Reset search
Romania and Istanbul
  • Maree Crawford
  • Maree Crawford

Romania and Istanbul

Back to Romania for 2 weeks, then 5 days in Istanbul Read more
FollowInsightsInsightsCalendarCalendarPhotosPhotosShareShareBucket list
Newest first
  • Maree CrawfordRomania and IstanbulTraveler
    Lots of empty stork nests. The storks have flown to Africa for the winter
    The priests dogYou go to hell down the fire into the dragon's mouthThe border of Romania and UkraineSigns here are written in Romanian, Hungarian and UkrainianThe stalls at the Merry Cemetery. I bought a couple of things. A warm shawl for one!!Merry Cemetery churchSaints dressed in Romanian dress which is unusual260 km from point 0 of the 600km borderThere is a holy cow!!Hand sewn traditional tunicMy lovely warm woollen shawl

    Wave to Ukraine

    October 9, 2023 in Romania ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    We start heading back to Cluj but we must see another wooden church rebuilt , the famous Merry Cemetery and a monastery of wooden churches that houses nuns built in 1977(?)

    Will elaborate later

    Home at 7.30pm. Check in back at Hotel Transylvania. A more basic but still very nice room this time.Read more

  • Maree CrawfordRomania and IstanbulTraveler
    Small plane today. Only 1 bus load of people rather than 3.Flying out of ClujMiddle Carpathian Mountains, they were so close I felt I could reach out and touch themTea with milk!!

    In the air

    October 10, 2023 in Romania ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Back to Bucharest today. Steve and I are both flying with Tarom from our respective cities and get in about the same time.
    We walk 5 minutes to our airport hotel and chill out.

    I can't believe it!! The tea and coffee service in the room has black teabags and milk!! Elsewhere, the tea is generally herbal and no milk. One time I tried to buy milk but got yoghurt instead 😞 so continued with the black teas.Read more

  • Maree CrawfordRomania and IstanbulTraveler
    1View from our terrace restaurantTraditional Turkish starters2"All kinds of meat" on rice with chips. We also had salad I forgot to pic

    Turkey Adventure

    October 11, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ 🌬 19 °C

    Flew from Bucharest to Istanbul. Only 1 1/2 hour flight.
    We have booked a ride to the hotel through the hotel driver. Due to traffic 🚦 we take a good hour or more meandering through streets to "avoid traffic" which was fine as the price was fixed and we got to see a bit of the Old Town and the traffic mayhem here .

    We check in and the boss man gives us a rundown of the area, what tours are good ones, etc.

    The call to prayer reminds me of Morrocco.

    We settle in and Steve sleeps all afternoon. The hunting has stuffed his body clock as they basically hunt at night.

    When Steve wakes we go for a walk around Old Town streets close to us.
    We get "conned", with our permission 😊, to "quick watch the sunset on the terrace" restaurant. It's time for tea so we say yes. View was spectacular, food was awesome.

    We like this place.    Read more

  • Maree CrawfordRomania and IstanbulTraveler
    1You could play dress-ups in the lunch restaurant
    111Today we had a traditional Turkish bath in a HammamBubble massage1Our wait team at The Must restaurantAs well as chairs are cushions to lounge on if you preferThese ladies are making fresh gozleme pastry at the front of the restaurant for all to seeBaklava with Turkish icecreamTurkish coffee and real Turkish DelightI had a lovely salad.

    Turkish bath

    October 12, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Didn't do much today. Made our way to a Turkish Bath Hammam where we both had a 1 hour oil massage with face mask, followed by a sauna then into the Hammam for a wash down and then a bubble massage. We even had our hair washed with shampoo by the girls to get oils and face mask out.

    Even though it was a Turkish bath, we're pretty sure the girls were Thai. They didn't look Turkish and the massage was a good Thai-style massage. It was very good. Steve enjoyed the whole experience too.

    Then we went to an authentic restaurant called The Must, for lunch, about 2 pm by then. Very Turkish decor, wait people dressed traditionally.
    There were plush cushions around low tables or normal table and chairs. The walls were open and there were 2 ladies in the front making the pastry for the gozleme. It was a good atmosphere.
    I had a lovely salad and Steve had some gozleme.
    Then we shared a baklava and a Turkish coffee.

