Category: Travel

The three-country packaged tour of Turkey we are doing had only one day for Istanbul, which was really disappointing. Istanbul was on my list for a long time and I wanted to see all the main attractions.

It turned out that with a bit of prior knowledge and planning, you can cover a lot in a day.

Most of Istanbul’s attractions are concentrated in one area. They are within walking distance, which makes it easier because by walking you can avoid traffic jams in old Istanbul, which can have you stranded for hours.

Our group had 21 members and we were all staying in the same hotel. After a good night’s rest were are all eager to get started. Ahmet, our guide picked us at nine. Driving through the morning crowd we headed straight towards old Istanbul. 

We got off the bus near the Blue Mosque and walked through the alleyways to Sultanahmet Square. ( I wrote about three columns and Blue Mosque in my post, Istanbul — The City of 3200 Mosques).

The entry to the Blue mosque was just next to the columns. We managed to get in before the prayer time. Unfortunately, the mosque was going through major restorations. As a result, only a quarter of the interior was visible. 

Whatever was visible was exquisite.

First of all, you have no idea how big the interior is from the outside. Second, it is hard to fathom the beauty of the intricate design. Each panel, each pillar had different designs and yet they all blended so well with each other. 

We spent a good half an hour inside taking photos, reading the information, and admiring the walls and ceiling artwork. I managed to find a corner without any tourists to take a picture. But even the picture can’t capture the true beauty and serenity of the place.

Right next to the mosque is the Hagia Sophia. 

Hagia Sophia was built in 537 by the Byzantine Emperor Justinianus. It used to be a church in the golden age of Byzantine. In the 15th century, it was converted into a mosque. Then again in the twentieth century, it was converted into a museum and now holds the Christian and Muslim relics side by side. 

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time for us to go inside. The queue was long and you need at least an hour and a half inside. We discovered that there was a fast lane available if we were willing to pay extra. But we decided to keep it for our next visit to Istanbul.

At about five minutes’ walk from Hagia Sophia is the Topkapi Palace. 

Topkapi Palace was a residence of Ottoman Sultans for 350 years. For more than three centuries it was the seat of supreme executives and judiciary council until the 17th century when Topkapı gradually lost its importance. 

The sultans of that period preferred to spend more time in their new palace the Domabahce Palace along the Bosphorus. In 1856 Sultan Abdulmejid moved his court permanently to the new place and Topkapi became the imperial treasury, library, and mint.

We entered the palace through the Cannon Gate, (the literal meaning of Topkapi is cannon gate)and were greeted by the first courtyard. Some of the trees there are hundreds of years old. 

The palace complex has four courtyards and many smaller buildings. Although the palace has hundreds of rooms and chambers I didn’t find it intimidating or overpowering. The buildings are scattered and low-key. 

It has four main areas:

• the ministers meeting place, which has expensive antique watches and weapons are on display; 
• the museum for holy Islamic and Jewish relics; 
• the newly opened library and 
• Ottoman kiosks where ministers used to entertain. 

The longest queues were at the museum. But luck was favoring us. When we reached there the lines thinned. We were able to spend a good amount of time looking at the relic. The crowding drawing replica was Moses’s shaft. 

The wooden shaft kept under a lot of security is said to be the one that Moses used in his later years.

Outside gardens provided relief from the crowds. Two horsemen gave a nice touch to the antiquity of the palace.

By this time, we were starving. Ahmet made us walk through the streets and took us to the cobbled alleyways of inner Istanbul. 

He had a treat in store for us. We were dining at the famous restaurant ‘By Kinyas.’ The whole restaurant was booked for us. We sat on the rooftop and had beautifully grilled fish with salads. Turkish dips and salads are something to die for. Creamy but light, flavorsome but not spicy.

Speaking of spices, our next stop was the Spice Market, also known as the Egyptian Market. 

The Spice Market is an indoor market with impressive archways. It has 86 shops, mostly selling spices, jewelry, and souvenirs. 

