A Buckeye in Israel: Istanbul (Not Constantinople)!

Time for my long-awaited post about our big trip to Turkey (unless, of course, you didn't know about my trip since I've waited two weeks to write about it)! The Israeli parts of my nice, long Sukkot break were spent: at services at Har-El where I took a shot of whiskey with the American cantor, at a VERY strange parade up and down the biggest street in the city that consisted of Israeli kids, bank workers, musicians, and veterans, as well as evangelical Christians form all over the world, and Simchat Torah (the holiday where we finish reading the last part of Deuteronomy and start the beginning of Genesis) where I got to play in the HUC "band" for the hakafot (7 circles danced with the Torah).

Israel Defense Force Band

The start of the Evangelical Christian Groups

A very awesome group

BRASIL!

Joel, Ari, and I headed off for Istanbul on Thursday night... after a delayed flight on a charter airline and a bus ride full of Israelis also vacationing in Turkey, we arrived at the (not so) amazing Hotel Klas. We went out exploring that first night to find a) dinner and b) the big sites we were interested in seeing the next day. Dinner was at the (fake) authentic Ottoman restaurant Safran where we ate gozelemes (crepes made with potatoes, spinach, etc), kabobs, rice, and all kinds of other "authentic" foods. After dinner, we found our way to the heart of Sultanahmet, the old city of Istanbul, where we took pictures of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, the main old city attractions that happen to be BEAUTIFUL at night.

The Blue Mosque at night

Hagia Sophia at night

Friday, our first day, started with an interesting (read: yucky- hard boiled eggs, toast and butter, some weird hot dog looking things, and cheese) breakfast at Hotel Klas, followed by a visit to the Blue Mosque. The Blue Mosque was built in 1616 by Sultan Ahmed, is the national mosque of Turkey, and is known as the Blue Mosque because of the blue iznik tiles adorning the inside of the mosque. The Blue Mosque the very first tourist attraction I've ever visited in my socks! After the Blue Mosque, we hit our next big site- Hagia Sophia. Hagia Sophia (Aya Sophia in Turkish) is a church turned mosque turned museum that was built by Emperor Justinian in 537- it is still standing and looking amazingly beautiful after almost 1500 years! Hagia Sophia's most impressive feature (besides it's age) is the presence of famous, beautiful mosaics all over the church. Our next stop after Hagia Sophia was... (drumroll please)... STARBUCKS! We hadn't seen a Starbucks (or drip coffee- we mostly have instant here in Israel) in four months, so we figured we should visit! We then went to Topkapi Palace, which was the official residence of Ottoman sultans from 1465-1853. The Palace boasts 4 courtyards and an amazing number of rooms- we saw the kitchens, treasury (home to some amazingly huge diamonds and the Topkapi dagger), and most impressively, the Harem (residence of the Sultan and his mother, wives, concubines, and children). We even saw/heard a performance of a Mehter Band- the Ottoman military band! Before we left, we saw a temporary exhibit of Turkish synagogues at the palace- talk about surprises!

Blue Mosque

I'm at the Blue Mosque!

Inside of the Blue Mosque

Hagia Sophia

Inside of Hagia Sophia

Mosaic inside Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia

Kicking back with a Starbucks drink

Topkapi Palace

the Mehter band

After our crazy day of siteseeing, we finally grabbed lunch at 4pm! After "lunch," we decided to quickly check out the Grand Bazaar, built in 1461- this covered market is the largest of its kind in the world, covering over 58 streets! The bazaar includes 6,000 stores...leather stores, jewelry stores, clothing stores, souvenir shops, dish stores, and more! After a quick break at the fabulous Hotel Klas, we took the street car through the old city and across the bridge straddling the Golden Horn (water between the old city and new city) to the new city of Istanbul, called Beyoğlu. We walked through Istiklal Caddessi, the main drag of the new city, and checked out all the hopping bars and clubs, cool restaurants, and designer shops. We ate dinner at a very Turkish restaurant- "Fast Wok"! We clearly needed another taste of America! After dinner, we checked out a famous bar called 360 that had gorgeous views of the entire city AND $14 drinks... oops!

My big apple tea and Ari's little apple tea

360 bar and the view!

