Istanbul, not Constantinople.
But actually a little bit of Constantinople and Byzantium as well.
So we have started on our Turkey trip - a trek across Turkey. The first leg of our trip has been spent in Istanbul, as the title of this blog may have given you a clue. We have spent lots of time walking and walking and looking and looking, and lots of time eating!
After our direct flight landed at the Ataturk airport, we jumped right into it, taking the subway and then the tram to the Sultanhamet area of town. The tram was packed and I felt guilty about taking up the extra space with my backpack, but people seemed nice and understanding.
The Ataturk airport is named after the first president of the Turkish Republic. Ataturk is a name given to him, meaning "Father of the Turkish people". They seem to love him very much.
The first day we went to the Hagia Sophia building. It was (re)built (for the third time- after burning down in 300 something, then falling down in 500 something) in the 900's. It is an extraordinarily magnificent building and our necks got sore from looking up up up at the magnificently tiled and painted ceilings and walls. It is simply amazing the breadth and length of history contained in one building. It was built as a Byzantine church, looted and converted by Catholic cruisaders, then turned into a mosque by Mehmet the Conqueror who brought Islam to the area. For centuries it held the record as the world's largest covered building. Now, since the 1930s it has been a public building and museum. Lots of people have appreciated it over the ages, at one point while we were walking around we were directed to look at some Viking runic graffiti carved into the marble railings on the second floor. Above everything else interesting and stunning about the place, by far my favourite feature was the giant calligraphic plaques hanging off of the second story, displaying names of god, Mohammed and his sons on wood, they were (and may still be) the largest pieces of calligraphy in the world. Nathan, although impressed with the place, was tired from the flight and once he sat down he succumbed to the (as Dawn said) genetically certain skill of Karstulovich men to sleep upright, anywhere.
That night when we went looking for dinner (not like it is hard to find, you can't go a few meters without being bugged to have a seat, or look at a menu) we happened upon a place featured in the show "Cities of the Underworld", (one of Nathan's favourite shows) a family-owned restaurant, who discovered some palatial ruins of a Byzantine palace underneath their restaurant and who have been excavating it slowly as time and money allowed. They allowed you to walk through it if you wanted. Neato.
The second day of Istanbul we visited the other fantastic building on the other side of the park, the Sultanahmet Camii or Blue Mosque. Built in 1600 something, Sultanahmet was so determined to outdo his predecessors and rival Mecca by building a mosque with 6 minarets, that he helped to dig the foundations himself. Again the ceiling and tile was beyond impressive, so my neck got another good work out from looking up at the mostly blue tiles and stencils. My favourite part was the giant "elephant foot" pillars supporting the dome. They each had a 5 meter diameter!
After spending time looking up we went down undergound. Specifically, to the Yerebatan Sarnici or "Basilica Cistern", a very impressive place to hold water. It was used for the palaces and cities before modern day plumbing. It was a neat walk because the columns supporting the domed roof of the cistern were recycled from old buildings. (Considering that the cistern is from the fourth century, that makes those very old buildings!). Each one was a bit different, and there was even a couple Medusa heads offering their support.
We spent most of the rest of the day exploring the Tokapi Palace grounds and museums. Wow! Life as a sultan in the Ottoman empire was pretty opulent! I tried to picture the yards covered with peacocks, visiers, and beautiful women but it was hard to picture. We explored lots of different rooms and buildings. My favourite was the harem, where all the concubines and most of the family of the sultan stayed. It had the most decoration, and beautiful handmade Iznik tiles from the 1700s. I think I would like some like that for when I retile the backsplash of the kitchen. The museums were fun too. I saw lots of old clothes and armour, (so sad that the area that had the dishes was closed) they had some treasures on display, including the fifth largest diamond in the world. Apparently other world leaders at the time just liked to give the sultan presents. But by far the weirdest display was the hand of John the Baptist (no, really!) and a tooth from Mohammad. That room had an exceedingly long line as you can imagine, people are always fascinated with the weird.
That night when we were wandering around the city and heading back to our hotel, we happened upon what seemed like thousands of people sitting in the park with their families breaking fast. So naturally we joined them with some turkish delight!
The next day we took a hop-on, hop-off bus tour, complete with prerecorded commentary. It was good to be able to get out to see more of the city than we could have on foot. The bus went over to the Asian side of the city (Istanbul is a city on two continents; Europe and Asia) which mostly seems to be "the subburbs". The neat part about that ride was that at one point when we were crossing the bridge over the Bosphorus Strait we were not on any continent, yet we were still in the city of Istanbul. During that trip we visited the Spice Market, which smelled amazing! What a crush of people, and good practice I guess for the Grand Bazaar, which we haven't made our way to yet, planning on the way back home we have to go through Istanbul again. That evening we took a boat ride on the Bosphorus at sunset and when we went up the "Golden Horn" we got to see why it got that name with the sunlight reflecting off of the water. It was pretty to be able to see the city from a slightly different angle, but it definitely wasn't the most interesting part of our trip.
That day marked the end of Ramadan, and the next day was the national holiday and "Sugar Festival". We were expecting a party and candy, but were dissapointed. I suspect people celebrate like Easter - with family, not publically. Not much at all was open so we walked and walked just to see buildings and areas. I had wanted to go to a hammam so convinced Nathan to go, and I think he is glad that he did. We found one from the 1500s, frequented by Sultan Sulyemon the Magnificent. It was a little more directed to tourists which was good for our first time and us not knowing what to do. What an experience! I think i am still bruised! Here's how it went: found the old stone building hiding behind a mosque, on the top of a hill on a narrow cobblestoned street. Went in, admired the building, drank tea while reclining on cushions. Changed clothes, nathan got a towel and i got a bikini top and shorts. Went into the steam room, tried to gingerly sit on the ridiculously hot marble slab, you were supposed to lie down. It was so hot, i had to leave twice. You know when you say you sweat a lot, you sweat a large amount in the usual places, in here you sweat from every pore of your body. Everywhere. Then you are called into a room where you sit on a marble seat and an attendant scrubs you, with a giant pad that resembles the hook side of velcro. They take off all our dead skin cells, and one or two layers of alive epidermis as well. Then they dump cold water on you. That was a bit of a shock. Then you get to lay out on another marble slab and they take a net-like pillowcase thing which makes an extraordinary amount of bubbles and completely cover you with bubbles. Such that you don't know that there is a person underneath! Then you get massaged, scrubed, slapped, punched and stretched, and then more cold water is dumped on you. Then you get your hair washed and more cold water. Then you go to the next room where you change out of your wet outfit for a dry towel and then another attendant air dries you by waving a hot towel and wraps you up like a mummy with your hands inside. Then you trundle off to another room to sit and drink more tea. That is the whole process. Oh, did I mention that you do the whole thing in wooden platform sandals?
And that ends our time in Istanbul for now, although we will be back at the end of our trip. I hope to be able to spend some quality time at the Grand Bazaar because we missed it this time as it was closed for the holiday.
Off to the area of Cappadocia, specifically the town of Goreme, to see weird rocks. Can't wait!
And finally, some pictures just because I like them...
