After spending our first day in the more modern part of Istanbul, it was time to follow the tourists to Sultanahmet, the historic neighbourhood on the other side of the Golden Horn River. It was home to Byzantine emperors and Ottoman Sultans and today it is the most visited area in Istanbul with the highest concentration of historic sights. Standing on a Friday afternoon on Sultanahmet Square with the Aya Sofya on the one side and the Blue Mosque on the other, listening to the extremely loud call to prayer over the loudspeakers is one of those travel experiences that I will always treasure.
The massive dome of the Aya Sofya was our first stop in this part of the city. This Greek Orthodox church was built in 527 on the remains of two earlier versions of the Aya Sofya and its dome is so big that it was only matched in size by anything almost a 1000 years later (there is graffiti on the walls that can be dated back to Viking mercenaries serving the emperor in the 900's!). What impressed us most was that this massive building was completed in only seven years!! The church reigned as the greatest church in Christendom but was ransacked by Crusader armies in 1204 and a lot of the church treasures are now in St Marks Basilica in Venice. In 1453 the Turks finally conquered Constantinople and transformed the church into a mosque. Most of the Christian paintings were removed or covered in plaster due to the Islamic prohibition of figurative imagery, but depictions of Jesus and Mary were left intact. For the next 500 years the building was used as a mosque until the 1920’s when the Turkish president, Ataturk secularized the building and turned it into a museum.
On a personal note, I found it difficult to relate to the building. On the walls a Madonna and Child image was flanked by huge medallions with Arabic script praising the names of Allah and Muhammad. It is amazing that the building has importance for both Islam and Christianity and that the two co-exist in this museum, but I found the building devoid of life and lacking any atmosphere. Nevertheless, I was mesmerised by its fascinating history and felt privileged to visit.
PS. On a bit of a side note, we were very happy with our hotel choice again and can really recommend it. The Hotel Armada has a wonderful rooftop terrace with views of the Blue Mosque, the Aya Sofya and the sea. A bit of an uphill hike to the main tourist area, but one has to walk off all those dondurma ice creams!
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I don’t really know what I expected Istanbul to look like. Middle Eastern, I guess, knowing that it is a predominantly Muslim country. What we found was, in many respects, a delightful surprise. We spent our first day and night in Istanbul in Beyoğlu, a cosmopolitan area on the European side of Istanbul that reminds you of Paris or Barcelona, all cobbles and vintage-looking apartments built on the side of the hill. We promenaded with the locals down Istiklal Street from Taksim Square all the way down to the Galata tower, stopping at nargile cafes to sip apple tea and watch the locals play backgammon. We smiled at the dondurma sellers teasing their customers and throwing in a bit of entertainment in with the chewy Turkish ice cream. We made way for the historic tram to rattle past us and took small detours to the Flower Passage and the fish market. Just below the Galata Tower, a sort-of non-descript café entrance led, via an elevator, to the most amazing rooftop lunch view possible. In the forefront, it was all European rooftops, in the middle distance, the Bosphorus and Golden Horn, with its endless churn of boats in every size. And then off in the distance, the amazing Bosphorus bridge to the left and Sultanahmet – you could instantly see why armies had wanted that patch of land since the year 300AD. In the evening we joined the tourists and locals in the cobbled side streets of Istiklal and had mezzes at one of the restaurants in the vibey Nevizade Street.
PS. If you find yourself in Beyoğlu, we can really recommend the hotel we slept in – Peradays is a modern small hotel with very chic rooms and a killer breakfast! All within a two-minute walk from Istiklal Street. The neighbouring hotel, the Armada Pera Hotel, was our second choice and we did end up at their sister hotel in the old city for the rest of our visit.
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It seems I’ve lost my blogging mojo!! It’s been five weeks since my previous post. But what better way to get back on the wagon than sharing the photos from our trip a week or two ago to Turkey.
