The importance of Bosporus

Bosporus river connects Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea. Black Sea becomes gateway to the oceans of the world. Bosporus is the lifeline of Istanbul. The river and the grand monuments define Istanbul. Millions visit it each year just to enjoy the architecture of historic buildings.

Bosporus flows between Asia and Europe. This makes Istanbul to be the only city to be in two separate continents. Thankfully it is not as expensive as Europe and not at all as orthodox as middle east. It was ruled by Christians for centuries and then by Ottomans for centuries after that. If you look at the city from an elevation – it looks like a city which has everything. including the urban congested construction. The mighty Bosporus is omnipresent from wherever you may look at the city. People go up the Galata tower and keep staring at the mighty river and the famous Golden horn. Galata tower was constructed to incarcerate the prisoners but now it is a tourist attraction and it provides a great view of the city. Golden horn is actually a horn shaped inlet on Bosporus which took up the essential role of a natural harbour due to its design. It divides the European side of the city into old and new towns. The Byzantines and Ottomons used this harbour for centuries so it helped the city and the country develop and made Turkey into a major trade hub. Being a trade hub gave Turkey its advantages in ancient and modern world. From Galata tower you can see the sun’s golden light reflecting on the water which resulted in the name being given as ‘golden horn’ and you can also see the ferries crossing over to Asian side of Istanbul.

As you get down the Galata tower you land up in spice bazaar. The smell of different spices takes you into another world. They decorate the colourful spices beautifully. They made us taste some tea and the nasal congestion cleared up. We carried a few flavours home.

Then you can take a ferry or book a Bosporous cruise which takes you to the Asian side and the guide points out the Black Sea. You see the congested part of Istanbul from the boat but you also see the glorious waterfront houses of the rich and famous. It would be best to take the 2 hour cruise which shows you whatever you need to see. If you do take up the Bosporus cruise, many of the companies include some extra sightseeing such as Galata tower. Otherwise you could always do sunset cruise or dinner cruise or the dinner cruise with show. From the boat you can see those mosques and monuments floating in the air. Not floating actually but perched on the high cliffs but they appear to be floating when there is fog or clouds.

The most prominent and iconic is the Suleiman mosque which is perched on a cliff and looks quite majestic with its minarets and domes. Sinan the royal architect in 16^th century had built this mosque along with the famous blue mosque and several other grand buildings which gives the city its identity. I had read Elif Shafak’s ‘The Architect’s Apprentice’ a few years back and enjoyed reading how these beautiful buildings came about in that era. As I had been to Istanbul before reading the book, it became more enjoyable.

Getting to Istanbul

I had mentioned in my previous post that getting to Istanbul is easy from India as we have direct flights from there which take around six hours. Visa process is also not complicated, and it becomes even simpler if you have US or Schengen visas.

Istanbul is served by two airports. Istanbul airport (IST) is the main airport and the bigger one. It is one of the best that I have seen and during my previous visit it was under construction. It is spacious, it is swanky and it is fun to spend some time shopping at departure time. But be prepared to walk for miles to get to your gate of when transiting from international to domestic terminals. Taxi took around 300 TL till Taksim square from here and it took around 40 minutes. From the old airport (the earlier main airport) one had to drive along the Bosporous but this new one has an interior highway so it’s much quicker. I remember that long drive from the old Airport to the city and envied the residents for having this never ending waterfront flanked by parks where locals were involved in sports, picnics, walks and fun activities. The other airport is Sobiha Goksen Airport (SAW) which are used for many domestic routes but most international flights are from IST.

Taksim Square and Istiklal Street

We stayed in a hotel called ‘The Point Hotel’ near Taksim square and it was a good area with shops and cafes nearby. It took 10 minutes to walk through the square to the famous Istiklal street. There were many hotels nearby so one can stay according to the budget. It is a good area to stay unless you want to stay in the old town or the Asian side. There is undeground subway system so reaching most places from here is easy. We had a good view of the city and Bosporus from the rooftop of our hotel. Istiklal Street has all the brand shops, cafes, bars and it is always tempting to taste the fresh Baklava.