We began Saturday with a trip to another part of Istanbul- the Asian side! Yes, the city not only has a new side and an old side, but it also has a side on another continent! We took the ferry to the Asian side for only a dollar, and then went about exploring the neighborhoods. Since the Asian side is mostly residential, we decided to take a risk by searching for a famous Jewish neighborhood and synagogue in an area called Kuzguncuk. Good news- we found the synagogue! Bad news- we were immediately stopped by the Turkish "polis" who checked Ari's passport, tried to decided if we were Jewish, and had us VERY scared. They didn't speak English, we didn't speak Turkish, and since we weren't sure what they were thinking about us, we decided to just get out of there! We took the ferry back to the European side of the city to check out the Spice Bazaar, where we bought apple tea and baklava, and tried a disgusting candy called "Turkish Delight"! After the Spice Bazaar, we had lunch in a bazaar restaurant, and then went shopping the Grand Bazaar. We did some serious bargaining to buy pashminas for me and the guys' moms/sisters, and I even had a 50 year old store owner chase after me and offer me free stuff if I would go on a date with him! I got out of it by pretending that Ari was my boyfriend and getting him to tell the guy that he wouldn't want me going out with someone else!

On the ferry with Joel

Joel and me eating baklava

After this long, tiring, and cold (who knew it was cold in Istanbul this time of year?) day, we went back to the hotel to rest before our night out. Due to the fact that we were tired, cold, dirty, and all had to pee, we clearly got stuck in the elevator. For at least ten (very long) minutes. When the elevator got to what we thought was our floor, it opened up to a cement wall- clearly not our floor! We closed the door and tried another floor- same thing! As we tried every floor, we started getting nervous... so, we hit the alarm button- and nothing happened. We start trying to decide how we're ever going to get out, if anyone knows we're stuck, how we're going to "hold it" for several hours, and think "well, it's good that we have pretzels to eat and cards to play with!" We tried one more time at the top floor- this time, we managed to get about a foot of room at the top of the open elevator that was actually on a floor- so Ari jams his arm in the door, rips it halfway open, and yells (in English, which nobody understood) that we are stuck. Some guys are on this floor (they know the elevator is broken), tell us something in Turkish, and pretty soon free us from our prison. After a few hours playing cards to recoup from this event, we headed out for our big night on the town.

We spent our last night in Istanbul in the quaint, beautiful village of Ortaköy... even though it took about an hour to get there in the crazy traffic, we really enjoyed this neighborhood. We ate dinner overlooking the Bosphorus Strait, next to the Mecidiye Mosque, found the Eitz HaHayim synagogue (which made up for our sad adventure on the Asian side), and had a decidedly Turkish evening drinking tea, eating dessert, playing cards, and smoking nargile (water pipe) at a restaurant with the same beautiful view.

Eitz HaHayim Synagogue

Our evening relaxation spot

Our last day, Sunday, started with a trip to the Galata Tower on the new side of the city. The Galata Tower was built by the Genoese in 1348, survived fires and earthquakes, and even served as a prison at some point! For us, it was a great way to overlook the whole city and take some great pictures. Afterwards, we found the Pera Palas Hotel, the hotel where all the Orient Express passengers stayed and where Agatha Christie supposedly wrote Murder on the Orient Express... unfortunately, we just saw the outside since it's closed for renovations.

Enjoying the view from the Galata Tower

Ari at the Pera Palas Hotel

After a stop for some Turkish coffee, we headed back to the old city side to see the Sirkeci Station, the terminus of the Orient Express and the current last stop for all trains coming through Europe. As we walked around eating all the different kinds of corn sold on the street (this was clearly my idea), we fond the Book Bazaar, another great outdoor market in the Grand Bazaar area. We then saw the Süleymaniye Mosque complex, built in 1557, which includes the mosque (most of which is unfortunately under renovation), Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent's tomb, the tomb of his favorite wife Roxelana, and the tomb of the famous architect Sinan. We visited the Hippodrome, which used to be a Byzantine stadium and racetrack, but is now a park marked with three monuments (dating back 500, 1000, and 1500 years respectively). We had lunch on the main street of Sultanahmet, did a little souvenir shopping, and then played cards FOREVER in the lobby of the hotel since our airport transfer bus was over an hour late!! We took one last picture of the ridiculous but well-located Hotel Klas, boarded our charter plan again at the Istanbul airport, arrived in Israel, and took a sherut back to our apartments.