Jen's Travelogue - The Historic City of Istanbul [Part 1]

Hi my favorite Steemians peeps! It's been few weeks since I wrote in this cool platform regularly. I have tried to make time for it but time is so precious now to me. After coming back from my trip I was working like crazy and learning at the same time. You can look at my timeline and see that I have not even watch the awesome ' Black Panther' ! To me that just crazy. I never had no time to watch any movie before LOL. That just sums up my activity for now. But I am blessed really, though just change my work very recently at my new office, I was given the flexibility to take long leave. Same cannot be said at other organizations.

My trip to Istanbul took 7 days and 6 nights. It started without any plans at all. I just want a trip to cater for the holiday so decided to discover what Turkey has to offer. I like my travel to be memorable because I don't go for a shopping trip like other people but what I like to do is discovering a city or go for adventure. In Turkey you don't stop learning about the past, about how the past has shaped the entire country. It is so educational that takes you from the past.

The whole journey took around 14-17hours of flight depending on how long the layover. A direct flight would take around 12hours or so. This is my first time taking more than 10 hours flight and I had jet-lag throughout my time in Turkey plus 3 days after I went home.

For instance, in the city of Istanbul, I learned about the era of Islam started to take over Turkey and the whole transformation era. Meanwhile, in another city, Cappadoccia or the locally pronounce 'Kapadokkya', I learned the earlier phase of Christianity where people lives in a cave to spread Christianity discreetly to avoid getting punished by the Roman Empires.

Both of this historic events shaped the whole country as to what they are now. It opens my eyes as my country's historic even does not dated back to the year of 'Alexander The Great' at Mid 4th century B.C but it did here in Turkey.

Choosing to stay in Istanbul. Beyoğlu or Sultanahmet?

In Istanbul, there are two main places to stay namely the 'Old City Sultanahmet' or the 'New City Beyoğlu'. Sultanahmet offers proximity to nearest sightseeing stops like the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia Museum and most of the Museums, Topkapi Palace, and the most important thing is the Tram to all these places. Beyoğlu on the other hand, dubbed as the 'New City' is the modern part of Istanbul with vibrant nightlife consist of a lot of cafés, restaurants and shopping malls. I choose to stay in Sultanahmet where the city is much quieter plus having the easy access to the sightseeing spots.

Well, actually if I got a lot of money I would stay at the other spot that I haven't mention. At the Four Season Bosphorus (Obviously, I got no money to stay here). When I'm there, I saw my favorite football player Mesut Ozil updated on his Instagram he is there with his girlfriend (I'm totally beyond crushed!) hahaha...

sad sad sad sad sad

Anyway...

Which area to stay in Istanbul is really depend on your preference.

Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace

These 3 places are so close to each other but can take more than half day to finish by foot. Topkapi Palace particularly has a huge layout.

Blue Mosque
The iconic mosque was built in 1600-1616 by Sultan Ahmet that consist of 6 minarets. This Mosque is still in function until today although hosting an influx of tourists every day.

The architect, Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa, combined Byzantine Christian and traditional Islamic architectural elements for a work of overwhelming size and splendor. Source: The Culture Trip

The upper level of the Blue Mosque is mostly covered in blue thus giving the name. The detail part of the interior of the Blue Mosque is not for me to explain in details. It is for someone with great knowledge of architecture and interior to better explain it like this:

More than 200 stained glass windows with intricate designs admit natural light. On the chandeliers, ostrich eggs are found that where meant to avoid cobwebs inside the mosque by repelling spiders.The decorations including verses from the Qur'an, many of them made by Seyyid Kasim Gubari, regarded as the greatest calligrapher of his time. The floors are covered with carpets, which is donated by faithful people and are regularly replaced as they wear out. The many spacious windows confer a spacious impression. Each exedra of the Mosque has five windows, some of which are blind. Each semi-dome has 14 windows and the central dome 28 windows(four of which are blind). The colored glass for the windows was a gift from the Signoria of Venice to the sultan. Most of these colored windows have been replaced by current modern versions with little or no artistic merit. Source: Tourmakertourkey

What I can say that it is a stunning Mosque that is greatly preserved for the good use of people. Not something that is comparable to the new Mosque available but in terms of historical value, this is a heritage well-taken care off.

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia or Aya Sofia was formerly a church turns to Mosque and turns to Museum. The heritage of Hagia Sophia dated back at 537 AD. It was an Orthodox Greek Church and later converted to Mosque by the Ottoman Empires. Hagia Sophia served the Byzantine era and the Ottoman that features the capability of architectural design for both eras.

Exterior of Hagia Sophia

Look at both paintings from the Islam era and the Orthodox Greek Christian era. Both were preserved until now as the identity of the Museum.

Topkapi Palace

When the Ottoman Empires took over Istanbul in 14th century, Sultan Ahmet ordered a construction of his palace to be the headquarters of Sultans.

Palace was built upon a 700.000 squaremeters area on an Eastern Roman Acropolis located at the Istanbul Peninsula between Sea of Marmara, Bosphorus and the Golden Horn. Source: Topkapi Website

When the Republic of Turkey established, this Palace was converted into a Museum. The Palace is huge and my feet hurt after back to back visit of these 3 magnificent monuments.

Overlooking the Bosphorus

Visiting these 3 places open up my mind about how great architectural influence is depending on what empires it is. When the empires or dynasty collides, the architectural values depicted in a way of telling the story to the visitors. It then depends on your imagination to replay the historical events in your head to put yourself in the era.

I have yet to find the times to write about the amazing place I had visited in Turkey. I hope I can have more time soon so that I can share my experience to my dear friends.

Teaser! If I can find TIME (god please hear me), I'll post about this!

Keep on reading and I'll keep posting :P

Have a blast day!

Jen.

P/S: I blogged about other stuff too!

• Food- Strawberry Ice
• Jen’s Travelogue- Meet the Korean Mermaid: The Near-Extinction ‘Haenyo’ Women
• Steemit Best Practices
• Steem Power Target and Cartoonizing Myself
• No Steem Power Delegation For Me Sigh