Istanbul, Part I

You're getting the Istanbul entry in (at least) two parts for three reasons: I didn't get around to writing an entry last week, so this will keep my average at one a week; I have fended off over three hundred thousand requests to purchase tourist novelties in the last couple days and am kinda exhausted; this was an epic tour that deserves extra space. Basically I want to get something written now while the trip is fresh in my mind, and if I wait until tomorrow morning the temptation to plagiarize the whole thing from Meredith's blog will be too great.

We got to take the train there, an 11:30 departure from Ankara called the Fatih Ekspresi. It was the best I have slept in transportation mode without having a sleeper car at least in a while. We got in around 8am and took the ferry across the still-misty Bosphorus onto the European side of Istanbul, having arrived on the Asian side. This was a teasing first glimpse at the city because everything was pretty much still concealed inland, but you could just make out enough the buildings lining the shore to get a feel for the architecture and beauty of it. Nothing says "Good Morning, Mehmet!" like minarets rising through the fog. (I didn't take any pictures until we got to the cool buildings, don't worry, they're coming).

Meredith and I had breakfast with Amari, one of our co-workers we were traveling with, at a börek restaurant next to the Galata Bridge. Then we crossed the bridge into the "Golden Horn" part of Istanbul and the Sultanahmet district. That's the relatively touristy part of town where, conveniently, a half-dozen or so of the major attractiosn are located within several blocks of each other. We walked up a long gradual hill with the Bosphorus at our backs, to the North, and came down the other side with the Marmara Sea in front to the South. After checking in at the the Sultan Hostel (they're big on the sultan theme for tourists there, I guess Suleyman the Magnificient [best name for a dynastic ruler in the last 2,200 years if you ask me] had a thing for overpriced beer and carpet shops), we (Meredith, Amari, co-worker Ted, Ted's random acquaintance Jeff and I) headed out to the Blue Mosque, about three blocks North of where we stayed.

Before going in, I got to take a picture for some Chinese tourists from Guangzhou who wanted to get Meredith in their shot as a token foreigner. The outside of the Blue Mosque was great not just for its design but also the way it dominated so much of the neighborhood where we stayed. it had a presence all out of proportion to its size because so much was built around it and there were always lights on it at night. It was a very cool thing to have the focus on.

(Feeling blue? Go to the mosque!)

The inside was spectacular primarily for its geometric designs, its stained glass windows, and the fact that it is still used several times a day for prayer. I was too busy to give a guest sermon, but I told them I'll be in town again sometime in the next few months.



Next we headed basically across the street, to the Hagia Sophia/Aya Sophia, the one built in 530-something by Justinian to be the greatest church in the world. When the Ottomans took the city they plastered over all the nice mosaics because that stuff's not allowed for Islam (and you guys thought I was a philistine). By the way since Saturday was Teacher's Day I got free or reduced admission everywhere and ended up saving like $30!

(The Virgin, the Baby, the pizza delivery Saints [hey, who feels like cooking after a virgin birth?])
(I'm there to remind them to pray in the direction of the thing behind me. Or was it the other way around? Some of the memories got knocked around when I was tackled by the security guard for trying to nab one of the tiles from the above mosaic as a souvenir. It wasn't even one of the big ones!)

We also went to the Grand Bazaar on Saturday. Basically it was a dressed-up version of the one in Cairo, which I liked much better. It seemed like the Mall of America, Middle Eastern style. You know, if the salespeople at the GAP harassed you with special prices as you went by.

OK, that's it for tonight, coming soon: parks, museums, cisterns, restaurants, good company and good timing!