A SNOW STORM IN ISTANBUL!

IT SEEMS IT DOESN'T HAPPEN VERY OFTEN... - FEBRUARY 2005

On Saturday, after The Topkapi, Hagia Sofia and Blue Mosque, we took a taxi to Taksim, to the Ceylan Intercontinental Hotel. We entered the Hotel through a door with a metal detector device, like in airports, took the elevator to the top floor and sat at the lounge bar with a splendid view, some drinks, nuts and cheesecake... The rain and fog, however, didn't help!
When the weather cleared a bit, we walked Istiklal Caddesi, the pedestrian street of Beyoglu. Looked at the Church of Saint Anthony (of Lisbon, where he was born, not of Padua as usually said), visited the famous Pera Palas Hotel (home to Agatha Christie and other travellers from the Orient Express) and amazingly heard this Portuguese music from Madredeus, with the voice of Teresa Salgueiro, in one of the shops that sell audio cd's:



After this incredible experience, we took the Tunnel Metro and arrived closed to Galata Bridge, where we took a taxi to the Hotel. It was starting the snow storm, so we stayed inside. On Friday night we had enjoyed dinner at the Restaurant Rami, a house dedicated to the painter Rami Uluer, with a very nice view towards the Blue Mosque, but on Saturday night it was completely out of the question to be outside...

On Sunday morning, Guida was feeling sick, and had some fever. The snow storm was stronger then ever, and so we stayed inside. In the afternoon, when the snow stopped for a while, we hired a taxi with chains (the only one we would ever find during the days the storm lasted) and decided to visit the Chora Church. Fantastic mosaics and frescoes!

On the way back we had a chance to visit Suleiman's Mosque, and then back to the hotel again. Regrettably, I've no photos of this expedition, only video...


"SNOW - Finally, on Monday morning, Guida was feeling better, schools were closed, snow was falling hard but we managed to catch a cab and went to the Grand Bazaar!"



"GRAND BAZAAR - It was so difficult to get there that it looked incredibly empty and one could easily stroll around. It's said it has four thousand shops; probably an overstatement..."


"SPICE BAZAAR or Egyptian Bazaar is the second largest Bazaar in Istanbul, after the Grand. It is so known due to the spices that were and still are sold here. But one can also find Iranian or Russian caviar... We didn't buy, but we had lunch at a very nice old Istanbul restaurant on the small tiled rooms above the main entrance of the Bazaar - The Pandeli. Mixed feelings about the food: the fish en papillote (Kagitta Levreck) was OK, but the rest was far from outstanding...
After lunch the snow continued to fall and we visited the Rüstem Pasha Mosque, a mosque with beautiful Iznik tiles, as well as the New Mosque, and finally the Yerebatan Saray Cistern"





"SUNKEN PALACE - The underground Yerebatan Saray Cistern (or Basilica Cistern) is thought to have been built in 532 AD. After the conquest of the city by the Ottomans, it was forgotten of and nobody knew that it existed. Re-discovered in 1545, it was used to water the gardens of Topkapi Palace. It's a highly impressive spot, worth to be visited, even if you blur some of your pictures...
After the Cistern we took a taxi back to the Hotel, as the snow was always falling. For the third consecutive night we had dinner at the Hotel restaurant. It was the only time in my life I had three consecutive dinner meals at the restaurant of the Hotel without having a half-board reservation..."


"MORE SNOW - Tuesday morning (Mardi Gras), surprise: we caught some more snow!!! It never ended... The Blue Mosque, seen from the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum, looks white"






"THE RESTORED PALACE OF IBRAHIM PASHA is now home to the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum. The Museum is superb and provided a safe harbour against the storm outside"



"HYPPODROME - The Byzantine Hippodrome was the heart of Constantinople's political and sporting life. It's now an interesting city park in the centre of the Sultanahmet district. Several monuments can be found there, including the 3500-year-old Egyptian Obelisk of Theodosius, brought to Constantinople by Emperor Theodosius in 390 AD"


"WHITE BLUE MOSQUE - Sometimes the snow stopped for a while and we managed to walk a bit. This was the case..."