We bought quite a few boxes to get home for friends. It is a very long street with trams going up and down in the middle. It gets super busy as evening progresses and on the first day it was very cold so we would end up spending more time inside the shops than on the street. So we ended up doing some clothes shopping also. It became so cold and windy by evening that we preferred to get back to hotel. Thankfully the hotel had a nice temperature-controlled pool and a spa.

Sultanahmet – The historical Old Town

I would call this trip as a transit through Istanbul rather than visiting Istanbul. Having spent around 5 days a decade or so back, we had done most touristy things then. At that time we had stayed in the old town of Sultanahmet just 5 minutes walk to the ‘Blue Mosque.’ Blue mosque was lovely and so were the famous Hagia Sophiya and Topikapi Palace. Blue mosque was so near where we were staying that we invariably had to pass it to go anywhere. So it was nice to go inside and sit for a while and look at the beautiful and intricate work. I also remember having spent a long time at Topikapi palace which had been the residence of 22 Sultans. The guides spend a lot of time explaining the importance of Harems in the palace and the book that I have mentioned earlier also gives a lot of importance to the Harems. The view was stunning from Topikapi as you can see the Bosporus, golden horn and Marmara from there. Every nook and corner had many stories.

Hagia Sophiya remains the main draw of the old city and Istanbul. It was once a church, but Ottomans made it into a mosque. Ataturk in 1934 had got a law passed which made it into a museum as it was a basilica and mosque and this step gave Turkey a great deal of credibility in the western world. It had been a museum during my last visit but now it has been converted into a mosque again by Erdogan who wants Turkey to turn Islamic.

Tip : You don’t actually need a tour to see these places. You just have to get here and guides are available at each place. The old town is very compact and all these monuments are next to each other.

We did visit the ‘Grand Bazaar’ in the old town which is a bazaar having lanes and by lanes and selling all sort of stuff. If you visit Istanbul then one visit to the grand bazaar is a must. You can buy lamps, carpets, fancy chess sets, ceramics, jewellery, clothes, watches, mementoes and what not. The place is always bustling and bargaining is not frowned upon.

Near the Grand Bazar entrance was the jewellery market. The gold and emeralds glittered so we entered a showroom. We were politely told that this was ‘wholesale only’ and sorry – they can’t sell to us. All showrooms had the same policy. We were in a mood to explore the old town so soon reached a market which had several shops displaying lovely looking shoes. Once again it turned out to be a wholesale market so no luck with shopping. We were advised to go to a place called ‘Laleli’ to get great branded goods at a cheap price but gave it a miss. Perhaps we will go on our next visit.

The Asian side of Istanbul

For the next visit I have also earmarked the Asian side of Istanbul. A third of population lives on Asian side and many tourists prefer it as it is not half as touristy as the European side but offers a lot in terms of sightseeing, nightlife and shopping. Whatever we have seen of Asian side is from the Bosporous cruise. Next time we should go and stay in places like Uskudar. It will be like staying in another city. Once upon a time this side was totally cut off with hardly any tourists but when Bosporous bridge was built and then in 1988 the Faith bridge was constructed – the area became accessible. Internet made this side popular as people got to know about it from the net. I am told that it is a very interesting area to spend a few days.

The food and coffee

We had time to kill on the last day so went walking to some street near Istiklal street. There were cafes, small shops, art shops, small hotels and guest houses. We almost got lost in the labyrinth of these lanes and by lanes but got a great feel of the place as bag packers and budget tourists stay in these places. Normally we stick to high profile touristy places so ignore such places. Some shops were very interesting and an art gallery had some great paintings. Every second shop seemed to be a cafe. While Turkish coffee is nice and popular the normal coffee is extremely popular and it seems people are drinking coffee the whole day. We then went and sat in a park called Gezi park near Taksim square and saw the locals enjoying their weekend with their kids while we sipped our coffee. The coffee was nice and so was the view of the Suleiman mosque and the Bosporus. And what better way to end the trip than to just go to a local restaurant and order whatever locals were eating. As usual we had to add salt and chillies to the lamb and chicken to make it tasty for our palette. However, we should not associate the Turkish food only with Kebabs and non vegetarian food. Eggplant, Red & yellow pepper, potatoes, tomatoes, spinach celery etc are very popular. Dolma is a dish of stuffed grape leaves and stuffing could be of anything. To enjoy a city it becomes important to enjoy what the locals enjoy.