Istanbul, August 2015

[bixaorellana]

I spent some hot but happy days in the wonderful and very welcoming city of Istanbul this summer. I've already made reports on some of the highlights and will link to them in this report in a attempt to make a cohesive picture. Those links will be in bold, whereas informational links from the web will be in italics.
This will be a cheerfully subjective report, filled with probably far too many architectural features (can't help myself!), but I hope it will pique interest for those who haven't been & entertain those who have.

So, welcome to Istanbul ~

Pistachios and baklava and lokum, oh my!





My first ferry ride on the Bosphorus ~





The first mosque I got to visit was the Blue Mosque<--click for report.

I set off one day by myself to walk across the Galata Bridge, from my hotel near Taksim Square.
For a good bit of the way, I was on Istiklal Avenue, which maintains small scale Turkish authenticity, tourist tat, sidewalk markets and cafés both grand and plain cheek by jowl with glitzy international chain stores.

The Galata Tower ~

I would say that if I got one iconic photo of Istanbul, this would have to be it -- the empty tea glass with its typical shape on its little saucer waiting to be picked up by the tea vendor. The knock-off sunglasses for sale on the sidewalk complete the picture. Tea was everywhere -- you are offered it in shops and a man even goes up and down the seats on the ferryboat carrying trays of hot tea.

Look at me -- I'm walking across the Golden Horn! Hi fishermen.







The Yeni Cami, aka the New Mosque ~



And here we are at the ferry and tour boat landing on the south side of the bridge ~

[bixaorellana]

Visiting the New Mosque ~

[bixaorellana]

Heading back outside ~





















That's all for the New Mosque, but there will be much more to this report.

[mossie]

Super ceramic tiling.

Sad to say not a place I am keen to visit, i hate to see the women in those black coverups.

[breeze]

I'm so glad these turned up, bixa, because when you first posted about Istanbul I was catching up and had to rush through the photos. I did go back later to look more thoroughly, but again I went through them all at once. Now, with this group, I'll get a chance to savor your photos over a few days. Or many days?

It looks like Istanbul has everything I want in a destination--food, lots of places to walk, people, bridges, magnificent buildings full of detail, hills, and water. The New Mosque is satisfying to look at from any distance, and close up it's mind-boggling. Those tiled pillars are massive. The calligraphy is so stylized. Do you or questa happen to know the architectural term for those niches with protrusions? No, don't bother, I'll look it up myself.

Actually, I think Istanbul would be overwhelming. Even one room of one mosque would be overwhelming. That's why a photo report is ideal!

[htmb]

I also think Istanbul would be an overwhelming place to visit, but I'm enjoying these photos. So glad you found them!

Super capture of the women in this last series, particularly of the eyes of the young woman next to the one with the cell phone.

[bjd]

I'm taking advantage of some lousy wifi to have a look in and I'm glad to see these photographs. My favourites are of course those of the Galata bridge, the people on the streets. I went to Istanbul many many years ago and have wanted to go back for years, although I confess that the government there now is not encouraging.

Oddly, all those years ago I don't remember seeing any veiled or headscarved women, even less those in the black shrouds.

[Deleted]

I agree with bjd that there did not use to be any veiled women in Istanbul (hijab or niqab). Even the hijab was against the law in most places.

I am also wondering when the döner kebabs became popular in Turkey since they are mostly a German-Turkish invention, at least the way they are served now.

My own favourite "atmosphere" photo (since the architectural photos are in a spectacular class by themselves) is the first photo in reply #1 with the woman in black glaring at the relaxed tourist girl.

And of course the photos taken from the Galata bridge are wonderful.

[questa]

Ahhh...Istanbul ! (settles back to enjoy the glorious spectacle again)

Many of the women in full purdah are often tourists from other countries. I noticed that away from the touristy areas the women were more likely to wear coloured veils and headscarves and show their faces. Younger women had jeans, long sleeve tops and pretty hijabs.

[bixaorellana]

Thanks to all of you for your kind and lively comments. It's very encouraging, especially since I have a great deal more to add to this thread.

Mossie, at first I thought all the tiles would be too too busy, but in their "natural habitat", they are glorious.

Thank you so much, Breeze! I think you'd adore Istanbul -- I certainly would go back in a shot. The city is huge, but all that water and the vistas straddling two continents keep you completely engaged. The mosques are soaring and beautifully proportioned, so you can take in the riot of ornamentation without being overwhelmed.
As for the architectural term, you must ask me, as I am so proud of knowing it! Those "honeycombs" are muqarnas. I learned about them when I saw the Capella Palatina in Palermo and was beyond thrilled when I saw & recognized them in actual Moslem architecture in Istanbul. This is a good explanation, with the added fun of learning the word "squinch" ~ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muqarnas

Thanks, Htmb. I greatly appreciate your keen photographic eye, so treasure that compliment.

