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joe royal 1:46 Wed Apr 10
A few days in Istanbul

Apart from the Blue Mosque and the market is it worth a visit?

Be going mid May

Phall Throw 1:24 Sat Apr 13
Re: A few days in Istanbul

Get some TURKEY TEETH

WHU(Exeter) 1:01 Sat Apr 13
Re: A few days in Istanbul

Wils, the restaurant is called Koco, it’s not too far from Moda pier, here’s a link - https://greekreporter.com/2017/11/29/greek-holy-spring-under-istanbul-restaurant/

I like the Orhan Pamuk books too, ‘A strangeness in my mind’ about the Boza seller is my favourite, how he becomes more and more marginalised by the modern city. There’s a book in a similar vein, all about kids in Florya who would net migrating birds and then sell them to people in Taksim Square or outside a couple of mosques, people would buy them for 50 pence or whatever, and then set them free, like a deed well done or something. It was a really big thing apparently and a real earner for kids with no money a few decades ago. Then attitudes changed and…I wont give the story away. It’s called ‘The birds have also gone’ by Yashar Kemal.

Thanks for the film recommendation, will definitely give that a watch.

goose 9:24 Fri Apr 12
Re: A few days in Istanbul

Cheeky hair transplant?

Wils 9:09 Fri Apr 12
Re: A few days in Istanbul

WHU(Exeter)

"With the Byzantine angle, if there are any books you might have read and could recommend, I would pick up a copy."

Most of the Byzantine history I have picked up has been through my Father-in-law who is a walking encyclopaedia on the history of the city. But a couple of books I can recommend on the modern version of the city if you haven't read them before are by Orhan Pamuk: Istanbul a memoir and Museum of Innocence. The latter is fiction but gives you a good insight into modern Turkish culture and the social and political fault lines within it.

Also worth delving into the films of Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Can recommend all them with my favourite being Winter's Sleep which won the Palm D'or about a decade ago. All the films are packed full of character studies of Turkish archetypes if that sort of thing interests you.

Re the orthodox shrine in Moda you'll have to let me know where that is. My sister-in-law used to live there so I know the area well but hadn't heard of that place.

WHU(Exeter) 2:45 Fri Apr 12
Re: A few days in Istanbul

The Hagia Irene nearby is also worth a look. Proper eerie and some historians think Constantine might be buried there.

Wils - Thanks for posting that link about the Varangian guard, I love reading things like that.

Only found out about the graffiti in the Hagia Sofia, through a book I picked up called 'secret Istanbul' years ago - it's full of weird little things like that and over the years have managed to go and see about 70% of the book now, from an old Roman tower right up in Uskumrukoy towards the Black Sea, to a Greek Orthodox shrine (complete with Priest in full garb), under a fish restaurant in Moda.

There's also some Janissary graffiti in the Yeni mosque, but can't find that mentioned at all on the internet.

With the Byzantine angle, if there are any books you might have read and could recommend, I would pick up a copy.

You've probably heard of him, but have you ever read any of John Freely's books on Istanbul? He was an American who lived there for years and first published books about the place in 1972. His book 'John Freely's Istanbul' is superb - I've seen so many things there after reading about them in his book, that otherwise I would've just strolled past without taking them in.

, 12:17 Fri Apr 12
Re: A few days in Istanbul

Joe royal asks apart from the Blue Mosque and market is it worth a visit.

The Blue mosque is a comparatively young building in comparison with Hagia Sofia which has easily a thousand more years of, and a more varied and interesting, history.

Also the Topkapi Palace and museum holds more interest than the BlueMosque. Nearby also are the Grand Bazaar and the Greek Romano cisterns, not forgetting the Spice market.

nychammer 7:36 Fri Apr 12
Re: A few days in Istanbul

Avoid rug salesmen around the mosque area. They will initially approach as friendly guys but will try to lure you back to the stores sell you a rug and they end up being quite aggressive. If you want to avoid hassle just brush them off firmly,

Otherwise some excellent suggestions I won’t repeat

Wils 10:08 Thu Apr 11
Re: A few days in Istanbul

WHU(Exeter)

I didn't know about the viking graffiti, I will have to have a read up on that one. I did know about something similar: The English fleeing England after the Norman invasion and joining the Varangian guard in Constantinople.

https://deremilitari.org/2014/06/english-refugees-in-the-byzantine-armed-forces-the-varangian-guard-and-anglo-saxon-ethnic-consciousness/

There are theories that they left Constantinople and went further up the black sea coast to start a colony.

kylay 7:53 Thu Apr 11
Re: A few days in Istanbul

Hagia Sofia as has been mentioned by many. The sheer scale of it is incredible.