    A bit of an explore on the way back to hotel HaciBacram. Read books and I actually fell asleep. A nice relaxing day.    Read more

  • Maree CrawfordRomania and IstanbulTraveler
    Serpent Column with it's 3 heads missingWe kept bumping into this French dude and as it happens he was a photo bomb in one.Love their catsLove their dogsQueueing up for miles or perhaps a kilometre for the Hagia Sophia MosqueThe rest of our group at lunch1Lots of trams

    Full day walking tour of Istanbul

    October 13, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    8am start, 5 pm finish.
    Guide, 1 Chinese man, a couple from Netherlands and us. Nice small group.

    We start at Topkapi Palace. We just beat the queues.
    Then to the Hippodrome of Constantinople which is what I was calling Sultanahmet Square, next door to our hotel.

    Hippodrome of Constantinople, located in Sultanahmet/Istanbul, was a public arena mainly for chariot races. The word hippodrome comes from the Greek hippos (horse) and dromos (way). The Hippodrome of Constantinople was also home to gladiatorial games, official ceremonies, celebrations, protests, torture to the convicts and so on. Hippodrome functioned all in Roman (203-330 CE), Byzantine (330-1453 CE), and Ottoman (1453-1922) periods.

    When Roman Emperor Septimius Severus conquered ancient Constantinople named Byzantion in 203 CE, he named the city as Augusta Antonina and built many structures. Hippodrome was one of the significant structures built by Severus. However, the first Hippodrome was a small one. In 330 CE, one of the first things that Constantine I rebuilt was the Hippodrome. He enlarged the hippodrome and connected it to the Great Palace of Constantinople that today lies underneath the Blue Mosque. Today the foundations of the Great Palace of Constantinople can be seen at the Museum of the Great Palace Mosaics. 

    The capacity of the hippodrome was approximately 40,000 and it was free and open to male members of the community. At least eight different games could be held throughout the day and it was also used as a symbol of power for the empire. The hippodrome was decorated with monuments that were brought in from across the empire including the Serpent Column (Yılanlı Sütun) from Delphi and Obelisk of Thutmosis III (Obelisk of Theodosius) from Egypt. With these landmarks and monuments -brought from all around the world- the Byzantine Empire was proudly showing its strength and thousands of kilometers long territory ruled by them.
    The Hippodrome was also used by the Ottomans as well and they named it At Meydanı (Horse Square), yet they simply used it as a square. Today, the area is known as Sultanahmet Square and it follows the ground plan and dimensions of the hippodrome.

    Amazing facts about the Hippodrome of Constantinople

    In 390 CE, Byzantine emperor Theodosius I brought the Obelisk of Thutmosis III from Karnak (Southern Egypt) to Constantinople, erected it inside the hippodrome and named it “Obelisk of Theodosius” (Dikilitaş in Turkish). It is one of the twenty-nine Egyptian obelisks in the world. Despite its approx. 3500 years old age, the obelisk is in very good condition.

    During the Nika Riots in 532 CE, Byzantine emperor Justinian I ordered the killing of 30,000 people locked in the Hippodrome of Constantinople. They were protesting against him.

    During the Byzantine period, the Hippodrome was the centre of the Constantinopolitans’ everyday life. Huge amounts were bet on chariot races, and there were four teams that took part in these races, each one financially sponsored and supported by a different political party (Deme) within the Byzantine Senate: The Blues (Venetoi), the Greens (Prasinoi), the Reds (Rousioi) and the Whites (Leukoi).

    Then on to the Basilica Cistern, the ex- underground water system which now also houses sculpture exhibitions.

    We walk back streets to find lunch with our guide.

    Then to Hagia Sophia Mosque and the Blue Mosque. The Blue Mosque closes to visitors, only open to people who are there to pray but we can go into the courtyard and peek through the windows.

    After that we head to the Grand Bazaar where we are promised some shopping time. We just walk straight through. As we're all pretty tired by then so I don't think any of us minded. We can go back another day ( but not Sunday, it's closed)

    Big day so we go back to the hotel for an hour then go out for tea, a night walk and then bed.    Read more

  • Maree CrawfordRomania and IstanbulTraveler
    Jellyfish in Latin is Medusa, I heard someone else's guide say.

