December 26, 2025
Staring at the tram tracks about two inches from my face, I was slightly relieved that I remembered the tram had passed by within the last minute. I was not going to get run over by a speeding street tram in Istanbul. Phew. One problem solved.
Next was considering the cobblestone street vs narrow sidewalk…where to put my hand to help myself off the ground? The uneven sidewalks are not known for their cleanliness, but considering the gutter, and the plethora of detritus that often end up there, I decided the sidewalk was the safer choice.
Backing up…
Four continents: North America, Europe, Africa, Asia. One trip. Not bad…Truthfully, we only set foot on two of those, but we saw, for real, both Africa (from Gibraltar looking across the Straits of Gibraltar) and Asia (from Istanbul looking across the Bosphorus Strait). We are impressed with ourselves.
Istanbul A.K.A. Byzantium (Greek-667 B.C.), Nova Roma (196 B.C.), Constantinople (330 A.D.), the city of two continents, the city of cats…was as intriguing as promised and as exotic as my third grade teacher, Miss Stolberg made it sound as we stared at our textbooks, trying to imagine turbans and spices and mosques.
The four-hour flight from Madrid compounded with the two-hour time change landed us in Istanbul around 6:00 pm where we eventually found our ride from the airport to our hotel at the northern edges of Istanbul. After a quick dinner at the hotel, we melted into our beds in anticipation of meeting my niece Elena at 10:00 am at the Topkapi Café in old town.
The amazing Turkish breakfast offered at the Dedeman Hotel: olives, fresh fruit, bowls of sweet purees, croissants, pain au chocolat, buns, rolls, salad, omelettes, but my favorite of all was the honey offered up in the comb…use the spatula to pick off a hunk.
Elena left for Europe the day before us in September, and had been busy seeing friends all over Germany, Italy, and Great Britain. She decided to end her trip in Istanbul, as we did, so we could explore together. Elena, in consultations with her brother Pablo and his Turkish girlfriend, Dilan, took on the task of planning our three days. Our first stop was Hagia Sofia.
As with many of the monuments of Europe, Hagia Sofia was shrouded in scaffolding as part of a restoration process. Built in 537 A.D. by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I as a cathedral, the Hagia Sofia has withstood, and collapsed, under earthquakes both physical and political. For more than a 1,000 years, it was a church.
Stunning mosaics depicting Christian figures date back to the first thousand years of Hagia Sofia as a cathedral.
When Constantinople fell to the Ottoman army in 1453, the church was converted into a mosque and remained a mosque until it was converted into a museum in 1935. In 2020, the Hagia Sofia was reclassified as a mosque and in 2025, restoration of the multi-layered, multi-cultural building was undertaken.
Layers of history are on the walls of the Hagia Sofia, making restoration difficult. Which era should be restored?
Restoration is complicated as the structure literally has layers of construction representing its history. Beneath the ornately painted plastered arches and domes, are mosaics of Christian images and beneath that, earlier paintings. It is the ultimate puzzle of cultures. What gets restored and where?
The scaffolding is not only to help in the restoration of the art on the walls, but to help in retrofitting the structure to withstand the seismic volatility of the area.
Compounding the cosmetics of the structure, the Hagia Sofia sits on a seismically active site making the huge domes vulnerable, particularly now that they are more than 1,500 years old. Retrofitting 1,500-year-old domes to safely withstand earthquakes requires brilliant engineers (at least as smart as the ones who built it originally) and a lot of luck that in trying to save the magnificent structure before it crumbles away.
Despite the scaffolding inside and out, it was a feast for one’s eyes…so many designs and details, easily overlooked, if we hadn’t plugged ourselves in to our walking tour we had downloaded onto our phones.
Where the vast size and complex history of the Hagia Sofia is overwhelming, the sheer beauty of the Sultan Ahmet Camisi Mosque, otherwise referred to as the Blue Mosque, takes your breath away: stained glass windows; intricately carved stone friezes; hand-painted tilework with vines and flowers connecting each tile to make a pattern; graceful arches; tall, robust pillars reaching up to hold the domes in place.
The Blue Mosque, built in 1609 almost a thousand years after Hagia Sofia, has six minarets used for the call-to-prayer five times daily. Originally, the muezzin would climb the minaret in order to recite the adhan to summon people to praying. Now loudspeakers have been attached to the minarets allowing the call-to-prayer to be heard throughout Istanbul.
Baklava comes in many shapes, but the flavors are similar…the textures differ, but all are delicious.
With two mosques under our belt, it was time to feed the belly. The food scene in Istanbul is dynamic and we decided to honor my sister Jenny by having our first baklava. Jenny made baklava before any of us had heard of it. Like Paris with patisseries and boulangeries, nearly every block in Istanbul has a baklavalari with a variety of baklava-type pastries filled with pistacios or walnuts, folded in various forms of phyllo pastry, all covered in the sweet, honeyed goo that defines baklava. Our first day, we had baklava four different times, we couldn’t get enough.