Bjd, looking through my pictures, I wish I had more of people. Maybe some motherlode of a memory card is hiding from me somewhere. *heart sinks*
I understand what you're saying about the present government and am really happy I went when I did. There were of course tensions then, too, but not anything that affected the average tourist.
I would be very curious to know what proportion of the veiled women I saw were tourists, how many were younger women making a statement, and how many were refugees or just plain transplants from other countries.

Kerouac, the very similar meat-sliced-off-cone here is called tacos al pastor, shepherd-style tacos, and was probably brought to Mexico by the Lebanese, although I think there may be variations on that theme all over that part of the world. Probably they don't use pork, though, as the Mexicans do.
Thanks so much for the kind words. Walking over the Galata Bridge was one of the things I was determined to do and I think no one should leave Istanbul without making time for that. It was a very long walk from Taksim Square, which was great as I saw things I'd never have seen otherwise, including an entire street selling traditional Turkish musical instruments.

Yay, Questa ~ thanks for being here as you have cheered me on through all my Istanbul threads!

Now, to address everyones comments about the veiled and totally covered women:
Quite honestly, I couldn't stop staring at them -- it's not just exotic, it seems so bizarre to me. My friend and I discussed it a great deal and spent time trying to pinpoint the different styles of sacks. My friend had a good take on the subject of whether or not the coverups are imposed by men. She said maybe some people in the hijab belt look at pictures in western magazines or at tv shows and say, "Oh those poor women! Their horrible men force them to go around half naked in tight revealing garments!"
We all discussed this before in the Topkapi thread, so I'm quoting it here in order to include the link on the subject of veils ~

Aug 10, 2015 6:17:40 GMT bixaorellana said:

Thank you, Cheery. I rather think that those tiles must have been inspired by your garden.
Htmb asked if I went around fully covered, long sleeves, etc.
Htmb -- good heavens, no! However I have gotten some mileage out of my black skirt -- that droopy number I wear for traveling. It's long enough that if I'm wearing a top with sleeves (very short sleeves), I can drape on a scarf & walk into a mosque without getting a second glance.

Kerouac and LaGatta, I was just as surprised as you all are. And not just by the headscarves -- there are many women covered right to the eyeballs. One thing that makes it hard to judge just how prevalent that clothing is for local women is the number of tourists, immigrants, & refugees here right now. The young women in the sixth to the last picture are quite upscale -- designer scarves and bags. You see other women who've turned that scarf-sackdress combo into quite a fashion statement. Go figure! We were eating in a cafe in a university area & keenly observed the young women walking by. There was a good bit of modern dress, but more of the Muslim clothing in various forms. There is no way for me to know how many of those university women are from Istanbul and how many from other parts of Turkey. I believe that some of the scarf-wearing is a backlash against its banning, and a backlash by young, university women. news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131011-hijab-ban-turkey-islamic-headscarf-ataturk/

The question that kept going through my mind on seeing women in the full dress with head & face covered was whether or not they were going to impose that on their daughters. From what my friend here has been able to glean, some older mothers have been quite okay with their daughters rejecting any form of Muslim dress. I did not see too many pre-pubescent girls dressed in anything but modern dress and saw one completely covered woman with a young teen daughter wearing cute regular teen clothes. AS you can tell, I am fascinated by this subject but as a short-term tourist I cannot come to any definitive conclusions.

[bixaorellana]

Back to the burning issue of doner ~ I looked it up, & it means something rotating in Turkish.
A turntable is a döner tabla and a whirlwind is a döner firtina. www.wordreference.com/tren/doner
    When I went to my Flickr album to get more pictures for this thread, I noticed that the guy in the very first picture has writing on his shirt.
Looking at it full size, I could read Meşhur Sebzeli Bodrum Döneri, so was able to look the place up. Here is their site, complete with photos & menu.

This is not just a random shot of a building, but rather one I took because it was so typical of a style I saw all over Istanbul. In fact, my hotel and all the buildings on my street were of this bump-out style.
My hotel was all modernized, but the street it was on horrified me when I first saw it. Most of the buildings were empty, with plans made to turn them into hotels. They were partially occupied by squatters and the street held a large bunch of little kids who were up until one in the morning or later. Later, when I figured out another route that let me avoid the empty lot with an overflowing dumpster surrounded by garbage, I became quite fond of that little street.

Wandering around aimlessly, we ran into this man right before stumbling upon the next site I'll show you. I thought the man was quite photo-worthy. But I didn't expect to run into him again a few days later. He was sitting on the open side of a panel truck in that exact position. My friend and I didn't exactly cover ourselves with glory when we stood right in front of him yelping, "Look -- it's the same guy! It's the exact same guy!"

