This brought back memories of my visits to the harems. Istanbul is my favourite city . Lovely place. I could happily live there . I've been in early spring when it snowed too. It can be so cold ! It's difficult to switch off our modern sensibilities , but I do think we need to when studying these historical places. I don't think we should judge the past by our modern standards . As the saying goes , "The past is a foreign country , they do things differently there ". We should of course learn from the past but recognise that there are many injustices in our modern world . I have an old book written by a woman who lived in the modern harem in Constantinople till it closed in the early twentieth century.She wrote her memoirs in later life. She tells the reader what life was actually like there. (It's no longer in print unfortunately .).I bought it 10 years ago . There used to be a few accounts like this around and they are good primary sources if you can find them. I'm very surprised you didn't mention Kemil Atatürk who made Turkey the modern nation it is today. He gave women the right to vote and hold political office by 1934 . This was before women in France, Italy and many other countries . He made polygamy illegal and the harems closed after this.

I love this channel its not just a travel vlog but a history channel as well.

Hello Steph and Ollie! I highly recommend that you read a book called "The Concubine, The Princess and The Teacher by Douglas Scott Brookes" - It is an incredible novel that collects intimate biographies written by a Concubine during the final years of the Ottoman Empire from 1900 - 1925. You will be pleased to know that in the 20th century, the harem was vastly different than how you may think and it is by far one of the greatest things I have ever read!

I visited Istanbul over 50 years ago. Can’t remember too much but two things stick with me: the friendliness of the people and the emeralds in the palace 😀💚💚

I LOVE the narration back and forth, and discussion style at the cafe. Thank you for going to the Near East! One of my favorite places.

Extraordinary episode Oliver and Stephanie packed with so many facts and feelings. I was moved by your comments Stephanie regarding the modern palace being so close to our own time and what is even more stunning is that there are still actually millions of women, girls and boys being held as sexual slaves and trafficked all over the world. The world has changed and yet remains the same.

Thanks, Stephanie and Ollie for another awesome video! I have never seen another travel show on Turkey that covered this topic. It was fascinating and as you have said, sad as well. Not only sad for the women, but for the men as well. Can you imagine the nineteen brothers seeing their brothers go to their deaths at the command of their own brother? I wonder what the Sultan’s mother had to say about that one? If anyone would be interested in learning more about the world of the Sultans in more ancient times I recommend the book The Janissary Tree. It’s an ancient detective story with lots of cooking and drinking to boot. LOVE this channel, thanks again! 😎

I absolutely love this channel - I learn something every single time AND I feel like you’re taking us to wonderful places I may never see.

Now, this was definitely taking it up a notch. Aside from not being there in person, I totally feel I have been cultured and educated once again. Thank you. ❤

How interesting. I would love to go there. Especially after watching 60 4 hour long episodes of a Turkish miniseries about the Ottoman Empire--featuring the lives of the harem women heavily. So much beauty, yet so much fighting for survival & power. I would absolutely LOVE eating at that restaurant. I noticed they had one of my most favorite dishes (baba ghanoush). You two looked great in your costumes at the end. How fun.

I’ve have learned so much from this channel already and get so excited when each episode comes, thanks guys for your amazing channel 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🐨

This vlog has to be the best one yet. The palaces were extraordinary and the Dohmabahce was beautiful. Those chandeliers were absolutely stunning. The way you describe everything and the information you relay to us is fascinating. I have never heard any of this before and when you think of the freedoms we have now its hard to believe that people lived this way and it was considered normal. I am definitely with you Stephanie and value my freedom over riches.

We live in Turkey on the Mediterranean coast and love Istanbul and the Topkapi palace. Appreciated all the extra history and comments.

Thank you again Ollie and Steph for another wonder and interesting video. The Topkapi palace is so incredible. Seeing this video brought it all back to me and I will be going back one day. I can't wait for the next video. Take care. X

This was fascinating! Thank you for bringing us on your journeys!!

The tiles and architecture are spectacular. I agree with Stephanie that I prize my personal freedom and would have found it difficult to live in that environment. The food looked delicious 😋 Thanks for taking us along 😍😘

Fabulous video, thank you. The two of you are excellent together in this series, and now I know much more about Istanbul and harems!

I agree with you Stephanie, I would not want to live a life like the people both female and male who lived in these harem palaces. This vlog was so informative and interesting. You outdo yourselves with each vlog. This is the best channel for travel and history and there are quite a few I like. Bravo!

