{"id":1851,"date":"2015-04-11T16:10:48","date_gmt":"2015-04-11T14:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bernies-journeys.at\/?p=1851"},"modified":"2021-03-07T21:08:36","modified_gmt":"2021-03-07T20:08:36","slug":"stopover-in-istanbul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bernies-journeys.at\/en\/2015\/04\/11\/stopover-in-istanbul\/","title":{"rendered":"Whirlwind Tour of Istanbul"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the way back home from Nepal, I made a stop-over in Istanbul for two nights. Of course, you cannot get a real feel for the city in such a short time, but it was just about enough for visiting the most important sights.<\/p>\n

I started on the day of my arrival with a visit to the Basilica Cistern (thanks to R. for the recommendation!). These underground complex was built some 1,500 years ago in Roman times, and is truly impressive.<\/p>\n

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\n \"[Foto]\"<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n Basilica Cistern\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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\n Medusa head pillar\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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The next day I spent mostly at Topkap\u0131 Palace. I simply enjoyed wandering around the old Ottoman palace. I especially enjoyed the lavishly decorated Harem.<\/p>\n

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\n \"[Foto]\"<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n Topkap\u0131 Palace\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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\n \"[Foto]\"<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n Imperial Hall\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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\n \"[Foto]\"<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n Harem\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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\n \"[Foto]\"<\/a>\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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\n Gro\u00dfer Basar\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

In the afternoon, I went on a short stroll through the city, which also took me to the Grand Bazaar. I had the impression, though, that it is mostly visited by tourists – the every-day shopping is done in the streets surrounding it.<\/p>\n

From there, I continued on to S\u00fcleymaniye Mosque, one of the biggest mosques in Istanbul. In comparison to Christian churches, it is not as lavishly decorated, but still very colorful.<\/p>\n

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\n \"[Foto]\"<\/a>\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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\n \"[Foto]\"<\/a>\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

\n S\u00fcleymaniye Mosque\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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\n \"[Foto]\"<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n S\u00fcleymaniye Mosque\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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\n \"[Foto]\"<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n View from Galata Tower\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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\n \"[Foto]\"<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n Galata Tower\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

In the evening, I finally enjoyed the view of Istanbul from the top of Galata Tower – after standing in line for 45 minutes to actually get there.<\/p>\n

On the next day, I had the morning left for sightseeing. During that time, I visited the two most well-known sights in Istanbul: the Blue Mosque, and Hagia Sophia. Unfortunately, both were literally overrun by tourists.<\/p>\n

What was quite surprising for me is that the Blue Mosque is not as blue as I would have imagined. What is more, after my visit to S\u00fcleymaniye Mosque (which is quite large as well) the day before, it was not much more impressive.<\/p>\n

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\n \"[Foto]\"<\/a>\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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\n \"[Foto]\"<\/a>\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

\n Blue Mosque\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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\n \"[Foto]\"<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n Hagia Sophia\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

I really enjoyed Hagia Sophia, though (despite the crowds). The mixture of an old Christian church, and an Islamic mosque is particularly enthralling.<\/p>\n

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\n \"[Foto]\"<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n De\u00ebsis mosaic\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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\n \"[Foto]\"<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n Mausoleum\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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In short: Istanbul is worth a stop-over. Just the weather could have been nicer: The temperature did not exceed 10° C<\/abbr>!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[139,60,85],"class_list":["post-1851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-diary","tag-europe","tag-city-sights","tag-unesco-world-heritage","country-tr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bernies-journeys.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bernies-journeys.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bernies-journeys.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bernies-journeys.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bernies-journeys.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bernies-journeys.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bernies-journeys.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bernies-journeys.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bernies-journeys.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bernies-journeys.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}