If you loved being sun-kissed and want to don a glaring tan, you must be visualizing yourself wandering on cities where the sun never seems to set.
Walking with the lightest of outfits, you imagined yourself sweating (in a good way, please) and holding an iced cappuccino all the while enjoying the humid air that hits your sticky face.
You loved mornings, and mornings equaled sunshine so therefore, sunshine is a gift to you rather than a curse. On the top of your ‘retirement’ destinations are countries from outskirts Europe, and the lavish land of Istanbul, Turkey is on priority.
ISTANBUL, TURKEY
Two years after Istanbul had been dubbed as the European Capital of Culture, the city had harnessed almost 11 million of foreign visitors from all over the world. This feat had ranked Istanbul as the world’s fifth most populous tourist destination worldwide.
Istanbul’s rich heritage, the numerous cultural and entertainment sites and the adorable and welcoming inhabitants had been few of the many reasons why the city attracted so many tourists in so limited time span.
With the confidence that they had from the growth of their tourism, they even betted for the Summer Olympics for five times capitalizing on their rapid expansion and country’s continual revitalization.
LOCATION
Located in the heart of the country Turkey, Istanbul is the country’s largest city. It hugely constituted the country’s cultural, economic and historical aspects which makes it a must-visit city.
It is also a transcontinental city in Eurasia, sharing the land of the European side for its commercial and historical centers while the third of the city’s general populace is on the Asian side. Istanbul straddles the Bosporus strait which is situated between the Sea of Marmara and the infamous Black Sea.
CLIMATE
Istanbul has a borderline Mediterranean climate, humid subtropical climate oceanic climate because of its location in the transitional climatic zone. Istanbul can be divided into two subgroups when it comes to climate classification.
Scientifically called microclimates, Istanbul’s northern half inhibits characteristics of oceanic and humid subtropical climates due to the humidity brought about by nearby Black Sea while the southern side is typically warmer and drier due to less humidity.
Those parts of the city which is away from huge bodies of water have a more pronounced night-day and summer-winter temperature differences. These parts experience below or average freezing points at night during winter.
TRANSPORTATION
Istanbul has two international airports, the larger of which is Istanbul Atatürk. Atatürk, located 24 kilometers (15 mi) west of the city center, handled 51.2 million passengers in 2013, making it the fifth-busiest airport in Europe and the eighteenth-busiest in the world.
Sabiha Gökçen International, 45 kilometers (28 mi) southeast of the city center, opened in 2001 to relieve Atatürk. Dominated by low-cost carriers, Istanbul’s second airport has rapidly become popular among travellers, especially since inaugurating a new international terminal in 2009; the airport handled 14.7 million passengers in 2012, a year after Airports Council International named it the world’s fastest-growing airport.
Atatürk has also experienced rapid growth, as its 20.6 percent rise in passenger traffic between 2011 and 2012 was the greatest among the world’s top 30 airports. Because of the traffic at Istanbul’s current airports, a third international airport is planned for the Black Sea coast.
Building a new runway at Atatürk Airport was rejected due to the cost involved; however, environmental concerns have also been raised with respect to the plans for a third airport.
Currently under construction, the new international airport of Istanbul will become the largest airport in the world upon the completion of all four stages of the project, with a capacity to serve 150 million passengers per annum.
WHAT TO SEE
Blue Mosque
Facing Aya Sofya across a small park and mirroring its domed silhouette, the early 17th-century Blue Mosque is one of only a handful of mosques in the world to boast six minarets. Is it really blue?
Well, not noticeably, although all the walls are papered with fine İznik tiles. To view it as the architect, Sedefkar Mehmed Aga, originally intended, enter via what looks like the side entrance from the Hippodrome.
Afterwards, pop your head into a building the size of a small mosque on the corner of the complex. This houses the tomb of Sultan Ahmed I, the man who gave his name to both the mosque and the neighborhood.
Istanbul Archaeology Museums
Walk to Istanbul’s three-in-one equivalent of the British Museum via the grounds of Topkapi Palace or through Gulhane Park. If time is tight, go straight to the large porticoes building housing the glorious sarcophagus of Alexander which depicts scenes from the life of Alexander the Great in vivid 3D.
Kids will love the model Trojan Horse in the children’s section. Then pop into the lovely Tiled Pavilion, one of the city’s oldest Ottoman structures, beautifully restored to show off its finest ceramics. Finally, catch a glimpse of a peace treaty from 1269 BC preserved in the part of the museum nearest to the gate.
Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum
Housed in what was originally the palace of Ibrahim Pasha, a favorite grand vizier of Suleiman the Magnificent, and overlooking the Hippodrome where Byzantine lovers of chariot racing once brought the same passion to their sport as modern Turks do to football, this museum houses a magnificent collection of gigantic carpets from all over the country.
Its basement features reconstructions of everything from a fully-fitted nomad tent to a grand interior from a 19th-century Bursa mansion. Don’t leave without trying a thick black Turkish coffee in the pretty cafe in the grounds.
Süleymaniye Mosque
Unmissable as you stand on the busy Galata Bridge and look up at the city’s historic skyline is the mosque designed by the great Ottoman architect Sinan for Suleiman the Magnificent. Newly restored to its original splendor, it is generally regarded as the finest of the 42 surviving mosques he designed for Istanbul.
Unusually, it retains much of the original complex of social service buildings that came attached to it, including several madrasahs, a hospital, a library and a hamam. Locals come here to eat kuru fasuliye, the Turkish take on baked beans, in a street once haunted by opium addicts.
Chora Church
It’s a bit of a schlep to get there but the restored Chora Church in the old city walls offers a stunning glimpse of late Byzantine splendor, its walls and ceilings adorned with glittering mosaics and breath-taking frescoes.
Like Aya Sofya, it has made the journey from Byzantine church to Ottoman mosque and then to modern museum, and now stands in a neighborhood of restored Ottoman wooden houses, prettily painted in pastel colors. Before you go back to your hotel, take a look at the nearby walls that ringed old Constantinople and date back to the fifth century.
Galata Tower
Watery Istanbul is a city that cries out to be viewed from on high, and you can get a bird’s-eye view of everything from the balcony at the top of the Galata Tower in Beyoğlu, the modern part of old Istanbul that, in pre-Republican days, was home to the city’s foreign residents.
Built in 1348, the tower once formed part of a sub-city belonging to the Genoese that stretched right down to the Bosphorus. In a footnote to aviation history, it was from this tower that Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi flew across the Bosphorus from Europe to Asia in 1638, thus inaugurating the first ever intercontinental flight.
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