Each shop had an army of young men recruited to lure tourists to come inside the shop. But they are very friendly and polite. There was no pressure selling; instead, you are offered free pomegranate tea and Turkish delights. 

An Arminian guy charmed us so much that we took photos with him and promised to see him if we came to Istanbul again.

The Grand Bazaar is similar to the Spice market and has more than 4000 shops. Again we did have enough time to go to the Grand Bazaar. That is something I have added to my next trip to Istambul.

After the Spice Market, we came back to the hotel for a short rest. At seven-thirty Ahmet picked us up again for a Bosphorus dinner cruise. It was the perfect finale for the day. A food and dance spectacle spiced with the light show of the building along the Bosphorus strait.

Although my husband and I were a bit disappointed that the packaged tour had only one day for Istanbul, we were able to cover a lot within a day.

That doesn’t mean I will not go back there. Istanbul is one place I want to spend more time to really enjoy it. And when I go there next time I know exactly where to head first.

That was Istanbul in a day.

Next week I will write about Gallipoli.

Ahmed was fourteen years old when he became the sultan of Turkey. His father died at a very young age. Aware of his own mortality, he decided to build something to be remembered for.

He called his chief architect and asked him to design a mosque with gold minarets. Unfortunately, the architect took his instructions a bit wrong and designed a mosque with six minarets. The pronunciation for the word ‘gold’ and ‘six’ are almost similar in the Turkish language.

He could have his head chopped off for that mistake but lucky for him that the Sultan liked the idea of a mosque with six minarets.

Usually, a mosque has two or four minarets; a mosque with six minarets was unheard of. Also, it was less expensive to build than gold minerals. 

So the project went ahead. 

The Mosque was built in a record time (in less than seven years), and the emperor died a year after aged twenty-six.

It turned out to be a good idea after all, because the mosque young Sultan Ahmed build is now the most famous mosque in the world.

It is known as The Blue Mosque. But only by the outsiders. 

Turkish people know it as the Sultanahmet Mosque.

Istanbul has 3200 mosques.

Contrary to popular belief, The Blue Mosque is neither the oldest nor the biggest mosque in Turkey but is undoubtedly the most famous and the most beautiful one.

It got the name The Blue Mosque because of its blue interior.

What I found even more impressive than the mosque were the columns just outside the mosque:

1. Constantine’s Column
2. The Serpent Column
3. Egyptian Column

Constantine’s Column

Erected by Emperor Constantine in 330 C.E., this column was constructed from 8 separate columns. Each column weighed three tons and measured three meters in diameter, which were placed one on top of another. 

It used to have the Emperor Constantine statue at the top, but it was struck by lightning in 1081 C.E. It used to be all covered in bronze.

The Serpent Column

The Serpent Columns was brought from Delphi. It has three snakes coiled around each other. The heads of the snakes are broken; one of them is in the British Museum.

Egyptian Column

This 3500 old obelisk was originally set up by Tuthmosis III of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt in 1450 BC, along with a similar one in front of the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak.

Inscribed on the obelisk is hieroglyph script, still clearly distinguishable. The script reads that it was his father’s honor that Tutmoses erected an obelisk at Karnak and a monument in Mesopotamia. Depiction of the Pharaoh and Amun-Re are also featured on it.

Several obelisks were transported from Egypt to Rome. Constantine displaced it from Rome to decore his new capital. But for some reason, the delivery took a long time. The obelisk didn’t get re-erected till the reign of Theodosius I. 

Next post – how to see Istanbul in one day.

Airports have come a long way in the past few years.

With their massive atriums, seemingly endless corridors, and captive travelers, they are the perfect venues for contemporary art installations.

Traveling is stressful. Art combats boredom, frustration, and stress. It can provide a welcome distraction for those with delays or those waiting in an endless security line.

The above massive indigenous art is on display at Sydney International Airport.

The Hamad International Airport at Doha, Qatar’s capital, has got eleven artworks on display in collaboration with Qatar Museums.

