Bus Day – Wednesday (Oct 24)
When I was at Sultanahmet last Monday I was handed a brochure for a city bus tour. Last night I actually looked it and decided it might meet my needs for somehow getting to the ruins of the city walls. This particular tour has stops marked “HoHo“, as in Hop off, Hop on (haha :). You can ask the driver to stop at HoHo places, hop off and do your thing then hop back on the tour on a later bus. One of the HoHo stops is the city walls, so I’m taking the tour today!
Breakfast, chill for awhile, then trudge up the hill to the middle of the square and get on the bus. The tour turns out to be quite interesting! Down the hill on Tarlabaşi Blvd, which offers a really dramatic view across the Golden Horn. Then cross the Golden Horn on the Atatürk Bridge, take a right on Avyansary Cadessi to follow the waterside city walls up the estuary.
[aside] Today I learned that city walls facing water can be a lot lower and smaller than city walls facing land. I think it’s a pre-gunpowder thing. If ships have big guns, this doesn’t work at all. But before cannons, it was pretty easy to defend the water side – you couldn’t mass troops or siege engines in the fifty yards of open space between the water and the walls.
At it turns out, this whole tour basically follows the perimeter of the city walls. The driver zooms past a couple of stops where I wanted to HoHo until I caught on that you must go downstairs from the upper level of this two-decker bus and tell the driver you want him to actually stop somewhere. I figure this out in time to Hop Off at my most important stop, the city walls.
The bus route runs along the outside of the wall. The basic layout for the entire seven mile stretch of wall inside-out from the Golden Horn to the Sea of Marmara is this:
- the crowded, crooked-streeted Old City of Constantinople runs right up against the inside of the wall,
- then there’s the wall, fifty feet tall, twelve feet thick, occasional turrets, occasional gates, in various states of disrepair or restoration, but always there,
- then a wide open space about 50-70 yards wide. This was a moat before the conquest; if you check out the map 1/4 way down this page, you see a waterway that doesn’t exist any more. Nowadays this space is a beautiful urban garden for the last few miles of the wall south of here.
- then the ever-busy avenue, called 10 Yil Cadessi on the map,
- then various kinds of open public spaces extending a mile or two into the suburbs. Back when this was a functioning barrier before the Conquest, this area was no doubt kept clear of trees and high vegetation just like any good “security perimeter” in our age. I think it’s kind of awesome that the basic usage and layout persists here 700 years later!
Where my bus stops the open space across the avenue place is a cemetery. Today is a Muslim holiday – Eid-Ul-Adha – so the area is quite busy, lots of black-robed grandmothers and families in their Sunday best out and about.
[aside] Check out the cemetery link – fascinating! The cemetery started as a burial ground for the Muslim soldiers killed outside these very walls in the siege of1453. Also, right where I walked is where Mehmet the Conqueror made his triumphal entry into the conquered city. I love this stuff!
I spend the next couple of hours there, exploring the Edirnekapı neighborhood. One aspect of a fifty foot tall, twelve foot wide wall is that once you’ve picked a side to be on, you are very definitely on that side until the next gate. There are big openings, where they’ve knocked out some wall to let wide streets go through, and there are little gates from the old days, some just people-sized, some wide enough for one or two lands of traffic. I follow the outside northward to an intersection with a cool-looking tower on the north side. A little exploring on the inside of the wall turns up a staircase! It has a metal gate, but the gate is unlocked. It’s easy to walk up to the level of the basic ramparts, but there there is a narrow and vertiginous set of footholds to up to the next level and thence to the turret. I felt pretty pleased when i got up there, a commanding view of the city for quite a distance.
I followed the inside of the wall for a lot farther than I had planned, because I couldn’t get through. There was one gate, but it opened up into a fenced-in area which was part bus parking lot and part cattle pen – strange but true. It was annoying that it was a dead end, but odd enough to be worth the walk-by. I retraced my steps and kept going downhill and north until I was only a few hundred yards from the Golden Horn. Walk back up the busy avenue to the cemetery bus stop. Maintain an eagle eye so that the next tour bus from my company cannot sneak past me.
Back on the bus, sit in rush hour traffic along the wall, which is not too annoying because the walls are very interesting. The greenspace in front of the last four miles or so of wall has been put to use as urban gardens. They looked very healthy and green and it was nice to see them.
