Trip to Turkey Pre-Lockdown and Post-Lockdown (Part 1)
Due to the hot weather, September felt oppressive that day. Most flights abroad depart from Karachi International Airport at night, so it is always best to arrive at least 3 hours in advance, keeping in mind the crowds and long queues.
Our flight via Qatar to Antalya, Turkey was scheduled to depart at 4:30 p.m. Rush used to break the same window before Corona, but now issues like vaccine certification and Corona's test report verification have further slowed down the long queues.
All the steps from boarding to getting an exit stamp on the passport require a lot of patience. By the way, there is no other way but patience. For entertainment, papads have to be rolled. When we finally reached the gate for the flight, there was no space left. Then I remembered when the free credit card CIP lounge facility would come in handy. Comfortable sofas in the CIP lounge awaited us until the boarding announcement.
The night was getting darker and sleep was knocking on the door of consciousness for peace in its embrace. Eventually, the announcement of boarding the plane caused a stir and the passengers slowly started moving towards the plane.
The flight from Karachi to Istanbul is just over 5 hours, this time our flight was via Doha which meant we had to change planes about 2 hours later. As soon as the plane took off from Karachi, we closed our eyes and at the same time our thoughts started running like a 'flashback' movie to Turkey. Since this time we are going to visit the cities of Turkey which were not seen last time, so in view of the interest of the readers, here is a brief description of the 2017 tour of Turkey. I have to tell you what I saw this time.
Our organization is headquartered in Lahore. Our organization organized an annual conference for more than 100 of its selected employees in Izmir, Turkey. Three people, including me, were assigned to arrive in Izmir and Istanbul a week before the conference to finalize the arrangements. The whole week after the conference was just walking around.
I was going to Turkey for the first time and I was very excited. Arriving in Istanbul from Lahore Airport, I found a lot of rush at Istanbul Airport. The airport is big but the building was old. By the way, let me write that now in 2021 we will leave for Karachi from the new airport which will be mentioned later.
After graduating from immigration, he traveled to the hotel on a full coaster sent for 3 people and reached Sultan Ahmed, the historic district of Istanbul. The coaster landed on a street where we had to walk to our hotel. Most of the area of Sultan Ahmed consists of narrow but clean and paved streets and there are many historical buildings which will be mentioned side by side. We crossed the metro train line and reached the hotel.
He kept his belongings and breathed a sigh of relief. I hurried to the washroom and screamed. Asad, a friend who came with him from Lahore, shouted. Brother, where did you get stuck? Assad has studied in Turkey and he had booked the hotel, so every mistake in the whole trip was to be the target of Assad. Asad asked from outside the door what happened brother, I said man what a Muslim country there is no Muslim shower in the toilet! Go to another hotel where at least this facility is available.
Assad started laughing instead of answering. My temper was growing. He said that there is no Muslim shower here in Turkey. When the heat increased, he laughed and said, "If you rotate the wall with a commode, the shower will run from inside the commode. There is no separate shower here." When I looked quickly, a cool wave of calm made me smile. After straightening our waists for a while, the three of us headed for the historic Sultan Ahmed Mosque, also known as the Blue Mask or Blue Mosque.
Blue Mosque (2017)
Board outside the Blue Mosque
Blue Mosque (2017)
The magnificent Sultan Ahmed or 'Blue Mosque', completed in 1609, is a masterpiece of Ottoman architecture. The main building with 5 domes and 6 minarets is in a charming view. The mosque also has 8 small domes. The central dome reflects the vastness of the sky and gives a beautiful blue reflection. The main hall of the mosque is full of beautiful golden paintings with Quranic verses and Durood Ibrahim inscribed. It is said that all these carvings were made by hand. From the interior of the dome to the walls, there is hardly a place that has been left untouched.
There are glass windows just below the inside of the dome for lighting, and a lot of decorative lights with a beautiful chandelier. Outside, there is a beautiful fountain in the center of the courtyard, and beautiful white marble can be seen all around, including the floor. There is a red carpet on the floor for worshipers. Not only the Blue Mosque, but all the mosques in Turkey that we can reach feel the same in terms of their domes, minarets and architecture. One of the special features of mosques is that the pulpit is approximately or at least 10 feet high, meaning that Imam Sahib, who climbs 2 or 3 steps in Pakistan, will have to climb 20 to 30 steps in Turkey.
The Blue Mosque was built at the most important site of the Byzantine Empire in its time to glorify God and to glorify the Ottoman Empire. The renovation work of the mosque was also underway in 2017 which was to be completed in 2020. Hopefully by now it's over.
Hagia Sophia (2017)
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There is a large field outside the mosque which is full of green fields and trees. As soon as you come out of the mosque, you will see another similar building on the right, which was the Aya Sofia Museum at that time, which was given the status of a mosque again in 2020. In 2017 we saw this place as a museum.
The path on the left leads to the historic bazaar and right in front is the tram track where after a while the tram passes and the pedestrians turn to one side without any hassle.
We began to think that if this tram passed through any of our areas like this, there would be many accidents every day, but as soon as the tram passed here, everything would be the same as if nothing had happened.
Leaving the mosque, we walked towards the bazaar. The bazaar does not have stones like the president of Karachi, but there are shops in a certain order. We saw some dogs walking around, but a closer look revealed that they were stray dogs, and that a chip had been placed on their bodies and they did not bite anyone.
Passing by, I suddenly saw an onion-shaped but relatively blackish fruit at a shop. We were at a major tourist destination in Turkey, but the shopkeepers could barely understand English, so there was no answer. When he broke the fruit himself, it was grainy inside. I checked the taste and found out that it is a fig fruit.
In our country, figs are dried and sold in ropes, but fresh fruit was also available here, which tasted very good. It was time to eat. When I arrived at a restaurant, two things stood out, one was the high consumption of eggs and the other was that cheese was plentiful.
The food was delicious. One of the things that kept me going back and forth was the 'lentil soup' which is a must before every meal and is usually given for free. At first, everything seems delicious, but in the end, I miss Pakistan's local food. Like many countries in the world, we rarely see Indian or Pakistani restaurants in Turkey. Bought a phone sim from the airport so we had internet.
We had to go to Taksim Square. When I opened the Pakistani online taxi app on the phone, it was running here as well. We've tried this app in other countries before. There is nothing new to do, just open the app and use it. However, the money will have to be paid in local currency. There was a problem here and that is that most of the drivers are completely ignorant of English so you can't easily exchange any information with them by texting, so it becomes difficult to determine the exact location and you have to stand and wait at a famous place.
There is also a yellow taxi but you have to bear the brunt of it because there is a meter in the taxi but the brother with the taxi will try to get some money from you in advance. Rush will be used as an excuse for this, however, a beautiful Mercedes van was in front of us for a while. With a pleasant surprise, they rode to Taksim Square, enjoying the comfort of the car and the view outside. Here we had to meet a local guide who had to make various arrangements for our whole group.
After meeting his host at a coffee shop, he walked to the market in Taksim Square. There are shops of big brands around the relatively narrow street going down here. A tram line has been laid between the bazaars, which was closed for repairs at the time. The market is as long as the colon. There is a monument to the Turkish army in the main square before the market starts.
The Turkish lira and the euro will move in the market, the dollar will also move, but a bit strange. On the way back from Taksim Square, it was night so we went back to the hotel to rest.