They say it a small world and it is! We decided to restart our travels with visiting Turkey for the first time to see our friends, Noosh and Ben. This felt like a good place to start as we already had friends there and Turkey had completely reopened for tourism with a low infection rate. Our first stop was Istanbul before starting our coastal adventure with our friends from Mersin along the turquoise coast.
Grand Bazaar
Istanbul is the heart and soul of Turkey a very modern city boasting more than 14 million residents, it is the only one in the world that spans two continents: Europe and Asia. When we arrived our first stop was to visit the Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar. Because of coronavirus it felt like we had the bazaar mostly to ourselves with no other travellers. All the Turks were out and we had great fun stocking up on Turkish delight, buying beautiful teas and of course, Nick had to buy a fez! The Spice Bazaar was just as good with so many different sweets to try. We often found ourselves coming to the Spice Bazaar more than once during our stay in Istanbul. The atmosphere in Turkey felt like normal, everyone was going about their business with the precautions of wearing facemasks and social distancing.
Hagia Sophia, Basilica Cistern and the Blue Mosque
After filling our boots with Turkish delight we made our way to the historic spots in the city with visits to the Hagia Sophia, Basilica Cistern and the Blue mosque. They are all with a few minutes of each other. En route it was beautiful to wander along the Turkistan Asevi to see the multi-coloured miniature houses.
Little did we know entering the Hagia Sophia we would be one of the last people to see the mosque as a museum. There was a ruling that happened whilst we were there the following week that changed the status of Hagia Sophia back to a mosque. Interestingly, Hagia Sophia (meaning Holy Wisdom) start of as a church from 540 – 1453. When Constantinople was conquered in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II ordered the building to be converted into a mosque. Many symbols of Christianity were covered or removed, and Islamic features including four minarets were added. It was transformed back intro a museum in 1934.
We then made our way to Blue mosque just opposite Hagia Sophia. It is the only mosque in Turkey to have six towering minarets and is one of the world’s most beautiful. It gets its name from over 21, 000 blue Iznik tiles that cover its interior.
Ottoman Palaces
It was then time to see all the palaces. The Topkapi Palace is very picturesque and prominent in Istanbul’s skyline, a treasure trove of history on the historical peninsula. Arriving early we had these regal palaces all to ourselves. It felt weird yet exciting going around and not feeling rushed by other tourists. We managed to enjoy the experience a lot more.
Topkapi Palace was built in 1460 and completed in 1478. It was not built simultaneously with all the other palaces you see such as Dolmabahce Palace.
Rumeli Castle
One thing that we did not expect from Turkey was the amount of forts and castles. I have never been to a place that has preserved its castles especially so well. A beautiful castle we visited in Istanbul was called Rumeli Castle. It took only four months to build this fifteenth century castle and it has been standing for more than five centuries. The building of the castle was rushed in preparation of the conquest of Constantinople. It is opposite the Andalu castle on the other side of the river. Both Anadolu Castle and Rumeli Castle were built by Ottoman sultans in order to prevent military and economic aid to the Byzantine Empire coming from the north. We also satisfied Nick’s lust for history by walking around 6km along Istanbul’s City walls, probably the most complex walls every built.
Belgrad Forest
Our final stop was Belgrad Forest, one of the most green places in Istanbul and covers an area of 55,000 hectare. It is a proliferation of protected woodland full of oak, beech and chestnut trees. It has a 6km walking trail that was surrounded by a beautiful lake. This is where in 2018 the famous case where a Saudi journalists body was dumped in the forest after being murdered in mysterious circumstances.
We also paid a visit to the Ataturk Arboretum a botanical garden where we managed to find little turtles swimming in the river. Travelling round Turkey felt very safe and restored our faith in travelling. It was time for us to start our next Turkish adventure with a road trip along the turquoise coast.