-May 2006-
We also had a private tour with Nejat in Istanbul and we actually went with him this time! It was only 5 of us including Nejat and we had a busy day in Istanbul ahead of us. We first went to Topkapi Palace, built in 1465. It was a giant palace divided up into many areas, kitchens (that cooked for 10,000 daily!), armory, military base, living quarters and museums. In one of the museums we were able to see giant jewels, we even saw a 82 carat diamond! Amazing.
We then went to Hagia Sophia (Church of Holy Wisdom), now known as the Ayasofya Museum, it is a former Eastern Orthodox church converted to a mosque in 1453, converted into a museum in 1935, in the Turkish city of Istanbul. It is universally acknowledged as one of the greatest buildings of the world and sometimes considered the Eighth Wonder of the World. The candles and the paintings and the marble all together created a beautiful atmosphere. It was also neat to see the transition from a Christian Church to a mosque and how they did preserve some mosaics with Christian references but you could see other things like crosses shaved down to only be lines.
After Hagia Sophia we went to lunch at a great restaurant that Nejat took us to. It had wonderful views and really good food. I had a steak kabob with pistachios and of course, baklava (pistachio AND walnut), mmmm! After lunch we headed to the Blue Mosque. This is a active mosque, therefore requiring shoe removal, heads, knees and shoe removal. It was very beautiful and surprisingly not very blue (The mosque became known in the west as the Blue Mosque because of the predominantly blue coloring of paintwork of the interior. However this blue paint was not part of the mosque's original decor so it is being removed). My pictures don't do it justice, my camera didn't like the lighting.
Lastly we visited The Basilica Cistern. It is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that still lie beneath the city of Istanbul. The cistern is surrounded by a firebrick wall with a thickness of 4 meters and coated with a special mortar for insulation against water. It doesn't sound like much, but this giant underground cistern built by Justinian in 532 to provide water to the city in cases of siege, and later consecrated as a basilica. The cistern was discovered when people were 'fishing' from their holes cut in their floor!
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This was the best port view by far! I was so excited when we 'rolled' up and you could see the mosques
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Enterance to Topkapi Palace
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One of the domes in the kitchen
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That's Asia on the other side! We really wanted to cross that bridge but ran out of time
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Vinny and I under the golden butter dish
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Vinny and I in one of the tiled living quarters in Topkapi Palace
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Kitties!
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'Evil Eyes' actually built into this person's home. They keep evil spirits away
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Hagia Sophia
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These candles are the only lighting in Hagia Sophia
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kitty!
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Lunch...great view huh?
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mmmm...pistachio baklava
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dang it...now I'm craving baklava...
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aww...kittens! They were soo cute
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Blue Mosque (hover over picture to see a longer story about the minarets)
The Blue Mosque is the only mosque in Turkey that has six minarets. When the number of minarets was revealed, the Sultan was criticised for presumption, since this was, at the time, the same number as at the mosque of the Ka'aba in Mecca. He overcame this problem by paying for a seventh minaret at the Mecca mosque.
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Some thing Vinny made me take a picture of and I knew I wouldnt remember what it was....
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Strong neck? Youch! He is carrying traditional bread rolled into a circle and covered in sesame seeds
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another thing that Vinny made me take a picture of and I dont remember what it is....
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kitty!
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Inside The Blue Mosque
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Turkish flag in flowers
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Hagia Sophia
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kitty!
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This is one last thing I cant remember....
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The underground cistern (creepy)
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Medusa column in the cistern
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"fishing" hole
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whew..long day in Istanbul...
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They dont have Diet Coke in most everywhere we went, it was called Coca Cola Light...hehe!
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