The former capital of three empires — Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman — Istanbul today is a frenetic city with a wealth of culture, history and nightlife.
Four days in the Byzantine capital made for a prefect getaway, so perfect that I can’t wait to go back. Along with three girlfriends, I took off from Sharjah Airport and landed four hours later at Sabiha Gokcen, the airport further away from the city centre on the Asian side (Ataturk Airport is closer, 25 kilometres west of the city).
Because it was about 2am, we took a shuttle and paid a total of 75 Turkish Lira (Dh185) to get to our hostel, conveniently located in the neighbourhood of Taksim in the Beyoglu area.
Central Istanbul can be divided into four areas. Three lie on the southern side of the Golden Horn — Seraglio Point, Sultanahmet, Bazaar Quarter — while Beyoglu is a steep hill to the north of the horn-shaped estuary dividing European Istanbul.
We stayed at Chill Out (www.chillouthostelcafe.com), a real backpacker hostel with basic comforts but friendly staff members. And the place is cheap — Dh60 per night, including breakfast.
Too excited to sleep past 3am, we took our first stroll down the main street called Istiklal Caddesi and were happy to find quite a few clubs open. Even in the early hours of the morning, the city was alive.
First and second day
After waiting in line to take a shower at the hostel, we were ready to take on the city. We walked towards the Galata Tower, a 62-metre-high Genoese construction dating back to the 6th century, with a breathtaking view from the top — taking in the Istanbul skyline.
We continued downwards to Yusek Kaldirim Caddesi, known as music street, a steep cobblestone street lined with shops selling all kinds of instruments and everything from handcrafted jewellery and clothing to electronics.
We stopped at a small restaurant to try our first Turkish street food, nohutlu pila — rice with chickpeas topped with shredded chicken. This cost us the hefty sum of Dh2.5 and yet was one of the best food we had ever had. There’s something special about the way the rice is prepared here, both buttery and unctuous.
The Turkish people are some of the most friendly I’ve encountered. Few spoke enough English to communicate but everyone was willing to help us, even taking us to a place we were asking directions to. Another characteristic of the Turkish people — men in particular — is worth mentioning. They all look intensely in the eyes but not in a disrespectful way.
We noticed that people were fashionably dressed but mostly wearing flat shoes, which made sense once we realised that walking around the hilly streets of Istanbul was a workout in itself.
We stopped for our first tea break just before crossing the Galata Bridge over the Bosphorus River. There’s something simple and enjoyable about Turkish black tea, starting with the sitting arrangement — small and narrow square stools around a low table. The tea is served in tulip-shaped glasses and small decorated plates with blocks of sugar on the side.
The views of the city from the Galata Bridge are spectacular. We strolled across the top and watched men suspend fishing rods into the water below in the hope of a catch. On the other side of the bridge is the pier where boats depart to either cross the waters or take visitors on trips to the Bosphorus.
Just opposite the pier square stands one of the city’s many mosques, the New Mosque (Eminonu Yenicamii), built in the 17th century by the mother of Sultan Mehmet IV. The turquoise, blue and white floral tiles (from Iznik) decorating the interiors are mesmerising.
We then followed in the footsteps of millions of people before us and reached Sultanahmet, where Istanbul’s two principal monuments face each other across the Sultanahmet Square.
Mesmerising monument
Hagia Sophia, a breathtaking example of Byzantine architecture, first built as a church and converted into a mosque in the 15th century, stands opposite the Blue Mosque, one of the most famous religious buildings in the world.
We walked all the way back to Taksim and ate stuffed dolmas, Turkish pizza and chicken kebabs close to our hostel.
I will not deny that our legs were sore the next morning. We stopped for tea and tried some simits. We wanted to visit a museum and happened to walk by the Pera Museum, a few streets away from Chill Out (on Mesrutiyet Caddesi 141, Tepebasi, open 10am-7pm Tuesday-Saturday and noon-6pm on Sunday).
The museum was presenting a temporary exhibition, Picasso-Suite Vollard Engravings, featuring the Spanish painter’s most important engravings series of 100 plates from the first half of the 20th century.
After walking down Istiklal Caddesi and the music street and doing some shopping (a rule of thumb: Always bargain and be firm), we stopped at the bustling Karakoy fish market and couldn’t help but compare the size of the seagulls with the clearly well-fed street cats. It is fair to say that the marine birds are twice as big as their ubiquitous feline friends — and as feisty when it comes to taking possession of a piece of fish.
All the human and animal agitation made us hungry, so we walked behind the stalls covered with fresh fish, some still alive, to one of the casual restaurant terraces and ordered deep-fried sardines, mackerel and sea bass. Exquisite.