Be careful eating meat there. I had a dodgy kebab and missed a good bit of the trip on the toilet, although the hospital visit was astonishingly cheap.

WHU(Exeter) 1:23 Thu Apr 11
Re: A few days in Istanbul

Wils, I'm going to go back into the Hagia Sofia upstairs, but only because I've never managed to find the Viking grafitti up there that's apparently 1400 years old. Also when I've been before I've never seen the tomb of Doge Dandilo, and want to see that after reading about him leading an attack on the city, aged 90+ AND blind.

WHU(Exeter) 8:05 Wed Apr 10
Re: A few days in Istanbul

The ferrys are brilliant. Ignore the Bosphorus tour ones, where you get a crackly American voiced commentary all the way, and go up to one of the old fortresses either side, European or Asian or further up to Sariyer, just for the views of the bridges that span both and the scenery there and back.

You can wander round both the fortresses.

Buy a loaf of bread, from the back of the ferry, bung bits to seagulls and in 5 minutes it's like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds' film. Under a tenner, including the bread.

Sanacs 7:25 Wed Apr 10
Re: A few days in Istanbul

the underground cisterns are well worth a visit

Also going up the Galata tower, some decent spots for food and drinks around there as well!

If the lighthouse is open, if has a really good view of the city as well, which is worth the trip

joe royal 7:11 Wed Apr 10
Re: A few days in Istanbul

Whoever sent the who mail , I got the notification but it vanished when I clicked on it .

WHU(Exeter) 5:09 Wed Apr 10
Re: A few days in Istanbul

Mosque!... Museum

WHU(Exeter) 5:08 Wed Apr 10
Re: A few days in Istanbul

Wills, agree 100 per cent.

He's said he's been trying to repair relations with Greece, but doing what he has done with the Hagia Sofia suggests very much the opposite.

They also closed the upper floor originally, which I thought at the time was disgusting, as that's where most of the Byzantine works of art are. A local explained to me that the reason the top floor was closed was because as a museum, there is control over the amount of people who can enter at any time, but with a mosque there isn't that control, so if too many people went upstairs there, it could be a real structural hazard. I saw the sense in that, but still doesn't make it right. The whole place should've stayed as a mosque.

That was bad enough, but he went on to do the same to the Chora, which to me was pure evil spite.

Wils 4:47 Wed Apr 10
Re: A few days in Istanbul

WHU(Exeter)

I was down by the Hahia Sophia yesterday. Been in many times over the years but was planning to take my daughter inside as she is a bit older and would appreciate it more. Was aware Erdogan had made it a mosque but was quite depressed to actually see and hear it operating as a mosque. Should have been left as a museum. Comes across as a triumphalist and provocative move by Erdogan.

WHU(Exeter) 4:25 Wed Apr 10
Re: A few days in Istanbul

Cough, Hagia Sophia has changed a bit now. Downstairs = Mosque, upper floor = back to being a 'museum', and seperate entrances for each. the upper floor was closed completely to the public for a while, after Erdogan decreed that it was a mosque, rather than museum status.

On The Ball 3:58 Wed Apr 10
Re: A few days in Istanbul

Where in Albania? If you've got some time you could drive from Tirana into Prizren (Kosovo) which is lovely (or further into Kosovo, depending on time), then see loads of sites on the way back to Tirana (which is not anywhere near as nice as Istanbul, but under-appreciated). DIRT cheap.

WHU(Exeter) 3:57 Wed Apr 10
Re: A few days in Istanbul

Joe, wills is your man as per below, but have also been around 15 times so if there's anything specific, types of sights etc, can also whomail me.

Lower league football matches a speciality, ditto brilliant cheap food places.

there are dozens and dozens of places worth a visit outside of the two you've mentioned, but as Wills has said, all depends what you're after.

joe royal 3:43 Wed Apr 10
Re: A few days in Istanbul

It’s a toss up between there and Albania. Both have cheap flights & hotels.

On The Ball 3:00 Wed Apr 10
Re: A few days in Istanbul

Been too many years since I've been to give decent advice, but I thought it was a brilliant place. Loads to see, like Mohammed's beard hair.

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