Istanbul (Day 2) ... Jan 29, 2009

We woke up a little later than we had planned, probably because we lost an hour coming to Turkey. But unfortunately we woke up to rain. As we have said before, we are superstars at ensuring that we have good weather on our travels, and except for a little light drizzle in Salzburg a few years ago and a day of absolute downpour in Dublin last year (which to be fair, considering it was Ireland, one day out of three with rain wasn't bad!), we have had good enough weather every other trip that we have taken. The rain forced us to just start with the Grand Bazaar, which was just a couple of blocks from our Hotel, so the rain issue didn't last too long. We walked into this enormous "shopping mall", one of the largest covered markets in the world (58 streets and 1200 shops), out of the rain. There was so much to look at and we easily got lost, or rather, somehow ended up at a completely different exit when we were done. Our first priority was to find a new pair of socks for Ashley, whose had gotten wet from the walk over and she was uncomfortable. At this bazaar the merchants are constantly harassing you to come in and "just look" in their shop ("no commitment to buy!" … "Browsing is free!"). This would become annoying quite quickly, but arguably you can't blame them. I asked one merchant, who said he could sell me shirts in his shop, if had any socks to sell. He immediately replied that he did and made us follow him through a little maze of shops until we got to his in the back. I asked him where the socks were (all I saw were shirts) and he told me to just wait. He said something to his colleague in Turkish, who then left for a few minutes. He came back with 3 pairs of the ugliest socks you can imagine. But I found it VERY amusing, that to trick me into going into his shop, he would just go buy some socks from another merchant and then try to sell them to me, along with his shirts. I told him I only wanted one pair of socks, no shirts, so we negotiated until I bought 2 pairs (one for Katie, one for Ashley), and then we left, to his disappointment. That was our first experience with the merchants of the Grand Bazaar. Others would consist of hearing the following: "Buy one get ME free!" or when we were asking for directions "yes, I know a shortcut through my shop!".
We continued through the maze of streets until we found a place to eat some breakfast. At this point we had only had a banana and we tried the Turkish "drinkable" yogurt (which turns out to not be so "drinkable"!), Ayran, a Turkish specialty of yogurt, milk, and SALT. It made me gag. Whitney saw my face when I tried it and used the excuse that she had "just brushed her teeth", to not have to try it herself! The girls made the same face I did when I allowed them to take a sip. So we were glad to sit down and eat their breakfast soup, some sort of Lentil soup, which is good enough. From this point we were close to an exit and it had stopped raining, so we decided to continue walking toward the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed) and the Hagia Sophia.
We walked for a bit before deciding to actually check where we were. It turns out that we must have come out of a different exit than I thought, so our stroll to the Hagia Sophia took a lot longer, and required a number of stops to ask for directions. But it made it more exciting, as we were strolling through a couple of streets that I wasn't too comfortable on. But we finally made it and got in line for our tickets. At this point a 70 year old tour guide came up to us and asked if we wanted a tour. At first we said no, but then we felt sorry for him and his price was not too bad, so we took him up on his offer. I am glad we did, as we learned a lot about the "Mosque/Basilica/Museum" through his explanations. We also learned that his name was Mufasa!This structure was originally built in 537 and was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years. In 1453 when the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople (remember, "Istanbul was Constantinople, now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople!), Sultan Mehmed II ordered that the church be converted into a Mosque. All of the "Christian" paraphernalia were removed and the mosaics were plastered over (as this is forbidden in Islam). Our guide pointed out that on the doors one can still see the remnant of the "cross", where the horizontal piece had been removed, leaving just the vertical. Over the course of time, the Islamic features, such as the four Minarets outside and the mihrab (that points towards Mecca), were added to the building. It remained a Mosque until 1935, when it was converted into a Museum by the Republic of Turkey. The carpets were removed and the plaster that covered the mosaics for years, was partially removed.
We saw the Sultan's prayer room, the Emperor's door (there are a number of different doors leading into the church/mosque, each a little bigger, the Emperor's door , the largest, obviously reserved for the Emperor), and some large candlesticks that were from imported from Budapest, and some of the Mosaics that they have uncovered.
We took the time to complete the ritual of sticking our thumb into a hole in one of the pillars and rotating our hand around while making a wish. Ashley told us that she wished she could be a "flying fish", we told her that a "dancing dolphin" would have to be sufficient (the name of her pre-school class).It is a beautiful building and was interesting to hear about the history of its metamorphosis.
We left the Hagia Sophia and visited the Topkapi Palace (Cannon Gate Palace), just around the corner (also passed a LOT of cats!). This palace complex was the residence of the Ottoman Sultans from 1465 to 1853, originally commissioned by Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of "Constantinople". By the mid 1800's, though, the main residence had shifted to another newly built palace up the Bosporus river, leaving the Topkapi less important as a residence. In 1923 it lose all importance as a residence and became a museum. It now houses in its numerous rooms weapons, jewels, clothing, art, etc. It houses the Topkapi dagger, covered in jewels and made in 1747 for the Shah in Persia. However, the Shah was assassinated before the dagger could be delivered, so it remained in Istanbul with the Sultan. We also saw the "Spoonmaker's Diamond", the 86 Karat, pear shaped diamond. A few legends exist relating to the origin. One involves a poor fisherman who found it, took it to a jeweler, who said it was a piece of glass (obviously trying to swindle the poor fisherman) and offered 3 spoons for it, which the fisherman accepted. Another is that it was found at a flea market and bought, assuming it was just a crystal. Whatever the real story, it's a BIG diamond! We ended our tour of the palace passing by the "Harem", where the Sultan, his family, his concubines, and his "favorites" lived. We didn't spend the additional money to go inside, though, so I don't know what was actually special about the place. And inside the rooms we were not allowed to take pictures, so we don't really have any.
During our visit to the palace we ran into a large group of Japanese tourists who made the kids pose for family pictures. This is not abnormal on our journies, but there was one lady that we kept running into who, as we made our way through the exhibits, kept coming back and pinching cheeks and speaking to us in Japanese about every five minutes. She was a nice lady, but I think the kids were ready for her to focus on the dagger or at the least, the DIAMOND!
We headed back to the hotel at this point, first stopping off to eat dinner (Dominos pizza that was AWESOME for some reason) and then spent a little time in the pool before going to sleep. By the way, the only rain we really dealt with after getting to the Bazaar in the morning was about 2 minutes before making it to the Topkapi Palace. The rest of the time it was a little cold, but absolutely manageable!