Isanbul, Turkey
Day 94
$1 = 1 lire
We're here!!
The place Florence Nightingagle and Agatha Christie loved! As well as the place mum and annie loving it as well!
The place where we can see Byzantinium art at it's best. I always thought the cathedral in Gero was something..and the design in Greece..but the byzantine here in Turkey is just brilliant!
We arrived by plane from Lemnos and after all our wondering found we had nothing to worry about at all! Well, that was after we'd worked out how to get to the hotel that we wanted to stay at (and recommended by Annie) We finally got a shuttle bus there and when we arrived Mahmet made us feel really welcome..and he remembered Annie and Graeme as well! Even the room they stayed in and the saga to do with their carpets!
The shuttle trip to the hotel was revelealing. Greg said after not being in Istanbul for over 20 years he really saw the difference. The lights were illuminating. So modern. Kids and families playing in the parks, cars everywhere, new buildings everywhere.
And as we approached our hotel, the site of the Blue Mosque shone over us. With six minuets! The only mosque in the world with six!
We slept so well...and woke up to the changing of the muslims at 4.30am!
We were definately in Turkey!
And what a full on first day..we went to the Halga Sophia museum..which was a greek othodox church until it was turned into an ottoman mosque!
The roman influence was amazing.
Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine and east Roman empire until it has it's name and religion changed when it was overrun by the Turks in 1453 when it was the roman capital.
The first thing we did, after being harrassed about buying carpets, mostly with the pretence they wanted to help us find monuments...was to go to the Basillica or Yerebaton cistern. AMAZING. It was the underground water system supplied by the roman aqueduct when the Romans were in control.
We also went to the Blue Mosque, took off our shoes, covered up our shoulders and legs with sarangs..and went inside to see the amazing light on the ceramics..and the wonderful carpets!
And saw the Byzantine Grand Palace which had beautiful floor coverings and mosaics..and the jewellery..ohlala..an 86 carat diamond was on full display! The funny thing was..apparently this diamond was found in a local dump. And a guy saw it and bought it for 3 spoons....and later found out it was a precious diamond! What a find. THe gems at the palace were just gorgeous..the pearls, emeralds and jewellery. And the massive kitchens with their pots...beautiful. The sultans knew how to live! And appreciated beauty that's for sure...
ANd of course......after all that.....drama.
My tooth fell out. The crown. Arrgh. Just what i needed in a foreign country. I couldn't eat..so Greg had dinner at "Peace" - A chicken kebab and got talking with the guys there...so funny...they told him they had shishas...
So..on Tuesday..after my tooth was fixed, by a gorgeous Turkish dentist, we went to the Grand Bazaar..and got blown away by all the little alleyways full of goodies....*thousands of market places there* we had a turkish bath which was both wonderful and scary at the same time *all of us having the bath in the nude, on a great slab, and washed and scrubbed and pummelled and massaged by women all nude bar a little pair of nickers on*
And we even fitted in a cruise along the Bosphorous Strait, between the Black and Marmara Seas where we saw the Asian side and the European side of Turkey...with Russia at the end! The little Turkish villages and rich white mansions on the hills being such a contrast..
We also finished the night off back at "Peace"..with our apple tea, turkish sweets and shishas..
WHat a wonderful place...
Peaceful place. No hostility..apart from the jokes about the Greeks! I'm sure there's more to it..but honestly we felt safe here in Istanbul and think it's a true delight!