"AYASOFIA in the snow"


"THE ARASTA BAZAAR is located behind the Blue Mosque, just next to the entrance of the Mosaics Museum (that we also visited. No wonder with such weather outside, we were always inside). There are about 40 shops lined on both sides of the street, selling traditional items. Originally this place was built in the 17th century and used to be stables during the Ottoman period.
After the Mosaics Museum we took a cab and went to Beyoglu to have lunch at the Restaurant Haci Baba at Istiklal Caddesi"



"GALATA TOWER - The Tower has dominated the Beyoglu skyline since 1348 (it may be seen in Oya's post on The Great Istanbul) and offers the best panoramic views of the city. It's said that the sunset view from Galata Tower is fabulous. Imagine..."


"SIRKECI STATION - Another cab ride, and we were at the station where the Orient Express ended its run from Paris to Stamboul (like the 19th century travellers named the city). The Orient Express, started in 1883, provided the fastest as well as most luxurious way to travel across Europe. The Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits -- brainchild of a young Belgian named George Nagelmackers - managed not only the Orient Express but also a number of other lines that would become just as legendary, including the Sud-Express (Paris-Lisbon), the Calais-Mediterranean Express, better known as the Train Bleu, that connected Britain with the Riviera, the Golden Arrow between London and Paris, and the Trans-Siberian Express (Moscow-Vladivostok). The Sirkeci station is a very nice building worth the visit even if you're not interested in taking a train...
We took a tram up the hill to Sultanahmet, visited Cagaloglu Baths, and went back to the Hotel"



"HOT INSIDE - Mardi Gras, Chinese New Year justified an extra, so dinner was at the Orient House!
Next morning, it snowed. Saw the Mehmet Pasha Mosque with beautiful tiles, grabbed some lunch and headed to the airport. The plane was late due to the snow storm. Fortunately for our Frankfurt connection, the crew that brought us from Istanbul was the same that should bring us to Lisbon, so the plane was not missed, though the arrival was around 2:00 a.m., more than two hours delay, and without our bags...
One day I'll have to go back and see Istanbul properly"

ISTANBUL, COLD AND WET...

BEFORE THE SNOW - FEBRUARY 2005

Taking advantage of the Mardi Gras holiday in Portugal and the consequent «bridge» break, we took a flight on a Thursday to Frankfurt, changed planes and flew to Istanbul, where we stayed until next Wednesday. Most of the souvenirs were recorded in video, but there are still a few photos to show on this blog. The weather was not much promising, but what we were going to catch was somehow unexpected... Let's start with some music – Mozart’s Turkish March, as I couldn't find anything from «Die Entführung aus dem Serail» (The Abduction from the Seraglio) seems a good choice!






"SULTAN AHMED MOSQUE AT NIGHT - Thursday evening the sky was clear and the night was cold; but the Blue Mosque was magnificently lighted. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul was built between 1609 and 1616, and the architect was Sedefkar Mehmet Aga, one of Mimar Sinan's most prominent students. It is the only mosque in Turkey that has six minarets, which seems to have been reason for some criticism, allegedly for the Sultan's presumption. In fact, at the time, this was the same number of minarets as at the mosque of the Kaaba in Mecca. It's said that the Sultan overcame the problem by paying for a seventh minaret at the Mecca mosque... Each of the minarets has three balconies, and for many years the muezzin had to climb the spiral staircase five times a day to call to prayer. Today a recorded system is used, and the call can be heard across the old part of the city"


"HAGIA SOPHIA by night, before the storm. Hagia Sophia, from the Greek words meaning «Church of the Holy Wisdom of God», was constructed in five years, from 532 to 537, at the orders of Emperor Justinian I, and was the greatest Christian cathedral of the Middle Ages. It was converted into an imperial mosque in 1453, into a museum in 1935, and is now known as the Ayasofya Museum. It is considered one of the greatest and most beautiful buildings in the world. For some reason it is included in the List for the voting of the New 7 Wonders of the World"


"GORGEOUS DINNER at the Adonin Cafe and Restaurant. Located on a picturesque side street in the centre of the historical Sultanahmet, it was found by chance, but seems to be a regular choice for advised visitors"


