Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Istanbul

Enjoying the warm sunshine of Istanbul - The Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, the Grand Bazaar, the Chora Church, palaces along the Bosporus, and singing from the minarets five times a day.  Ingrid of course needed appropriate head covering to enter the mosques and other holy places, and we all needed to remove our shoes. 


The tile mosaics, frescos, caligraphy, and sheer splendor of the buildings was hard to take in at once.  The Blue Mosque was spectacular and felt like a very sacred space.  Eli was disillusioned by the the Hagia Sophia because nearly all traces of the Byzantine church were gone (except a few restored images of Jesus and Mary and the seraphim) from when it was converted to a Mosque.  It has also be "secularized", so that it was strictly a museum, and for Eli there was a big loss in converting what was once the grandest of all Christian churches into a tourist attraction.  He expected it to feel more like the Blue Mosque.  Later we did visit the Chora Church, which, although currently under renovation, the parts we could see gave a great feel for what the ancient churches were like. 


Our first day arriving to the Hippodrome area we were treated to thousands and thousands of white storks flying over head.  Apparently they migrate to the Bosporus at this time of year.  A countless stream of black and white sails. 


 We are enjoying trying all kinds of new foods, pistachio sweets, kebabs of many sorts, lots of yoghurt, a very interesting and refreshing turnip juice with pickles and cabbage in it, fresh pomegranate juice, great teas and Turkish coffee, Ayran (yoghurt drink), and some salads of cheese and chilies, or peaches, or beets, or ...   If it doesn't come from mammal meat, I'll give it a try.


The Grand Bazaar and the many small bazaars are overwhelming, exciting, and impossible.  It is a bit like Sal-si-puedes in Panama, but much more extensive and packed, packed, packed with locals and tourists from all over the world.  It is a little hard to take the aggressive "Yes. Please. Come in. You want to buy"  every few steps, but the assortment of what is available is hard to believe.  The Grand Bazaar is all under roof, with 23 doors.  I had to buy a Zurna to add to my world-wide collection of flutes after watching a Janissary band perform.  


We spent the first four days on the Fatih side, in an airbnb flat in the last residential neighborhood just south of the Hagia Sophia.  It was a wonderful location, just a few minutes walk to most of the famous sights and hundreds of restaurants and cafes. 
Yesterday we moved over to the Galata side, across the Golden Horn.  The airbnb flat here is literally a stone's throw from the Galata tower, on the top floor of a very old building, with an astounding view of the Bosphorus and the entrance to the Golden Horn.  It is truly astounding, even the five flights up the spiral staircase to get here.  All around us the buildings are a mix of decadent brick buildings and beautifully restored buildings.  It seems like every third building is undergoing a major renovation right now.















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