At the south end of this stretch of wall, where it meets the Sea of Marmara is a very impressive looking citadel, the Yedikule Fortress. Apparently it is closed to the public, but I would have like to have explored it. My bus turned left to continue to follow the outside on Kennedy Avenue, which runs between the seawall and the sea. This sea-facing wall is again quite a bit lower than was the land-facing wall. It’s a very pretty drive, we go past the old Byzantine harbor, where the emperors would land in state and enter the city. At the far end of the harbor is my next HoHo stop, Kumkapi. It is basically a collection of fish restaurants. I had grilled sea bass yet again, the best sea bass of the trip I do believe. This was a very pleasant stop.
Hopped back on the next bus, which followed the wall a few more miles then turned uphill abruptly, taking a narrow, winding road through the really old part of the old city to the headquarters of my tour outside the Blue Mosque in Sultanahmet. I timed it perfectly to catch the last bus of the day to get a ride from Sultanahmet along now familiar paths, down the hill, across the bridge, along the water and back up the Taksim hill to my home base!
Tonight, my second night in my new hotel, I decided to hit the evening scene a little. I had noted a cool looking coffee house/bar on İstiklâl Cadessi on previous nights, so i went back and found it! I had me a big Efes, then I had me a cup of tea, sat around and looked cool and caught up on my journal. Ii should’ve gone home at that point, but with my usual lack of good sense I decided to have a raki, the local liquor which is I think basically the same as ouzo. It cost too much and got me a hangover. Fun, but didn’t make me want to do it again.
Church Day – Thursday
Ottoman architecture does not particularly float my boat, but I’ve been fascinated by everything Byzantine since my first visit here. So I’ve tended to not take the various Ottoman palace and mosque tours, but I really must see Hagia Sophia (or Santa Sophia as it was called in my history books growing up). So that’s today’s thing.
Breakfast, wifi on my little bed, then start the day! Down my funky little elevator, give my room key to the dude at the counter (old school!), out the door, up the hill, down the stairs to the Metro, buy four tokens for today – Funikular to T1 to the Sultanahmet station, round trip. I am a hater of standing in line, and the line for Hagia Sophia has always looked brutal whenever I’ve been here. Come to think of it … when I was here for the operation and Erhan brought me here, the only reason I saw the lovely and excellent Basilica Cistern was that I didn’t like the looks of the line to Hagia Sophia.
But here I am getting in the line today and t it turns out to be easy-peasy!! The line moved quickly, and once you’re inside you can wander freely at your own pace, you’re not in line anymore. I decide to invest in the audio tour. It was a good investment, although it was annoying to juggle the tape player and the iPhone/camera all day.
I really enjoyed Hagia Sophia. The lines to get in are kind of off-putting, but once inside you can wander around at your own pace and look at whatever you want.
How very interesting, all the history. The sweep of history here is just crazy. Build a beautiful thing, enjoy it for a few decades or centuries, then a few years of invasion or internal craziness and the beautiful thing get destroyed, then … do it all over again. I think a reason I particularly love Hagia Sophia (“Holy Wisdom“) is that it is built to honor the Holy Ghost, rather than the Father or the Son. Maybe because I’m essentially un-religious, I’ve always been partial to the Holy Ghost. 1700 years ago(!), this church suffered a lot of official vandalism because of the never-ending tug of war in Byzantium between the Iconoclasts and what we might call the Iconophiles.
Talking about the beautiful condition of Hagia Sophia is a good time to lob out another historical note. Constantinople did not get thrashed in any particularly brutal way by the muslim Conquest. My understanding is that the conquering army did get their three days of looting, but that was pretty much the standard way to keep tens or hundreds of thousands of poor soldiers focused and enthusiastic while sitting on their asses in a siege for many, many months. But the churches and major monuments were off limits, and any Christians who survived those three days were allowed to resume normal lives and do their thing, albeit as second class extra-heavy-tax-paying citizens. The time when Constantinople really did get thrashed in a brutal way was surprise, by Italian and French Catholics passing through 150 years earlier – the Sack of Constantinople. To quote a 20th century historian: “The Latin soldiery subjected the greatest city in Europe to an indescribable sack. For three days they murdered, raped, looted and destroyed on a scale which even the ancient Vandals and Goths would have found unbelievable.” It’s widely thought that the destruction wreaked by these guys was what weakened Constantinople to the point that it did finally fall in 1453.
