Bosphorus bliss: In the land of the Ottomans

In 2022 March, a group of 16 young women including me got ready to visit Türkiye - a beautiful country worth visiting for its diverse culture that caters to both Asia and Europe.

Our tour was conducted by the women travellers' group Wander Woman.

The gateway to Europe, Türkiye was home to the Ottomans who ruled most of the world from the 14th to early 20th century. The empire was founded by Turkoman tribal leader Osman I in 1299. They were defeated only after World War I.

In 1922, the country was named Turkish Republic and now it is Türkiye. It was Kemal Ataturk who modernised the country. His influence remains beyond the country, for instance, we even have a road named after him in Dhaka's Banani.

Our scheduled flight was cancelled due to heavy snowfall. It was said that such snowfall had not taken place in 30 years.

At that time, the  Russian war with Ukraine was also looming in the background although Türkiye was miles away from both countries and there is the Black Sea in the middle.

Moreover, the news of the death of a Bangladeshi sailor by a Russian bomb in the Turkish waterways was in no way any help.

Somehow, all the houses look as though they were mud houses and it's only when someone touches them or looks them up close, they realise that they are made of stones. In fact, our hotel was in one of these stone caves and it was beautiful.

Despite all these setbacks, we had to get our Covid-19 test done a second time after the flight was rescheduled. Then we waited for the result to be negative with trepidation in our hearts.

Our team leader painstakingly cancelled all the bookings and rescheduled everything for the next date.

Finally, we boarded Turkish Airlines two days after our original date and reached Istanbul at 9 pm. We were greeted by an ice-cold wind. Snowflakes flying in the air got stuck in our hair and clothes but they looked beautiful.

The 14th-century Hagia Sophia Mosque has a magnificent interior with stone and marble designs. Photo: Collected

We were chilled to the bone and it was surprising to think that we had just come from Dhaka where the temperature was 35 degrees Celsius. We carried warm clothes in our luggage so we could wear them as soon as we needed them.

Even though we were clad in sweaters and all, it still felt too cold as we waited for the minibus to take us to the hotel.

We took our luggage to the vehicle which was parked on another floor and across the main street but it wasn't difficult for us since there were a number of elevators available.

It was 11 pm when we reached the hotel. When we got out to eat something for dinner, we found the city was bursting with life. People walked in the city's narrow and sometimes steep alleys to get food and drinks.

The cobblestone roads were difficult to walk on. There were buildings on both sides of the narrow roads. We soon found a warm place to have the traditional lentil soup, a platter of assorted kebabs and naan.

We were informed that the multistoried buildings were once either one or two-storeyed. Residents were asked to leave as the buildings were changed for commercial purposes.

Even though the roads were narrow and formed many alleys, the vehicles and people moved around freely around the city. There were so many narrow alleys near the city square that it was easy to lose one's way. Many of us did and we were late in reaching our destination.

We walked around the Sultanahmet Square the next day. The Hagia Sophia Mosque, the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Palace all were situated close to one another.

We first went to the 14th-century Hagia Sophia Mosque; it had changed its identity many times. It was originally built in 537 as a cathedral in Constantinople.

At that time, it was the biggest Christian church in the Eastern Roman Empire and it remained so for about 100 years. Then the Ottoman Empire took over in 1453 and it was turned into a mosque and remained so till 1935.

Minarets were added in the 15th and 16th centuries. The building is made in Byzantine style with Ashlar and Roman brick. In 1935 it became a museum and in 2020, it was turned into a mosque once again.

It has a magnificent, grandiose look with big chandeliers, marble decanters from the fifth century and huge doors on all sides. There are wall-to-wall green carpets inside the mosque.

Some of us prayed dukhlul masjid (a type of nafl prayer) at the mosque. It felt a bit strange to give sajdah (prostrate) towards the east since Türkiye faces the Kaaba in this direction.

According to legend, the hot springs of Pamukkale cure diseases if one bathes in them. Photo: Collected

The Blue Mosque is a mosque with a typical Ottoman layout, with a central dome surrounded by four semi-domes over the prayer hall. The interior is decorated with Iznik tiles (named after the place where they were made) in blue.

Thousands of blue flowers or floral patterns are on the walls, hence the name Blue Mosque. We visited the Topkapi Palace next, which was the house of 36 sultans in 600 years of their rule. It has many courtyards with different palaces, both the old palaces and the new palaces have been preserved well.

You might be able to recall how a few years ago, Sultan Sulaiman became a household name in our country due to the popular series Suleiman the Magnificent being aired on TV. It was written in Turkish by Meral Okay and Yilmaz Sahin and dubbed in Bangla.

After going through all the sites during the day, we flew to Nevsehir the same night. It is around 700 hundred miles away from Istanbul and yet another beautiful town inhabited by a small number of people.

Somehow, all the houses look as though they were mud houses and it's only when someone touches them or looks them up close, they realise that they are made of stones. In fact, our hotel was in one of these stone caves and it was beautiful.

We came to know that in the 14th or 15th century, people lived in these caves and they were quite poor. But when the hotels were built, the area became one of the most expensive places in the entire country.

The next morning, it was freezing but we got up very early to go on a hot air balloon ride.

All of us were crammed in one balloon, plus there were two crew members and a captain.

Infograph: TBS

We went up to 700 feet and there were hundreds of other balloons all around us. Soon, the sun came up and created a breathtaking picture.

We asked the captain how much longer we were staying in the balloon and he replied that another 20 minutes. That's when we screamed out, "No!"

Despite the spectacular view, the wind was unbearably cold and we hugged each other to keep ourselves warm.

As the balloon came closer to the ground, some men from a truck nearby got down, pulled it down by hand and tethered it to the ground. We were so ecstatic after the ride that it took us a while to come to our senses.

Our next destination was the hot springs of Pamukkale. According to legend, the hot springs cure diseases if one bathes in them. While that may or may not be true, we were certainly glad to be able to dip our feet in the warm water.

We were fatigued but there was just one more place we needed to see to complete our Türkiye tour and that was a cruise on the Bosphorus. We went on a cruise ship to have dinner and watch a beautiful Turkish woman doing belly dances.

It was quite a relief to head back home the next day. But we agreed that it was an experience of a lifetime. And along the way, we made some great companions who would remain with us for a long time to come.