Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul/Unbelievable

***NOTE: If you're starting to read this, note that I just posted all of Turkey (three posts). It starts with Bodrum two posts below in case you enjoy reading these in chronological order. Also, I didn't proofread and was distracted at times so I apologize for any of the, you know, grammatical mishaps. Now scroll down.***


Let me be the first to tell you that if you are 6 feet or taller, never, ever take an overnight bus if you only have one seat to yourself. Not even an Ambien could battle the discomfort I sat through. I had to focus on the light at the end of the tunnel, uncomfortable as it was: that I was heading to Istanbul.

And I guess I wasn't expecting Istanbul to be the best city east of Amsterdam, but it was.

Some stuff to consider: Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, the largest city proper and second largest metropolitan area in Europe, and the fourth largest city proper in the world with 13 million people (I heard it's closer to 18-20). By definition, a megacity. It's the cultural and financial center of Turkey. It is located on the Bosphorus Strait and extends on both the Europe (Thrace) and Asia (Anatolia) side of the Bosphorus, and thereby is the only metropolis in the world situated on two continents. In its long history, Istanbul has served as the capital city of the Roman Empire (330–395), the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922) (courtesy of Wikipedia).

The first thing I said when we got off our bus and walked towards the metro station: "My God... all these people." It was minblowing. This is what 13+ million people feels like? I had a hard time trying to take in the sheer masses of people going in every direction. Lucky for us, Istanbul's public transit system is exceptionally efficient given the scope of its operation.

Our hostel was in a superb location. It was nearby the stunning Hagia Sophia, the-once-cathedral-turned-Mosque-now-museum:
The Hagia Sophia sits directly across from the most stunning piece of architecture I've ever seen in my life and on this trip, ever, and is also what I would say with some certainty is my "favorite" thing I've seen/visited on this trip, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (the Blue Mosque):

In as few words as possible, the Blue Mosque is completely staggering, stunning, unbelievably impossibly beautiful, moving, epic, jaw-dropping, and, of course, pretty:

None of the pictures I have/could have taken/can find on the internet could do the Blue Mosque justice, both on the exterior and the interior. All of you, all of you people reading this, I am telling you both as my advice and recommendation and as an indirect threat that you must visit the Blue Mosque prior to your death. I suppose I will say that about Istanbul in general, but seriously, seeing the Blue Mosque is more important than whatever you have plans to do later today or this evening or this weekend or whatever you intend on doing within the next five-to-ten years. Do it.

I cannot emphasize how fortunate and grateful I am for having had the opportunity to see it. The picture above is of its interior.

After collecting my thoughts after visiting the Blue Mosque (they had wandered to the Divine, the afterlife, reincarnation, life on other planets, life on our planet, the meaning of life, and can you tell that I was touched by the Blue Mosque?) we continued our grand wandering of Istanbul. We had five amazing days filled with things to do. One trip brought us to the top of the Galata Tower, which provided this gorgeous panorama (improved only by the gorgeous foreground):

From the top of the Galata Tower, you kind of get an idea on just how massive Istanbul is. It just goes on without end in every direction you look.

One thing that I found interesting throughout Turkey in general was a lot of the political campaigning going on. There are millions, if not billions, maybe trillions of little political party flags waving around the city, strewn from building to building, and then there are these campaign vans that drive around all of the crowded areas, completely painted in whatever platform/politician they are supporting, BLASTING from the enormous loudspeakers atop of them their respective propaganda. It was a trip.

The picture above is one such example, as seen from the tower.