A fabulous episode! Istanbul is such a fabulous city and Topkapi so memorable. My husband and I visited the area many years ago and I was just blown away Thank you for the trip to the harems.

Absolutely brilliant xx you are both excellent at the narrative xx so interesting xx thank you both for whisking me away to another world xx🥰

I found this really fascinating and educational as well. I know very little about that part of the world and it's history so it really opened my eyes. The chandeliers were just jaw dropping too.

Love your travelling vlogs, Sthepanie and Ollie. You are two amazing individuals, the dialogue is fun, much needed in the world. Thank you ❤❤

Absolutely fascinating. Thank you Stephanie and Ollie ❤

What an amazing history lesson! I learned more today than I have in a very long time! Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

Love, love, love this channel… thank you Stephanie and Ollie for your love of travel to such fascinating places!

Completely fascinating… my favourite episode yet. Love!!!! 🙌

Again - a wonderful travel with you both. The beauty; the extraordinary beauty of the Sultan's surroundings, juxtaposed with the descriptions you so eloquently gave us of seemingly cruel, unbearable lives (to the modern mind), tests what we, largely, accept as rational in the human behaviour stakes. In other words, how can so much beauty be created by a culture that presses human lives into enforced shapes through fear and anxiety. But then, 'it was ever thus' - it is just this wonderful vlog has illustrated this so clearly. Each human has everything in them, dark and light, destructive and creative (as it says in the Harry Potter books), and we are what we choose to act out. Again, thank you for a beautiful, thought provoking, adventure. Looking forward to the next.

Thank you, Stephanie and Ollie, for another great video. I've been really enjoying them, you're both naturally funny and your adventures together are such fun to watch. 🙏😊 Looking forward to the next one x

I’ve been to Topkapi. It’s an amazing place. Visiting took a whole day!

Thanks guys. Thoroughly enjoy your journeys. I appreciate the detail you put into this channel, documentary style.. I love learning new things. Cheers.

I just adore watching this channel. Your vlogs are interesting, informative, full of joy and friendship! You both are the best vloggers ever! Best wishes from Mexico city!

That was an amazing trip. So much beauty for us to enjoy. Chandeliers were off the scale. Thank you for another fascinating vlog. You both looked very regal in your outfits at the end. Xx

This is right up my alley! I ADORE your main channel... don't know why it took me this long to find this one! I love seeing these gorgeous places and hearing all the amazing history behind them. Not only that, but contextualizing the history and having a thoughtful discussion afterwards.... geez. Top notch, both of you. Please please please continue! ❤❤❤❤

I visited the Topkapi Palace about ten years ago but have learnt more from your vlog than I was aware of on my trip to Istanbul.

How fascinating this was! I so appreciate you both sharing your knowledge of the places you visit.

Thank you! I so much enjoyed this program & just watching you two having fun !❤

Discovered last night that though I’d subscribed to Travels With My Friend I hadn’t clicked on Notifications! Well, better late than never. Istanbul is a fascinating city but you and Ollie saw the main attractions in much more detail than I had. Such beauty and such an advanced civilization for its time at its peak. A joy to watch.

Thank you! This was marvelous!❤

Steph and Ollie, thank you for having this genial idea of making these vlogs.

That was so much fun and also thought provoking. Thank you

Loved this episode so much. It’s not just the story it’s the way you guys deliver it. Very grateful viewer here! ♥️

Absolutely fascinating! Thank you Stephanie and Ollie, what a wonderful vlog. Loved your intellectual discussion about the Harems as well.

Fascinating, Turkey is a jewel. Must visit. ❤❤❤❤

Hi Stephanie and Ollie, wow, amazing. What a history lesson this was, amazing and frightening all at the same time. It truly is a sad tale, for women and for the men, it's almost a damned if you do and damned if you don't. Thank you so, so much for this video, and the lessons that came with it.

Thank you dear Stephanie and Oliver for the wonderful Ottoman palace adventures, I think Oliver won out with his Sultan's outfit!

Beautiful. Fascinating. Thank you.

Thank you for this, and for bringing back wonderful memories of Istanbul in the early 70s

Loved it !

I click on this to watch not realizing it was Stephanie’s channel. It was the topic that interested me.