    Basilica Cistern

    October 13, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    This subterranean structure was commissioned by Emperor Justinian and built in 532. The largest surviving Byzantine cistern in Istanbul, it was constructed using 336 columns, many of which were salvaged from ruined temples and feature fine carved capitals. Its symmetry and sheer grandeur of conception are quite breathtaking, and its cavernous depths make a great retreat on summer days.

    Like most sites in Istanbul, the cistern has an unusual history. It was originally known as the Basilica Cistern because it lay underneath the Stoa Basilica, one of the great squares on the first hill. Designed to service the Great Palace and surrounding buildings, it was able to store up to 80,000 cu metres of water delivered via 20km of aqueducts from a reservoir near the Black Sea, but was closed when the Byzantine emperors relocated from the Great Palace. Forgotten by the city authorities some time before the Conquest, it wasn't rediscovered until 1545, when scholar Petrus Gyllius was researching Byzantine antiquities in the city and was told by local residents that they were able to obtain water by lowering buckets into a dark space below their basement floors. Some were even catching fish this way. Intrigued, Gyllius explored the neighbourhood and finally accessed the cistern through one of the basements. Even after his discovery, the Ottomans (who referred to the cistern as Yerebatan Saray) didn't treat the so-called Underground Palace with the respect it deserved – it became a dumping ground for all sorts of junk, as well as corpses.

    The cistern was cleaned and renovated in 1985 by the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality and opened to the public in 1987. It's now one of the city's most popular tourist attractions. Walking along its raised wooden platforms, you'll feel water dripping from the vaulted ceiling and see schools of ghostly carp patrolling the water – it certainly has bucketloads of atmosphere

    Medusa heads - one on it's side, one upside down so they don't turn you to stone 🪨.

    Lights change colour for a bit of interest.    Read more

  • Maree CrawfordRomania and IstanbulTraveler
    1Big round circle in the middle is Jesus, 12 other circles are his disciples.

    Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom)

    October 13, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Hagia Sophia's complex history began in the year 537 when Byzantine emperor Justinian built the huge church overlooking the Golden Horn harbour

    With its huge dome, it was believed to be the world's largest church and building

    It remained in Byzantine hands for centuries apart from a brief moment in 1204 when Crusaders raided the city

    In 1453, in a devastating blow to the Byzantines, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II captured Istanbul (formerly known as Constantinople) and the victorious conqueror performed Friday prayers inside Hagia Sophia

    The Ottomans soon converted the building into a mosque, adding four minarets to the exterior and covering ornate Christian icons and gold mosaics with panels of Arabic religious calligraphy

    After centuries at the heart of the Muslim Ottoman empire, it was turned into a museum in 1934 in a drive to make Turkey more secular

    2020 turned back into a Mosque but the Christian emblems, including mosaics of the Virgin Mary which adorn its soaring golden dome, are not removed.
    Christianity and Islam mingle here.

    Big line up control through the church as well as outside    Read more

  • Maree CrawfordRomania and IstanbulTraveler

    The Blue Mosque

    October 13, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Imagine yourself as a young sultan in charge of an empire spanning parts of three continents—Asia, Europe, and Africa—your ancestors brought together through conquests. You are 13 years old and are enthroned in the capital city, Istanbul. You are confronted with the legacy of great rulers before you such as Suleiman the Magnificent and Mehmet the Conqueror. And yet, you are neither a renowned warrior nor an able administrator. How do you leave your mark on the fabric of the city that your forebears coveted and conquered? You commission one of the finest mosques in the heart of the imperial city.

    The Sultan Ahmet Mosque, popularly known as the Blue Mosque, was completed in 1617 just prior to the untimely death of its then 27-year-old eponymous patron, Sultan Ahmet I. The mosque dominates Istanbul’s majestic skyline with its elegant composition of ascending domes and six slender soaring minarets. Although considered one of the last classical Ottoman structures, the incorporation of new architectural and decorative elements in the mosque’s building program and its symbolic placement at the imperial center of the city point to a departure from the classical tradition innovated under the famous 16th-century master architect, Mimar Sinan.
    20,000 Iznik tiles rise from the mid-sections of the mosque and dazzle the visitor with their brilliant blue, green, and turquoise hues. The shade Torquise was coined here by the French due to it's shade of blue. Faded now apparently, we couldn't get in.

