Days 10-13, Wed February 10th to Sat February 13th 2021 – Hagia Sofia and lessons learned list

 

I got few comments so far to the blog and one was asking for what have I learned here so far. I will try to list them here and most likely update the list later as I remember more things.  So the Lessons Learned so far are:

1. People are really friendly and helpful. 
2. Is is ok to drink alcohol in public (even more acceptable than in Finland it seems) 
3. Alcohol is quite expensive (Not as expensive as in Finland) 
4. For anyone travelling here I would say stay in Beşiktaş rather than in more Famous Taksim etc. In Beşiktaş you can walk around without the merchants bothering you all the time and when you want you can visit Taksim and other areas really easily. 
5. Moving is easy with public transport with the Istanbul card and you can also take a Dolmus car and pay with cash and it is super easy. 

.. feel free to comment and ask about other topics and I update this list here

We went to see Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Taking a bus takes you straight from Beşiktaş to the other side of the Galata bridge and close to the Mosques, but we jumped out already before the bridge.

 

Muikku?

Again the bridge was full of people fishing and this time I remembered to take photos of the fish they had caught. They really had lot of fish there, buckets seemed to have few different small fishes. 

From the other side of the bridge we headed to a Turkish restaurant Gamze had found for us. It was again time to taste some traditional foods. I have to say I find them generally good but also a bit simple. Good basic food, but nothing with a wow effect.

The beans were nice mildly spiced also the cheesy thingy was something I liked

I was even thinking this is maybe something like some stuff in Finland that people there love like makaroonilaatikko, which in general is not that full of spices and exotic flavors. Ok maybe it at it’s basic form has even less kick than these foods, but the idea is somehow same. Simple and maybe also easy food. Personally I spice up makaroonilaatikko quite much and here I am thinking a bottle of some hot sauce would not hurt.

Hagia Sophia

After eating we continued walking and after passing some shops and ignoring the merchants calling for us we arrived to our destination. After a security check that seemed a bit like it was there just for the show we ended up between the Mosques.

It is impressive and luckily it was not too crowded

I think due to the time of the year and Corona there were not too much people and we got quickly inside Hagia Sophia

Tops of the pillars looked awesome with lot of detail in them

Hagia Sophia Was originally cathedral of Orthodox Christians Byzantine empire. It was turned to a Mosque after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and changed to a museum in 1934 by Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

In some places you could find the original Christian art

It is nice they have removed some of the paint o the mosque to reveal the original Christian art. It feels pretty cool to see the art of both religions at the same time

 

Not too different from a Finnish home, well at least you don't wear shoes in here

Hagia Sophia is nowadays a Unesco Heritage site. Still in 2020 Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan returned the museum back to a Mosque. Even though it is now a Mosque, it is still open to tourists. A separate areas were reserved for the tourists and the worshippers, but I don’t know if the carpet was added all over after the latest changes. Anyways everyone entering is required to remove their shoes.

At the courtyard between the Mosques, Blue Mosque in the backyard

After Hagia Sophia we entered the Blue Mosque only to find that it was under some construction and there really was nothing to see there. On the way back we stopped by the bridge again and tried some Turkish dessert (Osmanlı Lokması) that was super sweet.

 

Looks like a Munkki

They looks lot like mini versions of the buns we had in military (munkki) and actually tasted quite like them also. Difference is the size and that the finnish one is rolled in sugar and this is served in sugar water.

Cooks like a Munkki

Then it was again time to cross the bridge which was now even more crowded than before. The waterway below is also quite busy with boat travelling back and forth. 

Several boats coming and going

Once on the other side we took a metro for short ride to Taksin. There we met with some other foreigners living Istanbul and had some beers. It was really nice to sit and talk with people. This Corona thing is making life really boring. The weather was still warm when we got there in Taksim, but then summer seems to be over for now. Weather got colder, temperature dropped from 19 to close to 0, there were some snow and the forecast promised 3 days of snow! I hope we won’t get similar accidents I saw happening in Texas where winter conditions really caused problems. I can imagine how 5-10cm snow here could have a huge impact in living and in traffic. We will see tomorrow and days to follow.

Next few days could be interesting

We also saw the university demonstrations were noticed by the national news in Finland. Thanks to my ever vigilant mother Tarja, who immediatelly reported this to me :) . From the photos on the news Özgür could name several persons that were arrested.

I am getting hungry and we will soon head out to buy some food. It is very easy to live here just by eating the food from all the small restaurants and cafes. Only if you could also stay in them for the food. Few days back we visited again Yalla Falafel, but this time when opening our bag  at home we noticed part of the food we bought was missing. Next night returning there the guy working there already knew what had happened and apologized right before Gamze could give him any hard time… wise move I think. Even better we got some extra for free for this small mistake. I still love the place, even if they did a small mistake. cool food, cool people.

Yalla Falafel

Tonight we returned to Sushi and Spice and I tried something else than sushi for the second time. We have now tested enough and both can agree we stick with the sushi in the future. Even though the food looks really good it was not that great. It is saturday and all the shops are closed, but at least you get take away food. The curfew is really annoying. Just when I got used to Germany where everything is closed on Sundays I need to adjust my life to the curfew where on weekends most of places are closed or close really early. Staying inside this weekend won't be a problem as the weather is getting so cold. Home cooking and watching Netflix or some Youtube stuff then. Until the next blog...