Congratulations for this superb video. I am not surprised at all by the very cold weather in Turkey. In this area of the world winters are very cold and summers are super hot. I hope you had been visited the Ararat mount where Nos landed. This mount is in North East of Turkey. Close to the Armenian border. The Ottoman artists had an great talent to create so many marvelous things.

You're picking such amazing places. Thank you.

That is the grandest chandelier I have ever seen. But you are right. There is such a sense of sadness and lack of freedom that we can't even comprehend in our time.

What a great episode! Thank you for your insights Stephanie and Ollie. Xxx

SO interesting! Thank you Oliver & Stephanie for a superb presentation :)

Fascinating! Thank you!

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode!

That was an awesome insight into the goings on in the Harem back in the day.

Fab, totally eye opening, thank you!

Once again another superb presentation of a different custom and culture❤

That was so interesting! Thankyou, well done!

Excelent vlog!!!! Thank you❤

Great video, I enjoyed it sooo much, very interesting

That was very interesting thanks for sharing

What a fantastic and beautiful episode, truly interesting and educational, thank you .❤

That was wonderful, thank you both. So interesting learning the real history of different Countries and Cultures. 💕🇦🇺

Thank you both for another wonderful distraction.

I love being with Stephanie and Ollie!!

WOW! I can’t wait for each new travel experience! Thank you 🙏 I’ll never travel to these wonderful places myself, so travelling with you is fantastic!❤️🧳

Stephanie and Oliver, together you are natural Orators of fantastic culture and history, Congratulations x Josie

Love this!

Thanks to you both for being so thoughtful about what the harem system meant for the women who lived in them, both those who actually had some power and many others who didn't.

Excellent !

Absolutely loved this vlog,❤ great work guys

Enjoyed the show and have loved them all. I don’t think there are many travel shows that have shown so much. Congratulations!!

I think it’s important to see the harem from the perspective of that time. They were restricted to certain areas, yes. However if not taken into the harem, they may have lived in dreadful poverty and hardship; women were not free even outside but were restrained by religious and social rules, they would have had to do endless hard work with no mod cons, perhaps with rampant diseases. Most critically, their expectations of life regarding freedom etc were utterly different. You can not judge their experience through 21st century eyes.

Most enjoyable and informative. Well done !

Brilliant episode!!

I love Turkey, Istanbul is absolutely awesome. Letters from the harem show that they didn't feel oppressed, they were in a fiery competition with each other for Sultan's attention. They were free to get in and out as much as they wanted and to build homes around the city. They had great education and had a great life, according to them. There are entire diaries published, you are looking from a modern point of view. No women had such freedoms anywhere in the world.

Lots of work!...well done

What a beautiful place to visit! I just love these videos. You give up an opportunity to see parts of the world that we may not have ever seen or get a chance to visit. I do appreciate all of your videos.

It must be 30 years since I visited. You took me back in time.

This was a wonderful episode. Though I've been to Topkapi seeing this through your eyes was like visiting it for the first time. Thanks so much for taking us along.

Very interesting ! Thank you for sharing.

So enjoyable, you spoil us with these videos 😊

There are so many things that I would love to say- but most importantly, It is quite beautiful to watch two best friends, research and enjoy history. Your story telling with factual intent is amazing. I look forward to each adventure.

Magnificent, thanks for the true history lesson.

Fascinating and wonderful at the same time, incredible place and it opened my eyes to that part of the world those chandelier's wow great video once again thank you Olly and Stephanie.see you both next time take care 💕🌼🤗

Love this channel, very documentary like and both of you are brilliant at telling the story!

So interesting, Thank you both, I am learning so much from your vlog’s. Love to you both x

Looove Istanbul. Brilliant, interesting video. Thank you🥰

Great episode! Absolutely love this channel👍👍👍👍

I really learned alot from this video, what a beautiful and fascinating place.

That was so amazing.

Absolutely incredible episode!!! Actually my favorite of all of them. 😍😍👍🏻👍🏻 This channel is so amazing ❤️

Wonderful vlog. The format of each of you explaining different aspects was great. The snow added to the the exoticism of the city.

Very interesting thank you for showing us this fantastic video well done 👍

I learn so much from these vlogs. Thank you

I loved this vlog tremendously. I resently watched the series, "Magnificent Century". All about Suleiman and the Topkapi palace. ❤

I love this series

OMG!!!!! I am enjoying these videos sooo much..... Thank you, thank you Ollie and Steph for taking the time to do these travel videos. Best documentary ever 🤗🤗🥰😍