It is great to see that airports and the museums working together in transforming airports into an immersive exhibition space to showcase the works of locally, regionally and globally renowned artists with the ultimate desire to enrich the overall traveling experience by making art more accessible for everyone.

In an article in The Telegraph, travel writing was rated as the most overrated job, even ahead of a chef, an advertising executive, an architect, and a junior investment banker.

Travel writing is called a profession akin to a nightmare with good weather.

Yet the universal perception is that that is a dream job.

Ask a professional travel writer and you will get the true picture.

On the face of it, travel writing does sound pretty amazing. You get paid to travel! You get to see the world, indulging two passions at once. You get to inspire people to follow their dreams. You get to see things and meet people that constantly amaze you, and you get to call it a job.

Ben Groundwater

Get the money and prestige out of it, travel writing is something worth pursuing for.

Why?

Because travel changes you. It gives you a new perspective on things.

You get out of the daily grind and suddenly the world becomes such an interesting place.

Humans were not meant to work twelve hours and day.

My bags are packed and I am on a four-week journey through Turkey, Egypt and Jordan.

Wait for daily dispatches.

Now that we had seen most of the major attractions, we were ready to discover some off-beat attractions on our last day in Paris. 

In one of the brochures on walking tours, we spotted a tour titled, HIDDEN GEMS AND SECRET PARIS — a local Parisian shares hidden treasures that tourist maps will not show.

Those of you who have read my post on Valparaiso know that I love walking tours. They give such a good local inside knowledge about the landmarks and culture, people, food, and local idiosyncrasies. And usually, the guides are very amusing.

The meeting point for the tour was by the horse statue outside the Louvre. 

About eight of us were waiting for the guide when a young man arrived in a pink vest. He looked around, waited for a few minutes to see if anyone else was joining, folded his pink jacket, and put it away, announcing it was hideous.

“Okay. My name is Nicole. I am your guide for Hidden Gems and Secret Paris. I am a student, and this is my way of making some extra money for travel. So at the end of the tour, pay based on how much you liked the tour, i. e. generously.”

Actually he didn’t say that. He forgot. But we knew the deal.

Today’s post is mostly Nicole’s narration.

Arc of Carrousel

“We will start from right here. All of you probably know about the Arc de Gaulle but may not be about the triumphal arc right in front of you. It is called the Arc of Carrousel. Napoleon built it in 1806–1808 to honor his army and celebrate their victories. It used to be the thing back then, to build something to honor the armies.

It is aligned with the obelisk of the Concorde, the centerline of the Champs-Elysées avenue, and the Arc de Gaulle (also known as the Great Arc of Triumph). When it was built, Napoleon didn’t like it. He thought it was not grand enough for his army. So he built another one, the Great Arc of Triumph.”

Obelisk of Concorde

“By the way, do you know the story about the obelisk in Concorde?” 

We all shook our heads.

“The obelisk in the square of Concorde is one of two 3,000 years old obelisks that originally stood outside Luxor Temple in Egypt. They were given to France by Muhammad Ali Pasha, Ruler of Ottoman, in exchange for a French mechanical clock. But, unfortunately, it took a French ship more than a year to bring it to France.

After the obelisk was taken, the mechanical clock provided in exchange was discovered to be faulty. King Louis-Phillip said to the Ottoman ruler to keep the second obelisk. It still stands outside of Luxor Temple. And so does the worthless clock, in a clock tower somewhere in Egypt. And ironically, it is still not working.”

Metro Stations

We were herded out from the Louvre complex to the entrance of a subway.

“You see this entrance to the subway. It is green and subtle. The same architect designed all old subway entrances, and they all look the same. But they allowed the new artists to design new entrances. This one is designed by an artist famous for his work with glass made from volcanic lava. Which one you like better?”

“The old one,” we all said in unison.

Comedie Francaise

Just opposite the new subway entrance was the Comédie-Française theatre.

