Turkey Diary - 5/27/13

The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Topkapi Palace

We are counting days at this point and trying to plan our time to tick those last few must-see places off our list before the trip ends. The list of sights is endless, though, so of necessity we are focusing on the big ones. Uluc is back with us for another day, so our available options just went up considerably. Since the Hagia sofia is closed today, Uluc suggested we spend our time in the Topkapi Palace. Good call.

With one of the major attractions closed, though, that tends to funnel all the tour groups into what is open so we got an early start and tried to beat the worst of the crowds with the idea that we might actually be able to see something. That worked to a point, but looking at the photos at the end of the day, I realized we had lots of pictures of people's heads. So in the interests of telling the tale, I reverted to the Internet for more professional photos of what we saw but taken when the place was not wall-to-wall with the unwashed masses.

Topkapi Palace is where the Sultans lived with their families, their harems and their thousands of servants. It was a complex social structure, filled with intrigues and political maneuvering. I guess some parts of human nature are the same everywhere in the world. In the interests of time and space, I won't try to give you a history lesson or explain what every photo means and instead will opt to let the pictures do the talking.

So just take it all in and imagine your life if this was your idea of home (and you had absolute power).

In addition to the hundreds of rooms in the complex and the harem, many of the areas are now devoted to the Topkapi Museum, showcasing not only the Sultan's wealth but also artifacts that once belonged to the prophet Mohammed, founder of Islam. This is roughly equivalent to a display of personal items that Jesus used.

Some of the more mundane things tell amazing stories but it is the bling that you remember ... like the Topkapi dagger with emeralds as big as hen's eggs or a modest little 87 carat diamond that was originally on a ring! The tile work in the place is amazing and there is a wonderful sense of serenity in most of the spaces.

The layout reminded us of a smaller version of the Forbidden City in Beijing and some of the treatments made us think of Versailles in France, but the message from all of these is that it was good to be the Sultan!

Aside from his extensive knowledge of Turkish history -- I doubt I could be as accurate or insightful were I showing him around the US -- Uluc always takes us places we would never think to go on our own. After wandering through the Palace and the Topkapi Museum for four hours or so, we were ready for lunch. So we caught a cab and crossed the bridge to the other side of the Golden Horn and the new city.

The area around the Galata Tower is known as Beyoglu. Since it was originally developed by European traders setting up commerce in Turkey, it has a decidedly European feel to it. Walking down the main pedestrian-only street, we could have been in Madrid or Budapest. We came up here to the top of the hill by taxi but took the funicular back to the bottom to catch the tram back across the bridge to Sultanahmet.

We wandered around the back alleys of Beyoglu, finally settling on Sofyali, a small cafe with a decidedly French feel to it. The food was classic Turkish, though. Corn and white cheese (like feta) in the salad, stuffed dolmas (not in grape leaves but something similar), mousakka and a small local fried fish that you eat whole. For dessert Uluc ordered three different versions of halvah.

We wondered about the mouse-like affair on the table. The left button notifies them that you want the check, the right button summons the waiter ... and we never did figure out what the middle button did. Summon the police? Activate the sprinkler system? We had all sorts of ideas. Of course my thought was that in a place this small, there was no excuse for the waiter NOT to know what each table needed without resorting to technological aids.

This was a full day for us. We bade farewell to Uluc at the bottom of the tram since he still had to catch a boat across the Bosphorus to his home on the Asian side of the city. We got a crash course in the Istanbul tram system and used it to beat the traffic back to our hotel. The history of this city is so deep that it is impossible to dig a subway system here. Every excavation turns up more undiscovered history that must be preserved.

[Itinerary Page]