It seems excessive to travel 5,000 miles for a forty-eight hour getaway, and it probably is. At the same time, it seemed so perfectly logical to get away when I booked the ticket.
I arrived in Istanbul on Saturday morning. After dropping my bag at the hotel, I headed right over to Hagia Sophia. I’ve been there many times, but there had always been scaffolding set up inside. I finally got a chance to see this 1,500 year old marvel in all its glory. At that moment, all the travel was completely worth it. I sat on the cold marble floor staring at the domed ceiling for a half hour, and I couldn’t have been happier.
I then headed over Beyoglu to visit the Istanbul Modern. Since I last was in the city in 2006, there has been an explosion in the modern art scene. Istanbul Modern was a good place to start. They had a great collection of twentieth century Turkish art, as well as some current exhibits. The location right along the Bosphoros is also stunning. I spent the night strolling along Istiklal Cadessi enjoying the shops and the people. Even though the night was a bit cold, it felt so alive.
On Sunday, I headed back over to Beyoglu to visit Salt, which is another contemporary art space. I wandered through eclectic exhibits and video installations all by myself. It was Sunday morning, but it was eerily lonely. I headed out to santralinstabul in Silahtar, which is part art museum, part science museum, part park, and a couple of restaurants. They were changing exhibits, so I didn’t get to see much art. The science museum is housed in the old power building, and it was incredible. I wandered through old turbines from the early twentieth century amazed by their massiveness.
I strolled in the park before finishing off my afternoon listening to live jazz in one of the restaurants. I was sitting next to a 40 year old Pakistani economist who works for a development bank in Istanbul. He had studied int he United States and became a jazz fan. We talked about the number of private colleges and universities opening up in Pakistan. He was refreshingly skeptical about most development projects. My evening ended with me watching the second half of the Knicks-Mavericks game with a Turkish broadcast. Somehow it seemed fitting for my whirlwind weekend.