The Grand Bazaar has more than 4,000 small shops with pretty much anything you would consider buying and many things you wouldn’t! Finding a quiet oasis in the middle of the bazaar to have a Turkish coffee and baklava was unexpected and decadent.
One of our baklava stops was at the Kapalicarsi Grand Bazaar, the massive indoor complex of small shops selling everything from pottery, to copper pots, to textiles including scarves, carpets, and clothing, to spices, to candies, to leather purses; to gold, silver; to gemstones. I could have spent the day there just browsing but the insistent vendors made it difficult to “just look.”
Most of our morning had been spent in the “old city” where a lot of the old mosques and Topkapi Palace are situated. Having seen a Rick Steeve’s video about Istanbul, we chose to have lunch on the Bosphorus where we could snag some very fresh fish that is cooked on the spot. We chose a restaurant under the Galata Bridge and watched as unseen fisherman, standing on the bridge above our heads, continually cast their lines into water and pulled up the small sardines, anchovies, or the larger horse mackerel. How they managed to keep from hooking one of the many boats passing under the bridge, is a mystery to me!
At Pablo and Dilan’s suggestion, we went to a rooftop bar to watch the sunset and enjoy a Turkish cocktail. The cocktail turned out to be a Turkish spin on a margarita, spiked with Turkish spices. It was quite delicious and exotic!
Our sunset rooftop drinks at the bar recommended by Pablo and Dilan. Note the banner of lights strung between the minarets on the Hagia Sofia.
Wednesday morning we took a walking tour that included a second look at the Blue Mosque, plus highlights around the old town. The Hippodrome was built in 203 A.D. by Roman emperor Septimius Severus. Capable of holding around 100,000 spectators, horse races and other entertainment kept the crowds cheering. Down the center of the track were various monuments including an Egyptian obelisk originally built in Egypt by Pharoah Thutmose III in the 14th century B.C. The Roman emperor Theodosius I had it transported to Constantinople for the Hippodrome around the second century A.D.
As our tour ended, our hunger started up and we decided to head towards Pablo’s favorite kebab spot in Istanbul. The only issue is that it was across the Galata Bridge, a 45-minute walk from where we were. No problem. With all the travel and tours we had participated in for the past three months, I was game for the hike.
After lunch, we realized that since we were on the other side of the bridge, we were close to the baklavataria that our tour guide from the morning had claimed was good enough for your mother (as opposed to your mother-in-law). Although the differentiation was hardly appropriate, the sentiment of finding baklava good enough for your mother, was. We handpicked a half kilo of the delectable sweets.
As we walk back to the historic peninsula, we cross the bridge and see the fisherman from the other side.
Our plan for the afternoon was to take a two-hour boat tour of the Bosphorus. Looking at the time, we realized that we needed to get back across the bridge and to the most southern part of the historic peninsula, at least an hour walk, if we put ourselves in JPW mode (Japanese power walking).
On the narrow sidewalks of the historic peninsula of Istanbul, Elena took the lead with me in the middle and Nick bringing up the rear. Dodging motorcycles, pedestrians, vendors, and shoppers, we powered ahead, not wanting to miss the boat. I kept my eyes on Elena, kept my hips loose to dodge pedestrians, and maintained the distance between us. And this is where you came in at the beginning…
How did I end up sprawled on the narrow streets of Istanbul? I tripped over the uneven sidewalk pavement. I really wish some tourist, iPhone in hand, had been coincidentally filming, as I was quite certain my fall was a non-graceful combination pratfall by Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and/or Jim Carrey, without the laughs—although I believe I did an internal chuckle as the fall replayed in my head.
Immediately Nick caught up with me and flagged Elena who had noticed some commotion behind her which turned out to be me on the ground. A ubiquitous feral street cat (reminder, Istanbul is also known as the City of Cats) came up to investigate and seeing nothing of interest, continued on its prowl.
The two tiny shops I fell in front of were a rug vendor and a liquor store, the only liquor store I had seen in Istanbul. Both shop owners were out of their shops immediately. A short, old man offered me his gnarled hand, but my mind was still working well enough to calculate that I outweighed him by at least 50 pounds and his kind offer would leave him on the ground next to me commiserating.
By now, Nick was next to me and was in full paramedic mode. He shooed away the many folks offering help and let me get my bearing before Elena and he helped me stand. I was hurting.
I had fallen on my left hip (not my titanium hip) which had hit the sharp edge of the curb. I tried to break the fall with my left hand, but also hit my left shoulder. As far as I could tell, nothing was broken, other than my pride. I knew that would eventually heal.
