Arrival in Istanbul

Hooray! I made it to Istanbul. The flight was uneventful but the seat had to be just about the most uncomfortable one I have ever had the misfortune of sitting in for four hours.  British Airways, like some other European airlines I’ve flown, uses Airbus 320s with 3 seats on either side of the aisle. In their business class they have the same 3 and 3 but they put an unmovable table across the middle seat, so you don’t have extra room. You just have nobody sitting right next to you. And despite the fact that I have a good bit of natural padding the seat felt like I was on a slab of concrete. Oh well, I’m here and that’s what matters.

Istanbul  is a fascinating city which straddles two continents, Europe and Asia, in its location on the Bosporus Strait.  That waterway along with its companion, the Dardanelles Strait,  has received renewed interest in recent days because it is the only way into the Black Sea and the ports of Mariupol and Odessa in Ukraine. The right of free passage from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea has been “governed” since 1936 by the Montreux Convention, an agreement among many nations to insure access between the two seas. The Turkish government administers the waterway.

Back to Istanbul the city. Artifacts found  in Istanbul indicate that there has been a settlement there since at least the 6th millennium BC.  The city was founded in the 7th century BC by Greeks who named it Byzantium. In 330 AD  the Roman emperor Constantine made the city his capital renaming it New Rome at first and then Constantinople after himself. The city was the imperial capital of a variety of empires for almost 1600 years, the last being the Ottoman Empire.  Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453 and some 60 years later became its capital.  After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in the 1920s and the founding of the Republic of Turkey, the city was renamed Istanbul and the capital of the new republic was moved to Ankara.  Istanbul remains the largest city in Turkey. The driver who picked me up at the airport told me that the population is about 25 million, although no one really knows for sure.  I can easily believe it because as we made our approach we passed what seemed like hundreds of high-rise apartment buildings. We landed at the new airport which just opened about three years ago. It’s only 40% completed but it’s already massive.  My driver told me that when it’s finished it will be the largest airport in the world.  I don’t know if that’s true but we taxied for a long time before we got to a gate.

I arrived at my hotel, the Ritz Carlton, at around 6:30 PM (we are 7 hours ahead of EDT). The hotel sits on a high hill and from that position has a great view of the Bosporus. Somebody is looking out for me because I was upgraded to a full view Bosporus room. Wow! What a view. Since the city lies on both sides of the strait there is all kinds of traffic plying the waters.  There are three bridges across and two tunnels, one for trains and one for vehicles.  Then there are all kinds of ferries going back and forth. In addition to the ferries there are ships transiting the straits carrying goods to and from the Black Sea countries.  In a way it reminds me a little of Hong Kong Harbor between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.

On the drive in I noticed lots of minarets and from my room I can see the towers of many more.  The driver said there are around 3,000 mosques in Istanbul and that 90 % of the population is Muslim.

It's not late here but to my brain and body it is so here's one picture of my view from my room.  Tomorrow I hope to be rested and ready to see more of Istanbul.