Arriving in Istanbul is a blast to the senses: back streets teem with traders pushing handcarts, the smell of grilled meat greets you at every corner, and the call to prayer rings out from tall minarets five times a day.  Istanbul is the only city in the world to span two continents and have played host to consecutive Christian and Islamic empires.  Today, the city retains features of it all.  We spent two weeks exploring Istanbul and could have easily stayed longer… not to mention venturing out to the coast and mountains of Turkey (the plan for our definite return trip).  Turn your sound on to hear the video 🙂

Upon arriving to Turkey, the plan was to spend some time in Istanbul and then head west to the Aegean Sea.  However, after coming down with an aggressive cold, staying put seemed to be the best option.  My first few days were spent in bed with Jonathan navigating the city to find tea and ingredients for home-made soup.  He’s a keeper – I know.  Once I was well enough to contain my sniffles to one package of tissues, we hit the sites!

The skyline of Istanbul is incredible – bridges across the Bosphorus and Golden Horn, Mosque domes with their neighbouring spiked minarets, and hills of green behind the city.

We spent hours just walking the streets and the river front watching people, eating street food, drinking tea, and noticing new little pieces of tucked away art or history each time we passed.

We started our daily walk from our little apartment on world famous Istiklal Avenue.  Istiklal runs through the heart of Istanbul and is the city’s most popular strolling, shopping, and snacking street.  It is a pedestrian only caddesi (street) with a nostalgic tramway car that clanks its way from top to bottom.  This is a street that is busy during the day, but comes alive at night with bars and music.  Istiklal is home to many of the international consulates in Istanbul leading to the very topical juxtaposition we saw: the Russian Consulate (with multiple armed guards in front) right next to the Netherlands’s Consulate (where filled flower pots guarded the entrance).  Today, Turkey is mixed up with quite a few political issues including being at the front line of the Syrian refugee crisis, extremist terrorist threats and attacks, and escalating tension with Russia – all the while desperately (without success) trying to gain acceptance into the EU.  While we only felt the friendliness of the city and its people, we know the picture is much larger.

There isn’t a much better way to recover from a cold than spending some time in a Turkish Hamam (bath house).  Jonathan and I took the recommendation from our airbnb host to a quieter less touristic hamam a short walk from our apartment.  Upon arrival, we were immediately separated.  I can’t speak much for Jonathan’s experience, except to say he seemed the most relaxed I had seen him all trip.  As for me, I entered the woman’s side of the hamam and was shown to a changing room by a woman who quite possibly only knows the words “All off” in English.  I took the towel and sandals provided and left my modesty behind as I followed her to the steaming room. She sat me down next to a marbel basin (kurna) of warm water and left me.  I looked first at the domed ceiling with dots of light poking through and then around to the older ladies in the room.  Quickly, I copied their actions of pouring warm water on me and periodically going to the outrageously hot sauna.  When the attendant returned (now, sans shirt), she gestured me onto the giant marble slab in the middle of the room and away we went.  I laid on my stomach while my WHOLE backside was aggressively scrubbed then splash! Warm water (and my first layer of skin) was everywhere.  She flipped me over and repeated on my front.  Then came bubbles… heaps and heaps of bubbles created from a wet cloth sack with soap that she swung around her head.  I was completely covered.  Next was a nice massage with the attendant doing as she liked with my arms and legs.  Basins of water were once again dumped on me as I was moved from prone to sitting.  Splash!  One more basin to the face… just for good measure.  She smiled and left me once again to take my time getting my wits about me before heading to the cooling room to drink some tea.  Jonathan and I felt great and enjoyed taking it easy the rest of the day. 🙂  We couldn’t take pictures inside, but here is an idea of what we were dealing with!

Turkey has a history unlike anything I have heard of before.  It was fascinating walking through buildings that once stood as Christian churches and were converted to Muslim mosques.  These places were beautiful, in part, because you could literally see the layers of history within the walls.  We spent a few days exploring the Sultanahmet neighborhood where the “sultans of history” live – Hagia Sophia, The Blue Mosque, and Topkapi Palace.

Hagia Sophia stands as one of the greatest buildings in human history.  Built nearly 1500 years ago, Hagia Sophia was originally a Byzantine basilica for the Emperor Justinian I and held the title of “largest enclosed space in the world” for over 1000 years.  When the Ottomans conquered the city, it was reborn adding four minarets as the predominant mosque for the empire.  The inside of Hagia Sophia is fascinating where every wall is bathed in history.  Sounds hokey… but I’m serious!  A circular pattern on the floor marks the spot Byzantine emperors were crowned, the massive wood-door entrance is the Imperial Gate once reserved for Ottoman sultans and their families, and centuries old mosaics in incredible condition adorn the walls next to giant Arabic calligraphy medallions.  It is a lot to take in, all the while feeling slightly insignificant within the immense domes.  This is one of those places that is impossible to photograph or describe.  My favorite view was at dusk looking across the fountains and seeing the domes and minarets slowly lose their natural lighting and begin brilliantly glowing with floodlights.

Across the square from Hagia Sophia is Sultan Ahmed Mosque, popularly known as the Blue Mosque for the thousands of hand-made blue ceramic tiles adorning the walls of its interior.  The mosque is still functional and is closed for prayer five times a day.  When we walked in, it was obvious no expense was spared on this project.  More than 200 stained glass windows, a marble mihrab, and chandeliers everywhere impress even the ignorant.

