Letter 1
Hello my Friend!!!
Today I'm starting to write my new travel diary. This time I'm typing about my travel to Turkey. In spite I'm used to travel by myself, this time, for lack of time for the planning of the travel, I signed into a group travel. The travel brought me to Istanbul, then I crossed the central Turkey, and on the end we came back to Istanbul. My travel diary will follow the same trail that I did in this travel. I hope that you'll like it.
Ciao
Franz
Today I'm starting to write my new travel diary. This time I'm typing about my travel to Turkey. In spite I'm used to travel by myself, this time, for lack of time for the planning of the travel, I signed into a group travel. The travel brought me to Istanbul, then I crossed the central Turkey, and on the end we came back to Istanbul. My travel diary will follow the same trail that I did in this travel. I hope that you'll like it.
Ciao
Franz
Day 1 - Istanbul - The gate between Europe and Asia
My travel in Turkey started with my arrival in Istanbul. From studies held in 2005 this is the European city with higher population. In 2005 there were over 15.000.000 people living there. The city itself lies on the two sides of the Bosphorus, making it the only city that lies on two different continents. The bridges that connect the two sides of the city also connect Europe with Asia. Through the centuries, this city changed its name many times. For example, on the beginning its name was Byzantium, then with the Roman Empire it turned into Costantinopolis, and then it became Istanbul. Beside these three names, it also had many other ones... For what I heard there are two stories about the origin of the name "Istanbul". The first is that when the Turks conquerred the Anatolya, they asked to local people where there was the City (the main one) and native people answered "Isten Polis" (that means "That is the city"), but the Turks thought that "Istenpolis" was the name of the city. The other story of the origin of its name is that on the beginning it was "Islambol" (that means "The Centre of Islam"), and this one sounds more likely. My arrival to Istanbul was a day earlier than almost all the rest of the group. In fact, the agency didn't find many palces on the airplane. So, I came earlier. Actually I was very happy of this, so I could spend some time in more in Istanbul by myself. The hotel was in the "European side" of Istanbul, in a commercial area which name is "Taksim". It's quite close (about 2-3 Km) form the historical part that is named "Golden Horn". So, just after arriving to my hotel, I had few minutes of rest and then I left it again to go and see the "Taksim" area and to reach the Galata neighbourhood. The "European side" of Istanbul is really a good mix of historical places and modern ones. The Taksim area is quite modern, but just walking a bit south, through the pedestrian walkway called Istiklal Caddesi (you can see it in the frist two pictures of this gorup), you can reach more historical places. This way is the most commercial one, and if you think to see somehting typical, you're mistaken. Here it feels like being in any other European place. The good thing of Istanbul is that as you get there, you feel it like a very lively place and you like it from the beginning. Moreover, in spite it's an Islamic country, it's much different from the Middle east. At least, in the modern places. In fact, in the modern places (Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya, etc...) you can even see young boys walking in group with young girls... Somthing inpossible to be seen in the Middle East. So, I made all the way down Istiklal Caddesi and I reached the Galata Area. This is a really old neighbourhood, where you can finally see narrow streets that go down to the sea. This place gives you the feeling that you changed, from a modern area, to an historical one. I recognised that I reached the Galata area because in my guide was written that here you can find a street where there are almost only shops of musical instruments. You can see a picture of this place in the third picture of this group. This neighbourhood, with its narrow streets reminded a bit my city. The reason is that the Galata area has much in common with my city. In fact, it's also called "The Genovese Neighbourhood". Here was a colony of the "Repubblica di Genova" (when in the middle age my city was a Repubblic with its own colonies), the name Galata is the name of a man from my city that rebuilt a tower here. By the way, in my city there's a part of the port called Galata too. Walking down the streets of the Galata area I found the Galata tower. You can see it in the fourth picture of this group. Seen that I walked all this way to see it, I decided to go to the top and have a sight of Istanbul by night. The tower itself is a restaurant and also a nightclub. When it doesn't work as a nightclub, you can take a ticket and go to the top to see the city form there. In the fifth picture you can see the "Golden Horn". That is the most hystorical part of the city. If you follow the skyline, from your left to the right, you'll see first the Topkapi Palace (the first place with "more lights") that was the Sultan house. Still following the skyline, you can see the famous "Aya Sophia", the first Christian