Istanbul!

Another wonderful trip. I was a little worried about getting to the airport for the trip. My plane left from the airport in Tel Aviv at 6:15am on Saturday morning. As you know from my previous blog, getting around without a car on Shabbat in this country can be tricky. I was going to have to leave my house at about 3:15am in order to be at the airport 2 hours in advance of the flight. I thought about renting a car or about staying at a hotel near the airport because I did not want to rely on a taxi or a sherut. In an extraordinary stroke of luck, I found out that Tal and Yaacov were leaving on a business trip and their plane was taking off from the same airport 5 minutes after mine! So, I left work Friday at about 2:00pm and was able to take the bus to their home before it stopped running for Shabbat. I felt like I started my vacation a day early. I spent the evening with Tal and his family. Dan and Tanya came over for dinner and we had a great time. I slept in Bar and Nofar's room and Tal woke me up at 3:00 and the 3 of us hopped in the car and went to the airport- no drama, worry or expense!

Unfortunately for Zach his travel was not as easy. He ended up at a lousy hotel the night before because of a pending snow storm. He travelled 9 hours one way, through 7 time zones and 11 hours back and into another snow storm. I kept reminding him to be wary of women he meets on the Internet. There was also a bomb scare on his plane that required them to go back to the gate and claim all their carryone luggage while the plane was searched.

So we both arrived in Istanbul within 90 minutes of each other and took a taxi to the old city where the hotel was located. I was very much surprised at how modern Istanbul really is. I had expected to see camels and and goats on the runway but all was clean, modern and efficient. The hotel was ideally situated, about a 5 minute walk to the blue mosque. We awoke every morning to the sound of the first of 5 calls to prayer which is broadcast throughout the city. We got to the hotel at about 10:00am and had breakfast then set out to see the city. We went to the Grand Bazaar. It is huge, encompasing about 60 city blocks filled with all kinds of crafts, jewelry and clothing. We wandered around and bought a few things. After a while all the things started looking the same. The merchants were not very aggressive which was nice. You could really shop without being too bombarded. From there we went to the spice market which sold spices (of course) along with cheeses, olives, fresh fish, meat and produce. To me it was similar to the shuk here in Israel. It was crowded with Turks doing their shopping.

The next day we went to the Blue Mosque, about 400 years old and a beautiful centerpiece to the city. Then we went to the Hagia Sofia museum which was quite an experience. First of all, it was massive. There were different buildings on the grounds of the museum so we wandered in and out of them. We saw jewels (an 86 carot necklace), the footprint of Muhamed and, to me, the most amazing thing- the staff of Moses. I know this sounds hard to believe but according to legend, there was a clear lineage for the staff until there was a fire in one of the places where it was being kept. It resurfaced eventually and is in this museum. It really captured my imagination thinking that this was the exact staff held high as the Red Sea parted. Whether true or not I found it fascinating to see. There were also the buildings where the sultans lived as well as his harems. I think that captured Zach's imagination!

We toured a church that was built 1500 years ago- that's history! The church eventually was converted to a mosque and is now open to the public for tours. Lastly we took a ride across the Bosphorus River to the new section of Istanbul. When you cross the river you are on the continent of Asia so I can now say I have been there too. This area has the Jewish quarter and we tracked down the synagogue that was bombed about 10-15 years ago. Zach's grandfather spent several years in Istanbul (then Constantinople) on his way to the US from Russia. It was nice for him to think that he was strolling the same streets that his family walked. On several occasions he was mistaken for a Turk. His daughters refer to him as the "universal ethnic" which I think is true. We also strolled along a modern shopping pedestrian mall looking at the stores and sights. We went up the Galata Tower and I discovered Zach's fear of heights when I saw him plastered against the wall. It was 1500 years old also and so the floor was not exactly level but it did have beautiful views of the city.

We found the food to be delicious and reasonably priced. We ate kebabs (although they call it kebap), eggplant, stuffed vine leaves, baklava and Turkish delight (a delicious gelatin dessert). We also drank strong Turkish tea and coffee and great Turkish wine. We found the people to be extremely nice. Service was great and accomodations good. The only problem was the weather which was a bit cold and rainy but we came prepared (at least I did) and we did fine. When we got cold we simply ducked into the 4 Seasons Hotel for a cup of tea and some ambiance. Not a bad place to fritter away some time.

I think we would both recommend travel to Turkey. It really was a great few days in a very interesting city.

The pictures are of the Hagia Sofia museum, the synagogue in the Jewish quarters, me in the Grand Bazaar, a view of the city from the museum, us (sideways sorry), me with Turkish tea and Turkish delight and the Blue Mosque. Enjoy!