Mat On The Map

I had a late afternoon flight into Istanbul, I flew in as the sun was setting. Wow. What a massive city! It goes on and on into the distance. We flew across the Sea of Marmara, to the south of the city and I happened to be on the left side for the view. My battery was on 5 percent though and I needed my phone, so I didn’t risk getting any pictures, you’ll just have to believe me!

I landed at Sabiha Gokcen Airport, on the Asian side of Istanbul. It’s a long way out of the city, primarily used by budget airlines. It’s the smaller of Istanbul’s two airports, but it still moves as many people as Melbourne Airport. The other one is much, much bigger. Passport control was quick, baggage collection was not.

The bus into the city is pretty easy to find, it isn’t so easy to board. I must have turned up at a busy period because the demand outweighed capacity. As a bus arrived, the crowd moved forward, no real order or system, you just push through and try to get on. After watching it one time, I figured it out and squeezed my way onto the next one. The ride into the city is about $4 AUD, and before it departs they walk through selling water bottles for 50 cent, which is handy. There were road works on one of the bridges into Istanbul, which made the drive painfully slow.

Istanbul is split in two halves by the Bosphorus, the strait that connects the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, so it sits on both the European and Asian continents. My accommodation was on the European side. I stayed in an apartment for 4 nights, close to Taksim Square, one of the focal points for the city for $37 AUD a night. To maintain my spend at a certain level, I moved to a hostel a few blocks away for my last two nights at $23 AUD a night.

As I mentioned earlier, this is a big city. One of the world’s megacities, 15 million people and it’s certainly noticeable. People everywhere, day or night, it doesn’t seem to slow down! This city is far too big to see on foot. Exploring here isn’t too difficult though, public transport is fairly good, it’s efficient though the subway lines could do with more interchanges, sometimes you have to go a long way out of your way to get where you want to go. A more unique way to travel are the ferries that dart about the Bosphorus. Cheap, relatively quick and frequent. Great experience, they became my favourite way to move about.

The major attractions in Sultanahmet are crazy busy, just like any other city in Europe. Lines are never ending, and being Tasmanian, if a line is longer than 15 minutes, it’s going to be tough to convince me to stick it out. Standing between those two enormous mosques however, was a surreal experience. The Blue Mosque is still functioning as a mosque and is the younger of the two. Around 400 years old. The Hagia Sofia is now a museum and far older.

The other major attraction here, for me at least is the Grand Bazaar. 4000 little shops in narrow, covered over laneways. It goes on and on, and every street looks exactly the same. If it wasn’t for Google Maps I may have been wandering around there for some time. Very easy to get disorientated!

The police presence in Istanbul is full on! They are highly visible at main points in the city, for me it’s the massive guns that stand out first. That sort of weaponry just isn’t something I see in my day to day life. I’ve seen police protecting other European cities before with machine guns but this was far beyond that. The massive armoured response vehicle in Taksim Square. The armed police officer standing behind a barricade, just in case. It’s a very well protected city, and once the shock value of those things wears off, it does feel safe. You do have to keep in mind where you are though.

The volume of stray animals in Istanbul is enormous. Thousands, hundred of thousands. Life is tough. It’s the first time in my life I’ve come across feral ducks, aggressively protecting their patch, shared with a single chicken. Friendship has blossomed. It’s the first time in my life I’ve seen a seagull eating the lifeless body of a smaller bird, ripping it apart with it’s beak. They are not after chips here!

People will park their cars anywhere here. Happy to go into a shop while blocking a street. Everyone else just has to wait, or reverse out and go another way. Coming from a very rules based culture, where that behaviour would mean a nasty fine, its made me laugh. Priorities are different here! The geography of the city means that it’s often narrow streets, not too many seem to be one way though.

I haven’t spent too much time in the Muslim world before, and when I have it’s generally been in tourist orientated areas. I’m well aware of the Call to Prayer and I had heard it in Istanbul the day I arrived so I knew it was broadcast loud here. That first morning of being woken up at 4.50am is something I won’t forget in a hurry! I didn’t sleep with my window open after that, not that it made much difference. By the third morning it had become a convenient alarm clock, an early one yes, but I like exploring before the crowds

Highlight- The Grand Bazaar. Incredible. Thousands of carpets, none of them magic.

Runner up- Turkish food, inexpensive, everywhere and generally high quality.

I first visited Athens a few years ago and being honest, I was not a fan. Hectic, noisy, filthy. It shouldn’t have been able to function yet somehow it did. I will say my visit last time was very brief and I didn’t have the opportunity to explore a great deal. But this city isn’t the image of Greece that people romanticise, this isnt the picture perfect islands. This is a crowded city of 4 million.

With the benefit of knowing what to expect, I headed there again for another go. Some things had changed yet many things had stayed the same. At least the ATMs had money this time!

I arrived in Athens early in the day, around 9am, after a 12 hour night time flight from Singapore. Lines for passport control were not great, but I’ve had worse. The bus into the city leaves from right outside the arrivals hall, couldn’t be easier to find. Route number X95 and it costs about $10 AUD each way. The morning I caught the bus in, it was virtually empty.

My accommodation in Athens was around $40 AUD a night for a private room, the highest price im paying for a nights accommodation on this trip. Private room with bathroom, close to the airport bus stop at Syntagma Square. After a long flight, being able to reach the hotel easily was an attractive selling point. This place was basic but clean, good Wi-Fi and aircon, plus a great view of the Parthenon. They let me check in an hour early, greatly appreciated after the flight. The building also had the smallest lift ive ever come across in all my travels, and you come across some tiny lifts in Europe!

Now the heat here is insane! As hot as you can imagine, then add a few degrees. I was looking forward to escaping winter but wow, what a shock to the system. You do just have to roll with these things though. You can always have another shower!

Athens is fairly easy to explore, a map is essential though. Streets go every which way and it’s easy to get off track. The majority of the attraction are walkable however, and there’s public transport for those which aren’t. Its predominantely a flat city, there are a few noteworthy hills though. In the summer months, you need water bottles, multiple.

The main attraction is definitely the Acropolis and other Ancient Greek ruins. Starting from Monastriaki Square, it’s easy to cover this is a day, with a few much needed food and drink (and aircon!) breaks. Crowds are a constant, lines are never ending. I started early, hit the acropolis first thing before the crowds really turned up. Arrived there for the sunrise, with only a handful of people around. Magic.

A few hours spent wandering through Plaka was a refreshing change to the Athens I’d experienced a few years ago. Some how I’d missed this area! Cute little shops, cafes and bakeries, it’s easy for the time to fly by without even noticing it.

I decided on a walk up Mount Lycabettus on my last day in Athens, far higher than the Acropolis, the view is quite incredible. Slow going though! I’m not sure how I thought walking up a mountain in 34 degrees celcius was a good idea! Survived though.

You quickly become a desensitised to poverty in a place like this, it’s ever present, on every street corner. The need is great. The refugee crisis has improved considerably since 2016 when I last visited Athens, but they are still arriving in large numbers. It’s not to say I don’t feel compassion, I do. It’s very challenging to be surrounded by this level of desperation, but this is not my town and its not my country, I need to do as the locals do. I became familiar with a few beggars in the area I was staying and gave the coins in my pocket on my last day here, I was leaving the Eurozone so had little need for them.

Highlight- Definitely that sunrise over Mount Licabettus from the Acropolis. 10/10.

Runner up – the street art. Between all the generic graffiti and tagging, there’s some really good stuff!

Mat On The Map

Istanbul, Turkey – July 2019

Athens, Greece – July 2019