Amazing Istanbul

August 2014

After getting to bed early, we were rested and ready to begin our adventure. We had the most amazing buffet breakfast at the hotel before our tour began. Of course, it had all of the yummy pastries you would expect from a traditional European Continental Breakfast, along with cereals, eggs, bacon and waffles for non-adventurous American clientele. They also had traditional Turkish breakfast fare - tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, yogurt, bread, honey on the comb, figs and beyaz peynir, a white, salty sheep's milk cheese. Not being coffee drinkers, Tommy and I passed on the famous Turkish coffee and stuck to tea and fruit juice.

With happy bellies, we began our tour. There were 6 others on our tour, mostly Americans - a couple who was probably 10 years or so older than us, an older couple and her father who was probably nearing 90 and his Swiss lady friend. Our guide was great - very experienced - I think he said he'd been giving tours of Istanbul for close to 50 years, so he knew his stuff.

We started at the Topkapi Palace the seat of the Ottoman Empire for over 600 years. I suppose I probably should have known, but I had no idea that the Ottoman Empire still ruled up until the end of World War I. During the height of the Empire, as many as 4,000 people lived and worked on the palace grounds.

This is the Fountain of Sultan Ahmet III that stands right outside of the entrance gate of the palace. You pass through the first gate and into a courtyard:

This is a church in the first courtyard: 

We spent most of our time n the second courtyard. The palace kitchens were first built in the 15th century. The kitchens were impressive, consisting of 10 domed buildings and 20 chimneys. Over 800 people cooked up to 6,000 meals a day in the kitchens, so I guess they had to be big! This is a picture of some of the chimneys, but it doesn't do them justice at all:

As we listened to our guide, I remember being particularly struck by the power the women exerted over the Ottoman Empire at certain times during its rule. During the 16th and 17th century, in a period known as the Sultanate of women, the Sultans' mother and wives effectively ruled the kingdom. The "mother sultans" were often of slave origin and gained significant influence over their sons, the Sultans, who were often only children when they rose to power. Interesting stuff...

We toured the outer imperial treasury and saw the imperial arms collections. We also went inside the Imperial Council Chambers: 

 And got our guide to take our picture outside of them:

We could have easily spent the rest of the day exploring the grounds, including the inner courtyards and royal residences and harem, but unfortunately, when you only have one day to see such an amazing city, certain things have to be cut short. We caught a glimpse of the gate leading to the third courtyard before we made our way back out of the palace grounds:

When you step out of the gate of the Topkapi palace, the Sea of Marmara is directly on your left, the Hagia Sophia is on your right and the Blue Mosque is maybe a half a mile in front of you. The pictures we tried to take as you walk through the arched gate don't do justice to the beauty, so I'll just move on to our next location - the Hagia Sophia, seen here from the back as you exit the palace.

And from a couple of different angles:

I was originally not that impressed with the outside of the Hagia Sophia - I think I always associated that name with the Blue Mosque, which is a much more impressive, newer looking building from the outside.  The Hagia Sophia was originally a Greek Orthodox church built in the sixth century that housed the Patriarch of Constantinople in the 13th century and was converted into a Roman Catholic Cathedral under the Latin Empire. It was converted into a mosque in the 15th century and is now a museum. Inside, the Hagia Sophia is beautiful. What I found most interesting was how a Christian church was converted into a Muslim mosque. The church originally faced Jerusalem, but the altars in a mosque must face Mecca, so the Muslim altar is slightly off-center. Greek Orthodox mosaics stand next to Muslim minarets. It was like nothing I had ever seen.  Very cool.

This one is my favorite:

As it was Friday, and the Blue Mosque is still a functioning mosque, we couldn't tour it until after prayers in the afternoon, but we did snap a few pictures before we left:

From there, we headed to the Grand Bazaar and had some time to explore on our own. We entered from this gate:

 

It reminded me a lot of the Khan Al-Khalili in Cairo, except that the stores were selling different things, of course. Inside the bazaar, there were mazes of paths lined with small stores selling everything from carpets to baklava, lamps, clothes, spices and Turkish delight. The "streets" near the main gates of the bazaar were wider and the stores were larger and fancier, but as you would further into the maze of the bazaar the stores became smaller, and the streets narrower.

We didn't buy too much - a cute outfit for Livi and some Turkish delight for my dad - from this store, as a matter of fact:

After grabbing some lunch on an outdoor patio and people-watching for a few minutes, we headed back to the Blue Mosque:

As I mentioned, the Blue Mosque is still an operational mosque, so those who enter must adhere to the dress code, which for women means head and knees must be covered. I was not appropriately dressed in my shorts and t-shirt, but fortunately, they will provide you with a robe and head covering before you enter should you be in inappropriate attire. Here I am before we entered, looking stylish:

Once again, it was amazingly beautiful inside. I'm not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but there are thousands of cords hanging from the ceiling, attached to the low-hanging lights that are all around the interior of the building:

 

 The open area behind us in this picture is reserved for Muslim men to pray:

 Our last stop of the day was Hippodrome. The oldest of the sites we saw, the Hippodrome was built in the 3rd and 4th century AD, completed during the rule of Constantine the Great. The Hippodrome was the site of public games and chariot races - the social center of Constantinople during the Byzantine Empire.There isn't much left of the Hippodrome today, but in its day, it could seat up to 100,000 people, so it must have been a sight to behold. Remnants of the monuments in the center of the Hipppodrome still remain today. This is the Serpent Column, constructed to celebrate the victory of the Greeks over the Persians during the Persian Wars in the 5th century BC:

Of course, everyone who is anyone has to have an obelisk from Egypt:

This one was mounted on a base that depicts an emperor offering a wreath to a victor of one of the races:

We got to rest for a couple of hours, then headed out for dinner to the restaurant our tour guide had booked for us the previous night. Sofyali 9. It was a small, intimate restaurant offering primarily mezes, basically Turkish tapas. We tried several hot and cold appetizers - bread and cheese, olives, anchovies, roasted eggplant, spiced walnut spread, stuffed mushrooms, and followed with a plate of chicken shish to share as our main course (please ignore my face eating in the corner of every picture - thanks, Tommy) .

 

Of course, I had to try some baklava for dessert. For the most part, I was disappointed by the baklava I tried, but this one was delicious!

 We finished the day with drinks on the patio outside of our hotel

I ordered one of their specialty drinks named for Agatha Christie. It wasn't cheap, but it was delicious.

After such an amazing first day, can you believe the trip gets better from here?! Tomorrow, we begin our journey on the Wind Star...