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Istanbul a rough guide

Following on from my London guide comes my Rough Guide to Istanbul. I hope that this guide will help amateur travellers wishing to experience a different holiday to Spain or the USA.

To give you some background, Istanbul is the only city which borders two continents (Europe and Asia) with the Bosphorus linking the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara through the middle. In it's long history Istanbul has been the captial of the Byzantine and Roman Empire, known as Byzantium and Constantinople respectively. With such a rich history I was drawn into taking a trip there.

I have to admit the more I read about the hectic nature of the City, the more I was reluctant to go. However, let me put the record straight, don't let it put you off. Don't get me wrong, you do get people asking you to come into their shops and restaurants, but if you say no they do back off, so it's not an issue. However, it did unnerve me on my arrival.

Day One: Arrival

After a three and a half hour Easy Jet flight we arrived at Sabiha Goken, which is the airport on the Asian side, in hindsight if we were visiting the European side again (where all the known tourist spots are) then I would fly into Ataturk, it's closer. We thought by flying to the Asian side we'd save money. This isn't the case, you have an hour and half journey to Sultanhmet (old European district) by taxi, and even longer if you were to choose public transport, as you have to make a few changes. We chose to take a taxi, which ended up costing us 100TL (about £45) between the two of us. We felt like the taxi guy had stung us and it put a downer on our holiday, this didn't last though.

The taxi driver was quite clueless when we reached Sultanhmet, and had to stop and ask a few people. I'd worked out where we were on our map, so we decided to leave the taxi man and go by foot to our hotel, it took a while to get our bearings, and being tired my girlfriend and I were irritable, but we managed to find our hotel, after asking some Australians. That was the first thing we noticed, there were a lot of tourists (mainly American, German and Australian) the second thing I noticed, were stray cats.

After the the long journey to our hotel it was late afternoon, so we decided to have a relaxing evening and chill out in our room, ready to be fresh for the next day. The hotel we chose was Pierre Loti, on the street of the same name, it was a three star hotel and was what you'd expect, clean and simple. It had a very nice roof bar, which had lovely views.

Day Two: Orienteering

Having never been to this part of the world before (and having not taken my iPhone) we decided to use day two as an 'orienteering' day (my girlfriends description). Leaving the safety of our hotel we walked east along a main street (Divan Yolu Cad). The street was bigger than most and had a tramline down the middle, good to follow if we ever got lost. It lead us to a park, which is a beautifully landscaped the area surrounding two of the main tourist spots, the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. There was a lovely fountain in between the two buildings and lots of stalls selling corn on the cob and prezel(esque) snacks. It was 30 degrees celcius the whole time we were there and the locals were taking full advantage of this, selling bottles of water for 1TL (45p). Many of the guides advised us to drink bottled water; the other water sources are filtered but use old pipes, so the water can still get contaminated. The area is extremely busy, as it seems to be the hub for tourists, if you don't like crowds then you may want to avoid this area, although if you don't like crowds Istanbul probably isn't the place for you. I felt safe in the area between the two mosques, as I often heard english being spoken. However, be on the watch for pick pockets, especially in the evenings.

We moved on from the area and walked down a hill, following the trams (Alemdar Cad) just as the road turns off there is an entrance to a park, which so happened to be the park around Topkapi Palace. If you want to get away from the massed groups of tourists then this is a great area. It seems more of the locals come here, kind of like a Hyde Park of Istanbul. There are many benches to rest your wiry legs, as well as a nice cafe with a great view of the Bosphorus, be warned though it is expensive. Infact, you are best of buying bottle water for 1TL than paying for drinks in a cafe, we saw a can of coke for 9TL (£4.50). It's definitely advisable to check prices before eating out.

After a relaxing day we decided to eat at the roof top restaurant on our hotel. The food was reasonably priced, and the restaurant was clean and modern, they also played the world cup on a tv in the corner if you were interested.

Day Three: Blue Mosque and Grand Bazaar

The Blue Mosque was our first tourist destination, which can easily be seen from the centre of Sultanahmet due to it's six spires. It is known as the Blue Mosque due to the blue titles adorning the walls of the interior. This is truely a beautiful structure and from the outside sitting in the picturesque landscaped gardens it does feel like your are in an image of some fantasy novel, like Lord of the Rings. At one point I did compare it to looking at the Walt Disney castle, but I think that did the mosque a bit of injustice.

