City Guide: What to do in Istanbul
Ask any friend to make top beloved cities, and with a ninety percent chance there will be Istanbul among them - this place is ideal for a weekend trip, but it can easily entertain travelers for more than a week. You can fly to Istanbul by direct regular flight from thirteen Russian cities, it is cheap, tasty and very authentic. We tell you what you need to do in this city, how to get inspired and where to make cool photos.
Text: Evgenia Pisman
Mandatory program
Blue Mosque
One of the most beautiful mosques in the world, lined on the inside with soft blue tiles from the city of Iznik masters. According to legend, the sultan ordered the construction of four gold minarets, but the architect got carried away and built six. “I swear by Allah, O lord, you said 'Alty,' that is, six,” the architect justified. "I said 'altyn', golden minarets," roared Sultan Ahmed. A scandal was brewing in the Islamic world - the Blue Mosque turned out to have as many minarets as the Forbidden Mosque in Mecca. Sultan scratched his beard and ordered another minaret to be built in Mecca so that it would remain unsurpassed.
Hagia Sophia
If you have only three hours in Istanbul, they should be spent in the patriarchal cathedral of the Byzantine Empire, at the sight of which the ambassadors of Prince Vladimir lost the gift of speech long ago: "We do not remember where we stand - in heaven or on earth!" I like to admire the Hagia Sophia temple like the Russian ambassadors: you can look at the walls of twelve sorts of marble for a long time, like a dome suspended from the sky and runic and Cyrillic inscriptions on the parapets, where the emperor's guards and Russian pilgrims missed you.
Topkapi Palace
The main palace of the Ottoman Empire. A city in a city where about fifty thousand people lived and twenty-five generations of sultans changed. Part of the episodes of the series "The Magnificent Century" was filmed in Topkapi interiors. Today’s palace is a complex of museums and panoramic views of the Bosphorus. Among other things, the palace serves as a reminder of the terrible cruelty to women: according to a special trough, objectionable concubines were thrown directly into the Bosphorus in one bag with a wild cat.
Free program
Suleymaniye Mosque
The largest mosque of Istanbul and the masterpiece of the architect Sinan. Sinan was obsessed with Aya-Sophia - sat for hours in front of the temple and wondered how to beat him. So Suleymaniye Mosque appeared - it repeats the outlines of Sophia, but the dome of the mosque is six meters above the Christian temple. Sinan thought through every detail - once an official complained to the Sultan Suleiman, they say, your architect does nothing, sits in a mosque and smokes a hookah. Sultan personally came to the mosque to punish the careless architect. It turned out that with the help of a hookah, Sinan explores the acoustics and is looking for a place for two hundred hollow bricks that will carry the voice of the Imam.
Monastery of Chora
(Museum Kariye)
The most richly decorated Byzantine church, preserved to this day - you need to go to it for bright mosaics that cover the vaults of the church. When, after the capture of Constantinople, the Turks entered this temple in order to convert it into a mosque, they did not knock down the mosaics, but covered them with plaster. Thanks to this, the old decoration was restored, so now you can admire the festive palette of Byzantine masters.
Basilica Cistern
Ancient underground reservoir, reserve in case of a siege. Three hundred columns were brought here from abandoned ancient temples, and a marble forest turned into water. Twilight, in the water wag their tails of fish. On the wooden footbridges you can go to the columns with the head of Medusa Gorgon at the base. One head is turned down, the other - on its side. They say that tourists from the past did this in order not to accidentally meet the gaze of the terrible Medusa and turn into a stone.
Instagram seats
Fener and Balat
Old faraway quarters of Istanbul. Take a look here to see the steep streets on which children play football, faded lingerie, which rinses the salty wind of the Bosphorus, picturesquely shabby walls, curved balconies and colorful houses that cut space like a ship's nose. Fener - the once thriving Greek quarter, Balat - Jewish. Today the real life of Istanbul is in full swing here.
Red tram
Catch it in the lens on Istiklal Boulevard to combine the past of Istanbul and the front facades in one frame. Sorry, the frame will not include the sound of a tram, the aroma of fresh Semitic bagels and the cries of gulls. Particularly desperate take a selfie on the steps.
