Summer Travel: Spotlight on Istanbul

by Matthew Firestone on

Ask most travelers to list their favorite European cities, and they’ll most likely feedback with the classics: Paris, Rome, Venice, Florence, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Munich and many others. But one destination that doesn’t always make the list is not only the largest metropolitan city proper in Europe, but also the former capital of both the Roman and Ottoman empires.

Need a hint?

We’re talking about ancient Byzantium, medieval Constantinople and modern Istanbul. Turkey’s capital city, not to mention its financial hub and cultural center, is built on both sides of the Bosphorus Strait. As such, it is the world’s only bi-continental city, located literally and figuratively at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.

Any time of year, Istanbul charms and enchants with its skyline of elegant minarets rising from the slopes of seven hills. But summertime heat awakens denizens from their winter slumber, imbuing the streets with vigorous life. Alfresco cafes brew cardamom-infused coffee, while waterside bistros serve up the fresh catch of the day.

With a material history dating back to the Byzantines, Istanbul is a veritable living museum of architectural stylings. You can easily spend a week exploring each of the city’s distinct neighborhoods, and check-off several UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the process. So, without further ado, let’s shine a much deserved spotlight on Istanbul.

%Gallery-122775%The Sultanahmet district lies at the heart of the old city, and is home to both the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. The former was built by the Byzantines during the 6th century CE, and was designated as the largest cathedral in the world for almost one thousand years. Converted into a mosque by the Ottomans, the Hagia Sophia and its crowning dome inspired similar constructions throughout the empire.

One such prominent example is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque or ‘Blue Mosque,’ which was built in the 17th century directly across from the Hagia Sophia. Rising up from the foundations of the ruined Byzantine palace, the Blue Mosque earned its moniker from the tens of thousands of ceramic tiles lining its interior. The exterior is distinguishes by its six minarets, vaulted arcades and undulating series of domed cupolas.

Together the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque serve as Istanbul’s monumental crown jewels. But this is not to say that the pair are the solitary focal point of the skyline. On the contrary, Istanbul is a sprawling panorama of delicate minarets rising up to the heavens. One of the best ways of appreciating the viewscape is to travel the city’s myriad waterways by ferry, tour boat or even local water taxi. Istanbul is simply magical just before sunset when the minarets turn dark black against a fiery sky.

Tourists in search of authentic handicrafts and tacky kitsch alike inevitably descend on the Grand Bazaar. Built in the 15th century, this covered marketplace has thousands of shops lining dozens of pedestrian throughways. Overpriced carpets and hookahs of dubious quality are peddled with vigor, but look beyond the aggressive touts to discover the genuine article. Turkish textiles are of very high quality, as are the works by resident cobblers, carvers, goldsmiths and jewelers.

If the tourist gauntlet becomes too much to handle, fret not as there are bargains to be had well beyond the walls of the Grand Bazaar. Scattered throughout the city are smaller markets of various manifestations that cater primarily to locals. The food markets are especially intoxicating to behold, complete with steaming vats of thick stews, carefully arranged piles of exotic spices, jars of pickled vegetables and rectangular trays lined with all manners of sweet, flakey and gooey pastries.

Indeed, Turkish cuisine is rich and varied, drawing ingredients and inspiration from the European, Central Asian and Middle Eastern corners of the Ottoman empire. It can be as basic as sesame-coated breads and seasoned yoghurt, or as complex as multi-course vegetable mezes and heavily-seasoned roasted kebabs. Domestic wines are surprisingly smooth and refreshing, unlike the local firewater that is anise-flavored raki.

Eating and drinking is a full-time activity in Istanbul, and reason enough to sacrifice some sightseeing in favor of restaurant-hopping. One of the most fashionable addresses to do so is Independence Avenue, a Parisian-inspired boulevard of 18th century Beaux-Arts buildings. Amidst the high-end retail shopping are some of the city’s most celebrated cafes, restaurants, bars, bistros, patisseries and confectionaries.

If you need to detox after imbibing a bit too much of the food and drink, there is no better destination than any of Istanbul’s hamam or Turkish-style bathhouses. Continuing the legacy of public bathing that dates back to the Greco-Romans, the hamam is comprised of several marbled rooms containing various hot and cold water baths. Impurities are sweated out in the saunas, and muscles and joints are loosened up in the pools of water. Attendants are also on-hand to offer therapeutic scrubs, leaving you with baby soft skin and a new appreciation for the wonders of cosmetology.

