With cooler temperatures occurring across Europe in November, I had fewer travel options available but found that it was still warm enough in Istanbul to take a brief vacation there. The weather was around 20ºC and moderately humid, making it very comfortable to walk around all day. The added bonus was that it was off-peak tourist season so the lineups at the major attractions were relatively short.
The one aspect that I struggled with was taking good photos on this trip. The large scale of many of the buildings, both inside and outside, made it difficult to get a comprehensive image in one shot. Added to that, the positioning of windows and lighting led to a lot of glare. I'm still using a cell phone camera to take photos, but there are some cities like Istanbul where a higher end camera would come in handy.
Day 1
My hotel was located next to a mosque, so I woke up at around 5:50am to the sounds of prayers being recited over the speakers nearby. I got an early start to the day and started by exploring the Sultanahmet area where most of the main sites are located. Walking through Gulhane Park, I visited the Topkapi Palace first to get ahead of the crowds. The palace is a large complex with a lot of different buildings to see, so it took a good two hours to see everything. Fortunately, when I visited the Hagia Sofia afterwards, the lineup wasn't too long and I was still able to skip past half of it because I had already bought admission through a comprehensive museum pass.
The Topkapi Palace is a large complex of various pavilions, mosques, dormitories and other imperial buildings. Pictured is the entrance to the Sarayi Imperial Building, which is part of the palace's second courtyard (there are four courtyards in total).
A shot of the interior of the Hagia Sofia, facing the main altar. This building was first built as a first Christian basilica, was later turned into a mosque, and is now a museum. The second floor contains several mosaics dating back to the 9th to 12th centuries.
I went to the Blue Mosque next, but it was not open to visitors as the second morning prayers were in session, so I visited the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art across the street while I waited for the mosque to reopen.
The Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art is a small museum containing a variety of artifacts, including intricately-printed Qurans, wood and stone carvings, and Turkish carpets. Pictured is a Cintamani carpet from the 16th century.
The interior of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (better known as the Blue Mosque) contains tiles with very elaborate designs. The patterns in the tiles, especially at the higher levels, help to give the interior a blue-ish hue.
I also managed to visit the Kucuk Ayasofya Camii (Little Hagia Sophia Mosque) and the Arasta Bazaar in the early afternoon. A lot of vendors in Istanbul use proactive (or some would say aggressive) sales techniques, but the Arasta Bazaar was much more laidback as I think (due to its proximity to the main tourist sites) the vendors were geared towards selling to Western tourists.
I headed north to the Eminonu docks and just in time caught the two hour ferry ride around the Bosphorus Strait. Istanbul was very windy during the first two days of my trip and it was even windier when I got onto the water. There were some tourists that had a lot of fun with standing/leaning into the wind, but plenty more went into the boat's lower decks to stay warm. Anyways, the ferry went up and down the strait and provided a great view of the various palaces and mosques on both the European and Asian sides of the strait. The cruise goes as far north as Sariyer (a town north of Istanbul) but not far enough to go into the Black Sea.
On the Bosphorus Strait facing southwest. The skyscrapers in the distance are in the Levent business district of Istanbul.
On the Bosphorus Strait facing east. This was one of the many mosques on the Asian side of Istanbul.
After the cruise, I headed to the Türk Telecom Arena in the western part of the city to see the match between Galatasaray and Antalyaspor. Galatasaray is a perennial contender in the Turkish league, but they've had a few bad matches and were in third at the time, which was serious enough for the manager to resign a few days earlier. This made for a comical game for a neutral observer, because there was clearly a lot of pressure on Galatasaray to get a win against a mid-table team like Antalyaspor, but their defenders continually made mistakes during the match, allowing Antalyaspor to score a goal every time Galatasaray had taken the lead. The match ended in a 3-3 draw, with Antalyaspor tying the game in the last few seconds of the match. The fans were irate and jeered at many times during the match.
Türk Telecom Arena during a match between Galatasaray SK and Antalyaspor.
Here is a video of the last two goals in the match:
I should also point out that while Turkish football has a reputation for having the loudest crowds and the best atmospheres, this was not the case in the matches I attended on my trip. Last year, the Turkish football league instituted a system requiring all fans to purchase a league pass, which apparently enables the authorities to run security checks on everyone attending the matches. Many Turkish fans have interpreted this system as a cash grab by the league (and possibly the government) and are boycotting the games, so the Türk Telecom Arena was only at about 70% capacity that night, although still loud. If watching a football match is one of your main priorities when visiting Turkey, then I'd recommend waiting until this league pass system works itself out with the fans.
