Although I've lived in Turkey for over a year and a half and have visited Istanbul half a dozen times, I had not yet been able to go to the Pera Palace Hotel in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul. The main reason for my wanting to visit this little gem of vintage architecture and throwback to the turn of the last century is because this was where Agatha Christie used to stay when she came to town. I have a feeling it was a popular destination for people who rode on the Orient Express. The Peral was built in 1895 and was designed by a Levantine architect and Istanbul resident named Alexander Vallaury. Some of the famous people who have stayed in the Pera include: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Ernest Hemingway, Jacqueline Kennedy, Greta Garbo, Alfred Hitchcock, King Edward VIII, Mata Hari and Sarah Bernhardt.
When I first came to Istanbul, I scoped out the Pera on a map and walked there from my hotel. Unfortunately, it was under renovation and I couldn't go inside. This was true of the second time I visited as well. When I was here last Christmas, we stopped by to get a drink in the lobby bar, but it was closed for the night and we weren't allowed in the lobby.
Today, when I got to my flat near Taksim Square, I jumped online to find out about visiting the Pera. I'd remembered my department head had said something about afternoon tea being served at the Pera, so I decided to check it out. Tea at the Pera comes with a price tag, but the spread and the ambience more than make up for the cost. The real reason for going to the Pera for tea is to people watch and soak up the atmosphere of the place.
If Christie visited the Pera today, I think she'd feel something akin to Miss Marple's experience going to Bertram's Hotel - very little has changed. There is an old fashioned elevator (the first in Istanbul), a jazz pianist, a very proper looking staff in the Kubbeli Saloon where tea is served, and an interior that makes even the most humble of travelers (i.e. me) feel a bit posh.
Me looking overwhelmed by the grandeur.For tea, I was served:
-Tea (duh!) with an extra pot of water and milk (which I had to ask for - Turks don't like to mess up their tea with milk)
-Sandwiches: cucumber, smoked salmon, beef, and a brioche bite with a kind of crab mousse
-Desserts: a table heaped with loads of little sweet treats. I took a hearty sampling of the ones that looked good to me
The grandeur of the hotel saloon left me in no doubt that Mrs. Christie enjoyed traveling in style. I don't think I'd have bumped into her at a youth hostel or couch-surfed with her and Max. I enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere of bygone days sitting there in the saloon, but it made me yearn for more classic Christie works - the brave new world of post-war Europe of her novels in the 50s, 60s, and 70s seems a bit lackluster compared to what I'd experienced this afternoon. I wonder if Christie too sensed an aesthetic decline with the advent of pre-packaged everything, mind-numbing prosperity and growing cynicism.
At any rate, if you get to Istanbul, splurge and get the 55TL (around 40USD) tea with all you can eat desserts. If you like Christie, you'll really enjoy this treat.
That looks amazing! How many other people were at tea? Did you get to watch the upper crust interact?
ReplyDelete- Liz (trouble signing in on this computer)
Liz: There were about 4 or 5 other tables with people having tea. No super ritzy looking people except for one posh couple.
ReplyDeleteMatt
fantastic, matt....so glad you finally got to enjoy the ambience....ms. marple would be proud!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I am so glad I finally got to go.
ReplyDeleteAh, Matt! What a wonderful, long-awaited treat! I can only hope that SOMEBODY at one of the other tables was plotting a murder. I remember a wonderful experience at the Dorchester in London on a bitterly cold, wet January afternoon, and how the staff made me feel like the richest man in the world as I sank into a plush chair, ate and drank my fill and people-watched (sadly, too many loud American tourists). A slower life definitely has its advantages. Brad
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ReplyDeleteWell, Brad, if my experience were a Christie novel everyone would have been led to believe that the posh-looking Turk with slick hair sitting with his beautiful girlfriend or wife was plotting something. The cleverer readers would have passed on him right away and moved on to the thin, awkward, stuttering American/ Canadian sitting two tables away who took so long to ask for his bill and who one hardly noticed until he spoke.
ReplyDeleteYet they'd be wrong, because all the while the bearded, capped American looking so touristy with his camera and guide book, who seemed so out of place, who was gauche enough to ask for a second pot of tea, and who snapped pictures of so many things, would have sensed something was wrong but couldn't quite fasten on to what it was. Weeks later, when he was back at home, he would be going through his pictures, uploading them onto his computer and he would have noticed something very peculiar.
In a shot taken when he first arrived, he would have captured the nervous maître d' in his black suit busily organizing his staff, his gloves, blindingly white. In a later shot, one taken of the rich Levantine matron slumped asleep in her chair with her Pekinese greedily lapping up the tea she'd apparently spilled, in the background he'd notice that the maître d', slightly out of focus, now looked noticeably calmer and was no longer wearing white, but cream-colored gloves.
My regards!!
ReplyDeleteOnly one comment: WOW!!!
Your post is wonderfull!
Hugs from Brazil!
Thanks, Roseli!
ReplyDelete