“Comédie-Française is one of the few state theatres in France. It was established in 1995 to honor French playwright, actor, and poet, Molière, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language. In 1673, during a production of his final play, The Imaginary Invalid (about a rich man who stages his death while his relatives fight around him for his inheritance), Molière died on stage after playing the last scene of the last play. Each year the theatre holds free performances on the anniversary of his death.”

The Royal Palace

“From the theatre, we will be walking to the garden side of the Royal Palace, which is now the seat of the Ministry of Culture, the Conseil d’État, and the Constitutional Council.

Cardinal Richelieu originally built the Royal Palace in 1639. He built it because he wanted to marry the queen(not sure which one he was referring to). Upon his death in 1642, the palace became the property of the King and acquired the new name Palais-Royal. After Louis XIII died the following year, it became the home of the Queen Mother Anne of Austria and her young sons Louis XIV and Philippe, Duc d’Anjou, and her advisor Cardinal Mazarin.

Louis XIV felt unsafe in the Royal Palace and gave it to his brother, who turned it into Las Vegas with all kinds of gambling and prostitution. They became the social center of the capital. The gathering at the Palais-Royal was famed all around the capital as well as all of France. At these parties, the crème de la crème of French society came to see and be seen.

Have a look at the trees in the garden. I used to come here as a child, and for a long time, I kept on thinking that the trees are square.”

Place Des Victoires

Walking through several streets, we reached an open circular area. It was, in fact, a Square.

“This is Royal Square. Paris has five of them. Kings usually commissioned these squares as a symbol of the King’s grandeur.

Although Place de la Concorde is the biggest and most popular, Place Des Victoires is special. Calm and graceful, the circular shape of the square was at the time of its construction an architectural revolution.

In the center is the statue of King Louis XIV, whose place was dedicated in honor of his military victories. This statue has besides been melted during the French Revolution to make guns! It was rebuilt in the mid 19th century.

Now notice something. The horse’s legs are up, which usually means that the rider died in a battle. However, Louis XIV never went to any battle let alone die in one. So this is a lie.”

Place des Petits-Pères

We stood in front of a church, and Nicole started his commentary. 

“We French like to wage wars which we usually lose. But then we bring back souvenirs. For example, this church is built from the bricks looted from Rome.”

Nicole promised to show us an arcade built to provide a safe and attractive place for shopping in the olden days. So he took us to the most beautiful one.

There he gathered us in front of a Café and told us the story of Eugène François Vidocq.

“Vidocq was a criminal whose life story inspired several writers, including Victor Hugo, Edgar Allan Poe, and Honoré de Balzac. He was so good that the police asked him to help them catch other criminals. Thus, Vidocq is regarded as the father of modern criminology and the French police department. He is also regarded as the first private detective.

Above this cafe is a theatre. Vidocq was a patron of that theatre. In those days, this theatre regularly presented crime stories in the form of melodramas.”

Our tour ended in the Royal Palace gardens. We walked from there to Notre Dame and watched it up and close. It was majestic. Of course, it was heavily fenced since the fires, but hundreds of tourists were still taking photos in front of it.

We walked the famous street Ile Saint-Louis, had lunch at St Regis, and stood in the line to have Paris’s famous Berthillon gelato.

We came back to the hotel to have a well-deserved rest. In the evening, there was only one thing left to do — climb the Eiffel Tower.

It took us only twenty minutes to climb 700 stairs to get to the second level, but three hours in different queues to get to the top by lift.

We got back just in time to see the midnight light show. A perfect setting to wish my darling husband Happy Birthday.

Thank you for reading my travel stories. They were no Gulliver Travels but I had a great time writing them knowing that some of you are waiting for them and will keep pestering me until I do. In the future, I intend to write more posts based on my previous travels as well as forthcoming.

Even if you see Versailles in photos, you are mesmerized by its grandeur and splendor. But, then, you wonder at the extravagance.

You also wonder how much planning it would have taken to design and build such a huge complex. How meticulous would have been the building process? Yet Versailles construction was a long process full of hesitations, unfinished projects, and false starts.

