So it begins

Sightseeing

Published Date : October 20, 2004

I woke early with the morning call to prayer, but promptly rolled over and went back to sleep.  Once I join my Phoenix Expeditions tour group tomorrow, I know my opportunities to sleep in will be few and far between.  I was happy to take advantage of my last opportunity to do so.

After breakfast, I decided to play tourist and bought a ticket on a City Sightseeing hop-on hop-off bus tour.   The entire circuit took about an hour and a half and cost me 13 million lira.  There were never more than 5 or 6 people on the tour at any given time – one of the benefits to travelling in the off season!  I chatted with a retired German couple for a little while before they hopped off to continue their explorations.  Our conversation was  a mish-mash of my grade school German, their grade school English and a lot of charades and smiles!  They couldn’t get over the fact that I was in Istanbul alone and kept commenting on how brave they thought I was.  It’s funny because I’ve never really consider the travelling itself to be the brave part.  For me, the courageous part is making the decision to go in the first place.  Once I’m on the road, it just becomes living.  It’s taking that first step that requires a leap of faith.

The bus tour took me across the Bosphorus to Asian Istanbul.  We drove past the old city walls and the ruins of a Justinian palace.  If you know nothing about Istanbul, this tour is a great way to get an introduction.  The audio guide goes into a basic introduction to the sites on the tour and gives you a good overview of the city.  There are plenty of places I would loved to have visited like Topkapi Palace and the Archaeological Museum in Sultanahmet, but I just don’t have enough time on this stay.  As usual, I didn’t do nearly enough research before embarking on this trip!

Hopping off the bus back in Sultanahment, I took a stroll through Hagia Sofia.  I can’t remember how much it cost for admittance, but they didn’t have student prices.  Hagia Sofia is a 1700 year old building, formerly a basilica and then a mosque and now a museum.  The architecture and history of the building were very impressive.  Unfortunately, much of it was under scaffolding for restoration, so I couldn’t get a full appreciation of the fine art and mosaics scattered throughout.

After Hagia Sofia, I made my way over to the Blue Mosque.  After some confusion at the entrance – I tried to go into the men’s entrance apparently – I finally made it inside.  It definitely lived up to its reputation.  The tile work and artwork was absolutely stunning.

I spent the evening in the bar chatting to Cade (Oz), Shawn (Canada) and a couple of English guys from the hostel before going with Cade and Scott (one of the English blokes) up to the Hippodrome to check out some of the Ramadan celebrations.  It wasn’t a big night for the festival, but it was a great atmosphere with all the market stalls set up and everyone breaking their fast for the day.  I enjoyed a nice kebab and some apple tea as we wandered about.  It was really pleasant being out with ‘escorts’ as well – no more hassle from the Turkish Men!

Cade and I finished off the night back at the Orient Bar watching a belly dancer.  The dancer was absolutely stunning and really good.  She did one dance by herself, then started pulling people out of the audience.  She was really struggling to get volunteers though, which I found quite surprising.

I eventually called it a night, but not before being invited out to a Turkish Hammam (bath) for tomorrow.  I’m looking forward to it!

Hammam

Published Date : October 21, 2004

I was up early to check out for 10am only to find out that I really didn’t have to check out on time.  Leaving my bags in the luggage locker, I headed out to look for some breakfast.  Because of my ‘half’ night at the Orient I only had 2 breakfast tickets even though I was there for 3 mornings, so today was my morning without.  I ended up across the street at The Backpackers for my usual French toast.

Back to the Orient, I sat out front and chatted with Cade and Scott while they waited for their shuttle to the airport. They’re both headed back to London after their couple of weeks in Turkey. One of the many cats in Istanbul Scott and just wouldn’t give up its bed on Scott’s backpack when it was time to go.  Too bad I didn’t have my camera handy, because it was seriously cute!

After the boys were off, I strolled next door to theSultan Hostel to meet everyone for the Turkish bath, or hammam.  There, I met up with Zack (US), Ruth and Justin (Aus).  Lisa, our organizer from last night, was too hungover to move, so we went without her.  We stopped at the Blue Mosque to meet two more Aussies, Sandra and Maryann.  Nobody had any particular hammam in mind for the day so we just headed to Tourist Info and picked the only co-ed place, Suleymaniye.  Traditional hammams are segregated by gender, but this one caters to tourists which is why they allow mixing.  After a really great half hour walk past the University and Suleymaniye Mosque, we found out that if we had made a reservation they would have picked us up at the hostel.  Live and learn!

The cost was 37 million, which was a little bit on the pricey side, but about what we were expecting.  We were shown to change rooms to prepare for the bath.  After some back and forth discussion about just how much clothing we needed to take off, we were ready to get started.  Zack decided to go “traditional” and wore only the provided towel.  Most of the girls decided to go topless with swimsuit bottoms.  There’s a strict no nudity policy in hammams, so there are always plenty of towels on hand.  Only the body part that’s being worked on is ever exposed to the Helaks (masseurs).

The first part of the experience was 40 minutes in a steam sauna to make sure we were well cooked before the massage.  We were then split off into two groups for the full body exfoliating scrub and body massage. The Helaks were very professional and good at their jobs.  Everyone was pleased with the experience and I came out of it feeling refreshed and energized.  Afterwards we all enjoyed some tea before going our separate ways.  Zach and I caught the free transport back to Sultanahmet while everybody else did some more sightseeing.

Back at the hostel, I grabbed my bags and caught a taxi out to Londra Camping to spend the night there.  Tomorrow morning my 4-month expedition to South Africa begins!!

At the campsite, I met a couple of other people on my tour, Justin (Oz), Lisa and Tane (NZ) and Tim (UK).  After setting up our tents (no more beds for a while!) we went out in search of dinner and found ourselves in a little kebab shop where nobody spoke any English at all. A fellow sitting at the table next to us, called up a friend on the phone who could speak English so we could order.  It took a bit of back and forth, but we figured it out eventually!