If you’re feeling a bit too squeaky clean, you can always spend the evening boozing it up along the Golden Mile. Dancing to Turkish techno with a cold lager in hand will give you some much needed perspective on the modern face of the city. Youthful, carefree and tolerant, the Golden Mile is where any remaining stereotypes of staid and conservative Istanbul quickly vanish away.

So, what are you waiting for?

Turkish Airlines, alongside most major carriers, connects US and Canadian cities to Istanbul. Accommodation is varied, and ranges from converted palaces to humble B&Bs. Summer heat and humidity can be stifling at times, but it’s a small price to pay for the opportunity to step foot in one of the world’s most fabled cities.

** All gallery images are the author’s own original work. All others were sourced from the Wikimedia Commons Project **

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How Not to Achieve the Elusive “Local Status” While Traveling

by David Farley on
The food at Luzzi, a restaurant located between the barn-like basilica San Giovanni in Laterano and the Coliseum in Rome, is not particularly memorable. The menu consists of affordable Italian and Roman fare. The owner, a balding, jovial fellow (and avid AS Roma supporter) is always darting about from the table-crammed interior to the boisterous outside dining area, sometimes barking orders at the attractive Greek waitress.

When I lived in Rome for a few months in 2002 my wife and I made it our regular spot. Why? For what happened on one unseasonably warm November night. After paying our bill, the server walked by and plunked the bottle of limoncello down on our table. And with that we became locals. At least at this restaurant. Which had benefits: a shorter wait time for a table, the allowance to linger longer, and, of course, all the lemony liqueur we could drink after dinner.

It was the holy grail of travel: getting local status. Many of us have yen to fit in, to look like we belong while on the road. We’d don brash muumuus to go native, trading one bad fashion plague for another in an attempt to avoiding looking like that guy in the khaki shorts and Tiva sandals carrying the Lonely Planet guidebook (a travelers vs. tourists argument, anyone?).

When I moved away from Rome, so went my limoncello status at Luzzi. But five years later, I came back to Rome for four months to finish working on a book. And I had a taste for limoncello again. My wife and I went to Luzzi the first night we arrived. I had visions of the bald owner or the Greek waitress giving us an open-arm greeting and seating us right away.

That didn’t happen. In fact, despite my long looks, they never even recognized us. And at the end of the night, the only thing that appeared on our table was the check. So I made vow: I was going to find a new place that would give me “limoncello status.” There were conditions though: it had to be largely patronized by locals and it had to be good.


So we tried a new restaurant every night until a friend recommended we check out Da Enzo, a salt-of-the-earth joint in the backstreets of the Trastevere neighborhood. As we turned the corner, a bevy of hungry Romans lingered in the cobbled alleyway in front of the restaurant. We were the only non-Italians from what I could see (and hear). A good sign. A better sign was the huge-portioned pasta dishes: creamy carbonara bolstered by pancetta; a spicy arabbiata sauce laced with whole cloves of garlic; and a meaty norcina sauce.

We began going at least three times per week. We were far from getting the limoncello treatment–Da Enzo, it turned out, didn’t actually follow this tradition–but the main waiter, a portly middle-aged mustached man, began giving me a familiar nod when we’d walk in. And, after month of regular appearances, when I’d call to make a reservation, the staff would recognize my voice, perhaps because of my halting Italian: “Ah, ciao Davide. Si, ci Vediamo stasera,” they’d say: see you tonight.

I’d made some serious inroads. One night I walked into Da Enzo expecting my usual nod and a swan-like sweep of the arm to my table, but instead I got an incredulous look from a new waiter. Perhaps the mustached waiter had a deserved night off. We were eventually seated and the food was as good as always. As we nursed the last dregs of our carafe of wine, the new waiter approached. He said they need the table and then set the check down. This almost never happens in Italy. I was baffled. I looked around, noticing that the other regulars–all Italian and also nearly finished with dinner–hadn’t been asked to leave. I protested, saying in Italian that we come here all the time and that no one else had been asked to leave. “I’ve never seen you before,” the waiter said.

And with that, our limoncello status–my craving to be accepted as a local–was swiped away from us as quickly as our table was cleared for the next costumers.

