaeological museum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Sarcophagus

A gladiators grave steele

Part of the chain that closed the Golden Horn to ships in times of siege.

A female deity figure from the neolithic, yup another one...

Some days the kindness and openness of strangers truly shocks and fills me with awe and gratitude simultaneously. It shouldn't as I'm couchsurfing and I'm trying to remember that people can be amazingly open, yet it does and frequently I cannot express how grateful I am. 
Antje, a former couchsurfer of mine who stayed in my cold little house in Wales nearly two years ago asked me randomly on facebook what I was up to and ever-so-kindly took it upon herself to find me some more friends in the city, to my surprise it worked out wonderfully and her university friend Aslihan replied that she could meet up one evening; she took me to a rooftop restaurant with the most ridiculously good views. I mean they were literally breathtaking, even the cold was worth it, I've forgotten the name of the restaurant, but it was a stones throw from the Galata tower

Sneaky pic

One part of the panarama; towards Topkapi Saray

One day I took a walk along the city walls (another reason I had to visit). The walls are situated in a band of open ground in a girdle around the peninsula. Often major roads and transport infrastructure has been built in this open space giving the walls a surreal aspect as in places they have a four lane highway in a deep trench as a kind of impenetrable 21st century moat. There were also strange-looking men lurking between the curtain walls looking out and down upon passers by. I didn't linger anywhere long and took few pictures as a result. My host later told me that an American woman was molested and murdered there in the summer. 
I did find a little museum along the way; it was called the panorama 1453 museum. Inside after a lot of information boards you climb into a spherical chamber where there is a panoramic painting of the scene when the defences of Constantinople  were breached. It was quite interesting to watch the other visitors as most seemed to want their photograph taken in front of various scenes, what visitor and which scene is open to interpretation. The wording of the exhibition was also fascinating in respect to it being very much the history of the victor and the glorification of the personal skills of the sultan Mehmed II. There he is below, sitting on his horse winning the battle all by himself. 

I think the artist has misguidedly used modern Turkish faces for models, look carefully...

Cavalry charges at the city walls? Really?

The city walls today

The maritime museum, I just cannot resist a maritime museum....

Propellor from SMS Goeben/Yavuz Sultan Selim

Rowing boats that belonged to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

I find Istanbul fascinating, like Turkey in microcosm it is a city with many personalities; traditional, progressive, nationalist, pious, conservative, liberal and countless more modes of thinking live inside the same shared space and shared consciousness. I'm not done with it yet, there is so much more to experience here, so I'll be back for another helping in the new year.

Top 5 funny things street hawkers/shopkeepers have said to me in Istanbul

I'm posting this from the relative calm of Izmir, I don't miss the constant hard sell of shopkeepers, market traders and random guys standing around waiting to help tourists that happens in the tourist areas of Istanbul. Still, once or twice I have literally cried with laughter at the cracking lines they unwittingly deliver.

1. Something for your... Secretary, sir?

2. These are happy socks, effendi!

3. Fucking Australian idiot, I'm trying to do you a favour....

4. The mosque is closing soon, I can be your guide...

5. You look French.

Thessaloniki to Edirne / Adrianopolis

 

I love Thessaloniki, It's not as cool as counter-cultural Berlin, it's nowhere near as anarchic as Athens, nor as historic and monumental. It's not as dirty as Plymouth on a Saturday night, it's not particularly beautiful, it has it's disgustingly modern grid system, fancy boutiques and a sleazy strip bar district,  but I love it. Why? I'm not sure. Maybe it has the sea. The sea is always there, acting like a heat sink for hot Mediterranean blood: Never allowing a boil-over.

The sea front (I've no Idea what they call it, but the locals basically promenade) is a popular choice for a walk in the city and one of the few placed that you can go for a run without breaking your ankle on the 'character-full' pavements. Recently someone has paid millions to extend this promenade miles along the coast with ornamental parks and gardens. So now they can walk further!

Mount Olympus at sunset.

that old time religion

The sea front promenade extension with nice wooden boardwalk and snazzy umbrella art.

One of the first things that I did was to climb up through the old high town that escaped the great fire (Ana Poli) to the Byzantine/Ottoman fortifications at the acropolis. The Belted tower (below) was free to visitors and very interesting. It was an interesting land parallel to a Martello tower in design. The views of the city were great so a hint to any traveler, when visiting a city or town in Greece, always head uphill if you have the choice.

