Around Istanbul: Eyup, Chora, Beyoglu, Pera Palas

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Around Istanbul:  Eyup, Chora, Beyoglu, and Pera Palace

The weather was turning colder and raining now. We took a taxi to Chora and Eyup (pronounced “A-oop”)

We wanted to visit the Church of St. Saviour in Chora with all its frescos and mosaics. Quite unbelievable. As I looked up, I would have sworn a Jesus on the ceiling was really looking at me. I waited for him to blink. There was a gold fleck in his eye to look like a twinkle. Also a fresco of Jesus pulling Adam and Eve from their graves and the scroll of heaven. Felt like we should have been listening to angel music…or an orchestra at the very least. 🙂

The staring Jesus at Chora
The staring Jesus at Chora
Fresco at Chora
Fresco at Chora
Church at Chora
Church at Chora

The church is up a street where I saw a dilapidated raw wood house, with delicate, perfectly white curtains and a red tile roof.

Interesting people watching in Eyup square…ladies in scarves, men in skull caps and blazers, children chasing hundreds of pigeons, fountains, cats. On the streets, there was corn, roasted chestnuts and patisseries for sale for 500,000 TL. This is a very holy site in Islam. The standard bearer of Muhammad is buried here.

Eyup Cemetery
Eyup Cemetery

We walked up to Pierre Loti’s cafe through the old Eyup cemetery…with some of the most remarkable headstones I’ve ever seen. Cyprus trees…and up, up, up the hill on a winding cobblestone walk. Workmen swept the leaves from the path and burned them in small piles along the way. Got behind an old man with a blue crocheted skull cap and his lady in a black chador, vented to billow at the torso.

Finally at the top–great views of the Golden Horn and all the minarets of Istanbul. Had a great meal sitting outside in the sun–while a roomful of ladies looked to be having a tupperware party inside. On the way back down, I bought a 99 bead tesbih of wood with green yarn and a tiny pony-tail of 10 small beads for 10,000,000 TL ($7).

Again, we people watched in the square….bread hanging in the windows of the bakery–an old man squatting out front; a fish market with a chunky man in a blue sweater, dark pants and an apron and skull cap negotiating on fresh, stinking fish with veiled women. Baby kittens, tesbih, Korans, socks and jeans for sale. Fruit. A tumbling down yellow house–by where we saw an old guy being loaded from his wheelchair to a blue tractor-like vehicle. Cars backing up on cobblestone. Bryan said people walk like they drive….

And then, we got into the taxi to return to Sultanahmet…GOOD LORD, what a ride! People don’t matter–just keep driving. Too close? Just pull in anyway. Bryan could have patted the driver in the next car on the face.

And on another day, we wandered around Beyoglu. So, you cross the Golden Horn at Galata Bridge and then can take the short ride “Tunel” up the steep hill. It is the world’s shortest subway. Start to finish in 45 seconds. Bryan said “I’ve had longer rides at Opryland”. It was 650,000 TL–and considering how steep it was…worth every penny!

So, Beyoglu…Bryan fell for it. The Grande Rue do Pera–European-like, Art Nouveau buildings, flower passages. One book said “New ideas walked into 19th century Ottoman life down the streets of Pera. The Europeans who lived here brought new fashions, machines, arts, manners and rules for the diplomatic game. While the Old City across the Golden Horn was content to sit tight and continue living in the Middle Ages with is oriental bazaars, great mosques and palaces, the people of Pera wanted electric light, underground trains, tramways, modern municipal government and telephones. And where Pera led, the Sultans soon followed.” I liked looking at the shops, taking coffee or tea in the cafes and just people watching. In the evenings, people strolled and music played from the shops. At one restaurant, we were offered lemon-rose scented water for our hands on the way out.

Bryan at Pera Palas
Bryan at Pera Palas
Pera Palace Hotel Bar
Pera Palace Hotel Bar

One day, we found our way to the Orient Express bar, Pera Palas…where they put the passengers at the end of the fabulous Orient Express journey from Paris to Constantinople. Squeaky floors, old chandeliers, 20 foot ceilings, deep window sills, transoms, a huge mirror behind the bar. Gorgeous place. We sat in the lobby bar and had a drink.

Another day, we found a tiny shop with paintings, book page illustrations, and other paper collectibles hanging everywhere, clipped to a wire crossing the windows and laying scattered in the sunlight around the place. I stopped in because I’d seen a painting done on top of arabic writing…a letter, or a page from a book–covered with a watercolor of a boat. Another of an old phonograph, another of a woman’s back and another of a Turkish pavilion and trees. I bought all 4, I loved the look so much. The seller of course, ordered chai (from whom?! it just happens somehow!) and a small man delivered two steaming hot, dainty glasses of tea complete with saucers, sugar cubes and tiny spoons during our conversation in the small sun-drenched shop.

Beyoglu's Art Nouveau
Beyoglu’s Art Nouveau
At Eyup
At Eyup

On our final night in Istanbul, we ate at a place called Mozaik. Tiny rooms–like rooms of a home, each set with three or four small tables for two to four people. Dark wood ceiling, orange paint below a chair rail, wood floors, Turkish carpets and soft lights. Beautiful food.

The very next day, we were headed for the Mediterranean.