Our
Australian government held a ballot in 2014 for any Australians or New
Zealanders who wanted to attend the ANZAC dawn service at Gallipoli in Turkey
in 2015. Being the 100th year of this WW1 campaign the ballot was designed to
limit attending numbers to 8000 Australians and 200 New Zealanders. No ticket,
no entry.
The landing
at dawn on 25 April 1915 by the Australian and New Zealand Allied Forces
(ANZAC), was heavily resisted by Turkish troops and the allied forces retreated
from the peninsula after 8 months of sustained fighting and heavy casualties on
both sides. Read all about here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_Day
This battle saw the end of the Ottoman Empire when their successful
commander, Kemal Ataturk went on became president of Modern Turkey. For
Australia and New Zealand, they entered the war to support Great Britain, fighting
for King and Country but in doing so forged unique national identities.
So I entered
the ballot, got selected and decided to take up the offer & travel Turkey,
an area of the world I have not visited. My partner Terry decided he wouldn’t
go, so I offered my 2nd ticket to his friend, living overseas in
Asia these last few years and he accepted.
Work
couldn’t see their way clear to grant me leave so I resigned my job of nearly
20 years in April 2105 and off we go again, albeit for only 6 months this time.
16 - 21 June 20151
ISTANBUL
LOVING ISTANBUL
Flying out
from Melbourne at the end of autumn, I eagerly anticipate skipping a Melbourne winter
for a Mediterranean summer and after 9 hours to Singapore, my 1 hr wander about
Changi (no terminal change – yaah) gets me onto an 11 hr flight to Istanbul. Landing
early next morning. I check out the brightly scarfed women in arrivals, so I’m
very curious to know if it is really their hair under those huge bumps? It
seems to me that the higher and bigger the bump, the more fashionable a woman
is & Google has confirmed that this fashion trend is known as a camel hump
& sometimes frowned upon by more the strict Islam adherents. But not all women
are scarfed and I certainly feel at ease wandering around here on my own. Very
easy trip by public transport into Istanbul’s city centre by train & tram
putting my home town of Melbourne to shame for its archaic attitude to airport
transport. It is cold & foggy here this morning but soon enough, following
great instructions I arrive at the Antique Pension and I am very excited to see
how close I am staying to Sultanahmet Square, home to a few of Istanbul’s
famous landmarks.
I’m too early to claim a bed so leaving my pack, I wander
back to the Square to admire an installation of thousands and thousands of
potted tulips here. This is the beginnings of the world’s largest Tulip carpet –
copying a carpet pattern on display in magnificent colours, brightening up an
otherwise grey day here. There are snack sellers about with simits (crusty
bread ring), corn cobs & roasted chestnuts and there are hundreds &
hundreds of tourists, mainly led about in tour groups passing through, lining
up and getting on & off parked busses here. Heading back to my hostel, I
run into Mal Ross, my partner’s friend who is attending the ANZAC service with
me. He arrived yesterday, stayed elsewhere but checking in to the Antique today
as well. The next four days are spent visiting the BIG 4 tourist hotspots in
Istanbul interspersed with fascinating wanderings to both sides of the
Bosphorous – European & Asian continents, as surely befits a world
crossroad.
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| This couple are travelling with a kettle! |
Please feel free to skip these history bits, if you get bored!
THE HAGIA SOPHIA has a long reputation as an
historical and architectural wonder of the world, due to its grandness, size
and functionality. It has been constructed three times in the same location: The
first church was constructed in 360, covered with a wooden roof but was burned
down after a public riot that took place in 404. The second church was
reconstructed in 415 but was demolished in 532, after another public riot
during Emperor Justinianos’ reign. So he ordered that the structure be rebuilt
and it was completed 5 years later. This 3rd Hagia Sophia is massive with the
height of the dome from the ground level 55.6 m and the radius is 31.87 m in
the North to South direction and 30.86 in the East to West direction.
The Emperor ordered all provinces under his
reign to send the best architectural pieces to be used in the construction so
that the Hagia Sophia would be bigger and grander than ever before (no wooden
roof this time). The columns and marble used in the structure were taken from the
ancient cities in and around Anatolia and Syria and includes 8 columns brought
from Egypt to support the domes making up a total of 104 columns, 40 in the
lower and 64 in the upper gallery. White & pink marble and green &
yellow porphery make the decorative interior wall coatings and all the walls of
the Hagia Sophia not covered by marble were decorated with mosaics using gold,
silver, glass, terra cotta and gem stones but very few of these have survived.
Originally named Megale Ekklesia (Big Church),
after the fifth century, it became known as the Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), the
place in which rulers were crowned, and the biggest operational cathedral in
the city throughout the Byzantine period. Then Istanbul was occupied during the
Crusades, when both the city and the church were damaged so when Sultan Mehmed
conquered Istanbul in 1453, Hagia Sophia was renovated into a mosque. Over the
centuries, there have been many additions to beautify the mosque including 8 x
7.5 m diameter calligraphy panels, known to be the biggest in the Islamic
world.