Hip nightlife
We returned to Istiklal Caddesi and walked among a sea of people. Never before had I seen so many people in the street on a regular day, with no particular event or festival taking place.
Istanbul has incredible nightlife. There is an area called Nevizade off Istiklal Caddesi, where bars and clubs are lined up, with doormen inviting you to enter. All this felt safe and I noticed that the streets were kept clean. This year, Istanbul has been hailed as the European capital of culture, so the government must certainly have made the effort to make the city safe and clean. We ate gala kokorec, once again with a serving of rice and chickpeas.
Istanbul has preserved the legacy of its past — even as it became a vibrant modern city embracing two continents, with one arm reaching to Asia and the other to Europe. To experience this cultural and physical bridge, we went to the pier next to the Galata Bridge and embarked on a 90-minute tour boat ride on the Bosphorus.
After this relaxing experience, we were ready for some action and made our way to the Grand Bazaar. We took it easy on the last day and only planned to go to a Turkish bath, known as hammam. Never did we imagine what was in store for us.
We entered the underground bath house and were welcomed by elderly Turkish women in the camekan or internal courtyard. Here you can change clothes in cubicles and relax with a cup of tea after bathing. None of us had gone to a Turkish bath before and since the women didn’t speak English, communication wasn’t easy.
Unpleasant experience
They gave us a cloth to wrap around our body and slippers to walk on the hot, wet floor. We then sat in a domed room with several sinks and were told to splash ourselves with hot water and sweat in the steam for a while. In the meantime, we saw the other women in the hammam clipping their toenails — this was not the most hygienic place around. I was the first one to lay on the marble stone to get massaged. But the whole thing didn’t last more than five minutes. The woman who administered the treatment scrubbed me with a coarse mitt (which I know had been used for someone else before) for two minutes, massaged my back and arms, then slapped my bottom to have me turn around. She washed my body and hair with soap, rinsed me — and that was that (for Dh80).
So my advice is: Go to a hotel that has its own bath or a historic bath house in the old city to have a better experience.
Before heading to the airport, we made sure to pick up some baklava and Turkish delights to bring home. Gule Gule Istanbul.
Must-have street food
|| Nohutlu pilan, or layers of rice and chickpeas topped with roasted shredded chicken and pepper. It's so simple yet so delicious.
|| Simits are crisp, ring-shaped loaves coated with sesame seeds.
|| Gala kokorec, or lamb roasted on skewers, chopped and cooked on a griddle with peppers and oregano and served in sandwich bread.
|| Midye dolmasi, or mussels stuffed with aromatic rice and sprinkled with lemon. You'll never know when to stop.
|| The ubiquitous drink is black tea (çay) served with sugar but without milk in a tulip-shaped glass.
|| Tantuni consists of strips of grilled beef kept warm and reheated in a massive circular pan with a concave depression in the middle and piled on top of a lavash (flatbread) along with tomatoes, sumac-dusted onions, parsley and a combination of spices and then rolled into a wrap. It's simple but delicious, served with nothing but a side of hot peppers.
|| Kestane are roasted chestnuts. A perfect afternoon snack.
|| Misir is grilled or boiled corn on the cob.
|| Lokma, fluffy dough balls deep-fried and dipped in sugar syrup.
Useful Turkish phrases
|| Merhaba (mer-ha-ba): Hello
|| Tesekkur ederim (teh-shek-kewr eh-deh-reem): Thank you
|| Nasilsiniz (na-suhl-suh-nuhz): How are you?
|| Gule gule (guile guile): Goodbye
|| … nerede (neh-reh-deh): Where is/are…?
|| Efendim (e-fen-dim): Excuse me (getting attention)
|| Bu kac lira (boo kach lee-ra)?: How much is this?
|| Daha fazla veremem (veh-reh-mem): That's my last offer
|| Eczane (ej-za-neh): Chemist's/pharmacy
|| Pahali (pa-ha-luh): Expensive
Istanbul's Top 10 sights
Topkapi Palace
For 400 years, the Ottoman sultans ruled over their empire from this palace. Its fine-art collections, opulent rooms and leafy courtyards are among the highlights of a visit to Istanbul. Mehmet II built the palace between 1459 and 1465 as his main residence shortly after his conquest of Constantinople.
Where: Babihumayun Caddesi
Opening hours: 9.30am-4pm, Wednesday-Saturday
Blue Mosque
Taking its name from the mainly blue Iznik tilework decorating its interior, the Blue Mosque is one of the most famous religious buildings in the world. It was built in the early 17th century for Sultan Ahmet I. Facing Hagia Sophia and towering above Sultanahmet Square are the six beautiful minarets which, at the time, were considered a sacrilegious attempt to rival the architecture of Makkah itself.
