Sports in Istanbul

Dear followers,

Our trip has almost come to an end. After Istanbul we will be visiting two more countries and then we will head back home.

Istanbul is an enourmous city with over more than 13 million people. Because of the huge amount of people there are also many recreation areas and sport fields. After all that eating throughout the whole trip we could use a bit of excerice. We searched for different places to sport and learned a lot about popular sports and places in Istanbul. 

The most popular sport is football (soccer) just like here in Belgium. Out of 18, there are 5 Istanbul teams playing in the National Premiere League. Basketball is also very popular in Istanbul, teams are playing in the national league and they participate to European championships. A third popular sport that I didn’t expect is motor sports. In 2005 Istanbul Park Racing Track was built en since then it hosts Formula 1 races and other international motor sports. With a race track circuit that covers over 5 kilometers, Turkish Grand Prix racers can speed up to the total distance of close to 310 kilometers in 58 laps.  The track is 14 meters wide at its narrowest and 21.5 meters wide at its widest.  The track is designed by Hermann Tilke, the famed architect of racetracks.

As soccer is the most popular sport and Ali Sam Yen stadium is one of the biggest stadiums in the world we must visited this. This is part of Turkey’s efforts to clinch the deal to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.  A massive renovation was made costing over 120 million dollars. 

After visiting the stadium we went sporting. We did not one to do a regular sport so we choose to go climbing. As this was all our first time climbing we choose to go indoor. There is a artificial rock wall that you can climb right in the middle of Istanbul. Constructed as a part of Atolye Mountaineering & Climbing equipments shop, the rock climbing wall has 125m2 of climbing area and 1000 holds designed for all levels of climbers. It is open from 9:00 to 23:00. You can rent the necessary climbing equipment at Atolye. The Atolye Mountaineering & Climbing Equipment shop owners enlarged their shop this summer and now, just beside the new shop, they have opened the very first professional climbing wall in Istanbul. They will also be hosting various activities such as slide and video shows, as well as rock climbing and mountaineering lessons at Atolye. It was a very fun experience and we are planning to keep on climbing when we’re back in Belgium.

Shari

http://www.greatistanbul.com/sports.htm

http://www.simplyistanbul.org/ce/sports

http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/Europe/Turkey/Istanbul/