Emily and I flew from Athens to Istanbul then took the Metro to the area around the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. Some very friendly locals asked us if we needed help finding our hotel. At first I was suspicious--were they expecting money for their advice? Turns out that they were just being friendly. Over and over we found that people were very friendly and willing to help us out. After getting checked in at the hotel which was just a few rooms over a restaurant, we went exploring.
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| Roman Serpent Column, or what's left of it |
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| Egyptian Obelix |
Since it was still open (and free!) we decided to visit the Blue Mosque, finished in 1616 for Sultan Ahmed I. We had to take off our shoes in order to go inside because it is still a functioning mosque.
We started the next day at Topkapi Palace where the Ottoman sultans used to live.
It was raining but at the time not very hard and since Hagia Sophia was closed for the day, we decided to take a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul. When we got there, though, it was raining really hard and the wind had picked up so we didn't stay for very long.
Back in Europe, we wandered around some more, taking pictures.
The skies cleared and we headed to Taksim Square where there's the Monument of the Republic, which commemorates the Turkish War for Independence in 1923.
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There's also lots of shopping.
We happened upon a Christian church
with this very odd Jesus sculpture outside which looks like a warped photo.
We headed through the shopping areas toward Galata Tower, where I saw a familiar face.
Atop Galata Tower, we took pictures until it started to rain again.
On the walk to our side of the city, we saw a number of people fishing off the bridge. It appeared that tourists (or anybody) could rent poles and buy bait to fish.
The next morning we walked over to Hagia Sophia only to discover that some very important Chinese diplomat was going to arrive soon to tour the place so it was closed to the public until 11. Emily and I tried to get out of the crowd and inadvertently nearly walked into the diplomat's motorcade of fancy cars and security personnel but a security guard stopped us. We decided to check out the Roman cistern (an underground water storage area) instead. It was so big and very cool temperature-wise.
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| I like this one even though it's blurry. |
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| What's Medusa doing down there? |
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| How'd she get upside down? |
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| Weird tree-like column with knot-holes. |
Afterward, we went exploring some more. We found a sultan's fountain,
caught a parade,
visited a Sultan's tomb,
strolled through the Grand Bazaar,
took another picture of the Blue Mosque,
took a stroll along the water, where this Roarie look-alike was taking a nap on the rocks,
found some Roman aqueducts,
and saw the University.
When we got back to the area around our hotel, the lines at Hagia Sophia were substantially shorter (they'd been terribly long after the Chinese diplomat had delayed the openining).
Hagia Sophia, originally a Christian church built in 532 by Justinian (after two previous churches there had burned down) and then a mosque after 1453, was AMAZING.
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| I wish I'd gotten something in the picture to show the scale of this humongous marble jar. |
After our visit to Hagia Sophia, we caught a bit of a traditional Turkish music concert. The psychedelic viewscreen behind the singers was an odd choice for the traditional music.
Before heading to airport the next morning, we stopped at the hagia Sophia Mausoleums where Sultans had themselves and their families buried.
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| They're in those strange green boxes |
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| View of Hagia Sophia from the mausoleum courtyard |
On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped at a rug shop where a woman was weaving. She invited us to sit down and give it a try, showing us how to do it. Too cool.
And before we leave Istanbul, flowers!! It seemed that everywhere there were planted flowers making Istanbul a very pretty city.