    The cheekiness of 6 minarets.
    Such a display was previously only preserved for the Prophet’s mosque in Mecca and the sultan was criticized for thinking a bit too highly of himself
    According to the most obvious urban legend, this whole issue was the result of a misunderstanding between the sultan and his architect. The sultan supposedly had asked to have altın minare (minarets in gold) and the architect understood altı minare (which means six minarets). A second, less plausible legend is that the architect decided that gold minarets were too expensive and therefore decided to make six of them.

    Whatever the true story behind the six minarets is, the sultan overcame the problem by paying for a seventh minaret at the mosque in Mecca.    Read more

  • Maree CrawfordRomania and IstanbulTraveler
    The Europe side and the Asian side, joined by a bridge 🌉Largest flag in Istanbul. Nearly every hill has a large flag flying.Prime real estateRumeli fortressA day of weddings. We passed a few honking cars with bridal ribbons on them.Flags are still up from Independence Day 30 AugustTraffic is horrendous

    Bosphorus River Bus and Boat 🚢

    October 14, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Pick up 10.30. Embark 11.30
    Cruise on the Golden Horn then the Bosphorus Strait.
    Cruise past palaces and mosques.
    Turkish Riviera.
    Largest Turkish flag 2000 square metres. They love flying their flags.

    One large building was built for military soldiers, then became hospital. Florence Nightingale worked there.

    Kucuksu Palace, hunting lodge. On Asian side.

    Istanbul bridge between 2 continents - Europe and Asia.
    Constantinople became second Roman capital.

    Bus to Lunch 3 pm at Pierre Loti Hill. Then cable car down to bus. Drive around city walls, a lot still intact, some renovated or in the process.
    Tour finished late 5.30 due to terrible but interesting to watch traffic    Read more

  • Maree CrawfordRomania and IstanbulTraveler

    Short history of Istanbul

    October 14, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    History of Istanbul

    The first inhabitants of Istanbul date back to the second millennia BC, they were settled on the Asian side of the city. Its first name comes from Megara king Byzas who took his colonists here in the 7th century BC to establish a colony named Byzantium, the Greek name for a city on the Bosphorus. Byzas chose this spot after consulting an oracle of Delphi who told him to settle across from the "land of the blind". Indeed, Byzas believed that earlier settlers must have been "blind" for overlooking this superb location at the entrance of the Bosphorus strait, the only access to the Black Sea.

    In the 6th century BC Persians ruled the city and then Alexander the Great took it over after 4th century BC, which was a peaceful period until the 2nd century BC.

    In 193 AD Roman emperor Septimus Severus conquered the city and it remained under the Roman rule until 4th century AD, when emperor Constantine the Great made Byzantium the capital of the entire Roman Empire and gave it his name: Constantinople, and the Eastern Roman Empire was called Byzantine Empire after the 5th century. The city was built on seven hills, like Rome.

    Early Byzantine emperors filled their city with the treasures of the ancient world, especially between 4th and 6th centuries with a population exceeded half a million. In 532 during the reign of Justinian I, riots destroyed the city. But it was rebuilt and outstanding structures such as Hagia Sophia stand as monuments to the golden age of the Byzantines.
    Istanbul's latter history is full of intrigues and sieges. It was besieged by the Arabs in the 7th and 8th centuries and by the Barbarians in the 9th and 10th. Ruled by Romans on their Fourth Crusade between 1204-1261 they destroyed and sacked all the wealth. After this, Constantinople did not regain its former richness nor strength.

    Ottoman Turks led by Sultan Mehmet II conquered Constantinople in 1453. Renamed Islambol, the city became the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Between 15th and 16th centuries, sultans built many
    mosques and public buildings, topping the population again around half million by the mid 1500's, Istanbul was a major cultural, political, and commercial center. The name "Istanbul" was derived from a combination of "Islambol" ("city of Islam" in Turkish) and "eis tin Polin" ("to the City" in Greek) throughout the centuries.

