Getting the small town feel from a big city.

Although Turkey is not yet a member of the European Union, the cosmopolitan city of Istanbul is European Capital of culture 2010. Presently all over Istanbul there are already free concerts, exhibitions of young artists and dance combined with international groups preparing for a memorable year. It will focus on modern and contemporary art in Istanbul.

It will be an exciting year and made me remember my diary of a trip I made a few years ago where our Turkish professor host took us to many of the places unseen by mainstream tourists. Here are my impressions……

The Orient Express doesn’t stop here anymore – at least not the train of legend with its cargo of spies, mistresses, mercenaries and murderers. Now only the occasional train load of the nostalgia super-rich can re-create the journey, trickling out of Istanbul’s Sirkeci Station and crossing the Golden Horn to the historic Pera Palace Hotel or the luxurious Ciragan Palace. But the pull of exotic Istanbul is still strong for today’s tourists, who join the hundreds of thousands of local commuters flooding the city every day, by every means of transport possible – preferably those with four wheels. The city of one million people and 2,000 cars in the 1950′s has become the jungle of 12.6 million people and (minumum) almost 2 million cars today – all of them apparently crossing the city at the same time. Istanbul has become one of the legendary hells-on-earth created by the internal combustion engine, and every visitor will recount their tales of horror – twelve lanes of traffic merging into four with no visible lane markings; street sellers strolling down the middle of motorways during rush hour; cars dancing across streets in an attempt to find the least deep pothole to bounce through. The only saving grace seems to be some Faustian pact by which accidents are minimised; the traffic is usually travelling so slowly anyway that someone always gives way – it’s meant to be you if your front bumper is even inches behind that of the car you are about to collide with.

As a tourist you are inevitably caught in the same circle of the mass hysteria – you only go to Istanbul’s European side to see the great sights of the ‘Old City’ (Sultanahmet District) – The Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi, the Grand Split Bazaar, and across the Golden Horn to the ‘New City’(Beyoglu)from Galata Tower to Taksim Square. So you brace yourself to join the human traffic jam of such popular tourist haunts. Our host this year offered a different itinerary- an alternative Istanbul of suburban village life and mall culture, that would take us as far as possible from ‘deli’(crazy) Istanbul. Alternative Istanbul starts in the Űsküdar district, the main centre of Asian and Anatolian Istanbul. Being just a short ferry ride from European Istanbul, it provides an excellent skyline view of the tourist districts, either from its waterfront or the heights of Camlica Hill. Most of us know the place already, under its traditional Byzantine name of Scutari, due to the pioneering nursing work of Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War of 1854-6.

The bravehearted traveller should be able to gain access to two out-of-the-way sites – a section of giant Selimiye Army Barracks, where she ran the British military hospital, and a small war cemetery walled off in the shadow of the barracks. Ottoman heritage abounds in Űsküdar – most notably with Istanbul’s oldest and largest Ottoman Cemetery, the seemingly endless Karaca Ahmet; and in the three mosques built by the master architect, Sinan in the mid-16th century for the women of the Ottoman empire – the Mihrimah Sultan, the Semsi Pasa and the Atik Valide. A useful orientation point off the shore is the Kiz Kulesi, or Maiden’s (or Leander’s) Tower, a bizarre structure whose legend of an imprisoned sultan’s daughter improves on its more prosaic function from Byzantine times as a lighthouse and guide tower for the shipping which has given such life to Űsküdar.

South of Űsküdar – before the suburban sprawl that houses over one-third of Istanbul’s population – is the Kadikoy district. As the ancient Chalcedon, it once dominated Űsküdar, but now its pedestrianised streets, its market-place and its bookshop and café-filled alleyways provide an attractive, student bohemian atmosphere.

If however, the not-too distant traffic is still too much of a reminder of the Istanbul you came to escape, the best antidote is to experience life in the villages which make Istanbul’s city limits stretch for miles up the Bosphorus. Usually seen in the distance as an undifferentiated mass from the popular Bosphorus boat tours, the villages take on a life of their own with every hour spent relaxing in them.

Anyone suffering withdrawal symptoms from Istanbul tourist can assuage their lingering guilt with visits to the lesser-seen Asian shore Ottoman palaces.

These mini-versions of the more popular Dolmabahçe of the other shore, were all designed in a similar Roccoco style by the same Baylan family who built for generations of Ottomans. Beylerbeyi Palace, built in 1865 as the summer palace of Sultan Abdǘl Aziz and its little cousin, Kǘçǘksu dating from 1865-7 for Sultan Abdǘl Mecit, have both been restored to their latter-day Ottoman grandiosity, leaving the visitor open-mouthed at such eclectic opulence and eccentric mix of good and bad taste. On the hill above the villages of Kanlica and Çubuklu, a winding road leads to the Hìdìv Kasri,

The restored turn of the century of the Khedive of Egypt, where extensive grounds have presented both panoramic views of Istanbul and the Bosphoros and shaded walks and picnic areas to generations of Istanbulites.

A leisurely tour of the Asian shore also offers the chance to experience each village’s speciality. The first stop after Usküdar, the market village of Kuzguncuk, provides – amidst its Greek, Armenian and Jewish heritage buildings – an authentic touch of left bank café life, with local artists and poets such as Can Yǘcel holding court in Çinaralti Café.

