Article 16
Istanbul Turkey
We arose late dawdled over Breakfast and then watched Fiddler-on the-Roof to fill in timer. Check-out time is 1200 but our plane does not depart until 1500. Finally, movie over (dubbed in Turkish but all the songs were in English) we set sail to find a Petrol Station so we could return the hire car with a full tank!
First station not open but a man there pointed us in the direction of the airport and indicated petrol available “…down there…” And, so it was about two klicks past all the airport access lanes (from our side of the road) now we are going backwards towards the hotel and cannot access any airport entrance connections! Finally, we made an illegal U-turn and reversed our direction back to the airport. But where do we park this damn hire car??? Finally a Security man realised our problem and waved us into a multi-story PAY-car-park. He followed us in, told us we cannot park here, or there, and finally took us down a ramp into a different building and different floor level. Naturally, I immediately wrote down the floor number, Bay number and Block number, etc. No-way, all we wanted to do was park the damn car!
The very nice Security Guy then escorted us through the Parking station, into lifts (which we rode, both up and down) and finally we arrived at Domestic Departures Security…We thanked him very much, went through Security screening and there he magically was, leading us on for another hundred metres of airport dungeon.
Indicating our Hire Car Company office, he shook hands and departed. Terrific, the Office was shut! We knocked on doors of other hire-car company Offices and finally a good Samaritan said he would accept the car on behalf of our hire-company. Pat was minding the luggage, so the helper and I set off to find the car! I had no idea that the multi-story car park consists of about four double blocks, each about five levels high and half a ‘K’ long, interconnected by walkways, lifts and driving-ramps, both up and down a level.
To cut to the chase…we could NOT find the car…there are three entry points with identical boom-gates and adjoining parking spaces, ramps and lifts to eight car-parking blocks each , as we found out, five parking levels high!. No car, no matter which way we went, looked and played with the remote control-door-opener…no answer from the car at all.
Finally, my helper saw a friend and there we were, driving around in his car through each car-park block, up and down ramps until, after twenty minutes, I saw an answering ‘blink’ from some taillights. Car found. OK no damage to the car, papers signed off, my helper drove our ex-hire car down to the Domestic Departure entrance and parked it there…almost exactly I n the same spot where security had threatened us with a fate worse than death if we didn’t MOVE-IT-RIGHT-NOW!
Checked in and sat in the airport ‘Pub Bar’ until it was time to board. Very smooth flight to Istanbul and, we arrived ten minutes early. Collected our luggage, were met by the Agent’s man and after an hour in abysmal, bumper to bumper traffic, after twenty minutes trying to find the driver of the 60 seater bus blocking our carpark exit, were deposited at our hotel. This hotel is very neat, very clean, and as usual, there are no coat-hangers, the bathroom shower is a sort-of built-in box with sliding glass dors about 500mm off the floor. That is, one has to climb into this box, shut the doors and then turn on the shower! But not to worry, there is a working fridge, a little supermarket not more that three doors away selling beer and the street is lined with restaurants and bars!
We opted for Chinese after a week or more of cubed chicken or soggy lamb! Not bad and quite edible. By this time it was dark so back to unpack and catch-up with the Journal. We have opted for an all-day tour of Istanbul highlights tomorrow followed tomorrow evening with a Istanbul-by-night tour, which includes dinner. Tuesday we will do a half-day boat trip on the Bosphorus, which will leave us the rest of that afternoon and the following morning (until pick-up time) at 1300, to wander about the Souk and search for those illusive bargains. More journal tomorrow or Tuesday, after our tours.
Just a short note after beakfast. Pat is sick with a stomach upset…some dry retching but no’runs!’ We were surprised at the large number of Muslims staying at the hotel. We don’t know why they are there but there were about twenty or more sitting down and hogging into the breakfast and here it is the middle of Ramadhan…Muslims are supposed to fast from sunrise to sunset during Ramadhan! All the women were wearing the ‘hijab’ or head scarf , which, we thought, only practising Muslim women wear! Boy, can they put the food away, small loaf of bread, two hard boiled eggs, plates of cold meat, plates of fruit and four or five cups of coffee! Each!
Tuesday: All the Mosques in Istanbul
Well, not quite, but we went on a walking tour of the Blue Mosque, past Santa Sofiya which is closed on Mondays, and then to the Sultan’s Palace. Huge rambling buildings with museums throughout. We walked for miles over cobblestone roads and paths…but to enter the Blue Mosque, we had to remove our shoes completely and put on plastic socks to protect the carpeted floors! The mosque is huge by Mosque standards, impressively dark so there are strings of light-bulbs and chandeliers hanging from ceiling vantage points…kind of spoils the intent of the place and the ambience.
The Sultans Palace is virtually a museum of museums…displays of weapons; kitchen-delf; silverware; Gifts to the Sultan(s); decorations, orders and regalia all gem studded and mostly of either gold filigree or solid items. Interestingly enough is that many of the gems are uncut (gem cutting became a secret skill about 1250 ad ) and/or followed the earlier simple flat polishing of one face on a stone.
There is an 86 carat Diamond surrounded by 150 single (one) carat diamonds which decorate the single diamond’s mounting gold-work. This huge diamond and all its little helpers was made into a Turban Decoration, just to blind the hoi polloi I suppose…it certainly blinded the world’s rulers and potentates!
We didn’t go into the Harem at the Palace…this requires a separate expensive ticket and takes about two hours to tour in its own 400 rooms right! Our guide did brief us about why and how the Ottoman Empire lasted six hundred years.
Put simply, the Ottoman rulers would select both male and female children from conquered countries, remove them to Istanbul and then put them through intensive education training according to their individual abilities until their maturity. However, the children were accompanied by religious and cultural teachers from their own town or city. Thus, the Sultan trained the ‘Youngest and Brightest’ from all his lands to be his ambassadors and to rule their own conquered country or as the Sultan’s governor, whatever in towns and cities. This preserved the local culture and actually curried favour from vassal country’s ruling classes who then vied with each other to have their child accepted into the Sultan’s programs.
OH yair, all youse blokes drooling over the thought of an Harem just for yourselves! Well the Harem under the Sultans was a place of protection for female children (and their maids/servants) and also for the daughters of the Sultan’s Palace managers, ministers and military entourage, who all lived within the palace walls. The Sultan himself, was allowed, under the Koran rules, to have up to four wives and no doubt most of the hundreds of Sultans who ruled the Ottoman empire, possibly did. So the Hollywood version of thousands of nubile, willing, young and beautiful women just waiting to offer themselves to their Lord and Master, is mostly Hollywood garbage! I dare say though, when one views the absolute power that the Sultans enjoyed that the odd finger-beckoning to a buxom beauty would have taken place. The girls sent to the Palace had to be both beautiful and smart…any offspring (irrespective of the father) who inherited these traits was assured of a place in the Sultan’s entourage…so I daresay again that the Sultans’ Entourage over the centuries contained many who were born “bar-Standard”.
From history, when not busily conquering new countries and peoples, the Sultans and the Ottoman rule was generally beneficial across the empire and standards for law and order, education and all the fields of science and the arts, were very high and equally highly regarded.
Enough of cobblestones, sore legs, ankles and aching hips…lastnight we went to a Turkish Dinner and show mitten de girlie with the umbilicus which she gyrates in all sorts of circles. The food was good, the music, songs and comedy just what we both needed and was a night well enjoyed, two half bottles of good ‘red’ and some beers also washed away all the pain. Yes pain, Pat had a bad case of the tom-tits and yodelling I n/on the throne for most of the previous night…we were a bit scared during our walking tour, that she would get too far from a WC…Her falling off the gutter didn’t help either. Then, after the night was done, she had another yodelling (with lumps this time) session, which she continued, on and off for most of the night but hopefully everything is now out of her system…physically it is anyway!
Away on the city Boat trip. First, a visit to the spice market where we tasted and bought some genuine, Turkish Delight and, guess what, it tasted exactly the same as I remember my Great Grandmother made! We bought about $2.00 worth and ended up with over half a kilo of this delectable stuff!
Once again (as on the Russian tours) we had to have explained to us everything about every mosque (in Russia; Church) that came in sight. There are hundreds of them, same story, who, when, why and for whom about the builders of every Mosque, Fortress, Bridge, Palace and any other building of interest on both sides of the Bosphorus! But the huge cranes, barges and dredges strung out in a line from both shores towards each other…no that’s nothing…someone is building a ten-lane tunnel under the Bosphorus to take 90% of the traffic now clogging the three huge bridges linking West/Europe, to the East/Asia! Not worth discussing, same with the God-awful, blue-glass office tower smack in the ‘old-sector’…someone needs to be shot for allowing such pollution…the Mosques and their minaret’s ARE beautiful but the blue-glass, twenty story ‘tooth’ right on the skyline, is not!
Back at the hotel, disaster…My washing did not get done (“we don’t do that any more…stiff! his face said and he had no answer for…why are the bags and laundry lists still in the rooms, why did reception agree to take my washing ?...etc. No point in asking the staff…they just look blank, shrug and walk off! Then my computer came up with a new opening screen demanding a password, etc - got around that only to have the Hotel WI/FI fail and I couldn’t access my email either…a little electrician man had turned off the power point breaker to do some minor repairs. I collected my un-washed, dirty washing, packed up the only half-working computer and returned to the hotel room to sulk…Pat is asleep recovering from last night and there is NO air-con…I am melting inside my shirt! Time to go to the bar and cool down!
Cheers, Lynne. Next episode/article probably from KL, Malaysia, that is, if my dirty clothes don’t walk off with me still in them!