Day 2
I planned the second day for visiting the main sites outside of the Sultanahmet district, which made for longer travel times between sites. The first site I visited was the other major mosque in the area, the Suleymaniye Mosque. Suleymaniye looked similar to the Blue Mosque, except that the interior was more red than blue.
The interior of the Suleymaniye Mosque. The exterior and interior layout of this mosque was very similar to the Blue Mosque, although Suleymaniye had more of a red-ish hue inside. The grounds behind the mosque include a cemetery and the tombs of several sultans.
I headed north to the Rustem Pasha Mosque. It was only by fluke that I found the entrance, as the stairs leading to the mosque aren't clearly marked and even some of the locals didn't know its exact location. The advantage to this mosque is that it's small enough that you can get a close-up look at all of the intricate designs in the tiles. It also felt like the few other tourists there were of the experienced variety that knew how to find the hidden gems of a city.
The Rustem Pasha Mosque is relatively small, but its interior contains intricate tiles at both the front and back, allowing visitors to get a close-up look at the designs.
From there, I headed to west to the Chora Church. Both the Rustem Pasha Mosque and the Chora Church are located a bit away from any tram/subway stations, so I figured I'd walk between the two sites. This turned out to take much longer than expected, but along the way I got to see the Bozdogan Aqueduct and caught a glimpse of a lower division football match at the Vefa Stadium (you can see half the field from street level).
The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora (aka the Chora Church) contains mosaics from the 14th century, including the mosaic of the Virgin Mother with child (pictured). Like the Hagia Sofia, the Chora Church was originally built as a Christian church, later converted into a mosque, and is now a museum, although a large part of it was under restoration work when I visited.
The tram heading back to the city center passed by the Walls of Constantinople, which were in much better condition than I expected. I was left wondering why none of the tourist websites mentioned the city walls, because they looked like a compelling site to visit and weren't too far away from the Chora Church.
A section of the Walls of Constantinople.
The evening was set aside to see the football match between Besiktas JK and Sivasspor. At the moment, Besiktas is constructing a new stadium, so they've been using other stadiums around Istanbul to host their matches and that night's match was in the Basaksehir Fatih Terim Stadium, which was way out on the western edge of the city. It took so long to get there that I arrived late and then had to deal with some con artists trying to trick me into buying another ticket (I think they were trying to make the league pass system as unpleasant as possible), but I got in with my original ticket and got to view the match in a seat near the field level.
Basaksehir Fatih Terim Stadium during a match between Besiktas JK and Sivasspor.
Besiktas is leading the Turkish league at the moment and they had no trouble winning 2-0 that night (although the referee's calls seemed to favour them as well).
Day 3
For the third day, I planned to see my lower priority sites across the city. I went back to the main Sultanahmet area and visited the Basilica Cistern first. All I can say is... I don't get it. Every city has an overrated site that tourist websites/books rave about but which doesn't offer much. For Istanbul, it's the Basilica Cistern. It's basically an underground cavern, with shallow water (with fish), water-worn columns and two Medusa columns, spooky music playing in the background, and a touristy booth where you can pay to dress up as an Ottoman and have your photo taken. Sure, there's some history to the place, but the palaces, churches and city walls have more compelling stories behind them than this dark basement. Maybe I was just ornery from having to pay 20 lira to enter (the museum pass doesn't cover this site).
One of the Medusa columns in the Basilica Cistern.
After the Basilica Cistern, I came across the entrance of the Nomadic Art Gallery. I only mention this because while Istanbul has a lot of stray cats, the area around this gallery seemed to be stray cat central (or maybe the art gallery is run by a devoted cat lover). From there, I visited the Istanbul Archaeological Museums. I was impressed by the quantity and quality of artifacts on display, although still a little burnt out on archaeology after my trip to Athens.
The Istanbul Archeological Museums are comprised of four separate buildings containing artifacts from ancient civilizations along the Mediterranean (Egypt, Greece, Rome, Turkey). The most impressive item on display was this Sidamara Sarcophagus from the 3rd century A.D., built by the Romans in Ambararasi, Turkey. It was about 10 feet high at its tallest point.
I had enough time to head north and visit the Dolmabahce Palace, but it turns out it's closed on Mondays (doh!). So I headed further north and took a relaxing stroll through Yildiz Park, before heading back to the main transit lines to take me back to the airport.
