Turkey with Teenager

Istanbul is an amazing blend of eastern and western cultures. Called Byzantium upon its birth in recorded history around the 7th century B.C., it eventually became Constantinople, the captial for the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Greek became the language. Christianity was the religion. The Hagia Sophia was erected to proclaim the glory of the faith... and the wealth and power of Byzantine. Indeed, this is one of the architectural wonders of the world and should not be missed. Then the Crusades came. Suffering attack on more than one occasion, the city succumbed to the Ottoman Empire in the Fifteenth Century, changing its face again.

Visitors will find the district of Sultanahmet to be the historic center of what were the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. Here are a wealth of things to see: The Blue Mosque, the Aya Sofia, the Hippodrome, the Grand Baazar, the Golden Horn, museums, etc.

It's also interesting to note that while Ankara became the capital city of Turkey in the early 20th century, the founder of the republic had residence in Istanbul and died in the lavish Dolmabahce Palace on the Bosphorous...easy to tour and worth seeing.

Quick Tips:

We absolutely loved staying in Sultanahmet itself because it was so...easy to get to absolutely everything we wished to see. We never felt rushed as we could quickly walk to a place like the Topkapi Palace, spend a good half day, then go back to our hotel to freshen up before walking to the next place without feeling as if we had wasted any time.

In a land where drinking copious amounts of water is necessary...and someone is hawking bottles of the stuff on every street corner...we saved a ton of money by simply refilling our water bottles ourselves.

We had no idea how much time we should actually devote to Istanbul (3 days? One week? What?). Now I think it would be completely reasonable to schedule 3 days in the city if all you want to see are the main highlights. Then you could travel farther afield in Turkey to continue your holiday. Having said that, we booked 7 days with the thought that we'd leave if we ran out of things to do. In the end, this made our sightseeing experience very relaxed....and we felt as if we got to scratch more than just the surface. In fact, we weren't able to do everything we wanted after we decided to see more than just the basics. (I guess we'll have to go back!)

Haggle with street vendors and vendors in the Bazaar. Don't buy anything on your first day. In my eagerness to be in the city, I made my husband get a book about Istanbul from a guy right outside our hotel. Granted, he only paid a quarter of the original, ridiculous price, but three nights later that same vendor offered us the same book for still less than we paid him because he'd forgotten us and wanted to unload stock! Postcards are also very, very cheap, so don't pay a lot for them at the airport. If you're flying with a budget airline out of the ASIAN Istanbul airport, offload as much money as you can---those coins you can't cash in after the vacation---BEFORE you leave the tourist areas. Prices are absolutely outrageous at the airport...ten times what you pay for the most basic of things elsewhere...in Euros.

Make sure you take enough cash to buy a VISA when you arrive at the airport ( per person for Americans).

Best Way To Get Around:

The places that would interest a tourist are close together and very easy to get to on foot.

With that said, you'll probably want to go beyond Sultanahmet if you're in town for any longer than 2-3 days. So the trams are very easy to use as well...quick, reasonable, and easy to navigate.

Taking a ride on a ferry is a must. The Golden Horn---so named because of all the gold and valuables that were once thrown into the water to protect them when the city was being looted---leads out to the beautiful Bosphorous, which serves as a boundary between Europe and Asia.

Taxis are interesting...an experience in themselves. We took a combo private bus/taxi ride into town from the airport. On the way BACK to the airport, however, we took a ferry and CITY bus combo...which proved to be a little bit longer trip, but much, much cheaper.

If you are flying into the MAIN Istanbul airport on the European side, check with your hotel for free airport transfers. I discovered many of these are offered as hotels try to get an edge on getting your business.

I took a lot of time looking for a suitable hotel. I chose the Ottoman Hotel Imperial because of its location...and the reasonable rate (100 euros per night per an Internet Special). Right smack dab in the middle of everything, the front of the yellow hotel is on a quiet street across from the back of the Aya Sofia.

Our "triple" room exceeded expectations because it was really two rooms plus a bathroom. We also had a nice little balcony with a view over Sultanahmet where we enjoyed a couple evenings sipping a glass of wine or a cup of apple tea...the haunting call to prayer echoing across the city, the cats slinking across roofs.

The air conditioning was a nice reprieve from the heat when we were sleeping.

The breakfast buffet we enjoyed each morning was a good spread of different breads, cheese, yogurts, and watermelon. The staff were excellent, always helpful, and fluent in what seemed a myriad of languages...certainly no problems with English.

Our teenager enjoyed having MTV on the TV at night...something we don't get at home. The BBC and CNN were also available.