My husband and I roped the grandparents in for a week of babysitting and the two of us slipped away to spend four days in Istanbul and three days in Cappadocia, in the centre of Turkish Anatolia.
We arrived by plane in Istanbul to see this beautiful city with its famous skyline sitting on top of seven hills. It was basking in beautiful sunlight and from the air we saw the Bosphorus and Golden Horn rivers splitting the city into two, making this the only city in the world that spans over two continents. On the one side is the Marmara Sea and on the other the Black sea. We saw modern skyscrapers and endless minarets, including the famous ones of the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofya. On the Bosphorus we saw the big oil tankers from the Baltic Countries, small tourist boats and many ferries crossing over to the other continent.
Once we started exploring we were immediately overwhelmed by the incredible history of the place. Over the past 16 centuries, Istanbul has been the capital of four empires and probably one of the most fought-over patches of land on the planet.
For the next couple of days we (my husband and his good memory must help to tell this story) will take you on a trip with us to relive every day that we spend in this truly interesting, rich in history, city that is Istanbul.
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Another quirky coffee experience while in Durban started with us following the GPS into an industrial section of town. We stopped the car outside an old 1930’s factory building and walked the stairs up to the first floor and location of the Colombo Coffee Roastery. Inside, with all the working equipment is a large industrial space that doubles as a music venue and has even hosted a few weddings. We stopped for breakfast at their in-house coffee bar, the Factory Cafe.
Afterwards I read a bit more about the history of the place. It started with a man called James Brown Richardson, an Australian who moved to South Africa early in the 1910’s. He was employed by Thornton Tea and Coffee, but during his service in WW1, the company went under and on his return he opened his own shop in Johannesburg in 1917, providing tea and coffee to the miners. But during the Rand rebellion and the strikes by the miners, he was forced to pack up. He moved to Durban and established the Colombo Tea Agency with his son in 1923.
Now many, many years later, Colombo Coffee can still be tasted in many of Durban’s coffee shops.
After spending some quiet quality time together as a family in the Karkloof forest, it was time to liven things up a bit. We opted for Durban and added a couple of days of Durbs-by-the sea to our breakaway. Our first stop was for lunch at the very funky and fun Freedom Café, tucked away down a side street in the Greyville area. The café is inside a fire-engine red shipping container, with glass and mirror walls, funky chairs and overall quirky décor. You have to smile at the elongated sausage dog benches and salt & pepper holders, and of course the bright pink flamingos in the flower boxes. Deckchairs and tables outside are sheltered by big trees. My linguini with sweetcorn, leak and bacon was absolutely divine, and my husband’s pulled pork was served in a brioche bun (Can anything be a let-down if served with brioche?). If was a great lunch and fun afternoon.
You can visit their website here or like their Facebook page.
A few weeks ago we left the city for a couple of days to spend some time in the Kwazulu-Natal Midlands. We rented a remote house deep inside the Karkloof Nature Reserve, the second largest indigenous forest in South Africa. As you drive upward from the farmlands below, the landscape changes from European looking pastoral charm into jungle within the space of a few meters, and just as suddenly you are transported into a different world of light and shadow, of stillness and forest sounds, of cold and warmth. This charming cabin in the woods clings for dear life to the banks of a small stream and stands in the shade of majestic black and yellow stinkwood trees. Early mornings we made coffee only to get back into bed (with electrical blankets!) to read while Emma took her morning nap. Our days were spent hiking through the forest all along the stream to the close-by waterfalls, sidestepping all the spider webs in the paths, clambering up and over fallen logs covered in moss. Daniel loved stepping on stones to cross the river while Emma watched the world go by from her elevated position on her daddy’s back. We saw monkeys roaming the trees high above our heads, bushbuck darting away as we approached and numerous butterflies searching out the sun spots beneath the canopy. High up in the kloof evening arrives early, and then it becomes time to curl up in front of the fireplace, play Scrabble and eat too much chocolate. It was, for too short a time, something we have forgotten how to do well a little bit: a truly restful holiday.