"LATE NIGHT TEA at the bar of the Four Seasons Hotel, a fantastic hotel created from a century-old neoclassic Turkish prison in the core of Sultanahmet, steps from the Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace"



"CAFE PIERRE LOTI - Friday morning, it was cold and wet. We took a private tour, but it was not easy to stroll outside. The first stop was the Cafe Pierre Loti.
Pierre Loti was the pseudonym of Louis Marie Julien Viaud (January 14, 1850 - June 10, 1923), a French sailor, traveller and writer, who spent some time of his life in Constantinople. In 1876, colleagues persuaded him to turn into a novel passages in his diary dealing with experiences at Constantinople. The result was Aziyadé, a novel which is part romance, part autobiography. The Cafe Loti is situated at the top of a hill in Eyup with a wonderful view to the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, and it is assumed that this was the cafe that Pierre Loti visited during his stay in Constantinople"


"PIERRE LOTI by Henri Rousseau. I particularly like the paintings from Le Douanier Rousseau, so I couldn't resist to post this image..."


"BLUR PHOTO AT DOLMABAHÇE PALACE - This was the first European-style palace in Istanbul and was built by Sultan Abdülmecid between 1842 and 1853. I don’t have any photos neither from the tour around the western side of the Bosphorus, nor from the outside of the Palace, as it was pouring and we hardly could leave the car... Inside, fourteen tons of gold were used to adorn the ceiling and the world's largest Bohemian crystal chandelier with 750 lamps and weighing 4.5 tons is at the central hall. Dolmabahçe also has the largest collection of Bohemian and Baccarat crystal chandeliers in the world and even the staircases are made of Baccarat crystal. You could see all this, should the photo be a decent one...
After the palace we had to endure a 90 minute carpet show, but at the end we resisted buying and returned safe to the hotel"



"TOPKAPI PALACE - Saturday morning it was freezing and threatening a snow fall.
We started by visiting the Topkapi Palace, literally the «Cannon Gate Palace», the administrative centre of the Ottoman Empire from 1465 to 1853. Its construction was ordered by Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror in 1459 and it was completed in 1465. The palace is located on the Seraglio Point between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara, having a splendid view of the Bosphorus. It's a fabulous place to be visited and its treasury is absolutely stunning. The Topkapi Dagger, the 86-carat Spoon maker's (or Pigot) Diamond, the Emeralds and many other pieces shown are outstanding in its beauty!"


"TOPKAPI: THE GOLDEN CAGE! The Golden Cage was the place where the brothers of the sultan were imprisoned to prevent them from seizing the throne.
One may spend a whole day at the Topkapi, strolling around and inside the pavillions of the four courtyards. There is even a very nice restaurant - The Konyali (1897) - serving a menu consisting of traditional Turkish meals and desserts, where we had lunch. And, further to the Harem, the Treasury, the Porcelain Collection, the Chambers of the Sacred Relics, the Konyali... we also visited the Archaeological Museum on our way out!"


"HAGIA SOFIA - After the Topkapi and the Archaeological Museum, we entered AyaSofia. The walls, from the ground up, are covered in identical manner: plaques of red, yellow and green marble blend with the mosaics, and these are further embellished by the capitals, imposts, architraves and friezes. A large number of mosaics were uncovered in the 1930s by a team from the American Byzantine Institute, but due to its long history as both a church and a mosque, a particular challenge arises in the restoration process"


"WALK - There is a nice walk from AyaSofia to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. A freezing sun was glowing, but some snow had already fallen"




"BLUE MOSQUE - DAYTIME. According to Wikipedia, «Blue Mosque may refer to six different mosques: the Rawze-e-Sharif Mosque in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan; the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Mosque in Shah Alam, Malaysia; The Blue Mosque of Tabriz, Iran; The Blue Mosque of Cairo, Egypt; The Blue Mosque of Yerevan, Armenia and The Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey!»
The cube structure of the Mosque is topped by a system of domes, culminating in the central dome, which is 33 meters in diameter and 43 meters high. At its lower level the interior of the mosque is lined with more than 20,000 ceramic tiles, handmade at Iznik, while the upper levels are painted. There are more than 200 stained glass windows to let natural light in and the decorations include verses from the Qur'an. The floors are obviously covered with carpets"