Istanbul, Turkey
Melange
Reunited, and it feels so good!
Karabatak Karaköy, Kara Ali Kaptan Sokak No.7 Karaköy
First: We are safe in Istanbul.
We started our day a bit earlier than usual and woke up to reports of a car bombing in the city, in the Beyazit neighborhood - 14 km from where we are staying. Newspapers were right to report that the bombing was in a touristic area, but we weren’t there.
It’s strange because leading up to this trip, we were monitoring terrorist attacks very closely, but now that we are in the city, our kind of fear has evolved. There was no panic in the streets or in the train stations. No police car sirens playing like a city soundtrack. Everything felt business as usual. We decided that if at any moment, we felt squirrely or unsafe, we would come straight back to our place.
Our plan was to go to Istanbul Modern, first stopping for a bit of coffee at the Julius Meinl in Istanbul. Yennie has loved Julius Meinl since her Chicago Days and was stunned to learn that they serve the Viennese coffee here. This is the closest she’s been to a “real” Julius Meinl.
The museum was small, but packed a good punch. Its main exhibit featured Turkish artists. It was refreshing to see Turkish subjects and themes reflected in painting, photography, and film - especially as we’ve become more familiar with the fabric of city life, here. Museums are a great place for a rainy day. We watched the Bosphorous swell with waves from the inside of the museum and see the Topkapı Palace, Hagia Sophia, and the Blue Mosque just across the river.
We met Ricardo for lunch at Hayvore, this psycho-good restaurant that specializes on Black Sea cuisine. We picked out a handful of dishes from behind the glass counter and loaded up on fresh salads and pickles from the salad and pickle bar (America, let’s start putting these things in all restaurants). Black Sea cuisine includes hamsi, or fresh anchovies in its dishes - #gameover. Every meal with Ricardo has led us to wring our hands to the sky and exclaim with happiness. Turkish food is so f*cking good!
After our bellies were full, we had to make a group decision: should we go to the Grand Bazaar, as we planned? The Grand Bazaar was close to where the car bombing had occurred, but the police had shut down the Metro station and cordoned off the area around the bombing. We were all a little spooked, but decided to proceed with our plans very cautiously. We knew the rules: at anytime we felt unsafe, we were going to just GTFO.
The Grand Bazaar was curiously empty - not how the pictures or guidebooks describe them to be. Ricardo asked a shopkeep if the Bazaar was empty because of the bombing. But, the shopkeep explained that this past year has been this empty. Two years ago, the Grand Bazaar was estimated to be the 6th most visited tourist site in the world. This year, no one has been coming at all. Yennie’s mission was to get some Turkish towels on the recommendation of Monocle: Abdulla and Eğin Tekstil. It didn’t seem appropriate to aggressively bargain down these shopkeeps, but it all worked out in the end.
Before we headed back to our neighborhood in Kurtuluş, we went to the Süleymaniye Mosque, a 16th century mosque built by “Süleyman the Magnificent,” the longest reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire. We visited his grave and the grave of Roxelana, his favored concubine who later became his wife. Roxelana was from Ukraine, kidnapped by Tartars and enslaved by Süleymaniye as a concubine in his harem. She maneuvered palace politics to become Süleymaniye’s favorite, birth a son, and systematically eliminate any threats to her position, including other concubines. It is a very dramatic story and has become fictionalized in a Turkish soap opera, “Muhteşem Yüzyıl,” or “The Magnificent Century.” Let’s call it a Poor Man’s GoT.
We had dinner at Mahir Lokantası, a local favorite in the neighborhood. It’s famous for its lahmacun, or Turkish Pizza. Because it’s Ramadan the restaurant serves iftar, a special and substantial meal when you break fast. We had “Bride” Soup, puffy bread with sesame seeds, and roasted lamb stuffed with pilaf. Oh, but first we broke the fast by eating a single dried date. How sensible. #blessings
N/A, “No/Alcohol”
Not part of iftar.