Where: Meydani 21, Sultanahmet
Opening hours: 8.30am-noon, 1.45-4.30pm, daily
Dolmabahce Palace
This opulent palace, built by Sultan Abdui Mecit in 1856, has a series of ornate gates along the waterfront, including the Imperial Gate, which were used by the sultan to enter the palace from his imperial barge. The palace, built when the Ottoman Empire was on the decline and financed with loans from foreign banks, can only be visited on a guided tour, taking you through the Selamlik, the part of the palace that was reserved for men and that contains the state rooms and the enormous ceremonial hall (its chandelier, bought in England, is said to be the heaviest in the world).
Where: Dolmabahce Caddesi, Besiktas
Opening hours: 9am-4pm, Friday-Sunday and Tuesday and Wednesday
Archaeological Museum
The archaeological fruits of the expansive Ottoman Empire are displayed in this museum, where the exhibits range from monumental Babylonian friezes from the 6th century BC to classical sarcophagi and statues. Classical sculpture fills the ground floor while a gallery for the archaeology of Syria and Cyprus is displayed upstairs.
Where: Osman Hamdi Bey Yokusu
Opening hours: 9.30am-5pm, Tuesday-Sunday
Hagia Sophia
One of the world's greatest architectural achievements, the church is more than 1,400 years old, standing as a testament to the sophistication of the 6th-century Byzantine capital. In the 15th century, the Ottomans converted it into a mosque and the minarets, tombs and fountains date from this period. The artistic highlights are a number of glistening figurative mosaics.
Where: Ayasofya Meydani, Sultanahmet
Opening hours: 9am-5pm, Tuesday-Sunday
Sulaimaniye Mosque
Sinan, the greatest Ottoman imperial architect, built this mosque between 1550 and 1557 in honour of his patron Sulaiman the Magnificent. He placed ablution taps in the side arches of the mosque to serve a large number of worshippers. The mosque was not only a place of worship but also a charitable foundation. It is surrounded by its former hospital, soup kitchen, schools, caravanserai and bathhouse, which provided a welfare system feeding over 1,000 of the city's poor — Muslims and Christians alike — every day.
Where: Professor Siddik Sami Onar Caddesi, Vefa
Opening hours: 9.30am-4.30pm daily
Grand Bazaar
This labyrinth of streets covered by painted vaults are lined with thousands of booth-like shops, whose goods tumble out on to the pavement. The bazaar was established by Mehmet II after his conquest of the city in 1453. It can be entered by several gateways, two of the most useful being Carsikapi Gate and Nuruosmaniye Gate and is divided into six sections — antiques and carpets, leather and denim, gold and silver, fabrics, souvenirs and household goods and workshops.
Where: Carsikapi Caddesi, Beyasit
Openings hours: 9am-7pm, Monday-Saturday
Basilica Cistern
This cavernous cistern represented a great feat of engineering when it was built in the 6th century. It was laid out under Justinian in 532, mainly to satisfy the growing demands of the Great Palace. Visitors tread walkways to the mixed sounds of classical music and dripping water. The cistern's roof is held up by 336 columns, each more than eight metres high.
Where: 13 Yerebatan Caddesi, Sultanahmet
Opening hours: 9am-5.30pm, daily
Church of St Saviour in Chora
For some of the finest Byzantine mosaics and frescoes, visit the Church of St Saviour in Chora near the city walls dating back to the 11th century. Between 1315-1321, Theodore Metochites, a theologian, philosopher and an elite Byzantine official, remodelled the church and added the mosaics and frescoes, vividly depicting the lives of Christ and the Virgin Mary.
Where: Kariye Camii Sok, Edirnekapi
Opening hours: 9am-4.30pm daily, except Wednesday
The Bosphorus Trip
A great way to get a wide perspective of the city and see numerous monuments and landscapes at once is to take a cruise up the Bosphorus, the straits separating Europe and Asia and joining the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. An alternative is to explore the sights along the shores at your own pace. From the lower to the upper parts of the Bosphorus, the shores are lined with beautiful buildings: wooden waterside villas known as yalis, mosques, fortresses and opulent 19th-century palaces. On the Europe side of the Middle Bosphorus, the outskirts of Istanbul give way to attractive villages, such as Bebek with its popular bars and cafes.
Where: Eminonu Pier 3
Opening hours: Times vary depending on the tours, daily