This place was a treat. We could feel its antiquity and were fascinated by the layers of history in its somewhat scuffed walls.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalenderhane_Mosque

I would have loved to wander around in this cemetery close to the little mosque, but it was all locked up ~

[bjd]

Questa -- re the veils. I still have a hard time with that, despite what those young women said. Why can't they be respected and listened to without having to cover their hair or clothes? Why do some young Iranian women push back as much as possible, showing a bit of hair?

The day I see men wearing black cover-ups in hot weather -- on their heads, arms, etc. then I'll find it acceptable.

[Deleted]

Well, a lot of them do suffer with those horrible beards.

Of course each country is different, but surveys in France have indicated two principal reasons why some young women now wear them: 1. piss off parents 2. shut up the boys at school

[bixaorellana]

Bjd, I'm re-quoting the link I quoted in Reply #9, as it's the best explanation I've found so far about young women opting to use the veil in Turkey. I find the historical and political implications quite interesting. I've also read that young women in some predominantly Muslim countries use the head scarf more as a cultural style statement and indeed, it can be be quite attractive that way. news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131011-hijab-ban-turkey-islamic-headscarf-ataturk/

I am fervently hoping we can move on to other topics of Turkish interest now! For instance, did anyone notice the hand lettered signs in the Kalenderhane mosque pictures? They really do represent the graciousness and friendly generosity of Turkish people that we encountered everywhere. And yet again coming back to food: beyond the doner sandwiches which were everywhere & a few restaurant meals, I didn't delve much into Turkish cuisine simply because it was so damned hot there in August. The food is delicious and varied, but quite robustly meant for a cooler climate, which Istanbul has much of the year.

[htmb]

Bixa, I had noticed the writing and thought how hospitable the signs were.

As for the man with the belly whom you kept running into, I've had the thought that the scar just visible on the inside of his right leg reminds me of something similar my father in-law had after doctors removed a vein from his leg to use in his coronary bypass surgery. It's a wonderful photo, by the way.

I really like seeing the beautiful tiles and the interesting architecture, but also appreciate the addition of humans to add perspective to the photos.

[questa]

K2, those are the 2 most valid reasons for the wearing of the veil I have heard.

[Deleted]

Great shots Bixa!!! Particularly the architecture and land/sea scapes.

My most vivid recall of the groups of black veiled and covered from head to toe in black polyester no less is how as a group they came across as very intimidating and clannish. Although I personally never experienced anything negative, their presence as a group was powerful.
I do recall a group of them hissssss in unison at a woman who was wearing garb that merited their disdain, (halter top and skimpy shorts).
It certainly caught my attention.

[htmb]

Bixa, is that standard for a cemetery in Istanbul? I've never seem tombs like those.

I have a friend who swam across the Dardanelles strait in the Victory Day race in 2011. I think he was about 60 at the time.

[bixaorellana]

Thank you, Htmb! Good call on the coronary bypass -- that man's stomach is the enemy of his heart.

I also appreciated the remark about people pictures, as it caused me to assess the order in which I'd planned to post my pictures. The ones for this thread are in time sequence, but with chunks missing* which were turned into other threads. I'm going to mix them up now to keep y'all from getting mosque overload.

Thanks so much, Casimira! I hope by the time this thread is finished I haven't made people run screaming from the sight of a column or cornice.

Htmb, I think that is fairly typical for cemeteries of the region. I say that because someone (I think Bjd -- not sure) quite a while back posted some wonderful shots of Turkish tombstones, so I was on the lookout for them in Istanbul. I do have quite a few from what was to be the next sequence in the thread, but will give you live humans now instead.

* for a missing chunk o'pics from this time line, it would have been around now that we visited Topkapi. <-- click for thread

Probably taken on Istiklal Street ~

I went to the spice market on the day I visited the New Mosque, but visited the Grand Bazaar on a different day. I was totally overwhelmed. I bought some lovely pillow covers and the kind vendor escorted me back to where I'd come in or I'd still be there, hopelessly lost. Others have featured it in threads on anyport, so I didn't take many pictures ~

There was gold jewelry on sale all over Istanbul and the workmanship was stunning, from the most chicly modern cuff bracelets to this tour de force ~

And silver on sale outside the market ~

More treasure ~

Back on Istiklal ~

I took these pictures to show how crowded Istiklal got at night -- throngs parading up and down on any regular weekday night ~

[htmb]

Wonderful pictures, Bixa! Crowds, too. Yikes!!!

[Deleted]

Those night shots are more how I remember Istanbul to be -- few veils. Perhaps "good girls" do not go out at night.

[bjd]

I like your bazaar pictures! Those pastries look great but must be too sweet.

re the tombstones -- there were tombstones like that in the Muslim cemeteries in Bosnia from when it was part of the Ottoman Empire. The old stones had turbans on top to show they were men's tombs.