You are free to walk in the courtyard and take photos. However, if you wish to enter the mosque it is best to do this between prayer times. You will also need to make sure you are wearing suitable clothing. For men, a t-shirt and some thin trousers will be fine. Ladies are a bit different, youll need to make sure your legs, arms and shoulders are covered, also, the do like you to wear a shawl. My girlfriend had her own, however, they do hand some out. The Blue Mosque is free to enter but they do expect a donation, we gave 10TL which I think might have been aa bit cheap of us!

The Grand Bazaar is about 10 minutes walk from the Blue Mosque, or if you are staying at our hotel it's only a short walk. You can get to it by walking west up Divan Yolu Cad and then right onto Vezirhan Cad. Now if you hate being hassled then do not go here. However, as mentioned if you aren't a people person Istanbul isn't for you. The Grand Bazaar is a maze of boutiques selling everything from clothes and jewelry to ceramics and antiques, there are also a few cafes where you can get a nice Turkish tea. The Bazaar consists of many covered streets and each shop owner will be trying to get you to see what they have for sale. The best line I heard was "Please come in and I can try to sell you something you don't need". All the shop owners are friendly and most will leave you alone if you say no. If not just walk on, they will soon lose interest in you, as many people walk the streets. If you do try to buy something they will always start at a high price, this is certainly the ideal place for people who like to negotiate.

Day Four: Hagia Sohpia, Topkapi Palace and the Bosphorus boat ride.

The Hagia Sophia Was originally an Orthodox basilica, which then later became a mosque and is now a museum. It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly 1000 years and its central dome is something to behold. You don't have to worry to much about covering yourself here, as it is no longer an actual mosque. Infact Christian and Muslim symbols adorn the inside, due to the changes the building has seen over the years. There are various piece of art around to look at, and going up to the second floor gives you a great perspective of the building. It costs 20TL(£9.50) to enter, but this seems to be the usual cost of getting into tourist spots.

Topkapi Palace can be found near the Hagia Sophia and was the residence of the Ottoman Sultans for 400 years. Again it costs 20TL(£9.50) to enter. The grounds are beautiful, and on a summers days can be a very relaxing place. Inside are various buildings where you can read up about how the Sultans lived. There are also various exhibitions of art and artifacts from different prophets - they owned a lot of swords. There is even an arm of a prophet in gold casing, that's years old. You can additionally go to the Harem which means forbidden place. This was the area of the palace where the Sultans kept their concubines, it cost 15TL(£7) to enter and was really interesting, they certainly lived very comfortable lives although maybe their job wasn't quite as fun.......

The Bosphorus is a must do trip if you are going to Istanbul, it is the body of water that seprates the European and Asian continent. By heading out the back of the Topkapi grounds you will be on a main motor way called Kennedy Cad. Heading west along here with bring you to the river front. It's not the cleanest place and the are a lot of food sellers along the way, but by walking beyound the first bridge you can get to where the tour boats sail off from. A simple tour up and down the Bosphorus takes about an hour an a half and costs 10TL. The trip was relaxing, even though the boat was quite busy. Make sure you get on one of the side seats, as you will want to see all the interesting architecture along the Bosphorus coast.

Day Five and Six: Relaxing and the trip home

Istanbul can be expensive at times, especially when two different currencies are in circulation. A lot of the tours are quoted in € so be careful, you wouldn't want to accidently purchase something believing it's TL but it's actually €.

The last day was spent shopping, and going back to parts of Istanbul we enjoyed. We found that there was a spice bazaar near the riverfront, across the road from where the boat tour picked us up.

We were determined not to pay a fortune getting back to the airport, luckly there were booths dotted around near the Hagia Sophia that let you book shuttle buses to either of the airports, they quote in € but you can pay in TL as well. It cost 20TL (£9.50) to get to Sabiha Goken, bear in mind that the shuttle bus picks a lot of people up, and they only have set times. It took a good two hours to get there, due to the pick ups.

That is my short guide to Istanbul, there was plenty more to see, Istanbul is big! We stayed in the old European quarter, but there was plenty of other places to see, we didn't even scratch the surface. If I were to go back again I'd like to take a trip to the Prince's Islands and there is also Taksim Square. I really enjoyed my time in Istanbul and I'd advise anyone thinking of going to definitly make the trip.

One last mention is the exchange rate; pricing was at the time of the holiday, this may have changed, so do look up before going.