Ayasofya... Basilica cistern... Kariye... The Bazaar...

The Ayasofya, built as an Orthodox church around 550AD was the largest building in the world for nearly 1000 years. The conquest of Istanbul by the Ottoman Turks in the 1400's resulted in all (?) churches being turned into mosques. Since the churches had images of people and animals, they were covered over with other materials, usually plaster. When Attaturk declared Ayasofya a museum after the founding of the republic, restoration by removing plaster etc began, revealing gold mosaics of various Christian icons. But before this happened, the crusaders, when they arrived in Istanbul on their way to the holy land in the 11th century to expand the reach of Christianity, admired the riches of istanbul so much, they decided to stay here... And melt the gold off their brethren's church walls. (Hence the great schism.... Well, it was more complicated than that, but this is a blog.) In any event, much of the gilt-adorned mosiacs etc. is now lost and many damaged walls were uncovered in the modern era.

















(stairway to the upper level)

















The basilica cistern was amazing. After that, Ali called our driver to take us a bit further away to a hilltop vista of the city where we could see the Galata Tower and the bridges we crossed. And from our vista we could see on the top of the hill on the other side of town near the end of the golden horn, the Ayasofya.






Kariye, the church of the savior at Chora, which too became a mosque and now is a museum, has some of the best preserved Byzantine art anywhere. It too after peeling back the coverings on the walls, showed missing tiles and signs of plundering.














Neat how the altar area in these former churches have a modified part, always off center from the altar because it points in the direction of Mecca.

Lunch today was again amazing. And included with our private guide. After lunch, we took a peek at the grand bazaar's 4400 shops, but even though it was far from crowded (as the bazaar goes, we bailed quickly). Lisa might enjoy shopping, but she hates hawkers and markets! Besides, we didn't need anything and where would we put it!!!







































Dinner was on the top floor of a crappy hotel that had a million dollar view of the Blue Mosque. Pictures don't do it justice.

PS - what's up doc?

Seems I am typing and typing and no one is talking back, asking questions, nothing. Am I typing into the ether? Maybe I should go dark and off the grid for a couple of weeks?

Testi kebap...

So for dinner, we decided to look around for a restaurant and eat at our hotel (out on the street restaurant) as the default should we not see something that catches our eye. On the way up the hill, as we passed Metropolis, alas, sitting at my "my" table were old friends Shannon and Chris. We said hello, and continued on our way.








Around the corner we came across the Seven Hills Hotel and rooftop restaurant. Up we went. The vista was amazing. You could see the blue mosque to the left, the Aya Sofia to the right, the Bosphorous behind us. Amazing view. The menu, mostly seafood. Ah but the Murhpy girls don't like seafood so we had to abandon the beautiful (and windy and nippy) setting.









We walked a bit more and decided we would eat at our hotel. I got my table, our wine, calamari the way I like it. Lots o' ketchup, they remember. Fresh salad and for the main testi lamb kebap cooked in a clay pot. Delish. And a fruit plate for dessert. While sipping my first of three Turkish teas, along come Chris and Shannon. So we had drinks and compared notes from today and for tomorrow.

True story. Chris bought a bottle of wine for the room earlier in the day at a corner store. He didn't want to ask the hotel for a corkscrew, and there was none in the room so he headed back to the store a few minutes away to buy one. They wouldn't sell their "only" corkscrew to him, and sent to the next place... And the next... And the next. Twenty minutes later he ended up at the Metropolis where he borrowed one and told them he would return it and have dinner when doing so. Shannon thought he'd been hit by a car or something, he was gone so long. We roared.


A walk around the block to end the evening, time for sleep. Ali meets us in the lobby at 0900 tomorrow.

A walking tour of the old city Sultanahmet

Correction. Our walk from Europe to Asia was really a walk from Europe to Europe, we were mistaken. We did not get to Asia yet.

This morning after a quick omelet, Ali met us at our hotel. He is our private guide for 3 days.

Today's was a walking tour which began at Topkapi palace, the sultan's palace. We walked it throughout including the harem. Ali is very knowledgeable and a great guy.



