[tod2]

Bixa - What can I say except to praise your fantastic photos of Instanbul! What colour & vibe you have captured.
Yes, loads of things revealing themselves in each photo - like I also noticed the man's scar. I reckon htmb is correct about why its there.
On the veil issue. I have always thought wearing those tight wound around your chin and forehead
scarves is the most unattractive things for a woman. It emphasis her features sans the hair.
We have millions of Muslims here but I have noticed it is mainly the Pakistani woman who wear the whole black garb thing. Others mostly the scarf with nothing hiding the face. I always feel extra prickly heat coming on when near them...

I am looking forward to your next batch of photos !!

[breeze]

"Those pastries look great but must be too sweet." bjd, you have much more sense than I do.

bixa, thanks for showing us some silver we can afford.

A friend who'd bought some jewelry in India said gold jewelry was sold there by weight, so the more intricate and lighter, the cheaper. Good for the buyer but not as rewarding for the gold worker who put in all that time.

[bixaorellana]

Thanks, Htmb. And yes ~ crowds! I'm not bothered by crowds, but sometimes just being bumped into a lot because of the masses of people got to me.

Kerouac, that crowd scene is full of everything. I guess August is a big tourist month there, as people seemed to be from all over and Istiklal drew them like flies.

Thank you, Bjd! You are right, too, about the pastries. Before I got there I had images of gobbling baklava, but it's just too cloyingly sweet, as are most of the pastries for my taste. I could OD on halvah, though.
And thanks for jarring my memory about your tombstones!

Thank you very much, Tod! There is so much more to show, plus I found the lost batch of pictures so I'll have some people shots.

Ha ha, Breeze! Re: silver ~ I bought a gorgeous pair of silver filigree earrings in Istanbul which I'm sure cost less than they would have here in Mexico, certainly no more. We went into a really fancy jewelry shop so I could look at a to-die-for gold bracelet. It was a cuff made up of tightly woven gold interspersed with narrow bars to give it some structure. It was only @ an inch wide. The jeweler weighed it, but I'm sure there's more to it than just the cost of the gold. It was 24 carat & cost somewhat over $2,000. I didn't buy it.

[bixaorellana]

And now it's time for some tombstones, turbans, and tabbies.

One afternoon we visited the Galta Mawlawi House, a Dervish lodge. I wandered around its graveyard first ~

The room of tombs.

[bixaorellana]

[tod2]

Most interesting Bixa - We have large Sufi Mosques here in South Africa and one in my city which I featured some years ago now. Even had those tombs in a room. The drawing of the guys getting their turbans amused me - looks like two of them are so happy they are 'twerking' ( or maybe not so happy they are showing the maker their backsides..)!

[fumobici]

This report is wonderful obviously. So much exotic detail and color. Perhaps my favorite shot is the one with the shades drawn and the shadows--a photo that doesn't even say Turkey to me, but one that reveals your artist's eye. I would love to go see Istanbul first hand.

[bixaorellana]

Oh, Tod ~ that is a scream! It never occurred to me, but now that you've said it, I can't unsee it.
I do remember your showing the mosques in your town, but had forgotten that they were Sufi. I need to go back and enjoy that thread again.

Thank you so much, Fumobici. Yes -- you do need to see Istanbul. Really, everyone does and probably more than once. I feel like I didn't even scratch the surface.
I went there as an uninformed tourist and fell in love with the variety of the place and the graciousness of the people. It's really the gift that keeps on giving, as the more you see, the more you want to learn. And because of the long history of the place, what you learn keeps expanding outward to encompass all the history it influenced. I am very glad I went when I did, as that history is again taking a grim turn.

Moving right along and trying to keep the report varied ~

Chestnuts were sold on the street everywhere, which I found strange, as I think of them as a winter thing. Mussels were also sold from small tables on street corners, on the docks, everywhere. It was hot and they added yet another not-pleasant olfactory note to a city struggling with its garbage problem, which is probably why I don't have any pictures of them. I don't seem to have any photos of the bread stands either. If you go to Istanbul for no other reason, go for the bread!

This was taken on Tarlabaşı Boulevard. My hotel was a couple of streets behind the boulevard in a warren of little streets filled with spiffy renovation, rotting condemned buildings, adorable tiny groceries, and garbage. The history: www.tarlabasiistanbul.com/history/

More sightseeing, on water and on land ~

My first sight of part of Hagia Sophia, as we went into Sultanahmet Park. (For my separate reports on Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, click on the bold type.) The adjacent Sultanahmet Square was the site of a suicide bombing in January of this year: www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35290760

The gate leads from the Blue Mosque side to the Hagia Sophia side ~

And out we go again ~

Across the street is the German Fountain ~