Commando in Istanbul

Sunday 28 April

Tracey and I got up early today (0745) to walk to the port to pick up our ferry tickets for Tuesday morning and to see how long it would take us to walk there.  We returned an hour later with just enough time for a quick shower before heading off to breakfast.

Our Turkish is not improving much but we can at least now say hello (Meerhaba) and thank you (tea sugar a dream) without too much trouble.  Cris is making the most effort and tries something new on the hotel staff every morning which they seem to enjoy and he is greeted with warm smiles and words of encouragement (we think!) for his efforts.

We decided to try and visit Hagia Sophia in the morning and then take the ferry over to the Asian side of the city later on but the queues to get tickets to Hagia Sophia were extremely long by the time we got there and so we decided to skip that and go straight to the ferry terminal on the tram.

Travelling by tram is a real experience and if you do know people when you get on your certainly know them very well by the time you get off!

The ferry ride was lovely and again gave us another unique view of the city and we were soon entering a new continent!  The Asian side of the city was considerably quieter but had its own particular charm.  We walked through a couple of local markets selling fresh fish, fresh fruit and vegetables and dried fruit and nuts.  We then found an amazing bakery selling a vast array of breads, pastries, biscuits and cakes which were amazing to look at and they were happy to show them to us.

We then continued our walk up the hill to one of the oldest mosques on this side of the city where we sat in the gardens listening to the call to prayer and watching the men coming to midday prayers.  While we were sitting in the garden we got talking to a Turkish man who is in the merchant navy and who was waiting for his cousins to come out from their prayers.  He spoke to some of the men as they came out of the mosque and we were invited in to take a look which we felt was a great privilege.  Jane and Tracey were asked to wear a head scarf and we removed our shoes before entering the prayer room which was beautifully decorated with blue tiles and again had a lovely painted ceiling.  We were invited to take some photographs which we did before putting some money in the collection, saying thank you (tea sugar a dream) and making our way back outside into the sunshine.

Cris then decided that we should visit the Hamam (Turkish bath house) next door as it was recommended in our guide as an authentic experience.  Jane and Tracey were less enthusiastic but we all agreed that when in Turkey…………

Hamams are strictly segregated so we bade a fond farewell to the girls agreeing to meet outside in about an hour.  Cris and I went inside Cinili Haman (est. 1640) and we were instructed to swap our shoes for a pair of plastic ones  and go to a small changing room to exchange our clothes for a sarong.   We spent the first fifteen minutes lounging around in the sauna before we were summoned to a seating area to be ‘exfoliated’.  Cris was started on first while I patiently waited for ‘my man’.  My man then suddenly appeared growling at me, he did this quite a lot and I eventually learned that if I growled back this seemed to make him happy.  There then followed a period of soaping and strenuous massaging where your arms and legs were sent in directions that I didn’t know they could go in.

We went outside (after we had put our clothes back on), had a cup of tea and waited for the girls.  They had a similar story but there seemed to be many more ladies in their section than men in ours.  Although we had talked about going to a Haman I don’t think Jane and Tracey thought we’d really go through with it so they had not prepared by taking spare knickers so they had to return to the ferry commando style!

Cris spent some time in Aghia Sofia while the rest of us went back to the hotel for a quick snooze before dinner.  Jane later discovered that Cris had had a very vigorous massage judging by the bruises on his shoulders (see photo).

 Cinili Mosque

inside Cinili Mosque

New Mosque

 Cinili Haman

inside Aghia Sofia