The Hagia Sophia was converted into a museum by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s
orders in 1935 and today it is deservedly well admired by the masses with the
most massive scaffolding I have ever seen, used to continually maintain this
ancient edifice.
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| One minaret is hiding |
Istanbul’s BLUE MOSQUE, a 17th century mosque is famous
for its beautiful blue tile work ornamenting its interior walls and its
surrounding six slim minarets distinguish it from other mosques which normally
have two or four minarets.
The mosque took seven years to build, was finished
in 1616 and has become the most important mosque of the city. Although it was
certainly very beautiful, I enjoyed a visit to the Yeni Cami mosque more when
the day I dropped in to visit they were commemorating the 1443th birthday of the
Prophet Muhammad and only women were allowed to enter, there was there beautiful
Koran singing by a woman and we were all given a rose as a gift for visiting.
TOPKAPI PALACE was a huge wander, although crowded
with tour groups & making for some long lines at the more popular exhibits.
Built on a Roman Acropolis & completed in 1478 the Palace originally
covered 700,000 sq. m area and is located at the Istanbul Peninsula between Sea
of Marmara, Bosphorus and the Golden Horn giving great views all round. It was the Ottoman Empire’s administrative,
educational and art centre for nearly 400 years since Mehmed the Conqueror
until the thirty-first Sultan. When the Palace was abandoned by the Ottoman
Dynasty during the 19th century. After the establishment of the Republic of
Turkey, the Palace became their first museum in 1924. Today the Palace Museum ‘only’
covers 400,000 sq. m but is still separated from the city by Imperial Walls
built by Mehmed the Conqueror on one side and by Byzantine Walls on the sea
side. We had as much
time as we wanted that day so we could jump onto a line when it became short (between
tour group arrivals) unlike one couple I talked to who had 45 minutes allotted
for their whole visit before being taxied to the next attraction – I expressed
surprise having already wandered about for 3 hours. Lovely grounds, with garden
beds full of flowering tulips with informative displays in a massive complex,
persuaded me that I could easily have lived as a sultan, if ever allowed.
On my first
day in Istanbul, I tried to find the Turkish Guiding & Scouting Association
– found their street address & suburb and headed over to Asia (as you do)
by ferry and wandered about looking. Of course other than being a great
introduction to Karakoy & Istanbul’s busy suburbs it was completely
ineffective. After calling their International Secretary, Burcu Baydilli, she
told me that I was still too far away and could I visit tomorrow, with her
messaged instructions? Very happy to make another great excursion across town
to Asia, via the Metro this time to successfully make my visit to their office
and had a lovely chat to find out more information about their Cannakale camp
and be invited to come any time. Managed to get to Kadakoy afterwards and what
a great ‘foodie’ haven that was. One teahouse we stopped at had many flavoured
‘sherbets’ in the window and as Mal & I discussed what flavour to get, a
woman suggested we try ‘Salep’, so we did. Now I can confidently tell you to
try Salep, next time you come to Turkey – made from hot liquid cream, orchid
root & flavoured with cinnamon - it was so rich & I could easily
imagine this to be a sultan’s drink of choice.
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| Medusa at the Basilica Cistern - a reused column |
Other places
I managed to squeeze in included the Basilica Cistern (big, underground with
fab lighting), Chora Church (under reconstruction but still nice frescoes), Istanbul's City Walls and
the Grand Bazaar (didn’t buy a thing there!).
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| Istanbul's City walls |
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| A tidied part of the City walls |
Used Istanbul’s funicular to
Taksim Square, obviously a very popular spot for a Saturday afternoon outing,
judging by the massive crowds. There is an historic tram, so checking with the
tourist office there, she assured me it was running, so I waited & waited
and decided to walk down istiklal Rd myself. The crowds were huge and half way
down there was the tram, stationary in amongst the crowds!
Found the city’s Catholic Church, St Anthony
of Padua where Pope John XXIII preached for 10 years, before being elected as
pope, and I was checking out the interior when I was ushered in behind the
velvet rope & ended up in Mass said by an African priest, with a very tiny
congregation. Also squeezed in a visit to Istanbul’s Modern Art Museum which
was lovely place to spend a rainy Sunday morning!
In fact, it
seemed that everywhere you wandered there was something to admire – fishermen
on the Galata Bridge every morning & evening to catch fish on the tides or
another historic thing (The Milion
was a monument erected in the 4th century AD as a Byzantine zero-mile marker,
the starting-place to measure distances for all roads leading to the cities of
the Empire).
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| The type of hat on your headstone denotes your position in life |
Transport was so, so easy using the IstanbulKart card (take a
lesson, myki). The food was fab, even our Turkish breakfast buffet every day on
the top floor of the hostel, overlooking Istanbul was such a spread, it was
sufficient for lunch too!
What’s not
to like? I’ll definitely be coming back.
FACT: Istanbul,
was the capital of the Ottoman Empire since 1453 and the largest city in the
Middle East, contains a great number of mosques. In 2013, someone (the taxman?)
counted 3,113 active mosques in Istanbul.
Now some fotos entitled, "It's all about the FOOD"
