Here we are in August and we've made a day free to do exactly this. To all of our travel followers, enjoy our last posts of this trip!
Istanbul - Turkey
Waking up from one of the toughest hangovers of the entire trip, Tu and I missioned to the London Train station to travel to Gatwick Airport to then catch a flight to Turkey. The train ride was... interesting. We almost missed the train as it wasn't clearly labelled (haha) but with a few friendly pommies giving us some advice, we were on our way. Arriving to Gatwick, we got sorted, had a classic English breaky at Jamie Olivers restaurant and off we were on another flight to another part of the world.
I remember arriving to Turkey and being really humbled by the feeling that we weren't so foreign to this place. Obviously Turkey and Aotearoa have a lot of history, but it felt 'nice' to be there. We didn't have to wait in the line with all of the foreigners who required a visa, we got to go straight on in. Felt choice.
After being picked up and shuttled through a city of 13 million, we arrived to the InterContinental Hotel situated in the middle of Taksim Square. Wow. What a hotel and what service. We checked in, they had received information that we were on our 'honeymoon'... hehe so had something special planned for our room. The hotel is immaculate, one of the best, actually the best InterCon hotel I've ever seen. Beautiful decor, sweeping views of the city and a real Middle Eastern feel to the whole place.
Our room. We walked in and there was a trail of petals in the bathroom floor in the shape of a heart. We then walk into the bedroom and there was our bed covered in red rose petals and more giant towel swans. Special! Thanks InterCon! That night, we decided to head out for dinner and then get some rest. We found an awesome restaurant/cafe right across the street and it's been so long I've forgotten the name. But the food was amazing! And SO cheap.
The next day, we awoke to a city by day, heaving with people, culture and religion. The music I think woke me up. I heard this sound of singing or chanting coming from outside. It was the prayer call. First time I'd ever heard such a sound and it was beautiful. I watched as the city passed by our level 13 hotel room overlooking the square. My first time to this part of the world.
The day began with hunting out a place to get some laundry done. Florence was our last washing load... After we found our way around the streets, we caught the subway and a tram to the part of Istanbul where the markets are. The Grand Bazaar and the Spice Markets. We figured there would be heaps of kai and sights to take in up there. Sure enough the bazaar is full of people, noise, bartering and colour. It's full on actually. I was worried about our bags and cameras and cellphones and just generally our safety (lol) but so long as we stuck together and didn't get too close in crowds (which is when the pick pocketing really happens). The colours are amazing. And the smells. We tried pomegranate juice freshly squeezed on the side of the road and all the vendors drink turkish tea all day and night. Small cute cups of tea with a cube of sugar dissolving is quite heavenly. The vendors also get their lunches delivered in small mobile food baskets which are brought hot and ready to eat. I guess they do it this way so that the vendors never have to leave their posts for a lunch break.
We had ice cream and saw the prayer time at one of the main places of worship in this area. Mostly men would wash their hands and feet in the provided basins and running water to cleanse themselves before they go into the whare karakia. There they would pray. It was actually quite moving watching from the side and trying to understand the ideals of Islam.
We found an awesome upstairs restaurant (high end it looked) and ate hummus, pita, salad and skewered bbq'd meats with a couple of glasses of wine and decided to head back and pick up our washing and call it an evening. As we had a big day the next day!
Galipolli
We were up at about 5.30am for a 6.30am pick up to head to Galipolli! Before we made the 3-4 hour van ride, we picked up some Aussies and headed out to this historical place for our ANZACs. On the trip, we stopped at a number of memorial sites including Anzac Cove, Chenuk Bair and spent some time listening to the histories of these places. The wairua at this place was certainly felt, there is an eerie feel in some places where you imagine what it might have been like for our hōia. Tu and I took poppies to Anzac Cove to leave and acknowledge our tūpuna and our whanaunga who died in the World War I. We stopped at one of the sites at Chenuk Bair and Tu and I went off to see our hōia Māori and their names etched into the stone memorials. I think particularly for Tu, this part of our trip was emotional. I remember him thinking that if he were born into this era, he would have had to go to war too. We both sang waiata and gave our mihi to our fallen tūpuna knowing they shall never be forgotten.
Day with Musti
We were very lucky to be greeted by one of my good friends I made on the Ship for World Youth from Turkey. He flew from Ankara to Istanbul to see us and show us his beautiful country. We immediately used our time and went to the Blue Mosque where I had to wear a a full length abaya and a scarf over my head so that we could go into the mosque. This particular mosque is open to the public to come and view inside. At perhaps 5 times of the day, the prayer music will beam out to all parts of the city that has a speaker as a reminder and encourager to go to karakia. There were people praying in one part of the mosque and visitors were allowed to be there so long as they were quiet, respectful and dressed appropriately. Obviously taking photos of anyone praying was prohibited, not to mention utterly rude. We sat and listened and was quiet, taking it all in and listening to Musti tell us about this religion. We then went to Hagia Sophia Church which originally used to be a Christian church when it was part of the Roman Empire, they then turned it into a mosque so you will see Christianity and Islam under the one roof of worship.
We then took a boat trip over to the Asian side of Turkey for more drinks and food! We took a ferry over to, again I forget the name, where the streets were lined with cafes, bars and restaurants. We found a neat place serving up Yakurr (it's like the strongest vodka you've ever tasted, but once you mix it with water, some sciency thing happens and it's turns white), sprinkled with a bit of food and we were on our way! Tu and I took a bus home late that night and managed to find where we were supposed to go.
The next day, we did our last mish for some good breakfast and then met back up with Musti and went to the a beautiful palace (I can't remember the name!). After tripping around the city sightseeing, we then returned to the Bazaar market so that Tu could go and buy himself some cheap market priced work shirts haha. I intitially thought it was a bad idea. I mean, we had no room for extra luggage, let alone extra money to buy extra luggage, but they turned out to be a great purchase, shot honey :) and then we headed back to our high end restaurant for dinner and some drinks with Musti. Our last meal in Istanbul before we flew out for the United Kingdom of Bahrain!