One of the outer gates of Dolmabahce Palace. There is also an elegant clock tower at this spot, facing the other way.
One of the few sculptures at Yildiz Park.
The Dolmabache Mosque is situated right along the Bosphorus Strait. In the foreground is a duck-filled marina and in the distant background is the Bosphorus Bridge. The guy sitting on the fence at the entrance of the marina would occasionally sing (I think he liked the attention he got from the tourists).
I had enough time on the way to the airport to check out the Grand Bazaar. This is a huge market filled with vendors selling clothes, jewelry, food, purses, carpets and various trinkets. The market appears to be frequented by both locals and tourists, and the vendors there are more aggressive in trying to sell their wares, but after three days in the city I had already learned how to filter everything into background noise. I thought everything there was well-priced and there was probably room to haggle the prices down further, but I've been trying to reduce the clutter around my apartment and resisted the urge to buy anything.
One of the side hallways in the Grand Bazaar.
So that was Istanbul in three days (well, two and a half). The city offered an interesting mix of religious sites, siteseeing opportunities and football matches, and I didn't feel like I needed to take a day trip elsewhere to round out the trip. I'll also say that the people there were the friendliest that I've met in Europe. Granted, some of them were friendly on the basis of trying to sell me something, but there were a lot of other locals who were genuinely trying to help any tourists who looked lost, or who were even just plain curious about where you were from and what life was like elsewhere.
After the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, I received a lot of emails asking whether I was okay. First, I'll say that I am okay and in good health. Second, thanks to everyone for their concern. I was touched by the number of emails that I received. Third, my condolences to the friends and families of the victims of the attacks.
This blog received a noticeable uptick in page views on the day following the attacks (the BlogSpot engine provides bloggers with several page view statistics). I'm assuming a few people checked this page to see if I had posted anything, knowing that I likely attended the France-Germany football match. However, to some extent, some of the page views probably came from random Google searches given that Paris has been the main news topic for the past two days. This blog's use of characters outside of the Latin alphabet might be triggering some search results, because some of the page views are coming from places that I didn't expect.
Since I attended the football match that was a target of two suicide bombers, I thought I'd summarize what I saw and heard that night. This will not only help me to remember the experience, but for anyone reading this it will dispel some of the sensationalized drama that the TV news outlets usually spin around events like this.
As background, the match at the Stade de France was an international friendly between France and Germany. Both teams were using the game as a warm-up for the UEFA European Championships to take place in the summer of 2016. Since it was a friendly, each team had about two thirds of their key players in the match, with the rest of their rosters filled with players who are competing for a starting spot, bench spot or even just a roster spot depending on the quality and depth of that position on their team. (For example, Germany is still trying to figure out who their starting right back will be, so they've been rotating different players at that position in their attempts to find the right guy. No luck yet.)
I entered the Stade de France about 20 minutes before kick-off. In doing so, I went through the usual security screening where I was searched for any banned items (fireworks, flares and other explosive devices are not allowed). The stadium fits over 81,000 people but there were some empty seats in the more expensive sections, so I'd guesstimate there were around 75,000 in attendance. After all, this was only an exhibition match.
Both national anthems were played by a large band on the field. Five rows of 15 people makes it a band of 75. I missed the band introduction, but based on their uniforms it may have been a police or navy band. There was some brief whistling at the beginning of the German anthem but the whistling ended quickly. Flags were supplied for fans on every second/third seat, so there were a lot of French flags waving during La Marseillaise.
The opening ceremony of the international friendly between France and Germany.
I sat in the north section of the stadium. At a little over 16 minutes into the match, I heard a loud explosion to my left. I assumed someone in the stadium set off a very powerful firework. However, I found it odd that I didn't see any smoke or lighting from the explosion, so I figured it must have occurred in one of the top rows behind me and to the left. The rest of the crowd must have assumed the same thing because there was no reaction except for a few people cheering. This was my second visit to the Stade de France so I know that some people are able to sneak smaller flares into the game (if they're lucky), so I also found it odd that such a powerful explosive could have made its way into the stadium, but I was more focused on the match at the time.
At 19 minutes into the match, I heard another loud explosion to my left. This time, I could feel a slight thump in my chest (like at a loud concert). I again assumed someone inside the stadium set off a very powerful firework.
