destinations
The
muezzin
’s call breaks the early morning
silence, summoning Muslims to the day’s first
prayer. Alarmed pigeons flutter away from
the Blue Mosque and in the park, stray dogs
stir in their sleep. Offshore, screeching seagulls
follow the fishing boats in the mist above the
Sea of Marmara. Startled by the strange
sounds, I sit up in bed. Here in Sultanahmet,
the heart of Istanbul’s historic Old Town, stand
the city’s two most famous mosques: the dusty
pink Hagia Sophia, built as a Christian church
in the 6
th
century, and the Blue Mosque, built
more than 1,000 years later. The calls from their
minarets resound loudly in the narrow streets.
It is five o’clock in the morning and much too
early to rise.
Four hours later I sit in a taxi, the most
convenient way to get around Istanbul. For
a city with a population of approximately 10
million people spanning two continents, public
transportation is, well, Byzantine. There are a
few tramlines, a small metro, loads of buses and
ferries crossing the Bosporus Strait, which slices
through the city’s Asian and European sides.
My taxi takes me around one of the seven hills
of Old Town, which is crowned with the famous
Topkapi Palace, for centuries the seat of the
sultans. Gradually, the full splendor of Istanbul
is unveiled before my eyes. Awed, I look over
Cover
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