Istanbul days 1 and 2

We spent another day in Pamukkale, exploring the nearby ruins of Laodika, home to one of the seven churches mentioned in the Book of Revelations. The weather was beautiful, the poppys plentiful and the tour buses had mostly skipped it. There were tons of lizards and some of the clay pipes that had once carried drinking water were visible. The theatres were interesting, because they were just theatre shaped dents in a hill, with a few rows of benches scattered here and there.

May 9^th 2011

Today was our first full day in Istanbul. We woke up around 8 am and went for a breakfast of lentil soup with mint and lemon and all you can eat bead for 1 lira (75 cents) at a nearby “Lokanta”, a restaurant serving “mezzes”, which are small plates of food, a bit like “tapas”. We walked east from Taksim square to the Bosphorous and hopped on the tram. When we arrived in Sultanahmet, (historical heart of the city) we stood around in the park a bit, marvelling at the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya. When the effect wore off we wandered over to the Blue Mosque, stood in line for a minute or two and then entered the Mosque. The inside was indeed spectacular, covered in blue Iznik tiles, the huge dome was quite something. There was a nice carpet on the floor and an assortment of gilded medallions with Arabic on them. After 20 minutes of ooing and aahing, we left and headed towards its somewhat more ancient neighbour, the Aya Sofya... only to find out that it is closed Monday. Disappointed, we ambled in the direction of Topkapi palace. We bought our expensive tickets and went to explore the palace. The courtyards were beautiful and in the treasury, there were probably more precious stones and metals than there are in all of Canada. Dad and I also went into the Harem, (an extra 15 lira!) where the sultan, his family and his concubines lived. There were lots of fancy decorations and it reminded me of french chateaux. The mother of pearl and tortoise shell cupboards were quite something. We walked back home, stopping for a fish sandwich on the way.

Back at our hotel, we slept for a bit and went for supper at the same place we went to for breakfast. We had 7 plates of Mezzes (mezzes are substantially bigger than tapas, most grown men order one or two plates and some rice) and 1 plate of Baklava for 14 lira (9 dollars), I think we'll be coming back to this place.

May 10^th 2011

Another morning, another bowl of lentil soup, another tram. We got off at Aya Sofya, decided to wait till 4 pm when the crowds had left and walked to the Istanbul Archeological Museums. The Museums were great, tons of exhibits and very well laid out. The highlights were the incredibly well preserved sarcophagi and the Roman tombs that had been translated into English. Most of them read something like this...

“This tombstone was built by ______ son/daughter of _____ for their mother/father/cousin etc who was a builder/priest/teacher etc. who was known for his/her virtues/beauty/hard work.”

Although some were more dramatic, such as this one...

“ Meandros, son of Meidias farewell!”

“Oh Meandros, son of Meidias, why are you walking the most painful road that has no return, leaving sad tears for your son?

Your wife Moschion is wailing, your sister is lamenting. You have been suddenly killed by the power of an unknown man.

Go away, the worst of unfortunate deeds! Why have you extinguished unseasonally this refined person, taken by Ares who ends lives.”

Some other highlights in the museum were the hundreds of sculptures and the exhibit on the history of Istanbul, which contained the chain that was used to stop ships sailing up the Golden Horn (the other water way in Istanbul).

When we arrived at the Aya Sofya, the lines were much shorter than before. We bought the tickets and headed on in. The Aya Sofya you see today is the most recent of a series of churches built by Byzantine empires. The current one was commisioned by Justinian and finished in 537. In the conquest of 1453, it was turned into a mosque, it stayed that way until 1935 when Ataturk decided to proclaim it a museum. Inside was spectacular, the dome was massive. We had been expecting scaffolding because of restoration, but due to Istanbul's title of European capital of culture 2010, the scaffolding has been temporarily removed and the building was indeed awe inspiring, we wandered around for about an hour, admiring mosaics and staring up above us. It took a while, but we managed to pry ourselves away from this truly monumental building after about one hour. On the walk home, Joe will be happy to know that my dad had his leatherman knife sharpened by a man with a motorized grindstone on wheels.

Laodika

A lizard in Laodika

Nice Sarcophagus

Great Museum

Blue Mosque, the windows top-center, are all along the bottom of the dome

Blue Mosque courtyard

Lunch

Topkapi Palace

Nice View

In the Harem

Just fooling around

A cupboard in the Harem

Stained glass in the Harem

Yeni Camii

Inside Aya Sofya

More Aya Sofya

The dome

That row of windows, barely visible at the top of the photo is as close as I got to getting to floor and the dome in the same picture.