Both Nick and Elena told me to relax as we could skip the boat tour. The rug vendor gracously handed me a glass of water (although I was slightly miffed that the liquor store vendor hadn’t made an offer).
“Nope,” I announced, “we are still going! What time is it?” As Nick and Elena started to protest, I took off in the direction of the boat at top JPW speed. They had no choice but to follow behind. Twenty-five minutes later we were at the boat dock, I was hurting, but we were there. I knew that once on the boat, I would have time to relax and not move.
We made it to the boat in time! We even got to see the fisherman from the boat and we didn’t get caught!
Being in the middle of the Bosphorus Strait, knowing two continents and so much history had concentrated here was healing for me. It didn’t take away my pain, but the patina of history and the stunning sunset made it all better.
Cruising the Bosphorus, between two continents.
As the boat landed, we decided to, once again, find a rooftop bar to have a drink and some small bites. At the top of the hill of the peninsula, we found a rooftop restaurant where we could catch the lights of the Istanbul on both the European and Asian side.
Several of the mosques, and there are over 3,000 of them in Istanbul alone, were lit up, and with the minarets, created a birthday cake effect. It was very beautiful.
An interesting cocktail at our next rooftop bar. Several dips of tahini, eggplant, hummus, olives, and ?
Uber got us home and Tylenol got me to sleep. The next morning, our last day of touring, we agreed to meet Elena at the Topkapi Palace, a massive walled palace with four main courtyards commissioned by Sultan Mehmed in 1460. His intent was to summon the best masons, stonecutters, and carpenters from everywhere to build the greatest palace of the Ottoman empire.
From the viewpoint of a 21st century westerner, I would say that Sultan Mehmed was more than successful. Clearly all of the workmen on the project were top class. The choices of colors and patterns from the floors to the ceilings are intricate and add flavor to the sumptuous furnishings. It is a palace of sensory overload, particularly when you view the sultan’s treasury of treasures.
When I was twelve, I saw the jewelry heist movie, Topkapi (1964), filmed at the Topkapi Palace. At the time, I was more mesmerized by Istanbul than the plot of the movie. But, here I was, in the castle and staring at the dagger which was the focus of the heist. It was clear to me why Melina Mercouri’s character lusted after the dagger and talked her amateur friends into the heist.
Our last dinner in Istanbul: kebabs and cheese in phyllo dough.
We could have stayed the entire day wandering through the 300+ rooms, but hunger was creeping up on us and we were down to the last dinner we would have in Turkey. We wanted to have strength to visit our last site: the Basilica Cistern.
The Basilica Cistern is a mystical place although it is really just a big water basin.
Well-satisfied, we found the entrance to the Basilica Cistern around the corner from the restaurant. My introduction to the Basilica Cistern had been through two movies, From Russia With Love (1963) and Inferno (2016). In both movies, the Basilica Cistern looked as if it had been created by the genius set designers of Hollywood rather than in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian I as a crucial part of their water infrastructure and a vital defense mechanism.
I loved the “recycled” columns from different eras that ofter were pieced together to fit the space.
The cistern had a capacity of 80,000 cubic meters or more than 21 millions gallons of water. Holding up the domed ceiling which is beneath the ground are 336 columns each around 30 feet tall. What you see as you descend the stairs into the cistern is a vast forest of straight columns with a shallow lake beneath. It is surreal.
So many columns! In a brilliant move, which we had seen at other sites around Europe, such as Barcelona, the columns were “recycled” from buildings that were no longer in use. As you look carefully at the columns, rarely do they match. The bases, the capitals, and the shafts are from different eras and different cultures. The most noticeable are the giant carved stone heads of Medusa, one on its side and the other upside down holding up two of the thirty foot columns. Whether they were placed sideways or upside down to add mystery or magic to the cistern, or it was a simple Tetris-like issue of making it fit, the truth dissipated more than 1,500 years ago.
Exhausted and knowing that Nick and I would be on a plane tomorrow, we took an Uber to our hotel. Not wanting our trip to be over, we convinced Elena to join us for a glass of wine which we would get from the mini-bar in our room. Also waiting for us was the end of the “good enough for your mom” baklava, making it the perfect snack for our last Turkish repast.
Our fourteen-hour flight was thankfully, uneventful. My sister Di met us at San Francisco Airport and we drove down to Los Altos to stay with my sister Susan and her husband William for a day before driving back to Humboldt.
On Day 100, we drove along Highway 36 and were stopped by “Road Closed” signs just one mile from our house. The rains had flooded about twenty feet of road. I didn’t hesitate, “Nope, we are not stopping…” and we were home within two minutes. Waiting for us at our glass sliding door was our own feral cat, Hollywood. A purrrfect end!
©2025 Wendy Platt Hill
P.S. There will be one more entry to this blog after I get settled back into Humboldt life and the holidays have passed.