All was clean...though the shower head in the small bathroom seemed to occasionally have a mind of its own. (Let's just say the walls got a little wet once.)

The only real complaint I could have at all was that housekeeping didn't replace our coffee mugs each morning...even though we had used them. YET when we wanted more pillows, they were delivered within minutes.

We were very satisfied with this hotel.

The Aya Sofya or Haghia Sophia is a marvel of architecture. Its giant dome is an amazing thing to see, and a walk through this great Christian Church, turned into Mosque, and turned into Museum is like a walk through Istanbul's religious history.

Knowing the significance of this place, we did not want to visit without any guidance. So, we went to the City Sights Kiosk across the street on the corner, the place where you buy bus tickets for a City Sight tour, and rented an audio guide for 4 Lyre each. This was a great move on our part. Very, very dense, the guide gives a ton of information. But it greatly enhanced our visit because we knew where to look for some of the most interesting features in the building.

For instance, when you first walk into the church/mosque/museum, you will see the Emperor's Doors. Above these you will find a mosaic of Christ flanked by Mary and the Archangel Gabriel. An emperor who has sinned by cheating on his wife---and thus not been granted the heir that he wanted---is kneeling prostrate before Jesus, asking for forgiveness for his sins.

Walk through the doors and see the giant dome. You'll notice giant circles with Arabic writing. These are the names of the sons of Mohamed.

Go to the left and find the column with a band of iron around its base. You might see people putting their thumbs into a hole in the column. This is the "sweating column" and the story is that the water you can feel inside has holy properties capable of healing eye problems and infertility.

Go up the stairs past the door where the women would have entered the Aya Sofya and you'll find other important mosaics. One is of Christ, Mary, and St. John the Baptist. You'll see the bottom of the mosaic is chipped off. This is because the janitors who worked in the Aya Sofya when it was first turned into a museum would sometimes chip off pieces of this mosaic for souvenir hunters who paid them money.

As you leave the church, look behind you and find Mary again with Christ. Flanking them are the Emperors Justinian and Constantine. One is holding up the Aya Sofya itself. The other is holding a model of the city. This was meant to represent the fact that both were built to the glory of Mary and Christ.

Go through the courtyard and notice the small building to the left. During the time of the Ottomans, the person who calculated the time for prayers every day---apparently they change according to lunar/solar cycles---lived here.

One of the audio guides we rented died while we were walking through the museum. The fee for this guide was refunded when we went to pick up our deposit and return the mini-I-pods on which the tour was recorded.

If you like history---if you have an interest in religion and architecture---you'll enjoy the Aya Sofya.

From Istanbul you can just see in the hazy distance the chain of land that makes up the Prince's Islands.

Here unfortunate threats to the Ottoman throne were often exiled...after having been blinded.

Nowadays, people use the islands for a pleasant escape from the city.

According to our guidebook, Sunday is the worst time to visit because of crowds, so we took a ferry to the islands on a Monday.

With ferry service cheaper than cruises up and down the Bosphorous, we decided to island hop at least once. Our first stop was Buyukada, the Great Island. Here Leon Trotsky made his home for a time. Here Leon Trotsky's daughter committed suicide.

When we got off the ferry, we found a port similar to the port we had visited in Asia after a Bosphorous Cruise. But it wasn't evident what we should or could do.

We had read about two monasteries on the island, so we approached the queue of horse and carriage drivers and asked to be driven up to one of them. The driver did not speak English. After an interesting string of broken Turkish and sign language, we got into the carriage and enjoyed a ride up to the top of a hill. Unfortunately the driver dropped us off at the more modern monastery, a closed building at the time of our visit. And then we were stranded.

We walked a while, exploring, and found a more impoverished area than was evident in the tourist sections of Istanbul. As we made our way back to the port, however, the houses began to look nice again. We got lunch by the water and agreed that the visit had been interesting, but we should have gone to the older monastary...and we probably wouldn't recommend a special trip to this island.

We were off to Kinaliada next, the first island that you actually reach via ferry coming from the city. Here we wanted to go swimming. We got off the ferry and walked to the right where we saw that many other people had the same idea. The thin beach was rocky, but the water was blue. We scanned the horizon for dolphins. We found a place to spread our towels on a concrete area above the rocks---seats can be rented for 5 lyra each---and applied the suntan lotion.

The water was cool but refreshing. Vendors walked up and down calling out the price of bread, holding books of henna designs you could get applied to your skin. Dark-faced men with white teeth and curls of wet, lovely hair on their legs threw their giggling children into the water. A woman in a green head scarf sat near us with the waves licking at the only exposed part of her body...her feet...as foam wet the hem of her skirt.

