İt needs only to be shoutoff the rooftops!And which place could be better to yell from, if not Galata tower? That, for the one that do not know it, with her 63 metres of elevation allowed you to have a breath taking view on the old part of İstanbul. The tower, Kule in turkish, had an involving life: it was build by the italians and was thought as part of the defense wall surrounding their district at Galata; especially used to keep under surveillance the Harbor. Byzantine ships were awaited to engage trade relationship. Time passed and Mehemet II, after conquered Costantinopoli, put men on the tower in charge of detecting fires in the city. 7 century after, Costantinopoli swop the name to Istanbul, there is no more Ottoman Empire, no more high probability of blaze in the city but, still, the tower is there in all her beauty and majesty. A curios fact involving the building is that it inspired the first Turk, nonetheless, to fly. İt was during the Ottoman Empire when Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi staring at the imposing tower copied bird wings and, after studying the air flows, decided to climb it and…jump!. He overflew the Bosphorus and landed at Uskudar District, on the Asian side, around 6 kilometers in distance. This made him the first flying Turk of history.
But now let me start from the beginning. İ arrived in İstanbul on Thursday evening with ahead only(!!!) two full days to visit the city. The weather that welcomed us was not the better
one. Grey sky and even greyer clouds have been the background of my picture.
The cloud, thinking that ruin my photos was not enough, poured down oceans of
rain most of the time.The true magic is, that, despite
bad weather and a sparkly sun on my leaving day as a bad joke of destiny,
anyway İ felt in love with Istanbul.
İ travelled with my two housemates. They planned to pay a visit to their friends, İstanbul students, and İ wisely sneaked in the plan. Osman, a psychology student that knew my housemates since high school, open his house to us. The apartment was set in the Asiatic part. Even if he was living since two years in İstanbul, he decided to come with us to the European part of the city the following day, because he had never visited there.
Once we took on the journey I discovered why he never head out on the mentioned travel. One hour of taxi plus fifteen minutes of steamboat. Basically it is faster to reach Ankara by flight. Obviously, for me everything was amazing. After a calm awakening, we got up in a luxury version of a taxi and we were dropped off at the steamboat wharf.
Crossing the Bosphorus Strait by boat could be worthy only for the fun the feed the incalculable number of pigeon, that İ discovered been greedy of simit; but actually the fascinating fact of the broach is the view. You see the girls tower in the middle of the water, then you gaze to the huge Blue Mosque and Saint Sophia that stand up among the house stretch out along the coast , especially at night, you can goggle at the extraordinary view of the city lights, making this visual even more mystical.Once achieved the ground we headed to the Blue Mosque. The Turkish name of this impressive architectural building is Sultanahmet Mosque named after Sultan Ahmed I who ordered the construction of what it was a unique project; in fact the Blue Mosque is the only one in all Turkey with seven minarets. Mosques traditionally have one, two or four minarets. It’s rumored that this was a misunderstanding; the Sultan had instructed his architect to make gold (altin) minarets and the architect understood six (alti) minarets. The European name derived, instead, from the color of the tiles that surrounded the inside of the building. İf you look up a thousand of tales with byzantine pattern gave you the sensation to be rounded by this intense blue color, it is like you are in heaven.
We wondered around İstanbul for the following two days but the right
moment, when Istanbul took my heart until forever, was not involved the magnificence
of the building, not even the magic and ancient atmospheres you could breathe
inside them. İt was something simpler. İ was walking with these guys that tried
to introduce me deeply in the Turkish culture. Made me taste strange food (like kumpir, de-li-cious!), lead me around spectacular views brought me in special pub. When they discovered İ had never tried rakı (İ think they felt nearly insulted), they exclaimed we had to fix it!We went in a narrow and crowded street and we made our entrance in this even crowded and characteristic restaurant. One bottle of rakı, one bottle of water and some appetizers: the Turkish aperitivo. You can call me Italian, but there is where İ appreciated the most the Istanbul vibe; young and funny guys with different background but all enjoying the moment and what of amazing life can give you. Even if İ was a foreign they
tried to make me feel part of something, part of İstanbul. History, tradition,
culture, fun and lively atmosphere all mix together. Exactly there İ overwhelmed with joy.
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