    Ottoman rule lasted until World War I when Istanbul was occupied by the allied troops. After years of struggle led by Ataturk against the occupying forces, the Republic of Turkey was born in 1923 and the capital was moved to Ankara province. But Istanbul has continued to expand dramatically; today its population is over 20 million and still increases constantly. It continues to be the commercial and cultural center of Turkey.    Read more

  • Maree CrawfordRomania and IstanbulTraveler
    The New Mosque, built in the 1500's!
    TeasSpicesCheesesHoneyMeatsCoffee shop owned by Australian born Turk.Ol' mate trying to sell Steve a house. "Pick a colour", he said.Dinner view of Blue Mosque and Sophia Hagia mosqueMe cooking my own dinner!! Testi Kebab

    Morning walk

    October 15, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We were planning to go on the Hop on Hop off bus today but it's not running as a lot of streets are closed because of a cycle race. See a following page about that.

    We walked down to the Spice Bazaar, also called the Egyptian Bazaar. The Grand Bazaar is closed on Sundays but this looks to be a smaller version of that. Certainly doesn't have 4,000 shops or 16 streets in it. Like most markets, most shops are the same anyway.
    I buy my obligatory fridge magnet and flag lapel pin.
    Then we found a coffee shop. The owner is Turkish but born in Sydney.

    We head back to Sultanahmet and find another small bazaar near the Blue Mosque. Now that we live in a smaller house I'm less inclined to buy as many souvenirs as I used to. Where to put them?

    It's obvious there's a major cycle race happening - tents, cycle ways have been fenced off, banners and cameras set up.

    We have soup for lunch at a decent time so we can have a good last supper tonight.

    We have tea at a rooftop terrace restaurant with a great view. We've been wanting to have a type of kebab that is in a clay pot 🍯 that is put on fire then hit the pot to break it open. It's called a Testi Kebab.
    The waiter decides I need to get up and "cook" my dinner. It's all part of the performance. Some random guest filmed it but Steve "was so mesmerised by the performance" he forgot! He did get a couple of pics early on though 😂.
    Inside the pot was a very nice beef stew. There are many types of kebabs here, not just ones on sticks.    Read more

  • Maree CrawfordRomania and IstanbulTraveler
    Police and armoury more than usual. Terrorist attack always a risk in TurkeyFinish lineIn a couple of hours I saw the cyclists race up this, on tellyJay Vine in red, cycling with the UAE teamNot bad when you also get a history lesson tooGo Jay!!TV helicopter above our hotelJay VineKing of the Mountain 🏔️!!

    2023 Presidential Tour of Turkey

    October 15, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Now this was amazing!
    As I said previously, as we headed out on our walk, it was obvious a cycle race of some sort was happening today. The Hippodrome/Sultanahmet Square was blocked off, banners were being put up.

    When we returned after our walk, tents had popped up, cycle raceways were set up, major cameras in place.

    As I sat down to lunch, what should pop up on my Google news? That Jay Vine of Australia won the sprint of the Presidential Tour of Turkey cycle race yesterday on a solo ride.
    "Jay Vine has won stage 7 of the 2023 Tour of Turkey after an epic, long range solo attack to deny the sprinters.
    With just over 25km to go, Jay Vine went on the attack, riding clear from the peloton on the final climb of the day, hoping to boost his hopes of securing King of the Mountains glory. The Australian crested the climb solo, taking maximum points in the process."
    That told us what the race was! Today is the last day, it started elsewhere in Turkey on the 8th.

    So we had lunch then came back to the hotel. We found the race on the Turkish TV and watched the last 40 km.

    Jay Vine was in front again!! So that made it interesting for us as a race. On the TV though was all the streets and landmarks we'd seen on the Bus and Boat yesterday! Also, the race finished right next door to our hotel and the helicopter that was streaming the race on telly was right above us.
    It was pretty exciting!

    Jay didn't win today's leg but he did get King of the Mountain.
    Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!! 🦘 🇦🇺
    We also had an interview with him but was voiced over by Turkish!! Heard him say in Aussie accent " at least I got something for the mantle piece!"

    I have a good friend Gayle, who loves and lives cycle races. She couldn't live stream the race so I basically commentated the last stage for her! 😂

    I think it was the last race of the season    Read more

  • Trip end
    October 18, 2023
  • 2026© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Help Center
  • Legal notice