CHAPTER 36: ISTANBUL (TURKEY)

24.2
kms, Sept 8, 2006

In
this Chapter the Traveler spends several weeks immersing himself in
one of the greatest cities in the world: Istanbul... it is in this
chapter when the Traveler will "officially" cross into
Europe, since the city sits in both Asia and Europe. As the economic
powerhouse of the Middle East—as well as being a city drenched in
millennia of history, this is a place to take your time exploring.

The
Traveler starts out his day with a rather surreal experience. Not
sure where to go, he hops on a random mini-bus and promptly falls
asleep. When he wakes up, he finds himself in the sleepy village of
Suadiye, which is little
more than a couple blocks of simple homes, a teahouse and a grassy
park. Still feeling a bit groggy and not able to get his bearings,
the Traveler follows a road up a hill to hopefully get a better view
of the area.

And there, going
around a bend, he sees it: the vast Metropolis of Istanbul laid out
before him. To the north, there are plains and rolling hills, with
the Black Sea beyond. All throughout these plains are scattered
factories and industrial areas. To the west, the industry gets more
and more dense until it becomes nothing but city. A city that
stretched for hundreds of kilometers. He barely gets a glimpse of
the eastern tip of the Gulf of Izmit... which stretches all the way
to the Bosphorus Strait.

This is it. He is now
going to explore the Great City of Istanbul. He breathes in the
peaceful village air one last time. It's going to be nothing but
city for a long time now.

The
History of Izmit

The first city of Greater
Istanbul is Izmit—which is a large city in its own right.
Squeezed between the sea and the mountain, its center still has a
cozy feel with a long, shady boulevard, and narrow alleys that climb
up to the homes on its steep slopes. Here, the Traveler enjoys a
delicious kumpir: a baked potato piled with every type of
topping you could imagine...

Izmit has a lot of
history to it, but you'll find little visible remnants of it as you
wander its boulevards and narrow streets. And modernization and
over-development aren't the only reasons for the loss of history.
Izmit has been struck by numorous disasterous earthquakes. The most
recent one, while not all that high on the Richter Scale, caused
enormous death and damage. It turns out, many if not all of these
high rise apartment buildings are not very well built. Developers
have been cheating and not building them as sturdy as they should be.
So when the hour of reckoning came, many collapsed, entrapping and
killing thousands.

It seems, though, that
Izmit has bounced back quickly. There are few signs of the
destruction that took place here just a few years ago. The Traveler
wonders if the buildings were built studier this time around.

The Traveler checks into
a pleasant hotel overlooking the shady boulevard. No need to rush
things. Wanders the streets in the evening, pausing for some
delicious sweets next to the mosque, where men gather for the evening
prayers... then calls it a day.

Day
2: More Suburbs

11.2
kms, Aug 29, 2010

It
seems a strange place to create one of the world's largest
metropolises. Steep mountains to the north, and the sea to the
south... this is a narrow strip that connects Istanbul to the rest of
the Turkey. .. and is packed with factories, shopping areas and high
rise apartments.

But
when the Traveler thinks about it, he realizes this strip doesn't
just connect Istanbul and its suburbs... it also connects Europe and
the Middle East. The trucks that rumble along this highway might be
going far beyond Turkey... Georgia... Azerbaijan, Armenia, Iraq,
Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and beyond... This quasi-isthmus connects two
worlds.

Fortunately
there is more than one highway. There's the highway the mini-buses
take, that stops in every suburb... There's a freeway that runs right
near the coast... And burrowed into the mountains is yet another new
super-highway that appears to be nothing but tunnels—interrupted by
occasional bridges rising to dizzying heights whenever there is a
break in the mountains.

Istanbul
is clearly pulling no stops in connecting itself to the world.

In
Derince, the shoreline highway is buried under a pedestrian
area with cool bush sculptures around. It's nice to see that some
effort is being made so folks in these suburb cities still have some
open space to enjoy...

Next
is Korfez, which feels surprisingly quiet and spread out, with
spacious villas gobbling up the little flat land there is along the
Gulf of Izmit.