Istanbul - Day One First Impressions - Travel Journal

I walked from the Swiss Hotel along the Bosphorous Harbor meandering towards the New Mosque. My feet touched a path mixed with cobblestones and smoothened concrete. Pastel colored buildings in varying hues of yellow, blue and orange contrasted with older structures ashen from soot and a bustling city.

I looked for the old wooden houses of prior Pashas (generals) and Sultan-esque dignitaries that famed Turkish author, Orphan Pamuk spoke of in his memoir and didn’t see them, or the melancholy he described hovering over Istanbul in the shadows of a failed empire.  Instead people smiled as they passed and boisterously chatted over Turkish coffee and tea at cafés or perched over a Hookah inhaling the mysterious puff of smoke.

This city did feel patriarchal as Pamuk described. Certain streets men walked in posses. The nearer I got to the Mosque the more women covered their heads with scarves.  I too started off the day with a scarf tied in a knot dangling on my chest. I knew that I’d need to wear it on my head in the Mosque but didn’t know what it’d be like to walk around in a modern, western oriented, Muslim country.

Many areas of the city appeared very western with women wearing tank tops and t-shirts paired with fashionable tight jeans and skirts. This contrasted to other sections of town where women dressed conservatively with their heads covered, wearing long jackets, rain coat style worn over layers of clothing. Occasionally women dressed in full burkas in black with just their eyes showing.  (The women in burkas, a Turkish friend explained, are typically from Saudi Arabia and visiting.)

I wondered as I wiped sweat off my forehead how warm the women must be under their layers of clothing. I hoped they had some kind of ventilation or air conditioning in their clothes as I tried not to stare or day dream about swimming and getting out of the afternoon heat.

Later at a café, as I waited in line to use the restroom, a woman with a head scarf tied under her neck made hand gestures for me to tie it like her.  I adjusted my scarf as she advised and spent much of the day with my hair covered feeling less and less American.

The New Mosque

While tourists visiting Istanbul often plan to see the famed Blue Mosque, there is another spectacular Mosque with picturesque domes and arches that peaked my curiosity as I walked along the harbor of Eminonu, Known as the New Queen Mother's Mosque (Yeni Valide Camii) or the New Mosque. It is actually not so new and was built in the 1600s by architect Da'ud Aga.

Prior to entering the Mosque I adjusted my head scarf making sure it covered my hair and felt a little uneasy as someone handed me a large, bright pink scarf. I wrapped it around my head, neck and shoulders as I saw other tourists doing, while a man and his young child approached me. He said my husband and I looked like his child and that his little boy wanted to take a picture with us.  With those kind words my heart opened up as I noticed how much the child looked like us. We all shared the same sun warmed skin.