One of my favorite places to get lost in, ever, turned out to be Grand Bazaar. I mean this place is just so cool it's ridiculous. It's one of the largest covered markets in the world, it has an endless amount of shops, usually grouped by whatever good they're selling, and it was just plenty fun walking from stall to stall asking how much some little standardized trinket is and the variety of responses were great. 20 Turkish Lira for a camel-bone letter opener? Sometimes 40? Oh this one is 80 because it's unique although the same exact one is ten feet away from me in another shop for 25. Good times. Below is me in front of one of the entrances:

So I will try to give credit where credit is due, although I really can't say enough about the Blue Mosque. Nonetheless, the Hagia Sophia was also a completely stellar experience as well. It was originally built as a church (and was the religious focal point for the Eastern Orthodox Church) and was the largest church in the world for nearly 1,000 years (until the Seville Cathedral was built). It was then converted to a mosque after the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453. Its interior was, indeed, awe-inspiring:

Those people look like ants, don't they? And this thing was built between AD 530 and 540?

Below is the shrine facing Mecca:

I think the coolest thing about the inside of the Hagia Sophia is, upon walking in, how you feel like you are in some massive Islamic mosque, and all of the ornate Arabic decoration and calligraphy is fantastic; however, in the upstairs enclave there are all these beautiful, beautiful mosaics of Christian icons (below):

It was just such a unique and fascinating experience. The Hagia Sophia was a fantastic visit; I advise that you go there as soon as you exit the Blue Mosque.

Another day brought us to the Topkapi Palace. Certainly no Schonbrunn, but still it was absolutely gorgeous and it was so different seeing an Islamic palace as opposed to a, uh, Viennese palace. Below is the entrance gate to the palace:

Aside from the impeccably manicured gardens and the beautiful mosaics, there were some pretty cool artifacts held within the palace's exhibits, including but not limited to: Sultan Mehmed II's (the dude who conquered Byzantine Constantinople) sword, the prophet Mohammed's gauntlets, and, supposedly, Moses's staff. I don't know how these things are verified but I trust the Turkish people... they're honest and have integrity, which is nice. The icing on the cake, however, was within the palace's treasury, where we saw the fabled Spoonmaker's Diamond. It's an 86-carat diamond (yes, eighty-six carats: seventeen grams of diamond) surrounded by 49 smaller cut diamonds. It was on sale while we were there and I thought it would make a nice souvenir for my mom, and I could of bought it (on Steve Purtill's AmEx) but instead I bought her a 1 Lira bookmark. I know she'll love it.

To top everything off, one of our days in Istanbul happened to coincide with Natalya's birthday. During the day, we went to a traditional Turkish bath house. Basically, a huge marble room where it's seven thousand degrees and you sweat your life away and then douse yourself in cold water of life. Some of the braver ones (Natals) even got a massage, which she said was fantastic and not too invasive, while the thought of a 300 pound Turkish man groping my lower back didn't really sound like a good time to me. Another big plus in Turkey, the sheesha (hookah):

On the night of her birthday, by fate, the friends of mine who are studying in Budapest also happened to be in town, staying in the same room as us in the same hostel (okay that's a lie, we coordinated all of that actually) but needless to say we partied like... like it was the last night of our lives (have I used that one already?) Perhaps to your surprise, as it was to mine, Istanbul has the best nightlife we have seen on our trip, by far and away hands down. I forget what district we went to but it was just bar/cafe/pub/club one after another, it was just so cool. Unlike the other Islamic countries we were to visit (and have since), I can say that in Turkey it seems to be okay to drink alcohol, which was great for a bunch of frat dudes celebrating some bird's birthday. It was an epic night enjoyed by all.

As I'm writing this, I am missing Istanbul. I sometimes forget some places here and there that we've been to (by sheer numbers of our travels) but I can never forget Istanbul. It is a serious, serious BCS contender, my goodness it is such a terrific city. I want to go back. Tomorrow.

But, unfortunately, I can't (as of now). We were terribly sad to leave Istanbul, and we were certainly sulking in the airport as we awaited our flight (the Istanbul airport, IST, is fantastic, by the way). Our flight would bring us to the third continent of our voyages, so maybe that "Europe 2009" title is something of a misnomer. Anyhow, more to come when I have internet again.