Day 33
Exploring More of Old Istanbul
Saturday, September 21, 2024
Merhaba,
This morning we planned to visit the Basilica Cistern. Trying to buy tickets online was a frustration in circularity. When you search online it isn't easy to find the official website for the attraction you want to visit amongst the plethora of guided tour websites.
Adding to the frustration has been the shocking internet connection we've had in Istanbul. The hotel WiFi is slow and painful. Unfortunately, our Holafly eSims did not work when we arrived in Istanbul. Holafly's Europe package excludes Türkiye; you have to purchase a separate Holafly eSIM to cover Türkiye.
Since we're only in Istanbul for a short time, we've switched back to 2 Degrees roaming at NZD$8 per day. But this is also painfully slow. Usually, it is only 3G, with short, sweet bursts of 4G to tease us. Perhaps it is better to buy one of the many locally offered SIM cards while in Turkey?
It had rained overnight in Istanbul and was still drizzling this morning. Despite the weather, we decided to venture out and buy our tickets the old-fashioned way - queue up. But the Basilica Cistern is a very popular attraction. When we arrived the queue to buy tickets was up the street and around the corner. Someone said it was a 50-minute wait to get a ticket.
Then it started to rain.
Basilica Cistern is open late, until 11:00pm, so we decided we'd leave it and come back after dinner.
There is another issue when queueing up to buy tickets - salesmen. In Istanbul they are rife. We have to hand it to them, they are very clever.
Grandma and Koro decided they would head back to the Grand Bazaar and do a spot of shopping, then find a barber because Grandma said Koro needed a haircut. As we were wandering up to the tram station, a young man approached us and asked if we needed help.
"Oh no", he said when we told him we were heading to the Grand Bazaar, "not that way, I can show you a much quicker way. Just walk up this street and turn left and then right. I will show you."
Then we chatted about his university studies, his excellent English, and his training to be a registered tour guide.
"But of course I need money to eat, so I work in my father's carpet shop, which is on our way, here, let me show you."
So we get ushered into his father's carpet shop, a nephew was dispatched to bring apple tea, and an uncle summoned to tell us more about the carpets. It was very slick.
The upstairs room we were now sitting in, sipping our apple tea, was beautiful, and stacked almost to the ceiling with the most exquisite rugs you've ever seen. The whole room smelled of that beautiful "new carpet" smell.
We admired the carpets, balked at the prices, and somehow extricated ourselves back onto the street. To discover we had a fifteen minute walk to the Grand Bazaar instead of a five minute tram ride.
As we were walking, Grandma saw her chance. There was a barber shop. Koro had been putting off getting a haircut because he said he wanted to visit a genuine Turkish Barber. Well, here was a barber shop and a scruffy Koro, so Grandma pushed the scruffy Koro through the doorway.
As the barber was getting set up Koro asked him, "Can you make me look as handsome as a Turkish man?". The barber just grinned and said, "Maybe".
The Grandma started issuing instructions about what needed to be done, particularly about tidying the beard. The barber certainly knew his craft and even Grandma was impressed. The scariest bit was when the barber got out his cut throat razor to trim Koro's beard. Grandma couldn't watch. Neither could Koro who shut his eyes tight.
Grandma was very impressed with the results. She had a new, younger looking Koro!
When were with Deb's the other day, we'd seen a shop selling shoes at a reasonable price. It was in the streets surrounding the Grand Bazaar. We decided to go back there as Koro needed some new shoes. Every pair of shoes in the shop was the same price: ₺500, or about NZD$24.
There was every brand you could imagine, Nike, Adidas, Converse, Lacoste, Reebok and many others, all for ₺500. Now, this is not the sort of shoe shop where the salesperson asks you what you are going to use the shoes for, oh mostly for walking but maybe a bit of gym work, well OK here are several styles that you might like to try. No no no. This was not that sort of shoe shop at all.
The shop was packed with people, all talking at once. You look at the shoes on the wall, pick one that you like the look of, and ask the salesperson for that pair in a size 44. Rapid fire instructions are relayed to a runner upstairs, who then presumably searches the stock rooms. Within seconds the runner reappears with the shoes you asked for, sealed in a plastic bag (not a shoebox) and without laces. "Here, sit, try", are the salesman's instructions, while he serves three other people at the same time.
You try on the shoe. Does it fit? Sold. Cash only. The salesman grabs a pair of laces from a huge box behind the counter, throws them in the bag with the shoes, reties the bag and you are out the door. It is high-volume, high-pressure shoe selling.
In the afternoon as we made our way back to the hotel we came to the famed Egyptian Bazaar, famous for the shops selling leather goods, textiles and spices. The smell of tea and spice permeates the whole bazaar. Bright coloured stores sell every type of tea blend you can imagine - apple tea, rose tea, pomegranate tea, relaxing tea, energy tea, detox tea, love tea, viagra teat, cholesterol-lowering tea, weight loss tea … a tea to solve any ailment you can imagine. Unfortunately, none of these teas would make it through New Zealand customs!
This was a place of wonder and magic. Buzzy Bee was delighted when he found raw honeycomb for sale.
We had an early dinner in the early evening, then returned to Basilica Cistern for the evening visiting hours. The queue was much shorter, we only had to queue for five minutes.
Basilica Cistern is a cistern built during Roman times to store water for the city of Constantinople. Built completely underground, it was large enough to hold 80,000,000 litres of water.
Grandma had been dubious about visiting Basilica Cistern. "Why do you want to visit an underground water tank, what's there?", she asked.
When we entered the cistern Grandma's jaw dropped. It has been beautifully restored and turned into a tourist attraction and something of a sculpture gallery. The cistern is filled with about 300mm of water, just to remind everyone what its original purpose was. Underwater lights shine upwards illuminating the columns and creating a moody space that must be every amateur photographer's wet dream. Tourists walk along raised metal pathways across the water and through the maze of columns.
The craftsmanship of the ancient Roman engineers is evident throughout. Even though it was an underground water tank, destined to always be filled with water, the builders did not do a rough-and-ready job. Each column is a masterpiece.
We walked through the cistern slowly and took lots of photos.
Afterwards, we wandered through Sultan Ahmet Park and around the Blue Mosque. It was such a lovely evening. After being cooped up in the hotel room all day yesterday, Grandma was keen to make the most of her freedom. So we took the old funicular up, the world's second oldest underground railway, up to İstiklal Caddesi.
Once again the whole area was heaving with people enjoying the evening. We found a bar to have a nightcap. Football fans were celebrating their team winning. It was a real party atmosphere. We stayed so late that the world's second oldest underground railway had closed when we wanted to go home. All the trains were tucked up in their sheds, sleeping. So we walked downhill through the narrow streets, avoiding being run over by scooters, back to our hotel. It had been a very long day.
Love to you all from Grandma & Koro & Buzzy Bee.