Istanbul...where East meets West

Oct 9 2009 By Tom Scotney, Birmingham Post

It’s a historic city that has been at the heart of two world empires. Tom Scotney visits exotic Istanbul.

Istanbul is like London in one of those cheesy films for Americans. You know the ones, perhaps made by someone like Richard Curtis, where everywhere you look there’s a sunny sky, a red double-decker bus, a platoon of beefeaters and probably the Queen taking tea somewhere round the corner.

Istanbul really is like this. In the sprawling city of some 13 million people, there’s a touristy corner, bounded on three sides by water where it’s practically impossible to look up without being dazzled by a soaring mosque, ancient palace, or stunning view over the Bosphorus to the Asian shore.

It’s four hours from Birmingham to Istanbul – slightly further than for your average European city break, but those extra hours make a world of difference when you finally get to the city whose history defined what’s now the West and what’s the East.

In a way it’s like any European city – go to the right areas and there are Starbucks and McDonalds, beggars, traffic and litter.

But then on the first morning , if you’re a light sleeper and this is your first time in the region, you’ll be woken by the call to prayer from one of the mosques that stud the city – a sound that’s at first completely alien but soon becomes part of the daily rhythm.

For many tourists staying in the Sultanahmet area – the centre of the ancient city and the stopping point for most visitors – the call to prayer is loudest from the picturesque Sultanahmet Mosque, better known as the Blue Mosque.

The six minarets (towers) on the mosque mean the sound of the call to prayer can be deafening at times, but also make it one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks, a gorgeous blue-grey blancmange of domes, half-domes and encircling window arches, set in a meticulously-maintained park. When the sun finally begins to set, the top half of the building glows an amazing rose pink.

Right across the park from the Blue Mosque is the Hagia Sophia, a sixth-century basilica that later became an Ottoman mosque after the city fell to the Turks in 1453, and finally a deconsecrated museum when the country became a republic in the 1920s.

From the outside it’s hard to see why the building is so legendary, but once you get inside it’s obvious. A stupendous dome (the largest in the world for a thousand years until St Peters at the Vatican was built) seems to float at an improbable height above the cavernous space, while piercing shafts of light stream through windows so high you can’t imagine anyone ever putting them in. The ravages of invading crusaders and Turks couldn’t quite snuff out the majesty of the original interior of the building, and here and there magnificent early Christian mosaics have been uncovered by patient archaeologists.

Elsewhere in the Sultanahmet area there’s the onion-like layers of the Topkapi Palace, with a succession of doorways leading onto more intimate and more exquisite courtyards, treasure rooms and gardens. There’s the sinister underground Yerebatani cisterns, with fragments of Roman architecture dragged into use as an endless cavern beneath the streets, with walkways over the dark water. There’s the national museum, filled with the relics of Middle Eastern civilisations that were forgotten in the sands before Christians and Muslims had ever been heard of.

At the end of a day of relentless history the people travelling on a budget are in luck. While the easy-to-use public transport and hordes of taxis make it a doddle getting to any of the flashier hotels spread across the city, the small streets behind the Blue Mosque are stuffed with hostels, pensions and budget hotels, all competing for the best view from their rooftop terraces.

While quality can be variable, the Side Hotel & Pension (www.sidehotel.com) is a good place to start, and it’s worth asking to see and trying to bargain, especially in the off-season.

When it’s time to hit the shops, the Grand Bazaar is the one the tourists usually head straight to – and with good reason. It’s a huge covered world, with its own restaurants, police station, mosques and toilets, and of course mile after mile of covered passageways, tight corners and shop fronts piled high with jewellery, carpets, cookware, perfume and a million other kinds of trinkets and household objects.

But it’s well worth a trip to the Egyptian Bazaar down by the waterfront, where there’s more of a focus on coffee, spices and the ubiquitous baklava.

Haggling, which is obligatory everywhere in the bazaars, takes a lifetime to master but remember a few things – start way too low, be prepared to walk away, and make sure you enjoy yourself.

There’s nowhere better to calm down from the rush of shopping than to sit down puffing on a shisha pipe or overload on sugar at one of the city’s myriad of coffee shops and patisseries. Although the two never mix, Turks can’t get enough of sweet cups of tea, sweeter tiny cups of thick black coffee and even sweeter baklava – the syrup, honey, rosewater and pistachio-loaded pastry sweets that are the favourite of drunks and the peckish in Istanbul, and far more popular than Turkish Delight.

And in the evening, aside from the ubiquitous and delicious street kebabs and fish sandwiches, restaurants like Adonin (www.adonincafe.com) just off the main strip in Sultanahmet, serve belly-busting meals fit for a sultan. Wait until you’re hungry and then eat the traditional way – plate after plate of shared mezze (finger foods), then a complicated concoction of meat, aubergine, fruit, nuts and spices. And the vegetables, as everywhere in the city, are burstingly sweet and always fresh. One of the best to try is the Hunkar Begendi (marinated lamb on an aubergine bechamel with grilled vegetables). Another eating place well worth a visit is Daruzziyafe (www.daruzziyafe.com.tr), set in a serene sunken courtyard that used to be the soup kitchens of the nearby Suleymaniye Mosque.

Finally, if the heat and exertion get too much, there’s not a better way to relax in classic Istanbul style than a trip to the Turkish Baths. The Cemberlitas Hammam (www.cemberlitashamami.com.tr) is the most popular with tourists, a 16th-century steamhouse where you can book an expert massage, scrub or just relax and think on the baking hot marble while the steam wisps around the domed skylight.

* Travel Facts

* Turkish Airlines flies direct from Birmingham International to Istanbul Ataturk five times a week, from £200 return. www.thy.com

* Private pension rooms at the Side Hotel and Pension start from £25 for a single, £35 for a double per night. www.sidehotel.com

* Hagia Sohia, Topkapi Palace, entry from 10-20 Turkish Lira (£4-8)

* Kebab from 50p. Three-course meal from £10, plus alcohol.