Turkey: Day 1
After an eventful arrival into Istanbul, which involved being ripped off by a taxi driver for an extra 15 dollars and being dropped off 25 minutes away from our hotel at midnight, I was looking forward to a nice relaxing breakfast on my first morning. My friend and I found a local café and were instantly intrigued by the Turkish breakfast option. We had both heard good things about Turkish breakfasts so we decided to order one Little did we know, we were served an extremely large amount of food (even by American standards), including multiple varieties of cheeses, meats, breads and jellies. It was not the type of light breakfast I had in mind, so I shoved as much food down as I could so as to not offend the café owners, but let's just say it was the last time I will be ordering a Turkish breakfast. The one bright spot of the meal was that a street cat joined us at our table and jumped into one of the open seats with us and it was extremely cute.
After our breakfast, we decided to hit as many of the top historical spots we could fit in on our first day. We started out with the Blue Mosque, which was luckily only a 10 minute walk from where we were staying. The outside of the mosque was stunning and beautiful, with a rather long line that had already formed to enter at only 11 AM on a Monday. In line, we were handed appropriate pieces of clothing to cover ourselves before entering the mosque. As I was wearing shorts, they handed me some free disposable pants to cover my legs and they had disposable headscarves for women. First we also had to take our shoes off and then we could enter. I was immediately taken back by the beauty of the mosque, from the famous blue tiles that I expected, to the stunning stained glass which surprised me. As an absolute sucker for stained glass, I was thrilled to see an abundance of it throughout the mosque. After taking many photos and appreciating the beauty of the architecture, we headed out of the mosque and returned the disposable pants.
Our next stop was the Basilica Cistern, which we were told to buy tickets online for to skip the long lines. This was a great recommendation as it was quite hot out and there was no shade for the line to buy in-person tickets. Entering the Cistern we were instantly thankful for the cool temperature inside as it was a great respite from the sun. The interior was not the most interesting or exciting, as the historical importance of the Cistern did not really connect with us. And given the tickets weren't cheap, I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to visit this attraction.
After a brief snack for lunch, we bought tickets to enter Hagia Sophia. We hadn’t bought tickets online in advance, so we had to endure the heat in line for twenty minutes. I would recommend buying online in the future to avoid waiting, but also be prepared to acquire some disposable body coverings. Hagia Sophia had a different covering that was more rain poncho-esque, that was unisex and didn’t actually cover much of my legs because it didn’t come in multiple sizes. Once we were appropriately covered, we entered the structure and immediately picked up on the historic aspect of it, as it felt far older than the Blue Mosque (and it is significantly older, standing at over 1,500 years old). We also kept noticing restored mosaics that depicted Jesus, which confused us as we didn’t learn anything about the history of Hagia Sophia and hadn’t realized it was initially built as a church before being converted into a mosque. But it was fascinating to see the two religions sharing a historic space, and made me appreciate the structure despite it not being as overtly beautiful as the Blue Mosque.
After departing Hagia Sophia, our final stop on a long day was Topkapi Palace, which now serves as a massive museum. We had seen online that it was considered the top museum in Istanbul, and I can see why. First the Palace itself is beautiful, with lovely grounds and impressive architecture. And then the museum aspect was fascinating, with great exhibitions on weaponry, fashion, life at the palace, and a Turkish clock collection. Surprisingly, we were most impressed with the clock section, as the materials and designs were breathtaking and unlike anything we had seen before. The museum is almost too large to appreciate properly, as we spent three hours there and still felt as if we could’ve stayed for longer, but our feet were so sore after hours of walking in the heat.
We finished our day with dinner on a hotel rooftop which had a lovely view of the Hagia Sophia. Over some kebabs we reminisced about our first day and all the history we witnessed. Our favorite stop of the day was certainly Topkapi Palace as it had a great combination of beauty, history, and education at a reasonable price. But the best bang for your buck visit was Blue Mosque as the entry was free and it was truly gorgeous.
