Istanbul: Day 3 (10/26/19)
I met my new hosts for the next several days last night: Mustafa and Ebru. Seemed like a super nice couple from our short conversation, and their home is very cosy as well!
Went out for a walk in the afternoon that turned into an all day affair; Istanbul is a really neat city to walk through! Its built on the steep banks of the river so every inch of available space is occupied by a building, curvy street, or a set of exceptionally steep stairs. Cats everywhere too, they seem to by a very popular outdoor pet, with little houses and food set out for them. My walk took me down the main road where I popped into a mosque at one point to check it out (never been in one before, you take off your shoes at the entrance and then push through a heavy curtain into the worship area), but mostly just wandered until crossing the river and ending up at the Grand Bazaar by chance after an hour or so! Just followed the people.
I walked around inside the Bazaar for a bit but between the crowds, the noise, and the get-up-in-your-face vendors I was feeling overwhelmed before too long and left. Glad I stayed long enough to at least go through the whole complex though, it was super cool exploring the interlocking tunnels formed by the covered alleys! Architecturally awesome, just too much market for me. (Yes I know its literally a market but you get my point.)
After that I walked another 30 minutes or so in the direction of the Hagia Sofia, taking a stop to check out the Basilica Cistern. The cistern was recommened to me by Mustafa and Ebru as a must-visit location and as always the locals know best! The underground chamber is quite a sight to behold. Its kept near pitch black in the back but some mood lighting on the columns makes for quite a pretty spectacle. Its also freaking massive, you have to walk for several minutes along the catwalk to reach the other end, and its directly underneath the street!
Emerging from the cistern I skipped over a block to the Hagia Sofia itself and parked myself on a park bench to admire the building the have some lunch. I queued up to get inside and watched an American couple jump the rope into the express lane only to get sent back a few minutes later, which elicited a good laugh from the other folks in line.
The building exterior isn’t all that impressive, other than its sheer size, in my opinion. Compared to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome it looks almost plain. But the inside is striking. The whole interior is covered in marble, mosaics, or stone paneling which caught my aesthetic attention for some reason. I actually caught myself staring at the swirled marble floor a few times, its kind of mesmerizing. The central area is where the building’s scale really hits home as the ceiling towers over you. Heck, the 2nd floor is like 30 feet up and that’s still practically ground level compared to the dome. I spent about an hour wandering on the ground floor and balcony, unfortunately a chunk of the building was off limits for restoration and the main area had a large scaffold that really stuck out. But it really is an amazing building and piece of history.
About 30 minutes before closing I left intending to catch the train back across the river but the ticket machine/booth was nowhere to be found so I eventually just decided to huff it 90 minutes back to across the river to my AirBnB. Not a bad walk though, since I got to watch the sun set on the city skyline and look at all the fishermen laying lines off the main bridge.
Back in my room I rounded up some leftover ingrediants and made a peppers & onion quesadilla with a big roti instead of a tortilla. Not bad, but also not great to be honest. Probably why I haven’t encountered a roti taco before lol.