The belted tower was a key point in the city's fortifications, it is now surrounded by houses but once dominated the hillside.

A view from the tower, you can see the line of the city walls and the Roman Rotunda and Arch of Galerius as well as the iconic White Tower by the sea front.

The summit of the hill is capped by the defensive citadel know as Heptapyrgion or YediKule which both mean 'seven towers'. For much of it's recent history it was a prison with very hard conditions. Many Rebetiko songs have been written about it (so I've been told).
The prison was closed in 1989, so is still in good condition.

The prison door, note the wear on the steps.

The exercise yard, I think there used to be barbed wire stretched over the top.

Maybe I liked the city because there was history apparent everywhere, it hadn't been demolished to reveal the Hellenistic levels below, and there were remains from all of the cities history. There were even minarets still standing.

Kamara or Arch of Galerius

Detail- Galerius was 'first among equals' in the first Roman tetrachy, that's why only he is wearing armour.

I spent a lot of time in Thessaloniki for a traveler, I think even though I had a bit of bad luck finding a host at first and further problems with the first host that did accept, I did have the good fortune of finding a fantastic hostel to stay in and through couchsurfing met a variety of fine folk, all of whom I would love to be friends with 'in real life' if the chance ever arose. However, when travelling you just know when it's time to leave and after 10 days the itch to move on was impossible to ignore. 

The next stage of the journey was great fun but simultaneously terrifying; Most travelers go the way of Istanbul via a direct bus, I wanted to enter Turkey through a more traditional route namely the old capital of Edirne which had in former years been the base of operations for the Sultan's armies in the Balkans. The problem was that there really was no easy way of getting there without a car. 
I left my last hosts house in good time, but forgot to ask them how to get to the city bus station, so I asked a reasonably sane-looking person waiting for a bus at the Kamara and was told to get on the bus to the railway station (It was my fault, I said 'poo eena stathmos BUS parakalo') So i had to get another ticket there and find the correct bus to take me on my way. The result was that I was 5 minutes late to catch the bus I wanted and would have to wait another 3 hours for the next one. Also It would arrive late in the evening.
I was having mixed feelings about leaving Ellada, there are things that really annoy me about the place and like a bad romantic partner I want to change it to fit me better, but then again those silly things that I find annoying are also part of the appeal. I think I could live In Greece and be very happy indeed, not in Athens! Maybe somewhere in Crete or the southern Peloponnese where I can grow citrus fruits and watermelons in the garden.
Then there are all the goodbyes. Travelling in this way is a very personal business; I share peoples homes, I eat with them, get tipsy together, sometimes dance with them, learn things that a tourist would never know or know that they didn't know, talk about the most general and the most personal things in the same sentence, share a bedroom, clean their pubic hair out of the plug hole etc. The downsides of making so many of these connections is that one day you have to say goodbye to them all. There's no taking them with you in the backpack. We say that we will meet again someday and somehow along our path, but we both know that this is unlikely. It is a way of travelling that I worry will take a toll on me over the long term, but at the same time enriches my life. A kind of sadness that tears out and builds up. Too many goodbyes.

An accidental meeting with my fabulous last couch hosts when we both missed our buses and had to wait in the station, they were running about an hours sleep at this point...

Last Greek sunset during the bus rest-stop

So the bus left me 20km from the border at 9.30pm, in the snow...

Goodbye Greece, hello Turkey. The long walk across a snowy no-mans land.

Edirne or Adrianopolis is the first city in European Turkey, and very interesting. Here are a few scenes of the first two days before I go to Istanbul.

Leaving dirty footprints in the mosque courtyard, accidentally of course!

Part of the old defensive structures

Inside the museum, Google says they've automatically made this photo spangly, click it to see it in all its gaudy horror.

Selimiye Camii, the most accomplished mosque in Edirne and the preferred work of its architect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimar_Sinan

An Edirne evening, Ataturk statue in western general's uniform.

The bazaar, Mustafa Kemal watches you here, too.

I'm travelling to Istanbul today, into unfamiliar territory. I'm rather excited about it all! I wonder what Mustapha Kemal would say?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attaturk#Outlawing_insults_to_his_memory