At the next stop, Beylerbeyi, you can experience the Midye Tava (deep fried mussels) of the waterfront fish restaurants. Historical charisma can be added to a modest tub of yoğurt (sprinkled with icing sugar) at Kanlica – which has been producing it since the 17th century – by choosing a café with a view of the local 16th century Sinan mosque.

The Raki town of Paşabahçe – with its unique cascading Raki fountain – announces itself with a sudden airborne aniseed aroma. A stop in the village is doubly rewarded by a visit to the Paşabahçe glass works, whose shop sells its ornamental glass at a fraction of the price it reaches when it hits Europe as Leonardo glass. Last stop on the Asian side is Beykoz with its waterfront restaurants and walnut groves.

It is more difficult to capture the tranquility of the Asian side on the European shore of the Bosphorus, but you can have a good try and two or three of its villages.

Ortakoy, the first village after Dolmabahçe and Çirağan, nestles under the massive 1973 Bosphorus Suspension Bridge. It brings together the paths of the tourist, student and office worker in an attractive Latin Quarter blend of waterfront cafes, art, craft and fashion shops and street traders – and a Baylan mosque built for the mid-9th century sultans.

A less bustling atmosphere is experienced further up the river at Arnavutkoy. A climb up the hill from its waterfront seafood restaurants leads to one of the most atmospheric and peaceful corners of Istanbul

with dramatic views of the Bosphorus from old San Francisco-style lanes with rambling Ottoman houses and a hint of the aromatic strawberries that made the name of this old Albanian and Greek quarter.

Past the second of the great Bosphorus suspension bridges, the 1988 Fatih Sultan Mehmet is Yesilköy, one of the richest sites of yalis, the restored Ottoman waterfront wooden mansions that have made the Bosphorus such an attraction. Among the Greek, Armenian and Roman Catholic religious buildings and mansions of Istanbul’s rich and famous is a house belonging to Tansu Çiller – the first woman prime minister of Turkey. The beauties of the Bosphorus are not reproduced on the other shoreline on the European side of Istanbul – the Golden Horn river. Pollution has taken an even worse toll here, with many islands of silt created solely from the industrial waste that pours out from the factories.

Even the one vantage point worth visiting, the village – or rather the industrial suburb – of Eyüp has seen better days. The café frequented by Pierre Loti – the late 19th century Frenchman who popularized the exotic myth of Istanbul – has a beautiful setting amidst the cypress groves of a massive Ottoman cemetery and still provides an unrivalled view of the city at sunset. Unfortunately the district has gone rather to seen, a popular place for the urban migrant gecekondus (shanty towns) which have swelled the city’s population with a ready supply of young boys offering to ‘look after’ your car. Down the hill at the waterfront, Eyüp mosque proves to be one of Istanbul’s surprises – the third holiest site of Islam after Mecca and Jerusalem, due to the burial there of Eyüp (Job), standard-bearer to the Prophet Muhammed.

If you want to forget about Istanbul’s rich past, the alternative is a trip to the future – to the mall culture which in recent years has brought the dubious benefits of western capitalist transnational consumer culture to the suburbs. Designer shops, fast food outlets, multiplex cinemas, supermarkets, sports and leisure venues are all packed into the one rainless, sunless, luxury environment, a million miles from the ethnic charms of the old Turkish Bazaar.

These modern day Ottoman palaces, dedicated to conspicuous consumption for the rich and famous and unadulterated opulence in the centre of poverty, have been changing the suburban skyline in recent years at: Ataköy (the Galleria) and Babirköy (the Carousel) near the airport at the European side; at Etiler (The Akmerkez) above the European Bosphorus and at Fenerbahçe (The Pyramid) beyond Űsküdar and Kadiköy.

Here, if you survive the frisk by armed security staff, you can spend hours choosing between the reassuring world of Levi’s or Wrangler, Calvin Klein or Pierre Cardin, Burger King or KFC or watch young professionals spending a month’s salary on an item from Turkish trendsetters like Beymen, Mudo, Oxxo or Derishow.

“I live in Istanbul but I too am a tourist,” remarked our host, as we sat at midnight in a dondurma (ice cream) café in the Moda district, drinking the local non-alcoholic nightcaps, Salep and Boza.

The steets were quietly buzzing with groups of – sober – young people leaving the Pyramid leisure centre and couples heading to the nearby

Fenerbahçe Gardens to ‘watch the squirrels’.

We knew what she meant . Every day in Istanbul is an adventure, whether in the Old or New City, the European or the Asian or the suburbs. There are new experiences to discover – old ones to rediscover.

Every time it’s a journey into the unknown – especially if that journey involves a car……..

Ruth Allen

Ruth Allen MCIPR is  a freelance journalist/PR consultant she can be contacted on tel: +441413321661

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About Sarah Arrow
Sarah Arrow is the managing editor of Birds on the Blog, in real life she is the communications director of a same day courier service. She is an enthusiastic UK based pro-blogger and co- author of the soon to be published Zero to Blogger
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