Turkey has been major culture shock for me, esp. coming from the Greek Islands, particularly Mykonos. This is the first Muslim majority country I’ve ever visited. I was woken by a loud prayer at 4:45am this morning and there’s one each evening at sunset. It kind of reminds me of Thailand with the Gayatri Mantra in the morning and the King’s salute/national anthem in the evening. Apparently a lot has changed. Almost all the prices are hyper inflated from all the guide books and even websites I visited to prepare myself, from the bus to get from the airport to the inner city to the food prices. Apparently just months ago it was free to go into the Hagia Sophia and you could walk the floor. Now you have to pay 25 euros each for the mosque and museum, so 50 total, and you can only go in the visiting area which is the balcony. The floor is reserved for praying Muslims, although there seem to be different rules for Turkish Muslims and foreign Muslims. Women of course are relegated to the side area, and even foreign women must cover their heads/shoulders when they walk in. Apparently it was a museum until 2020, when Erdogan changed Hagia Sophia back to an active mosque. I wonder if all this is related to the recent election? Not clear. Either way, people are friendly and generous, food is decent and generally portions are good but it depends where you go. You do have to be street smart to avoid scams. I always do my research, yet even I haven’t been able to avoid commissions on atm withdrawals. That also seems to be new. Anyway, I had a busy day today: in addition to Hagia Sophia, mosque and museum (excellent, btw), I visited 3 other mosques including the Blue Mosque. Tomorrow likely the Topkapi Palace/Harem and Basilica Cistern, which will also cost an arm and a leg. Then prob Taksim Square where I hope to see the “real Istanbul” and hopefully not get scammed. Will let you know. Wish me luck!
2 min readMay 16, 2024