I stayed till closing time, had a refreshing tea in the garden, then headed down the familiar hill on Alemdar Cadessi for my familiar route home. The T1 train tracks run down the middle and there is a tour bus lane on either side of the tracks, no regular cars allowed … at least that’s the theory. There always seems to be a rogue vehicle speeding along the open space! Across the Galata Bridge again, this time to experience my first grilled sea bass sandwich from the fish vendor I have noticed every day, right off the bridge on the Karaköy side. They spice them and dress them very nicely, no bones!, and a mere 5TL. I spare myself the big hill by catching the T1 at the Karaköy stop, transfer to the Funicular, to home!
I had been told to read Anthony Bourdain about Istanbul dining, which led me astray tonight. He was very excited for these nasty little hambugers that they sell at a store about 40 yards from my hotel. They didn’t sit too well so I went to another of the little stores and got a lamb Iskander, which looked good but didn’t sit too well either. I finished up at a excellent little sweets shop on the square, got a tea and a selection of baklavas. That sat very well! I slept pretty poorly going straight home after all that questionable food. But there was a Giants game to follow on the internet at 3AM, so that worked out ok too.
Black Sea Day – Friday
On my very first big walk, following along the Bosporous I walked past the Kabataş Ferry landings and noted that there was an all-day boat trip almost to the Black Sea and back. That will be today’s event, and all I have to do is get to the ferry terminal by 11:15 for the once a day departure. This is actually not hard. My sleep patterns are utterly screwed up, but it’s all working out fine. I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and follow US sports events (World Series, NBA) real-time on the web, back to sleep five-ish, but always up 8-9 for breakfast, maybe a post-breakfast nap, then look out world!
It was a beautiful, sunny, mild day, and the trip up the Bosporus was really fun. My Pamuk book mentions many times the yalis, old wooden summer palaces of the Ottomans that line the Bosporus shore, so I watched them with particular interest. We followed along the European side on the way up, then the Asian side on the way back. We stopped to pick up more passengers at Besitkas, cruised past Ortaköy and under the first bridge. Then came the suburb of Bebek, a pleasant little harbor where Erhan took me for my first adventure into the world after my heart operation on the last trip.
Then comes the second bridge and the very interesting and dramatic looking fortress of Rumelihisari. The one thing I most wish I did on this trip was to figure out how to get to Rumelihisari. There are buses, but I was not quite up to that adventure. It was built by Mehmet the Conqueror to prevent aide to the Byzantines coming from the Black Sea.
That was the last real excitement, the rest of the trip was a long stretch parks and piers and upscale hotels and suburbs. Very nice though. Eventually we crossed from hugging the Eropean side to our destination on the Asian (Anatolian) side, the little fishing village of Anadolu Kavağı. We had a little drama landing, there was a fishing boat in our pier, but they made do after a little of the usual yelling and gesticulating.
From the boat I could see that there was an interesting looking castle on the hill above the town, and I was very excited about going there. So my first order of business was to find a restaurant with wifi and research this. The nice little spot right next to our ferry pier (the left of this picture) was perfect!
The nice man gave me a seat where the signal was strongest. I had a plate of excellent fried mussels and did my research. I was able to acquire a detailed google map this area and to get some knowledge about the castle. It is called Yoros Castle, and was a short but steep hike right up the hill out of town. Right here at the mouth of the Black Sea is a very strategic location, there has been some kind of fortification here at least since Roman times. And indeed every place but the town itself and most of the ruins is restricted military land with dudes with rifles staring you down as you wheeze up the hill. The large institutional buildings in the picture above are military barracks. Sadly for me, the inside of the castle is closed to tourists nowadays, but just making it to the top of the hill and seeing the exotic Black Sea with my own two eyes was very exciting to me.
Back in little village with 40 minutes to kill before the ferry, I tried to replicate my happy experience with the local mussels at an inferior restaurant and it was a horrible FAIL. Instead of a nice plate of succulent shellfish I got a couple of wooden skewers with tiny little critters drowned in horribly greasy fat batter. yuck. Going for the bargains, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and this afternoon I lost big.