Our whirlwind of Istanbul history ended with Topkapi Palace, the royal residence for the Ottoman sultans for nearly 400 years (1465-1846).  We wandered the rooms full of artwork, china, and jewels before taking a snack break overlooking the water.  We finished the tour in the Imperial Harem (translates as “a place forbidden”) where over 500 women lived including the mother of the Sultan and his numerous concubines (I can’t believe I am using that word when writing non-fiction).  It was incredible to step back into such a lavish time for an afternoon.

We had comfortably fallen into rhythm in Istanbul and spent our last day saying goodbyes to new travel friends and the sahlep and bakery owners who now knew our orders by heart.  With one night left in Istanbul, we headed up to the top of the Galata Tower for a panoramic sunset overlooking the city that had wonderfully surprised us for two weeks.   Istanbul really is a beautiful place and we are eager to return one day.

When telling friends we were heading to Istanbul for a few weeks the response from those who had been before was always the same: “Eat eat eat!”  Not ones to ignore sound advice (that happens to coincide with our love to experiment with new flavors), we ate and drank our way through the city while meeting new friends, chefs, and experts in Turkish specialties.  Is this an entire post about food?  Absolutely.

We came to Istanbul in the dead of their winter: cold and windy with alternating blue and gray skies.  With determined faces, Jonathan and I threw on our scarves and jackets (yes, Jonathan now owns a scarf!) and headed out to explore.  We were shocked.  The streets weren’t full of people hustling by with their heads down to get from one heated building to the next.  The streets and alleys were alive with vendors, musicians, and most importantly, food carts.  Of course we tried them all… roasted chestnuts (despite my guess that primarily Muslim Turkey isn’t familiar with the famous Christmas tune), mussels mixed with rice and lemon served from the shell, and breads/pretzels/pastries of all shapes.  Our report: one bag of roasted chestnuts was enough for us and the mussel, lemon, rice combo currently holds first place in our favorite street food list (still closely followed by bean and cheese burritos in Denver).

Istanbul thrives on an outdoor shopping experience.  Whether it is going from cheese shop to bakery to butcher for gathering dinner ingredients or (and this is real) going from the hammer store to the nail shop to the shop that only sells gaskets so you can fix your sink, you will pop in and out of multiple stores on shopping day.  Apart from the thousands of tiny shops, Istanbul has fantastic markets.  They are everything you want when thinking about an open air market – colorful, loud, busy, and full of tastes from friendly vendors excited to show your their goods.  Jonathan and I spent our time picking out our favorite olives, breads, and veggies for morning omlets.

Turkish cuisine is rich, diverse, and unique.  It feels oddly exotic and tastes of home-style comfort at the same time.  Being nestled squarly between Europe and Asia with a history that will make your head spin, Istanbul is one giant fusion restaurant.  We ate the obvious donors and kumpirs and sat on pillows while trying manti (Ottoman style pasta covered in yogurt sauce).

We squeezed through the locals at lunch on the docks for one of Eminonu’s fish sandwiches.

And we ended most nights warming up with Sahlep (ground orchid root flour mixed with hot milk and cinnamon often seen in copper urns around the city).

One night we met some friends out at the Flower Passage for a traditional night of mezes and Raki – think tapas and licorice flavored spirits and the next night went for seafood where I watched Jonathan’s mind get blown by grilled calamari.  “I didn’t even know calamari could taste like that!”

After indulging in so much great food, we decided to take a cooking class one afternoon.  This was, without a doubt, the best night we had in Turkey!  Oguz, a native to Istanbul, met us and a couple others on a street corner to start the class with basic lessons on ingredients.  We meandered through shops and carts piled high with fish, veggies, spices, and Turksih Delight – all the while snacking on whatever Oguz handed us.

We learned how to seperate real spices from immitations, how lokum (Turkish Delight) is supposed to be soft – not chewy, and that you can pickle just about everything.  Our 30 minute walk turned into two hours before Oguz noticed the time and rushed us back to his kitchen.  We spent the next 6 hours helping prepare traditional Turkish mezes (appetizers), a main course of lamb stuffed vegetables, feta filled boreks, and fire roasted eggplant, and halva for dessert.

We had a blast!  Oguz sent us home with the receipes and we are anxious to try them out with everyone!

As passionate as the Turks are about their unique style of cooking, we learned that they really only care about one thing… desert.  This discovery made for one of the most important compromises between Jonathan and me so far on this trip: two deserts per day.  It is no surprise that I have the sweet tooth in this relationship, and I found it straight up impossible to walk by window after window full of baklavas, lokums, puddings, and cakes without being drawn in.

Once inside, the shops were warm with a soft golden light and the smell of honey.  Everyone inside, tourists and locals alike, was happily sipping tea and eating dessert at all hours of the day.  I remember stopping in for desert #1 at about 2pm one day and a older man wearing his business suit squeezed in next to us for a quick pudding and tea break before heading back to the office.  I love these people.  We tasted puddings with caramel and chicken (yes, really chicken!), shoveled in pistachio nut rolls, and frequently popped into baklava shops just to try two or three pieces.  The baklava managed to be crispy and honey soaked at the same time and the rose flavored lokums are a taste we will associate with Turkey forever.

With wastebands a little tighter, Jonathan and I decided Turkey will be a place we will return to someday… maybe with a three desert per day rule next time. 🙂