Istanbul (not Constantinople), Turkey

Turkey part 2-private walking tour with another guest family

Pulling into this city is pretty amazing. The skyline is dotted with faded blue mosque domes-a few of the 3000 that occupy Istanbul. The further in we go, our angle of visibility changes revealing more and more domes. These pictures don’t do this place justice. You can feel a magic in the city.

We shared an on-foot private tour with a Saint Louis family also on the cruise. We rendezvoused with Maddie, Kirin and their two boys downstairs of the cruise ship at the International Cafe before disembarking into a modern terminal that felt like an airport.

We met our guide Lale below the clocktower.

The first we place we visited was the ancient hippodrome or Sultanahmet Square. It was once used for chariot racing, a track and field shaped stadium surrounded by bleachers. All you can see now are 3 different monuments sticking up out of the ground. Each of the 3 are missing parts for one reason or another. Some are in museums, some couldn’t fully fit on the ship originally or have been pillaged away. Cool thing about the hippodrome is that like many ancient cities it wasn’t destroyed, just filled over with dirt and pavers so that future generations can uncover it later.

From here you can see that the original ground is around 3 meters down.

This is my (poor) recap of the 5 Pillars of Islam based on my travel pics (probably not in the correct order).

1) pray 5 times a day facing Mecca. In the earlier times, prayer callers would go out on the balconies of these spires to announce prayer time. Now it’s all done with amplified speakers.

You would cleanse your body before praying at places like this. This one is located outside of the Blue Mosque I believe. Maybe not tho.

2) fasting at Ramadan, to renew their awareness off all that God has provided. One day of no eating or drinking including gum chewing or even smoking according to our guide. “Zip the mouth” Lale said

3) a once in a lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca currently located in Saudi Arabia. And lastly…

4) giving to the poor-supposedly giving 10% of your wealth in some way but you can also give in other ways for example teaching or helping others.

5) profession of faith “there’s only one god and Mohamed is his prophet”

Sorry if this is a poor recap. I feel like I’m back in school again.

We visited the Blue Mosque which is undergoing renovation. To enter you have to cover knees and shoulders depending on your sex.

All we could see was the inner part of the dome. The rest was mostly covered up. Oh wells. Note June’s head covering.

The next mosque we went to was the Hagia Sophia.

The part where everyone takes off their shoes smells like feet lol.

First feet, then lunch!

Lale (our guide), are you sure you aren’t bringing to your own restaurant? Lale means tulip and is a common name around town.

Pretty standard fare, this place was nice because you could look then choose.

Next we visited the Grand Bazaar, a 500+ year old shopping district. We only had 15 minutes so we just popped our heads in.

This section (Gate #1 of 20 something) looked like a cutaway section of a mall. It was just a tunnel lined with modern looking shops. Not interesting at all. I wanted to see the large open part where James Bond came crashing thorough on a motorbike. Guess I should have been more specific, this thing is huge!

Outside was pretty interesting though.

It was lined with little open air shops, many of them selling gold, one of the items Turkey is known for. Although the price of gold is standardized worldwide, because labor is cheap here the finished pieces are cheaper than elsewhere.

Our last historic stop was the Topkapi Palace-home of the Sultan. Some of the palace was based on concepts of China’s Forbidden City, complete with eunuchs .

Here’s some of the royal quarters. Note the glass to let in natural light. There was plumbing here but no electricity.

Most of the outer walls looked like they were 5 feet thick. Thermal mass kept the palace cool in the summer. (Sorry don’t know where my pic of that went!)

Here’s where meetings of officials were held.

Behind a small window above the people’s heads would be one or more of the Sultan’s representatives listening in. It might even be the Sultan himself! The idea was that you better behave because you never knew who was eves dropping!

Many visiting foreign emissaries paid their taxes in goods from home, leading to a massive collection of goods from around the world. They even had a clock room filled with beautiful timepieces.

The arms room was mostly decorative weapons and armor from around the world.

Outside were rows of lavender.

They had a kitchen that provided meals twice daily for around 5000 people. They even had a separate confectionary kitchen which made only sweets complete with huge marble countertops. Bake shop!

Here’s the entrance to the harem

You could be royalty or a slave girl bought and brought to live here. Trained in a skill like dance or singing, every girl had the chance to become royalty if the Sultan choose her and she bore sons. Here’s where they hung out.

This entire area was a swimming pool complete with milk bath on the side. Only for the harem women. I imagine this was like an earlier version of the Playboy mansion.

Bye bye palace! When we left the town we stopped off at a high end waterfront shop known for these.