As mentioned above, we followed the Asian coast on the way back. Most of the first part was military, then the upscale suburbs started again. At the second bridge, was a castle – Anadoluhisarı – pretty much right across the Bosporous from Rumelihisari. Also right past the bridge was the little park where Erhan took me last time. The hospital really took good care of me on that trip.
I made it home in time to enjoy sunset from the roof of my hotel. Along with the wonderful view there was a noisy cat drama going on below, making this a good occasion for a short digression on dogs and cats in Istanbul. There are a few “official” dogs in each park, it seems. Big ole brutes tagged with clips on their ears that just kind of hang out. Dogs on leashes are pretty rare, I didn’t see any feral dogs, that is loose dogs without obvious tags. Of course I was in upscale, crowded neighborhoods, no idea what the dog scene is like in the downscale ‘hoods.
Cats however are all over the place, and in particular they are all over the outside of my hotel and it’s environs. Clearly they have not been spayed, because there there are a a lot of NOISY territorial issues all the time. Those horrible screeches and unearthly moans that cats make when they are facing each other down are a regular feature of my times hanging out in my room or on the roof.
Dinner at a modest little cafeteria at the top of the hill. Chicken and rice – a good decision for a change!
Google Map FAIL Day – Saturday
Today was kind of a lost day. I utterly failed to do what I planned to do. I tired and listless as I failed to do it, and that night I realized that Hurricane Sandy was going to mess up my flight home. So the day started slow, went wrong in the middle, and totally sucked at the end. But at least it was better than Sunday!
Javid at the hospital told me that a place called Miniatürk was cool. It is a theme park comprised of miniatures of famous buildings in Turkey and from antiquity. The name amuses me a lot — what are should we call a place full of Turkish miniatures? why, Miniatürk of course! Anyway, Google Maps totally lied about its location. In retrospect, I completely f—ed this up:
- The location for the place listed in the Miniaturk website was not where Gmaps said it was, but I managed not to notice this, I thought I was just misunderstanding Turkisk addresses.
- The Gmaps location was a hillside in the crowded Old City, which makes absolutely no sense as the site of a large outdoor park.
The Gmaps location was however very convenient to me, so I suspended critical thinking and headed out for this spot on the map. I took the metro to the Eminönü stop, the first stop on the Constantinople side of the Galata Bridge and headed west, up the Golden Horn.
The place where this large open-air park was supposed to be was a densley packed neighborhood of narrow, crooked street, so duh! on me. I think I’ve mentioned that various neighborhoods specialize in specific things, the lamp neighborhood, the rug neighborhood, the auto body neighborhood, this was the cookware neighborhood. Giant cooking pots, those little kebab grills that every family must have. Interesting but not … worth the walk …
So this was a fail. I decided to walk back on the other bridge (Atatürk Bridge) to make a loop of it. They are dismantling an older bridge, it looks like there was some kind of freeway they shut down. There was one small event that determined how I would spend next Tuesday. While admiring the beautiful views in all directions on the bridge,looking back towards Constantinople I noticed the silhouette of the Valens Aqueduct on the horizon, at a clearly walkable distance. woo!
The walk was mildly interesting, this turned out to be the lamp neighborhood. I made it usual steep hill to the little park with the great view of the Golden Horn, but I was very tired, so I invested in one jeton to ride the metro from Sishane up the rest of the hill one stop to Taksim.I went to a nice little basement restaurant in the ‘hood. I’m gonna guess the food was Armenian. I ordered the Iskander again – they look soooo good in the pictures! But again, is wasn’t really that awesome. Then a woman came in and ordered something that looked yummy as I was finishing up. I have been on a run of poor food choices lately, sigh.
Laying in bed that night with the tv and the wifi it hit me all of a sudden that the giant hurricane due to hit the west coast on Monday just might negatively impact my flight from Istabul to Newark Airport. I looked up my flight – sure enough: cancelled! Now I am in full-on panic mode about about what to do.
Good ole United Airlines – the web site would consistently get me to the page where the ask me to change my reservation, … then it would time out. I even invested in an international call to the long distance number, where again, it lead me through a few minutes of dialog to say … the site is too busy, call back later. I don’t know how other folks handled this, I handled it by deciding to go to the airport tomorrow and do it in person.
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