cathedral, then mosque, and now a museum. We have to thank Mr. Ataturk for turning it into a beautiful museum. Again following the skyline, you'll see the third centre of interest that is the "Blue Mosque" with its six towers. In the sixth picture you can see the opposite side than the "Golden Horn". In this picture you can see the two sides of the Bosphorus, where on your left you can see the "European side" of Istanbul, while in your right you can see the "Asian side" of Istanbul. In this picture you can also see one of the bridges that connect the two sides, and while crossing those bridges, you can say that you go from a continent to the other. This bribge in the night time has many light games and it's amazing watching to it. After watching this beautiful sightseeing, I came back my way back to the streets and I walked down to the Galata neighbourhood, through the Galata Bridge and I stopped on the beginning to the "Golden Horn". From this point was already late and I came back to my hotel. When I've read my guide I've read about some warnings. In fact, it sounds like also many "sex tourists" come here in Istanbul, as you can also find a red-light district. So, now there are many cheaters that can stop you on the way with a silly excuse, just to convince you that for their gratitude, they'll show you a "cheap but good looking place". If you are enough stupid to believe, probably, you'll find yourself into a club where you'll order a beer and you'll discover that it's 50 Euro worth, and talking with a girl (that surely will come to talk) is 400 Euro. Just few minutes may be some thousand Euro worth. That's how it's called "Getting Ripped Off". Just few months ago it also happend to a Korean guy that was drugged into a club to get robbed and died for the drug. So, I was warned. Of course, as I did my way back to my hotel, that was night, and I was alone, somebody tried to "rip me off"!!! No way, I'm not that stupid!!! Hmmm... It's impressive how many "good friends" are on the streets after sunset... Anyway, the same danger is for the lonely girls too. In these places, it's always better to walk around in a group of friends.
Day 2 - Dolmabaçe Palace
The second day of my staying in Istanbul, was the day when other people of my group came to Turkey too. This means that this should be my second free day in Istanbul. That morning I've decided to get up later than usual, and then to go to explore the city. After breakfast I was almost going out of the hotel when I decided to go and ask something at the reception, and here I met Giovanna. This girl was also in my group and came to Istanbul the previous evening. So, after a short talk, we decided to go around together. She's a graduated in History and her specialization is the Bizantine history, so I couldn't ask for more as a companion in Istanbul!!! She told me that not far from our hotel, there would be an interesting spot to visit. It was the Dolmabaçe Palace. So, we deicded to go together. In the city the Sultans lived into the Topkapi Palace until 1868 when Sultan Abdul Mecit moved all the governement and houses of the Sultan along with the Harem to the Dolmabaçe Palace, built in European style. The building itself is not as big as the Topkapi. The structure is made on wook, and much of the marble that you can see in the higher floors is not real. It's plaster painted to look like real marble. The reason of this fake is that marble would be too much heavy for the wood structure. The building itself is split in two main areas. The first is the area for the Sultan and his guests, and the second, smaller and less decorated, is the Harem, the house of the wives of the Sultan. With Giovanna, we joined two tours inside the building, one to see the side of the building of the Sultan and one for the Harem. The building is absolutely GREAT. Everything is so cared and expensive. Anyway, the Dolmabaçe Palace shown us that this court wasn't anymore as strong as it was in past. In fact, the building is rather small, to be the house of a Sultan. The Topkapi Palace is far much bigger. The visit shown us something interesting and I'll show you with these pictures. In the pictures of this group you can see how the beautiful Dolmabaçe Palace looks like. In the fourth picture of this group you can see the throne room. Inside this room you can see a really big lamp hanging from the ceiling. This lamp was a gift from the English Queen and it's about 4 tons heavy. We were told that it takes over a month to clean it all. In the fifth picture you can see how the door to the throne room looks like, now I'll tell you something interesting. Over those really tall windows, you can see some small arches with glass, that look like some kind of "half moon windows". These aren't real windows, in fact there behind there's a walkway from where women form the harem could go and see the men there under. The light comese form other windows shaped like the one on the inner side, to let the light pass through the alley where the women could be. When you get out of the door of the throne room, you can have a very beautiful sight of the Bosphorus with the Asian side to Istanbul. It's like the Sultan could say that if he still was in the European side of Istanbul, he could still watch over the Asian side too.