In the beginning, Versailles was just a hunting lodge build by Louis XIII. Louis XIV fell in love with this small but old-fashioned palace and made it his permanent home, but only after major renovations.

For the next forty years, Louis XIV lived in the midst of a permanent building site. Versailles was enhanced and first converted to a sumptuous palace fit for a king. Then it was made the seat of government complete with residence for court officials and servants. Later a magnificent chapel, a theatre, and grand stables were added to it. At least five kings spent an unbelievable amount of money to bring it to the stage it is today.

Led by our daughter, my husband and I left our hotel in Paris early enough to get to the train to Versailles. Our daughter had pre-booked the tickets, a wise move, because the line to buy tickets was so long that it would have taken us half of the day to get in. As a result, we were one of the first fifty people to get inside the palace.

The palace tour started with a short movie in the first room. The movie tells the history of the palace and the monarchs who lived there. After watching a short movie about the palace, our daughter gathered us (my husband and me) in a corner and declared, “We are going to the Hall of Mirrors first while it is still empty. Otherwise, there is no point to get in so early.”

The Hall of Mirrors, the most famous room in the Palace. It was built to replace a large terrace and it opens onto the Versailles garden. It is also the most extravagantly decorated room. It was used as the ballroom, its purpose was to illustrate the power of the absolutist monarch Louis XIV.

We ran past the room after room, corridors after corridors to reach the Hall of Mirrors. I was a bit reluctant to run past magnificently decorated rooms, but I was glad we did. When we reached the Hall of Mirrors, we were spellbound. But, most importantly, it was almost empty.

You don’t have to see any more to be convinced why French Revolution started. The Hall of Mirrors was the proof of royal extravagance.

The King and Queen’s Apartments 

The other most impressive room after the Hall of Mirrors is the King and Queen’s apartments. The King’s apartment is in the heart of the palace and is predominantly red in color, while the Queen’s apartment is golden.

The King and Queen’s apartments were laid out on the same design, each suite having seven rooms. Both suites had ceilings painted with scenes from mythology; the King’s ceilings featured male figures, the Queen’s featured females.

Mesdames Apartments

The other very lavish apartments were Louis XV’s daughters’ apartments. They were in line with the King and Queen’s apartments. 

The apartments were turned into museum rooms but were not open for people for many years due to the restoration work. Luckily, when we were there, they were recently opened. They are now restored to their original condition as princely apartments. 

Mesdames of France, the six daughters of Louis XV as they were known, lived there since 1752. Adélaïde and Victoire, remained ther until the Revolution. Neither of them was married, and they both lived to old age.

Gardens of Versailles

If I thought the palace was spectacular, I was blown away by the gardens. Spread over 800 hectares of land, they are landscaped in classic French style. Only an aerial view can show the immensity of the gardens.

Versailles gardens have several groves hidden between the woods. These groves are decorated with fountains, vases, and statues, accessed by secret paths are designed by Andre Le Notre. 

The groves brought surprise and fantasy to Louise XIV’s guests and his courtiers. Frequent parties were thrown there and the guests were entertained with music and fountain shows. 

There were also theatre performances and gambling in open-air drawing rooms exclusively dedicated to entertainment and amusement.

The Grand Trianon

In the northwest of the gardens, there is another palace. 

Commissioned by Louis XIV for his mistress Marquise of Montespan, the Grand Trianon was called Porcelain Trianon because of its white and blue ceramic décor. 

It quickly deteriorated and was replaced in 1687–1688 by the current palace.

Napoleon lived at Trianon with his second wife Marie Louise of Austria. The Trianon is very much in use even now. Many state guests (including Queen Elizabeth II) are housed in the Trianon during their state visit to France.

I liked this little palace. It was not as magnificent as Versailles, but it was peaceful. I sat in the verandah and watched the sky. It was much lower and of perfect blue. I thought about my own home and realized I was ready to go back. You can only stay away from home for so long.

We spent the last day in Paris discovering some hidden gems. I will write about them in my next post.