Young Turks

After what was, at the time, a pretty hellish few hours on the Turkish border, when we arrived in Istanbul we wanted nothing more than to get to our cheap hotel and collapse on the bed for as long as possible. As has so often been the case during our travels, it was the kindness of absolute strangers that enabled us to do just that. The coach driver who escorted us out of the concrete maze that is the main bus station at 5am and even paid for our Metro ticket back to reality, and the kindly hotel receptionist at the Devman Hotel who didn't bat an eyelid when we turned up six hours early, but just showed us to our room with a slight smile. Like Captain Planet, their powers combined to great effect, meaning that less than an hour after our arrival in the capital, we were sleeping in our air-conditioned room.

Six hours later, we took to the street of Beyglou, the foot-loose, fancy free and unimaginably colourful maze of food and drink that was our local neighbourhood in Istanbul. Firmly established as possibly the most European area of the European side of Istanbul, its streets area a cacophony of Ice Cream sellers in traditional dress, fast food hawkers, neon shopping signs, bookshops, cafes, restaurants and the sweet smell of a Turkish summer evening. It was made all the more potent during our time there thanks to the high-profile campaigning for an upcoming referendum, Ramazan and "National Flag Day", the sort of proud, militaristic, fierecly national(ist) holiday that everyone must commemorate with flags aloft, though many do so grudgingly.

It soon became apparent, even as we strolled the streets on a balmy evening, that Istanbul is not really a city you visit or look around - it's an experience that grabs you by the throat, pumping an array of sights, sounds and smells into you while defying you to not love the place, however overwhelmed you feel. It's east meets west, sexy street smart meets deadly orthodox, utterly devout meets outrageously debauched. And we fucking loved it.

What were the highlights? Lou was utterly bowled over by the Blue Mosque, and while I was entranced by the buzz of the call to prayer outside, I was left a little cold by the interior. Take a look at the photos and judge for yourself. As a huge fan of both underground lairs and James Bond, I loved the Basilica Cistern, an utterly enchanting underground set of canal-like rivers that provided water to parts of the city tens of thousands of years ago. It also featured heavily in From Russia With Love, which can only be a good thing. The bazzars - both spice and grand - are also a joy to behold, little towns in their own right where the cut and thrust of local commerce battles for attention with the mor obvious tourist traps. A simple stroll through Beyglou, Sultanahmet or any other area of the city is also a highlight in itself. A bright canvass whose picture evolves as the day progresses, every corner turns up a new surprise, every hour a subtle change in tone and emphasis. Magic.

Two standouts, though, are admittedly the two that every guidebook will shunt you towards - and, having visited, rightly so. The Aya Sophia, an indescribably vast Orthodox Church-turned-Mosque-turned-museum, was for many thousands of years after its construction in 360AD the largest indoor space in the world. After being de-consecrated by Atta Turk in the mid 1930s, it became a museum, in the loosest sense of the word. There's not much by the way of explanation or context, just a sumptuous visual feast that will captivate any sane visitor for hours. Beautiful Orthodox frescoes jostle for position with gargantuan Muslim calligraphy discs, while shafts of light cut across the vast space illuminating paintings, sculptures and tombs. It's the perfect place to lose yourself - which we duly did.

The second "must see" was the Topkapi Palace, home of Ottoman Sultans for hundreds of years until the 1850s. So vast and beautiful that even the masses of tour groups couldn't detract from it, the palace is a treasure-trove of rooms, buildings, chambers and gardens bursting with paintings, tiles, glorious arches and treasures - literally - worth more than their weight in gold. As well as featuring in a lively Peter Ustinov movie, part of the palace remains a place of pilgrimage for many Muslims and lays claim to objects such as Moses' staff, some of Mohammed's teeth and much, much more. While the provenance of the artefacts might be doubtful, the chanting was undeniably beautiful.

As we cruised the Bosphrous on our last morning, looking at the Asian side of the city that we'd not even visited, we resolved that we would definitely be back in Istanbul at some point soon. To have visited so much in a city, yet actually seen so little, was both gratifying and frustrating. A city of almost limitless treasures and experiences, Istanbul has to be seen to be believed. Book your ticket now.

Until Greece,

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Luke)