Galata Bridge
On the first floor there are fish restaurants, on the second floor there are Istanbul fishermen who hatch the panorama of Istanbul with fishing rods. Fishermen stand on the bridge in any weather, imperturbable, like Istanbul cats. Small mackerel, sardines and other small things - hamsa are splashing in buckets. You can admire the Galata Tower on one side and the domes of the New Mosque on the other.
View from height
Galata Tower
It was built by the Genoese as if to admire Istanbul was even more convenient. In addition to this compelling reason, the sailors were guided to the tower, and the sentinel guarded the peace of the Genoa colony. The tower also worked a little for the fire tower, the observatory and the place from which the brave Turk pushed off and flew over the Bosphorus on improvised wings - in VII, for a minute, a century. Today, the tower can be reached by elevator and take cool panoramic shots of Istanbul.
Skyscraper "Sapphire"
WITHThis is a tall Istanbul building of sixty four floors. There is a closed observation deck with a view of Europe and Asia at the same time. Bridges over the Bosphorus, high-rise business districts, minarets. For completeness, you can go to the 4D-tour "Flight over Istanbul by helicopter".
Leisure
Visit the Hammam
For winter travel, this item is required in order to expel the dampness of the Bosphorus from the bones. Choose a historic - for example, a three hundred year old Cagaloglu Hamami. In the middle of the hall there is a huge marble circle, where visitors are brought back to life by the bathhouse attendant: they soap, massage, wash their hair like their own mother. The package "Istanbul Dream" for 50 euros includes a ten-minute peeling with a special glove and twenty minutes of foam massage.
Watch the Dervish Dance
The Sufi monks of the Order of Mevlevi dance like the last time — whirling in white robes in order to attain unity with God. The right hand is raised up and receives the blessings of heaven, the left one goes down and blesses the earth. Dance meditation, mystical trance, when it seems to dervishes that the world revolves around them. The performance of the dancing dervishes can be seen in the hall of the cultural center of Hodzhapash - every day at seven in the evening the dervishes begin to spin, and the audience is fascinated watching.
Eat balyk-ekmek
The legendary Istanbul mackerel sandwich should be eaten at Eminonu Marina - the freshest fish is fried right on the painted barcas, put in a bun, add onions. You make your way between the barrels where, it seems, half of Istanbul decided to eat the balyk-ecmek. Find a free barrel with a bottle of lemon juice and salt on it. You can splash lemon juice on the fish and climb the seventh gastronomic sky without an elevator.
Tanya Kryukova
blogger, moved 7 years ago to Istanbul for work
To all the loud sights of Istanbul, I would prefer central residential areas where you don’t like to sell carpet, gold or Dervish dance tickets. So I delicately urge to spend more time in the neighborhoods of the Beyoglu district and the less tourist Sultanahmet. Some favorite places in those parts:
Mandabatmaz
To drink a cup of Turkish coffee should certainly be in a place with history. This was once a tiny cafe on three tables, Cemil Filik opened in 1967. Then he brewed coffee for twelve hours, it turned out 300-400 cups. Residents of the city have a reverent love for this place, believing that the real Istanbul remained only in the lanes of Beyoglu.
Address: Asmalımescit Mahallesi, İstiklal Caddesi, Olivia Geçidi, 1 / A
Vintage Istanbul
You can combine purchases and visit a typical Istanbul apartment in the Cihangir quarter at number 11. Here you will find Vintage Istanbul jewelry and accessories shop, which Ozge Tan Ozgefinds around the world. Experience in the well-known fashionable edition did not pass without leaving a trace - the girl intuitively feels the beauty, which obviously complicates the task of its customers.
Address: Cihangir Mah. Batarya sok., 11, D: 2
Pano saphanesi
In 1989, a Greek named Panayot Papadopulus arrived in Istanbul and opened the first wine house in the city. Guests came to the Per district for a piece of Greece and aromatic wines from the Aegean region. Currently, the Pano wine list has more than one hundred and fifty local and foreign wines, and boiled potatoes and an Easter egg are still brought to the cheese plate. What is the latest story? Feel free to ask in the restaurant. Traditions are honored here.
Address: Hüseyinağa Mh., Hamalbaşı Cd, 12 / B Galatasaray, Beyoğlu
Photo: scaliger - stock.adobe.com, Santi Rodríguez - stock.adobe.com, Artur Bogacki - stock.adobe.com, Özgür Güvenç - stock.adobe.com, Anna Kucherova - stock.adobe.com