We’re just about to head to our next location (see the list, just above the map on our main page for future destinations). So we thought we’d summarise some of our final impressions of Istanbul. First, we’ve loved it here! Somewhat to our surprise, actually. We do love big cities, but we thought this one might be too big for us. It’s not, and we love the fact that we have found dozens of small neighbourhoods, each different from the others. We’ve never heard anyone say Istanbul is a collection of (large) villages, but it is.
We’ve been enjoying learning more about the eras of Istanbul history, most of which we didn’t know much about. And we keep accidentally running into more pieces of that history, like the aqueduct of Valens (above), about ten minutes’ walk from our flat. Or the cistern that provided the people with their water for hundreds of years, and which was an absolute highlight of the whole trip.
We have missed large green spaces – there are some, but they’re overcrowded and sometimes filled with litter. Perhaps the biggest outdoor surprise, though, has been the cats. We knew there would be a lot of cats, but we had no idea we’d fall for them. Despite what our Instagram feed suggests, we’re not cat people, or at least we didn’t think we were… But it’s not just the cats themselves, though they are beautiful and have been a joy to watch. It’s also the way the people interact with them. Istanbullus carry around dried cat food, just in case they run into a hungry cat (and dry cat food is nasty, friends!). We can’t tell you how many times we’ve seen a person walk by a cat, then stop, turn around, and pick it up for a quick snuggle.
The sounds of Istanbul have also been overwhelming. We’re in a noisy apartment building in a noisy neighbourhood. And there is the call to prayer; we’ve heard it before, of course, but not for so many days in a row. We were in a coffee shop recently, and it was playing Christmas music. Then the call to prayer happened; we thought we might die from all the conflicting noises! Talking of which, we think of Turkey as an Islamic country, or at least we did. Every single Turk we’ve talked about this with – a dozen, more or less – has vehemently corrected us, telling us that Turkey is a secular nation. They’re right, of course, but so are we. The increasing numbers of immigrants from Muslim nations are changing things here, in ways lots of natives don’t like.
The hospitality we’ve experienced has not surprised us one little bit. We wish we’d been here long enough to meet more people, and to interact with them more. We had dreams of being invited to play backgammon with the hordes of older gentlemen drinking tea and smoking. But that was never going to happen, was it?
One last thing – since lots of you have asked: toilets. Many of the fancier places we’ve been in Istanbul have both seated and squat toilets. Some places have only one or the other. Despite popular belief, squat toilets are not ‘primitive’ and there is some evidence that they are better for bowel health. We’re not saying we love ’em, but we are perfectly able to function in both worlds. You probably would be too, with just a little practice.
We’ve read a ton about Istanbul, including the late 19th century Italian Edmondo de Amicis. Most authors focus on its chaos, but we like this hopeful bit from Bettany Hughes.
Istanbul is a settlement that, in her finest form, produces, promotes and protects the vital, hopeful notion that, wherever and whoever we end up, we understand that although humanity has many faces we share one human heart – to know Istanbul is to know what it is to be cosmopolitan – this is a city that reminds us that we are indeed citizens of the world.
Bettany Hughes, Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities
Orhan Pamuk says that Istanbul is a collection of villages, I think in his Istanbul: Memories and the City
Excellent – thanks for that! (And, see, we knew we were right…)