We caught the 4pm ferry back to the mainland.

This was a most enjoyable retreat and one of my son's favorite experiences in Istanbul.

Topkapi Palace was the home to sultans for hundreds of years. It is an expansive structure that is a must-see for any visitor to Istanbul. Yet...I was also disappointed by it. But let me get to that later.

You approach the palace via the first courtyard, a place where you can wander for free. It has always been like this. The general public has always been able to congregate here.

For entry into the second courtyard, you must pay 10 Turkish Lyra per person. Here you'll find ancient cyprus trees, the Gate of Felicity where the sultan would have occupied his throne, and throngs of cruise ship crowds gathered around their tour guides. You will not find much to guide you unless you have a guidebook. Of course, guides are available outside the gate, but one we approached would have cost an additional 50 euros. To the right you'll see the palace kitchens with their rows of chimneys. In place of yummy foods to eat, you'll see various collections of fine china and pottery.

Once in the third courtyard, you'll find the Imperial Treasury, which contains several items of interest. First, there's the Topkapi Dagger, which we sought out. Second was the Spoonmaker's Diamond. According to a sign, this giant jewel was actually found in a rubbish heap before making its way to the sultan's turban! That gives a new meaning to the saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure," eh?

Once into the fourth courtyard, you feel as if you are really getting into the sultans' inner sanctum. Here you'll find beautiful buildings tiled in blue and turquoise. You can access the Harem from here though it will cost you another 10 lyra per person. THIS is where I met disappointment.

I was very much looking forward to the Harem Tour. I had read about the stories told during the tour, the history that brings old buildings to life...so we arrived at the palace early just to join this. However, while we still had to pay the 10 lyra, there was no guide working the day of our visit. We were told to wander through the rooms...many of which have only the sparsest of signs to explain what they were.

Is the Harem still worth seeing it?
Well, yes.

You start at the Court of the Black Eunuchs and follow the Golden Road through the Harem. (The Golden road is not paved in gold. It's called this because the sultan used to throw gold coins onto it for the members of the harem.)

Many of the rooms you see are easy to imagine as inhabited with beautiful women...women looking off to the water from the Harem's courtyard enjoying great power if they were of a certain position... yet forever denied freedom...birds in guilded cages.

My husband and son really enjoyed Topkapi, and you have to see it. If you can, pick up some sort of guiding literature before you go.

The Dolmabahce Palace was built in the nineteenth century, partly with money borrowed from other world leaders like Queen Victoria in England. The Ottoman Empire was the sick man in Europe, but its leaders didn't want to admit to any reality that tasteless. So what did they do? Push economic reform? No. The royal family decided to build a palace worthy of respect...a palace much more Western than Topkapi...much more lavish than anything else in Turkey.

To get there, we took the tram to Taksim Square, strolled down the hill to the palace, walked by the swan fountain, and bought tickets---a palace/harem combo.

What was the palace tour like? Well, I was really interested here because you have to go through the palace with a guide. While I am a pretty independent traveler, I like to know a good bit about what it is I am viewing. Guides make this easier. However, the Dolmbahce Palace tours are a bit...limited. The groups are much too large. (There's an English speaking group and then a Turkish speaking group.) It's almost impossible to hear the guide unless you're up at the front. There was a group of Spanish speakers walking behind us, and they couldn't understand the guide, so they promptly started talking to each other. This, of course, made me want to scream, "Silencio, por favor!", but I had resigned myself at that point to reading the hand-out given at the front of the palace as we went through the various rooms.

What was the palace itself like? This is an extravagant place. Think marble, columns, and gold. Everywhere. One thing I liked was that everything seemed symmetrical. There was a fireplace in each corner of many of the rooms. We wound our way up the double staircase with crystal balusters, through grand apartments, and into the big highlight... the throne room in the center of the palace that is so grand, so large, so impressive, that the four 1/2 ton chandelier manufactured in England---perhaps the largest ever made---couldn't afford to be one inch smaller. NATO met in this room a couple of years ago. This was certainly an interesting thing to see.

What was the harem tour like? The harem tour was similar to the palace tour as far as the group-size was concerned. Our guide here did seem to be more enthusiastic about his job though...relaying information with a quick smile despite the gleen of sweat on all the faces turned towards him. If you have kids with you, skip this part only because it feels like more of the same. You'll already have a good sense of the palace. However, the harem includes the room in which Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic, died. The bedspread looks like a Turkish flag. The clocks in the palace are stopped at the moment of his death.

