Istanbul —> Bolu

We started our first full day of our tour with a beautiful breakfast on the rooftop of our hotel before going for an orientation walk with our G Adventures guide, Hazal, around Istanbul.

We first entered into the Topaki Palace Museum. This was the former palace of the Ottoman Empire where some of the Sultans and their families lived. Hazal told us about the history of Istanbul and Turkey in general. The Emperor Constantine came in the 7th century (and brought Christianity to the area) and the city was then called Constantinople (Constantine’s city). The churches in this period were made with grand domes (which were later converted to mosques). The Ottomans came in the 15th century and the city largely changed from a Christian influence to a much more Islamic focus. In 1923, Turkey got its independence and The Republic of Turkey was founded.

Hazal took us on a walk around which actually was almost a repeat of our walk yesterday. We passed by the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque, or Ayasofya Camii and Sultanahmet Camii, as it is known to Turkish people. The Hagia Sophia is over 1500 years old and when the Ottomans conquered in the 15th century it was converted from a church to a mosque. It remained as a mosque until the mid 1900s when it was turned into a museum for visitors. In 2020, it was converted back into a mosque.

In the mosque, you can still see beautiful mosaics near the entrance with images of Jesus and Mary. The Ottomans would have covered these images but they were not destroyed.

The Blue Mosque was built over 1000 years after Hagia Sofia by the last Sultan who wanted the biggest and best mosque in the world. He wanted gold minarets (the towers used on mosques used for the the call to prayer), however, as the Turkish word for ‘gold’ and ‘six’ are very similar, the architects misunderstood the Sultans instructions and six minarets were built instead of gold minarets! That is why the Blue Mosque has six minarets, as usually only 1 or 2 are required for the call to prayer.

We then strolled down to the area which was a Hippodrome for chariot racing during the time that Istanbul was ruled by the Romans. This area has a lot of cultural significance. It contains a huge Egyptian obelisk from the 15th century BC (which was a gift from the Egyptian Pharaoh) - the oldest thing in Istanbul. Adjacent to this is a partially destroyed bronze column called the Serpent Column which was made of melted Persian armour from the war in the 7th century, which was originally at the Temple of Appollo at Delphi. It was brought to the city by Constantine. It used used be 8 metres high with 3 serpent heads on the top and now it is 5.5m high without the serpent heads (one is in a museum and the location of the others' is unknown). There is also a third obelisk, the origins of which are largely unknown.

Interestingly, we also saw thousands (if not millions) of storks flying in the area to migrate to Africa. We were mesmerised by watching this for a while and the way they fly in a circular pattern to build up heat and then float through the sky.

We then entered the Grand Bazaar again, taking in all the sights and then proceeding to the Egyptian Spice Market where we went into one store and tried lots of different teas, perfumes, treats and of course Turkish delight! The smells and flavours were so incredible as we tried chocolate, caramel, pistachio, almond and pomegranate flavoured Turkish delights. We ended up buying a roll of almond flavoured Turkish delight for our lunch and as a snack for the remainder of the day!

We then walked past the original station that the Orient Express terminated at as we made our way back to the hotel to chill out away from the heat. We gathered our things and then left Istanbul on our way to the small town of Bolu, used as a stopover point on the way to Cappadocia.

We arrived in Bolu and had dinner in the hotel restaurant as a group, had some chats and then went to bed to rest up for a big travel day tomorrow.Read more