During extra time of the first half, Martial (left winger for France) dribbled past a diving tackle by Rudiger (right back for Germany), and then past Ginter (I think he was playing as a right holding midfielder that night) in the box. Boateng (German center back) had to come across to prevent a clean breakaway, which left Giroud (French striker) open and he scored an easy tap in from Martial's pass. I know it's only a friendly and no one is playing at full intensity, but if Rudiger or Ginter want to stick with the national team, they have to make better plays than that. Rudiger should not have attempted the diving tackle, as there was much more value in standing up and keeping Martial marked outside of the box. 1-0 France.
There was nothing unusual about halftime. There was the usual contest of selected fans going onto the field and trying to kick the ball into some sort of apparatus. This time it was a large inflatable KFC bucket. There was also a contest where fans could tweet selfies of themselves at the stadium and win a ticket to a Euro 2016 match.
I thought I may have heard a third explosion, but if I did, it wasn't as loud as the first two and I would have ignored it altogether. It turns out this was the bomb at a nearby McDonald's. (Edit: it turns out the third bomb was set off on an empty street. It's still a mystery as to why the bomber went to that particular spot.)
At some point in the second half, a bright light shines in my eyes, so I look up and there's a helicopter flying above with a spotlight. A bit out of the ordinary but not completely out of place.
As the game is a friendly, the managers have unlimited substitutions and a lot of players are substituted throughout the second half. It was a pleasant surprise to watch a lot of good players that I normally would never see.
At 85 minutes in the match, Matuidi (French midfielder) bursts down the left wing and sends a perfect cross to Gignac (French striker) who heads it for a goal. It was a beautifully executed goal and I don't know if that one could have been prevented. The German centre back Hummels drifted too far off his man but no more so than normal on a quick play like that. 2-0 France.
France wins the match 2-0 but the crowd isn't as celebratory as I expected. I figured that because it was a friendly, no one took much from the match either way, especially since the players didn't look like they played at full intensity.
A message was announced and displayed on the big screens that one of the exits was closed due to an incident, and that two of the other exits should be used. No further details were provided by stadium authorities, but in hindsight I think this was a good idea as it prevented any mass panic from occurring. It's only at this point, that I realized that something might have gone wrong earlier with those two explosions.
A few minutes after the match, I took the top level walkway and headed towards the main stairwell exit on the west side of the stadium. Suddenly, a group of people at the bottom level (two stories down from where I am) started running away from the main stairwell. Several people on the top level saw this and started running away from the stairs as well. This caused a brief stampede in the walkway, but it didn't last long enough for anyone to get injured. During tense moments like that night, it's incredible how quickly panic can spread through a crowd. All it takes is a few people to start running in one direction and everyone else will quickly react and run the same way. Given the layout of the Stade de France, there could have easily been injuries with a panicked exit stampede.
Before I left the stadium grounds, I noticed that the field had been opened up to the public, which I also thought was unusual at the time. I'm not sure of the exact reasons why the stadium authorities did this, but it was a very good idea, as it dramatically reduced the risk of stampedes exiting the stadium and also helped to reduce the overcrowding in the subways and regional trains (RER) that usually occur after major events at the stadium.
When I visited the field, I still didn't know the terrorist attacks had occurred. Most people were in a relatively good mood, so I didn't really notice the few people that were crying. CNN has been continually airing a picture of a woman running in panic on the field, but that picture must have been taken completely out of context, because it was very calm there.
The fans on the field after the match.
Before leaving, I took the opportunity to sit in the players' bench. There was a short wait to do this as a lot of fans wanted to get a souvenir photo of themselves sitting in one of the chairs.
Sitting at the player's bench in the Stade de France.
My apartment is eight stations away from the Stade de France, with no transfers, so it was a quick trip home. I noticed that two of the stations had transit security personnel who were armed with handguns which, when combined with the events at the stadium, made it clear that something serious had happened.
There are several restaurants in my neighbourhood that are busy on Friday night, but when I exited the metro station, the streets were empty except for the occasional police car or ambulance racing by with sirens blazing. I decided not to dawdle and went straight home to hear the news.
After that, I was answering the emails some of you sent me.
It's still sinking in for me that I was at an event targeted by a terrorist attack. However, in hindsight, I think the inside of the stadium was actually one of the safest public places to be that night. With security staff searching all entrants and with the police patrolling the perimeter, there were layers of protection that prevented the attackers from getting close to the crowd (which is also indicated by this Wall Street Journal article: http://www.wsj.com/articles/attacker-tried-to-enter-paris-stadium-but-was-turned-away-1447520571). In light of the attacks, security will likely get even tighter for future matches.