Bottom line? Definitely worth seeing but hope for a cool day...and small crowds. You'll think it's no wonder the Ottomans ran out of money.

A good thing to do on the same day you visit the Dolmabache Palace is to go see the Military Museum. They are within easy walking distance though radiating down different streets from Taksim Square. The museum must have another purpose still because it has armed guards around sections of it. In fact, I thought it was probably an embassy until we found the front gate! We had to go through security at that point and bought our tickets. These were very inexpensive, and we thought this museum was the best value we got for money in Istanbul.

What was so great, you ask?

Good question.

Well, for less than a meal at McDonald's, we were able to wander a large collection of exhibits that chronicle the military might of the Ottoman Empire. I liked the painting of Sultan Mehmed II, the Conqueror, who was only 21 years old when he brought the Byzantine Empire to its knees in 1453. Apparently, he was very much of a Renaissance mind, and his portrait was done in a European style by an Italian painter.

I also liked the collection of helmets of various soldiers, from the Turkish ones that looked like onions, to the Spanish ones that belonged on the heads of conquistadores.

It was especially interesting to see how various conflicts were presented in Turkey. War is always about the point of view, right? It's good to compare how different museums record history.

Then there was the highlight of this museum.

Included in the ticket is a concert by the Janissaries. We made our way to the concert auditorium and found a seat.

First there was a film explaining the history of military bands in the Ottoman Empire. This was exceptionally interesting. It was in English, though we believe the second show of the day was to be done in Turkish. (There are shows at 3 and 4 every day the museum is open.) Apparently, the Ottomans invented the kettle drum and the cymbals to add to their marching bands...a sound that preceded the Army and was meant to strike fear into the hearts of enemies.

After the film, the screen pulled back and the Janissaries in full costume marched out onto the stage. They performed 3 or so songs...jst enough to get a taste of this unique music.... yet not too long to lose attention. The whole presentation was 30-45 minutes., a great recommendation for kids to see if you're traveling with them.

Then the Janissaries marched out again, and we left the auditorium to continue to explore the museum.

Some particulars:
The museum was once the site of the Ottoman Imperial Military Academy.

The museum is open 9am to 5pm, but closed Monday and Tuesday.

I think it's an obligation to take a cruise on the Bosphorous if you're a tourist in Istanbul. One of the coolest things about this city is that it straddles two continents. It's an amazing thing to be able to ride on a boat, look to one side and think, "That's Europe." Then turn your head to the other side and think, "That's Asia." So, we planned a day to catch the Istanbul ferryboat at the docks by the Galata Bridge.

Any suggestions?
Check the ferry times. One should leave a little bit after 10am. BOARD EARLY. We made the mistake of getting onto the ferry close to the departure time. This was miserable because the ferry is BIG. The upper decks are open-air, but those seats are prime. They fill quickly. We were stuck downstairs...inside...on a middle bench. Yes, we could see through the windows, but the experience wasn't nearly as nice as it might have been. Fortunately, as people disembarked on various islands, we were able to move outside and have the breeze cool our cheeks. And we learned our lesson. We made sure we were in the front of the boarding line when it came time to get back onto the ferry to Istanbul in the afternoon.

How does the ticket work?
Unlike ferry rides to the Princes' Islands, you buy a round-trip ticket for a Bosphorous Cruise. This entitles you to disembark once and then get back on without paying any more money.

Where did we get off the boat?
We took the ferry to the very end of the line to the farthest dock on the Asian shore, which is Anadolu Kavagi. We chose this port because we knew there was an old fortress to which we could hike once we arrived. The hike is straight up, but there are lots of kids selling bottles of water along the way. Follow the signs, and it would be hard to get lost.

Was the hike worth it?
The Genoese "castle" is little more than a crumbling outpost at the top of a high hill. But, oh! The view! You can see in the distance where the Bosphorous pours into the Black Sea. And my son greatly enjoyed poking around the ruin itself, climbing onto its wall with all the other tourists for a better vantage point. We saw some people having a picnic though there isn't much grass or shelter from the sun. Bring a bottle of water in your purse or backpack.... and don't forget your camera.

What was Anadolu Kavagi like?
I bought three little purses in the village...but I saw the same things in Sultanahmet the next day...cheaper. So if you buy anything, be educated on the prices. Apart from shopping, the main thing to do is grab lunch or hike to the fortress. Of course, fish is big on the menus. We had ice-cream as we waited for the ferry to take us back to Istanbul.