Skipped breakfast in favor of a few minutes extra sleep, then downed a power bar and a coke before hitting the bus
Stop 1 – Suleymaniye Mosque
Pretty cool. Couldn’t get all the way to the front section as it’s an active mosque. Hopefully the pictures come out well. Strange story about the things hanging along with the lights – they’re ostrich eggs. Some dark, but some in various, painted colors. The story is that they have some effect on spiders, so they hang them in the mosques to prevent cobwebs in the corners. Have never heard that one.
Suleman’s actual tomb was on site as well. Fairly small, but ornate. There are some diamonds embedded in the ceiling that I hope come out in the picture as well. Mecca plays a role in the tombs, too – you’re buried with your face facing Mecca. (No cremation in Islam). I forgot o charge things last night, and I’m starting to get the camera’s low battery warning. :(
Rebecca bought what I thought was tea from a street vendor, but it was actually cherry juice. Very, very sweet. :-o On to Tokapi Palace.
Monica’s feeling sick and blaming breakfast. One of the guys in the group offered her a suppository if she was still feeling bad when we got back to the hotel. How weird is that?
Lunch at Tokapi was okay. Set menu again, with choices for drinks. A pretty touristy place, but set just over the water behind the palace.
Tokapi was kind of so-so. The old kitchens now house ceramic bowls and stuff used by the sultans. Then several rooms of jewelry, ornate swords, etc. And finally two rooms with Islamic stuff. The mantle of Mohammed housed in a box. Some reliquaries for various people – crystal case with hairs from the beard of the prophet and stuff. Not my ball of wax, but no weirder than things I’ve seen in Christian and Jewish places before.
Hagia Sophia museum was really impressive. The version still standing was originally built in the 6th century, and was the largest domed structure in the world. It’s still in the top 5 biggest today, but all the others in the top 5 are almost 1000 years younger. Bulenz said something about it being named/added into the list of the wonders of the ancient world. It was a Christian church at first, then converted to a mosque I think in the 1400’s. Because Islam doesn’t allow images in mosques, the painting and mosaics had to be covered. Luckily the ruler at the time was an art history buff, and so the originals were plastered over instead of destroyed. Then in the 1950’s the mosque was converted into a museum, allowing for the original art/decoration to be uncovered and restored.
Then it was a short walk to the Blue Mosque. Another very big structure, and an active mosque like the first. Lots of individual wash stations along the outside for worshippers to wash before going inside. And I have to say, a strong smell of feet on the inside.
Grabbed a bread ring at the exit which was quite good – very pretzel-ish. The hippodrome where chariot races used to be was a little disappointing. There are three distinct columns (one Egyptian that’s in amazing condition, one that use to have bronze cladding which was removed by the Europeans during the Crusades, and one metal one that was swiped from Delphi). Everything’s built up around there, and so there’s really not much to see of the actual chariot route.
Back to the hotel. Tonight we’re having a fairly nice dinner with some business group. Sounds like we’ll be vastly outnumbered, too. Don’t know if this is a “thank-you for visiting Turkey” thing. Guess I need to pull out the dockers instead of jeans. :-(
I’m going to see if the camera battery has enough juice to upload some pictures, then try to find that wireless internet access the hotel’s advertising. No signal in my room, but maybe the lobby or business center.
.........
Wireless works fine in the hotel lobby. (Wish it did in the room, but no biggie) Waiter's bringing me a Heineken while I type and upload from several thousand miles away from home (I really should have looked up the distance). Now to try some pictures.
This is my favorite, I think:
