Discovering Istanbul, the city between two continents

From Tuesday 07 December 2021 to Thursday 09 December 2021

After spending a little more than two months on the road, we are excited to reach Turkey, which marks our passage to the Asian continent.

The night bus from Burgas to Istanbul is very comfortable, as all Turkish buses are, but it does not prevent us from having a sore back. For the first time, a drink service (coffee, tea and water distributed in small plastic pots) and snacks are provided on board. The personnel also provides us hydroalcoholic gel after each break. We arrive at the bus station of Istanbul around 6 am on the 7th of December.

To join the city center, we need to take the public transport. The tickets to the unit do not exist, we have to buy a card of transport that we activate on a website. It is one of the first times that our "HES Code", essential to enter the Turkish territory, is useful to us, but it is far from being the last! Indeed, it will be necessary for us to book all our accommodation and transportation in Turkey. It is the Turkish system of registration of the movements of the individuals which was set up because of the epidemic of COVID-19.

We arrive at the hotel around 7 am, well before the check-in time, hoping to leave our backpacks there. And we go to a café to rest and eat. Victor takes the opportunity to go to the hairdresser/barber.

Around 11 am, we head to the city center to attend the guided tour of Istanbul. The guide is very dynamic and her verbal flow is difficult to follow, it must be said that the tiredness does not help.

As always, the guided tour allows us to apprehend the most important monuments of the city, and to put them in their historical context. Thus, we learn more about the history of the city, about Ayasofia and Blue mosque, about the Topkapi palace, about the old hippodrome and its obelisks, etc.

Instanbul is the largest city in Turkey and one of the largest cities in Europe. It was successively the capital of the Roman Empire and that of the Ottoman Empire. Originally named Byzantium at its creation in 667 BC, then Constantinople in 330 by the Roman Empire, it took its current name in 1930, after the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Attatürk, who became the first Turkish president.

In addition to the name changes, Istanbul has also experienced major cultural and religious upheavals throughout its history. In 1453, the city under Byzantine domination, is conquered by the Ottomans, and passes then from a Christian orthodox religion to an Islamic religion. Some churches are then transformed into mosques, Ayasofia being the representation of these transformations.

In the early afternoon, we have lunch in a restaurant where we taste Turkish specialties and, for the first time, a fresh pomegranate juice (which will become later one of our habits in Turkey).

To continue our day, we visit another mosque, one of the largest in Istanbul. Then we return quietly to our hotel, to make three quarters of an hour of nap before leaving for the evening.

We join Marc and Victorien to go in one of the most typical and inescapable Turkish places: the hammam. The one in which we go is small, there is no place reserved to women. The manager explains us that the day of the women, it is Monday, the other days being reserved for the men. So it is not possible for me, the only girl in the group, to access the facilities today. The manager proposed us another solution, to pay a little more in order to privatize the whole place. With this condition, it will be possible for me to return with Victor, Marc and Victorien. For 10€ per person, we have the right to the sauna, hammam and swimming pool, as well as a body scrub and a massage. The scrub/massage session starts with a flow of water, first warm and then colder on the face and body. Then comes the exfoliation with an exfoliating glove. After that, the masseur uses a pillowcase to cover the body with foam and then begins the 15-minute massage, which is rather short, but quite acceptable because it is hyper-effective. All this is accompanied by the singing of the two masseurs.

When we leave the hammam, it is more than 22 hours and the pain that we had with the lumbar ones disappeared completely. We feel regenerated and soothed; ready for the meze which awaits us! The meze is a selection of several small typical Turkish dishes which are put in the center of the table to be shared then.

We use a collective cab to go back to the hotel. It is about mini-van, transporting several passengers and carrying out a predefined route. It is up to you to ask the cab driver to stop when you are closest to your destination.

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The next day at noon, we taste mussels stuffed with shrimps (the stuffed mussels are one of the specialities of Istanbul) and fresh juices (carrot for Victor, pomegranate for me) by way of breakfast.

We go then towards the Galata tower that we see of the outside. One of the interests of this tower is the view of the city once at its top. But we prefer one of the advices that the guide gave us yesterday: we go just in front, on the roof top of the Anemon hotel, where we order a drink and observe the view (the advantage is that from here, we also see the Galata tower).

One joins the seaside while passing by the district, very alive and high in color, of Karakoy. Men cook mackerel sandwiches on polystyrene trays. The installation seems basic, but the sandwiches look so good that we immediately want to taste them! We did not find better mackerel sandwiches than here during our stay in Instanbul.

We continue our discovery of Istanbul by the visit of the bazaar and the spice bazaar. If the shops are all the same, which makes it a tourist place for lack of authenticity, the building is worth a look. The tourist prices are not worth the blow that we linger there then we go out in the surrounding streets to find a scarf. That will be more pleasant than my cap to cover me the head to the entrances of the mosques.

Until now, we had not left the European continent, we go by ferry to the Asian side, on the other side of the Bosphorus. Istanbul on the European side and Istanbul on the Asian side, we don't see any difference, but it's still fun to be between two continents. Our trip in Asia will be limited to a dinner for the moment, since we will return to the European continent for the night.

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The next morning, we go directly to the Jewish district Balat. We can see the colorful houses of the old Greeks, entrenched in this district after the capture of the city by the Ottomans.

Religiously speaking, it is one of the most conservative districts of Istanbul. All the women are dressed in Burka. It's very good that I bought my scarf yesterday! Some people in Istanbul don't recommend tourists to go there, because they consider it a dangerous neighborhood. We didn't feel unsafe for a second. Sure, we got a few stares, but that's it.

We then go to the other side of the city, on the Asian continent to visit the mosque of President Erdogan named "çamlica". Opened in March 2019, it is the largest mosque in Turkey. Its completely disproportionate size, its very well cared exteriors, its location in height and away from any other construction make this mosque a majestic building. The view from above is splendid.

We have lunch in a small restaurant next door. Here, no menu, just three possible choices: chicken, beef or mixture of both. We are brought then our meat accompanied by rice, peppers, tomatoes and bread in the olive oil.

We then go to admire the sunset at Maiden Tower, a very small island which shelters a lighthouse.

To finish our day, we go towards the archaeological museum. Unfortunately, the guard does not let us enter, the closing hour being too close.

We join then Marc and Victorien in a Uïgour restaurant for the dinner. We finish the evening by walking in the city, and after a last fresh fruit juice, each one takes the direction of his hotel. We leave for our next stage very early the next morning, we shall sleep only three hours this night.