From there we visited the Blue Mosque. Lisa had to cover up, and we had to remove shoes to enter. Inside was amazing. The structure and how it was built, with its large spans supported from the inside on 4 huge, I mean huge, columns known as elephant feet. And the intricate tile work. Tiles everywhere. Photography is allowed in the mosque, I got a few interesting images.



























From there we headed towards the Spice Market and stopped along the way for lunch. Local cuisine, very very nice. Doner meat in mine, like the doner meat - lamb.

After a quick walk thru the market (since we saw it yesterday), we visited another mosque called Rustem Pasha. Much smaller but unique in its own way. There we saw a young lad, with his dad, dressed up in like a special baptism uniform/costume. He is looking forward to entering manhood and the party thereafter where he will get toys and money and a big party. Poor lad, he doesn't know what comes before the party. Snip snip.

From there we took a different route back up the hill to our hotel, getting here around 3pm. In all the walking tour today was about 6 hours. We wished Ali a good evening and decided a large beer was in order. It wasn't. We were so bagged, we drank half with one eye open. Luckily we were at our hotel's outside cafe, so up to the room for what turned out to be a 4 hour nap.












Dinner time.

Back from dinner

We got to dinner, at the restaurant which was a mere 30 paces up the street, and they held our table for us. We sat down, and surprise, a newly wed couple on their honeymoon were sitting next to us. Chris and Shannon from Vancouver. What a lovely couple. We ate, drank and enjoyed each other's company till way past midnight. Small world.


Great food, overpriced, still great food and great company.

Time for bed, our guide picks us up tomorrow at 0900. BTW, seems it is telling me this post is happening at 2:44pm when it is actually 12:44 am. Do not know why...

The walk from Europe to Asia (so we thought)

Last night when we arrived, there was a room screw up. So we stayed next door at a sister hotel. They comp'd us for the room and dinner. Dinner was great. This morning after breakfast, we got our room. It is lovely with an outside terrace.







After breakfast we decided to go for a walk. Today is a free day. No guide. We walked up past the archeological museum, down to the water, and across the bridge that connects Europe to Asia. Very cool. The bridge was lined on both sides with fisherman casting the lines.





(archelogical museum)























































On the other side, took an underground (ie in a tunnel) funicular to the top of the hill.






There we walked a long pedestrian street what was almost like a walled street. Behind the facade are churches and embassies. The Ottomans made it a requirement that all churches remain out of sight.









We went in St. Anthony's. On the way out, I of course blessed myself with the holy water. Lisa, you should have as well for insurance of going down under some day!




(looking toward the street from St Anthony's)









(Pope Benedict visited 2006 and gave a statue of Pope John Paul II as a gift)


At the top of the street was a demonstration, peaceful but with loud chanting. Took a few snaps. There was a platoon of polis off to the side. Then I decided it was time to go.



Went back the same way, passed a few Starbucks, and decide to have coffee at Gloria Jeans. Two coffee and a tiny bottle of water - 19TL or 12+ Cdn. Can you spell rip off. Lol.












On the way back down to the water, we walked as we wanted to stop at Galata Tower. Similar to a tower we saw in Zagreb called Thieves' Tower. Very cool, got a panorama of the city and both continents.




































Oh before the water, I had a lemon gelato. Come on Canada and America, figure this out, it is so good. Had it in Croatia, loved it. Had it in Greece, loved it. Had it in France, loved it. Gonna have more of it in Turkey, and I'm going to love it.










While walking back, we crossed the Bosphorous again, this time on the other bridge. Saw a market, went thru it, it was huge, the spice market. Hey Coco, a market just for you.






Thereafter, we walked towards the museum, stopped at an outdoor doner establishment for a doner and Efes (beer). Yummy.

Spent time in the museum, nice, more pots and crypts, and statues. Still interesting nonetheless. From there we stopped at an outdoor cafe across from our hotel. Some of you got an email with photos from there. Had a beer. They gave us apple tea to finish. Came back to the room to freshen up and back to them (my table) (they are holding it for me) (Max and Gino). I love to eat where they know me by name and I have my own table. Only took me a day to get that set up. Lol. The place was called Metropolis.














That's it for now, sorry no pictures. I did not bring a laptop. iPads do not have a file system so I have to copy photos onto the device, upload to dropbox or MobileMe then include them. Too much work, you may have to wait until we return to see images. We'll see...

Cheers.