First off, yes, the dates on the title of this blog post are correct. We spent 4 wonderful days in Istanbul as a stop over on our way back to the US when leaving Tsamaya in the water in Fethiye, Turkey. Our plan was to spend the winter in the US and return to Tsamaya in the spring of 2020. As everyone knows plans changed with the spread of Covid. As a result, we have been in the US since the end of October 2019 and as of June 2021 are still here.
I did have the best of intentions and it was always in the back of my mind that I really should sit down and pull together a blog post on our time in Istanbul and then provide updates throughout our time back in the US. As you can easily see, that definitely did not happen. As we are starting to seriously start thinking about getting back to the boat somehow the update of the blog with at least the details and some of the photos from our time in Istanbul came up in priority for some reason if only to give me practice in the process of
doing this again. With that in mind, hope you enjoy hearing about our time in the amazing city of Istanbul.
Our flight back to the US consisted of a definite stop over in Istanbul and with the time schedule we would have to at least stay one night. With knowing that we would have to deal with getting into the city to stay over we decided to take advantage of this and actually plan on staying for 4 nights to give us time to start to explore this very interesting and historic city.
We flew from the airport near Fethiye to Istanbul on October 25th, Bobs birthday. We had for a taxi to take us from the Istanbul airport to our hotel. That didnt go as smoothly as planned as the taxi never showed up. We kept calling and didnt get any answer, therefore we started to work with the person at the airport that was there to arrange for a taxi. He tried calling the one we had with and was told they were on the way, but he still didnt materialize for at least an hour later. So much for planning ahead – we
know not to use that same service when we return. When the taxi finally arrived, the next hitch was he didnt seem to have any idea where the hotel was. We were definitely hoping that this start was not an indication of what was We finally arrived at the hotel after the driver asked a few times of how to get there. When we did, the hotel was not ready for us even after the delays, so they said we could leave our luggage and wander around for a while which we did. At least this gave us some time to get oriented to the area and find out where there were some local restaurants. All in all, it worked out and we finally got our room which turned out to be quite nice and the location worked out well with it being an easy walk into the historic areas that we wanted to explore.
Once checked in we walked up to where the Hippodrome was located. It in 196 AD and until the time of Constantinus reign between AD. It held 100,000 people and was the social and ceremonial center at
the time. The Hippodrome was fashioned after the Circus Maximus in Rome which seems to done – copy the design of other places. Chariot races were held in the Hippodrome during the Roman Empire and it continued to be used up through the end of the 12th C. for a variety of activities which included wild beast shows, acrobatic shows and dance performances.
One thing we have found as we travel, there are so many historic relics that help tell the story of the political changes that have occurred over the years. The Column of Constantine dedicated in 330 AD is an excellent example of this. It is a column that honored Constantine when Istanbul was designated as the capital of the Roman Empire. It originally had a sculpture at the top to represent Constantine in the figure of Apollo (the sun god) which seems to indicate that Constantine still wanted to represent the emperor as a figure. As the Emperors changed, so did the statute at the top.
