Istanbul – Palaces, Ortaköy and the Prince’s Islands

Palaces

Just below Taksim Square and the Besiktas football clubs stadium, Inönü Stadium, the new Sultan palace Dolmabahce is found. Dolmabahce was built in the middle of the 19th Century at a time when the Topkapi palace had become too old fashioned for the Sultan. The Palace is abundantly and richly decorated with marble, velvet, silk, brocade, crystal and no less than 14 tons of pure gold. Here you also find the worlds largest crystal chandelier with 36 000 prisms made of Bohemian crystal. The second largest hand-vowen Turkish carpet in the world you can see in the ballroom (the largest one is found in the Sultans hunting cottage!) and the Ming china vases are large enough to contain a person inside.


(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Built and decorated in the same style is the Beylerbeyi Palace on the Asian side of Istanbul, just below the Fatih Bridge. This was the Sultans summer castle (hunting cottage). In those days there were vast forests around the castle; today the city has grown to surround it completely.

Istanbul has also many smaller palaces or “kösk”’s (the word kiosk comes from Turkish), meaning mansions and the summer houses (“yali”’s) owned by the sultans extended family and other members of the Ottoman noblesse. Some of these are today in private ownership, others are owned by corporations and many are changed into museums or cafés. They are often found along the Bosphorus or in park areas. The most beautiful and characteristic of them is Hidiv Kasri at the Asian side, which used to be the residence of the vice regent of Egypt in the Ottoman Empires era. Here a lunch can be recommended, or just enjoy a cup of tea – they sell no alcohol here.

Ortaköy



The small streets of Ortaköy are in the week-ends transformed into an outdoors market. Loads of silver jewellery and other accessories, many of them handmade, are sold here. Or what about some hand knitted woollen hats or scarves, handicrafts, old postcards, souvenirs and much more. The market is also here in the week-days, but it is larger during the week-ends.



Ortaköy is the place where the Istanbullers loves to come and spend a lazy Saturday in the tea houses with a glass of tea and a game of ”okey” – a Turkish game (resembling ”Rummy”). Or they play Backgammon, a game which is widely played all over Turkey; it has existed here since Antiquity, if not longer. In some of the tea houses you can order a “nargile” (water pipe) with your tea. If you do, try the apple tobacco, it is the sweetest and smells wonderful. Try also a large baked potato “kumpir” with all kinds of fillings, or a salt crepe or pancake with feta cheese and parsley, “gözleme”.


The beautiful Ortaköy mosque lies there by the edge of the water and the Bosporus bride in the background, it is a popular motive for photographers (photo).

In the night, life continues in Ortaköy, people sit on small stools in narrow streets and drink tea or beer. The live music starts to stream out of some of the small bars. If you want to listen to real acoustic Turkish style live music, there are good chances to find it here. However, if you are in the mood of a more”continental” style, you also find the hip and cool upper class bars and jazz cafes in the area.

Bosphorus and the Princes Islands

Does a little sea air tempt you? In the Bosporus straits which run through Istanbul and separates Europe from Asia, you can enjoy the beauty of the city in a very different way. Ashore the city seems chaotic and over-trafficated, on the sea it gives you a whole new impression.

The most authentic and absolutely cheapest, is to jump onto one of the ordinary ferries (”vapur”) which the Turks are using. For almost nothing you can cruise zig-zag up along the Bosphorus to the mouth of the Black Sea, all the way to Rumeli Kavagi and Anadolu Kavagi, which are the last points at the European and Asian side. Here the ferries turn. Try a lunch of fish, filled blue mussels or deep fried blue mussels, before you follow one of the ferries back to the city.



As a full day trip in good weather a trip to the Prince’s Islands (Prens Adalari) which are situated near the Asian side in the Marmara Sea, can be highly recommended. The ferry leaves from Eminönü (photo) or Kabatas.

At the Prince’s Islands all car traffic are forbidden and it is a lovely place to go for walks, bicycle or rent a horse and carriage (fayton). The architecture on the islands is consisting of beautiful old, wooden houses, and it is very popular amongst the Turks to have summer houses here. Some are also so fed up with the stress in the metropol, that they have taken up residence here permanently, and commute into the city to work every day. The peace you find out here is a strong contrast to the noise in Istanbul and feels really soothing for the soul.

To swim in Istanbul is almost impossible, due to trafficated Bosphorus straits and not very clean waters. But in the Prince’s Islands many people like to swim. You can find a small beach or a bay for swim in the sea, or enter one of the organised pools for an entry fee.

(Photo from Büyükada, taken from Wikipedia Commons)

Try for example a trip to Büyükada, the largest of the islands and go to the top of the island. All along the way you will se pieces of cloth tied up on trees and bushes, each of them representing a wish or a prayer. Orthodox Christians as well as Muslims acknowledges the monastery’s grounds as holy.

At the very top lies the Ayos Yorgos Church (St. George’s Church), a Greek Orthodox Church watching the ocean. Find a table and a shaky wooden chair at the churches café, and order a bottle of their homemade wine. Now all you have to do is to lean yourself back to a comfortable position, enjoy the sunset and wait that the wish you tied on the tree on your way up will come true…