[Photo courtesy of Jason McArthur via Flickr]

Dubrovnik in a day

by Chris Owen on
We had just a few hours in Dubrovnik, Croatia and wanted to make the best of it. Arriving via cruise ship, time was limited. This was the first port of call on a 9-night Mediterranean cruise which looked to be a good sampling of the area. The plan is to hit each destination hard, see some highlights and capture enough information to decide if a return trip might be in the cards for future travel. It made sense, sampling these places we had never been to before, but right off the bat we had a problem: we fell in love with Dubrovnik.

What we call our “sampling of the Med” tour started in Venice, Italy and will end nine days later in Barcelona. In between we will also visit Sicily, Naples, Rome and Livorno, Italy as well as a stop in Monaco. That makes eight destinations in nine days. To prepare for Dubrovnik we started with a Google search for Dubrovnik and gathered background information. VisitCroatia.com was helpful as well as a host of other websites for the basic information we would need for entry requirements, infrastructure in place, etc. As far as what to do and see, we relied on a number of sources including Gadling and AOLTravel for specific recommendations.

The cruise ship we came on was the Carnival Magic (#CarnivalMagic), a new one on her inaugural voyage and staff there had some recommendations as well. The day before we were delivered to Dubrovnik, Carnival Magic’s cruise director gave a complete briefing on what to expect, see and do ashore. The ship offered shore excursions, packaged tours for a set price, but we wanted to try what we have done in other parts of the world here, go it on our own. Our normal plan when visiting a new destination is to first come prepared with a good working knowledge of what to expect, set some goals for what we want to see then make final choices on the ground in sync with what is happening there right now. In other words, our plans are rarely set in stone and offer a great amount of flexibility.

Approaching travel that does not have a specific date-sensitive event included with a good dose of flexibility has made for some fabulous travel adventures in the past. Still, our visit to Dubrovnik had an expiration date so efficient time management was important.

Money management here was easy. Currency in Dubrovnik is the Kuna which is about a five to one value to the US dollar. Euros are also accepted and some merchants take dollars as well. Unlike other ports we will call on for this journey, Croatia’s entry requirements for cruise travelers call for a valid passport to be presented before entry is granted. On other ports, cruise travelers can leave passports securely behind on the ship and be granted entry with only their ship identification card.

It was a cloudy day with rain off and on all morning. By mid-morning the rain slowed but naggy clouds looked like they would be staying around for a while. Armed with rain gear we chose to take a short (2.5km) hike to what is called the “Old City” (aka Stari Grad), a walled fortress that looks somewhat similar to El Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico from a distance. Good public transportation runs all day and we could have taken a bus for a few bucks but would have missed out on some fabulous scenery. Dubrovnik was heavily bombed during the Croatian War of Independence from 1991 to 1995 and has some battle scars to prove it. Still, the people are warm and friendly in a real “I hope you come back again” way rather than a “we’re putting up with you” kind of way.

Stopping at a bar along the way as well as pausing about every 10 meters to take photos, that short hike took a bit less than an hour, leaving plenty of time for lunch and exploring the walled city. It did not take long to fall in love with this city and it’s people, a helpful and friendly bunch that did not mind answering questions or giving directions and suggestions on what to see.

Our waiter, Eliah, at the Sesame Restaurant just outside the gated city, told us English was a second language to many in Dubrovnik who chose it with dreams of visiting some day. He wants to be a Crime Scene Investigator and studied to be one in college. One problem with his plan is that there is very little crime in Croatia, especially in Dubrovnik, so not all that many of those jobs exist. But when he talked about visiting the United States for a possible job sometime in the future, Elijah’s face took on a dream-like look that I will probably always remember.

To Elijah we were not the Ugly Americans off the cruise ship, we were friends being served in his home. That warm and open demeanor of his would be experienced several times that day from others we would come in contact with too.

I mention this particular part of our hike for just one reason; because it accomplished one of the major goals we have for every place we visit: to make a friend. We have done packaged tours and shore excursions before and will later on this journey. Those are safe, guided ways to see a lot of things in a short amount of time. But we like to take our time and get to know the land we are visiting. A day in old town accomplished this very nicely.

