Our first visit to the capital of Turkey was not without a bit of Istanbul trepidation.
Whether admittedly or not, it was there… Istanbul trepidation had somehow snuck it’s way into our luggage. We’ve got this, right? Just another beautiful city for us to explore… We’re the Wanderlust Duo, and this is what we do!(…right?)
Trepidation
As the capital city of THREE of the world’s greatest empires, majestically perched astride shores of Europe and Asia, Istanbul aka Constantinople aka Byzantium, was considered the center of civilization for thousands of years. Of course, this is a city we HAD to see for ourselves… Only, somehow, slowly, seeds of doubt started blooming…
Upon sharing plans for our next adventure through Europe, the mention of an Istanbul waypoint raised eyebrows, to say the least. With a current climate of unrest in this part of the world, respected family members understandably expressed concern for our safety. Understandable I say, but taken with a grain of salt…
Similar concerns were shown when we quit our jobs and started this journey, then again with our Moroccan detour during the Ebola craze. So we booked our stay in Istanbul, excited as ever, and waited for our next big adventure to begin. The problem? With two months before departure, we had lots of time left with our thoughts…
Turns out, we both secretly scoured the internet for violent actions towards Americans in Istanbul. What!? This is crazy, looking for the worst in a city we were just recently so excited to visit!? This is so completely unlike us… When we finally “fessed up” and compared notes, it was decided. Only positive thoughts from here on out. Our research did give us some peace of mind. Turns out, over 11 million tourists visited last year alone, and despite being the sixth most populated city in the world, Istanbul boasts crime rates much, much lower than even our own home city… No US travel warnings, nor the slightest account of rudeness towards foreigners.
It’s all perspective.
At the end of the day, it comes down to perspective, I guess. Two eye-witnesses will likely report different accounts of the same event, yet neither are wrong.. We see things based on our own personal, specially procured private stock of stimuli and experiences. After further discussion and research, we ultimately based our decision to visit Istanbul on overwhelming experiences with good and friendly people in all the places we’ve traveled. We would expect nothing less from the people of Istanbul.
So we arrived with open hearts and minds, eager to see what Istanbul had in store, and it was everything we had hoped for and more. The energy of the city is incredible. Sixteen million people heading in a million different directions… The smell of rotisserie meat wafting from every street corner… Shop owners hustling tea in exchange for a sale… Taxis and ferries negotiating their way by instinct… Majestic mosques and palaces overseeing the entirety of controlled chaos. We had made the right decision.
Realization
Although, that lingering trepidation in our luggage did try and creep out on occasion. But now we know, that… The intensely amplified shouting from under our window is probably a politician campaigning, or possibly a great deal on socks. The intriguing, yet slightly intimidating drumming and chanting, emanating from somewhere outside every night, is just the neighborhood children at band practice. Non-muslim men AND women are invited inside for a look at the beautiful mosques.
And we did it! Like overcoming a fear of the high board, sometimes you just have to climb to the top, and jump! It likely is exhilarating, and you’ll be even more experienced the next time around.