Tuesday 6th April
We arrived at last in Istanbul about four hours late. The train journey was rather dull and we were dismayed to find that we had eight hours to kill in Munich, but after that we made friends with a Scotsman, Stewart, a German, Heinz, and three Turks, one of whom was a radical Marxist demanding worldwide revolution and he and Heinz had a long argument about capitalism in Bulgaria.
We had to pay £7 each as a transit fee and as we didn’t have the right money Heinz lent us some. We decided that Bulgaria was not on a future visiting list. Once in Istanbul Heinz led Stewart and ourselves to our present hotel The Büyük Agia Sofia, right next door to the great church. It is cheap for the city, fairly clean and very central.
After settling in, we spent hours trying to find someone to change our traveller cheques and, only when we did, could we have our Turkish meal – döner kebab, pilau, salad and of course the delicious ekmek [bread]. From there we went onto the Grand Bazaar – the array of gold is really quite stunning but it seems very touristy and the prices were very high. I want some evil eye beads and they’re asking 50 Turkish Lira – far too much.
In the evening we wandered about and found ourselves in a fruit and vegetable market. And they even had strawberries! This area is all terribly seedy – old houses (wooden) and concrete ones, all choc-a-bloc, streets covered in litter and teeming with people, horses, carts, taxis and dolmuşes [shared taxis], not to mention the buses. We eventually found somewhere to eat à la Turk or so we thought – fried chicken, rice and bread and lovely fresh portacalsuyu [orange juice] but the bill came to 76 Turkish Lira, so there was a big scene as he had quoted a much lower price and we were obviously being cheated. However, we decided to pay in the end as I hate scenes and the Turks can be pretty nasty. We got our money’s worth though in seeing the seedier side of life – middle-aged prostitutes, fat, ugly, heavily-dyed hair, all trying their hardest, some successful, some not. Everywhere we go we get stared at but one gets used to it.
Today we got up fairly early and went to the Blue Mosque – very spectacular. It is awful to see the poor bears that men drag around in the hope that tourists will take pictures of them: they look so mangy and ill-treated. From there we walked to Top Kapi, which unfortunately was closed, so we decided to go to the Information at the Hilton by bus, so off we went.
It is quite an adventure on a Turkish bus – you have to push and shove to get on and off, but people are friendly and kind, especially towards foreigners. We got lots of useful information from the tourist office and spent some time sitting in the luxury of the Hilton working out our route. We then had lunch in a typical Turkish place – shish kebab and cajik [yoghurt and cucumber salad] (prices marked on the menu!) and then came back to the hotel. While I write this Jonathan is having a Turkish bath. I would’ve gone too if I had company – he’s gone with three men.
There are nice friendly travellers in this hotel, all with useful info, not ‘freaky’ either, just normal like us – in fact that aren’t many ‘hippies’ about, perhaps they really are a dying race! Later, after he came back, we went to the Aghia Sofia which, as well as being damp and dark and cold, was not really very special.
Afterwards we went and glanced in the Pudding Shop, which looked pretty crummy and overrated. We had tea at Yenner’s – a real freak’s place and were presented with a huge book full of drawings and scribblings done by all the passers-through. Jonathan added his mark to all the rest. We went back to the Grand Bazaar for a final look, looking especially at the turquoise and carpets, but all were pretty phony and new-looking. Supper was delicious at a small place just above the Pudding Shop – köfte and delicious salad and very cheap.
Back at the Büyük Aghia Sofia we chatted to Stewart and the bus people who were going the next morning.
Wednesday 7th April
We got up fairly early, packed up and went to Top Kapi – saw the jewels, porcelain and china, all breathtaking. We spent quite a while there wandering about the different parts, looking at different exhibits after collecting our baggage.
We walked down to the ferry harbour and jumped on a boat going to Harem. We talked to a nice Turk who told us that the buses were waiting for us as we got off. J saw two Syrians with exactly the same head-dresses as him but they weren’t terribly interested in him.
The bus was a luxury-type Mercedes and the driver let us sit right behind him which I discovered was not such an advantage as the Istanbul/Ankara Road must be the most dangerous road, with the most lunatic drivers: at one point we were three abreast (all lorries and buses) on a two-way road approaching a bend – my heart was right in my stomach. It really was terrifying and it seems as if we had several near misses, although I guess it’s just normal practice.
It took about four hours via Yalova, and along the Med for a lot of the way. After Yalova it became very pretty with blossom just coming out and the higher we got, the greater.
Bursa
Bursa was the capital of the Ottoman Empire between 1335 and the 1360s. It remained an important city after this, and the centre of the Ottoman silk trade. It has always been a wealthy city, the fourth largest in Turkey, with over 2m inhabitants . When we lived in Turkey (1966 -1973) – my father was working within the UNDP – he used to take us on skiing holidays to Uludağ (2,543 m), the ancient mountain range towering above the city. In those days it had one chair lift and one hotel. Now it is a major resort. It was called Mt Olympus in ancient times.
Bursa seems to have grown tremendously [since we used to go there in the 1960s/70s] and we had a hell of a time getting a hotel. It was hot carrying the stuff uphill to the old town and trying to find somewhere not too seedy. Eventually we found the Yeni Ankara – 45 TL per night and double, cleaner than Istanbul and offering a real Turkish breakfast!
We walked around the main street and ate yogurtlu kebab with unleavened bread – really good. We had coffee surrounded by men smoking hubble bubbles, seen for the first time since our arrival.
Thursday 8 April
Our Turkish breakfast was unfortunately ‘yock’ [general Turkish expression meaning not here/absent/no] so we didn’t have any at all! We changed money hoping to get a good rate but the bank with the good rate refused to change our cheques as their comparison specimen books were out of date. The tourist info office was very helpful – gave us a big map of Bursa and told us where to go.
First we went to the old town and saw several tombs and then to the Green Mosque and tomb via the covered bazaar – all genuinely Turkish and interesting. The street bazaar was more fun and we bought some lovely oranges for our trip and also a smete [Sesame seed bun].
My legs were really aching by the end of all this walking so back at the hotel I flaked out and more-or-less refused to go to a Turkish bath, owing mainly to a slightly unnerving experience – on returning from the Green Mosque, a boy started talking to us about doing English literature at university in England and asking about ourselves. J told him he was a nuclear physics student and had worked for one year in Canada. At the end of our 10 minute conversation he first shook J by the hand and said ‘goodbye’, but when he came to me he said ‘may I kiss you?’ – I was so surprised he’d seemed not too bad in comparison with most lechers you come across and hurridly said, ‘no, no’ and off he went (lucky for me if he tried to kiss me God knows what I could have done!)
Instead of going to the bath we walked a long way to the Kultur Park, to find no fun fair and nothing at all except tea shops, so we stopped to regain our strength before returning by bus. After another lengthy rest we, starving, set off in search a food and playing cards – the latter we found only with great difficulty – unfortunately we chose our lokanta [restaurant] badly and ended up eating greasy dolmas and köfte, very cheap. So we bought delicious macaroons and wine which we drank while playing 2-handed poker in our room.
Vicky's Big Adventure 