Photos: Lisa Owen

Also see these related posts on Gadling


Chris is being sponsored by Carnival Cruise Lines on a Nine-night Mediterranean cruise and is free to report anything he experiences on the journey without bias

Five great European thermal baths

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Before the spa revolution saw most upscale hotels offering spa services to guests, there was the venerable European spa town tradition, centered on thermal baths built around natural hot springs. The water on offer for bathing at these sites has historically been thought to possess therapeutic qualities. The tradition of taking a “cure” remains an enthusiastic habit across Europe today, in particular in Central Europe.

Here are five noteworthy thermal baths, in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, and France.

1. Bad Gleichenberg, Austria. This small Styrian town is home to a thermal bath with a grand history that stretches back to Roman times. There are seven springs here, all producing mineral-rich waters known for their beneficial effects against respiratory and skin problems.

2. Bad Nauheim, Germany. North of Frankfurt, this town’s waters are meant to be particularly good for the treatment of heart and nerve disorders. These waters have a salt content of three percent, as high as most seawater. At Therme am Park, day tickets for bathing begin at €15.

3. Széchenyi, Hungary. Europe’s largest thermal baths are the most urban of the handful profiles here, located as they are in Budapest’s City Park. These waters are supposed to have great therapeutic value for those suffering from joint ailments.

4. Therme Vals, Switzerland. This spa, designed by the in-demand Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, benefits both from architectural significance and an impossibly picturesque location in the mountains of Graubünden. Vals is also the source of Valser mineral water.

5. Alet les Bains, France. This southwestern French village, not far from Carcassonne, is but a speck on the map. Since 1886, water sourced here has been bottled for consumption. During the warmer months (May through September) the town’s thermal baths are opened to the public. The waters here are supposedly very good for the treatment of digestive and metabolic problems.

[Image: Flickr | karaian]

Ode to the expat newspaper

by Meg Nesterov on

One of my favorite things about traveling, in addition to foreign supermarkets, oddball museums, and miniature toiletries, is the local English-language expat newspaper. When I’m home in New York, I tend to get all my news online, either directly from news websites through specific searches or curated from friends’ links on social media (one of the best sources for news from US newspapers is Canadian NY1 anchorman and New Yorker favorite Pat Kiernan‘s site Pat’s Papers). Sorry US newspapers, I know I’m part of the problem. But while I’m traveling, I love to grab the local newspaper over hotel breakfast or in a coffeeshop and learn about local issues, news, and phenomena.Last month in Malaysia while reading the New Straits Times, I learned about how competitive the Chinese are at a kite flying festival and how southeast Asian children have to be taught to detect sour milk. The travel section reviewed a new hotel in Penang with a first impression of “adequate” and the Niexter insert written by Malaysian teenagers taught me all about malapropisms. A couple at our hotel told me they came to Penang after reading an article on the Hotel Penaga’s renovation from the paper in Kuala Lumpur.

It was from Istanbul’s Today’s Zaman that I learned about the excellent expat community and online forum I’ve become a part of in the last year, and I now have friends who have worked at Zaman and their competitor the Hurriyet Daily News. When I first visited Turkey in 2008, I recall reading an interesting editorial in one of the papers about how stealing things from airplanes like safety cards can cause delays, as the plane can’t take off without enough for everyone. The torn out article is long-gone, but I’ve retained the factoid and it keeps me honest on airplanes (though I’ve been tempted to take a souvenir from some eastern European airlines). When the Hurriyet turned 50 this year, writer Jennifer Hattam wrote a great piece on the particular challenges of not only translating the language of news, but the cultural specifics and background as well.

Expat news doesn’t only come in print form. I tweeted about expat news sources and read how writer Lisa Bergren relies on the BBC for news as well as comfort, and CJGuest recommends Al Jazeera from the Arabic world, the German Deutsche Welle, NHK from Japan, and Russia Today from the Russian Federation. Gadling’s own Grant Martin likes the South China Morning Post and the more western Sydney Morning Herald.The local English-language paper doesn’t always have the freshest content, the most stellar writing, or the coolest layout, but it provides an invaluable look into regional and national issues. Expat news can also provide a lens through which to see world news through local perspectives, and help us keep in touch with the sentiments and opinions in our home countries and cultures.

Gadling readers, do you have any favorite news sources abroad? Please feel free to share in the comments.

Photo courtesy Flickr user Ed Yourdon