I am writing with a bit of difficulty this morning. The taxi I am sitting in keeps rocking rather violently. Ian and three other men are outside the cab, taking turns yanking on the trunk with all their strength, but the metal has warped and sealed itself shut. It wasn't the metal's fault, really; instead the blame can be set on the two men who thought we weren't going fast enough and slammed into our bumper while we waited at a red light. Did I mention that our bags were in the trunk at the time?
The morning started innocently enough. Flying over Istanbul was incredible...the city is huge! Buildings and houses with reddish roofs spread out for miles, with tall gray minarets reaching for the sky scattered about. We landed slightly early and quickly got our bags. Leaving the customs area, we went to find our friendly airport tranfer driver. We were to be whisked away from the airport and taken to our hotel for free, courtesy of Fez Travel, our Turkey tour ageny. We saw dozens of men and women holding up placards in English, arabic, and turkish, but none had our names. Thinking that they were a bit late, we settled in an area to watch for our driver. A half hour later there was still no placards with our names. I attempted to use a payphone to call Fez but was unable to interpret the Turkish instructions. Ian got it right on the first try. It turns out that since we had arrived a day early, our transport had not been included. We should take a cab, the lady suggested, just make sure that the meter read göndöz (day fares, which are cheaper than night fares).
The cabride into the city was enjoyable. Istanbul smelled liked gasoline and exhaust, sea water, and strong cologne. We listened to turkish pop music on the radio as our driver weaved in and out of traffic. I was quickly reminded that in much of the world, lane markers are really just suggestions, not rules. Driver swerved in front and behind us, and our driver made the white line in the middle of the road the center lane for a bit. I wasn't really nervous about the driving or the traffic; I'd been in countries with much worse habits than this, and knew that accidents were actually rare. I relaxed and enjoyed the Bosphorus breeze on my face while the taxi waited to turn right, when- WHAM! The car behind us slammed into our bumper. Our taxi driver shook his head in disgust and got out of the car. The two men in the car behind got out as well and had a heated argument in Turkish. We realized the trunk wouldn't open. All of our luggage was in that trunk.
The taxi took us to our hotel, the red car that had hit us following behind. Stopping in front of our hostel, both men from the red car grinned confidently and shook Ian's and my hands. In broken English they told us they would be back in two hours with our luggage; they needed special tools to get the trunk open. Unsure of what to do, Ian and I let them go. We realized soon after they had pulled out of sight that letting them leave with all of our clothes and necessities for the next 44 days was a horrible idea; there was a very real chance we would never see our luggage again. Not knowing what else we could do, we checked into our hostel. Our room was on the fourth floor, up a spiral staircase. The walls of the hallway and our room were painted a bright cherry red. Our room overlooked the main street and had beautiful views of the Bosphorus in the distance. A bakery was directly below us, and the smell of freshly baked bread would breeze through our open window. We layed down to take a quick nap while waiting nervously for our luggage to return. Both of us wanted to explore, but wanted a shower first and didn't have any toilettries on hand. Everything was still in the back of the smashed taxi. While I napped, I dreamt that my luggage never came back.
We woke up a little over two hours later and hurried downstairs to the reception. To our relief, it was waiting for us behind the desk! We checked our bags thoroughly and nothing was missing, either. We quickly showered and changed and went out to explore.
We could see the tips of the minarets of the Blue Mosque and Hagghia Sophia from our hostel! We would later use these tall minarets of the Blue Mosque to help orient us every time we walked around the city. We stopped first inside the Blue Mosque after meandering through streets and arcades fulled with crafts, clothes, and ceramics. We came in an entrance leading to the mosque gardens. The whole city seemed to be very clean and manicured with flowers and trees. It is quite unlike most other large cities that I've seen which may have a garden here or there and a tree or two each block. The streets here are lined with gorgeous, huge trees and roses and red poppies line all the sidewalks. The gardens of the Blue Mosque were even prettier than everything we'd seen outside. There was an entrance in the courtyard for Muslims coming to pray, and a seperate entrance for tourists around another side. We had to take our shoes off and carry them in plastic bags, and since my skirt didn't touch my ankles I was given a long piece of cloth to tie around my waist. Inside the Mosque were thousands of people. Muslims were allowed past a gate about halfway towards the front of the mosque, while the tourists had to stay behind respectfully. The mosque gets its name from the blue tiles and paintings on the walls, decorating it from floor to ceiling. The paintings were intricut and beautiful.
After leaving the Blue Mosque we wandered across the gardened corridor towards Hagghia Sophia. Hagghia Sophia was larger than the Blue Mosque but had a reddish color on the outside. There is a large fountain outside, making the gardens even more scenic and giving the whole area a nice feel. The entrance to the Blue Mosque was free, but Hagghia Sophia costs 10 YTL (1 turkish lira is about 90 cents USD). The inside was much coller than the hot temperature outside, and much quieter. There were lots of people inside, but the inside was so massive that is hardly seemed to be crowded at all. We explored the bottom and top floors, looking at old Christian mosaics that had been hidden in the walls.
After wandering through the gardens between the mosques, we decided it was time for dinner. I was excited to try Turkish food; I had no idea what to expect. We read over the menus of many nice places near our hostel and finally chose a place on a side street that offered us free bread. It wasn't just normal bread, however...it looked like a massive bit of pita bread, and when cooked it puffed up to gigantic proportions. The entire thing would have taken three plates side by side to fit across if it were flat. I ordered vegetarian kebabs, which were good but not great. The vegetables did not have a lot of flavor, which was disappointing. The food was obviously much healthier that what I ate at home though!
After dinner we decided to try and walk to the Bosphorus. It was strangely complicated to get to. We went down many winding side streets- Istanbul's roads are hilly and winding and don't lead to places in straight lines. We walked along the Bosphorus, watching the sun slowly slip through the sky, but wanted to get back before dark. Using the Blue Mosque's towering minarets as our map, we headed towards where we thought our hostel was. We walked for quite a distance, and each hill was uphill! We finally reached the gardens of the mosque....which are far past our hostel. We had missed a turn somewhere and walked about a mile past where we needed to be! Luckily we knew our way from there, thanks to our exploring earlier that day, and eventually made our way back.
That night we sat on the rooftop bar of our hostel, drinking a local beer and watching the sun set over the Bosphorus. Hagghia Sophia and the Blue Mosque were lit as soon as the sun went down, leaving a beautiful silhouette and a nice panoramic picture for us to enjoy. While full of frusterations, our first day in Istanbul ended on a beautiful note.
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