Another day in Istanbul

Hi again:

Jessica is still showing Renaud and me the sights of Istanbul. It is a huge, interesting city, but I am not sure I can make it interesting to you as well. I will just try to hit the highlights of a day in the life of an American explorer here.

As I've said before, often the best things are those found unexpectedly by serendipity. We were in a very low rent section of the city when I happened to spot a crowd of men, some of whom were flying doves held by their little feet by a long cord. The gathering looked wild and filthy: like something from the dim past. This picture doesn't really set the mood -- it cleans the place up too nicely.

It was all men --not a woman in sight, and especially not one wearing shorts. I wasn't sure Jessica would go in, and I wasn't sure I wanted her to. They had cages and cages of birds What do they do with them? Eat them? Bet on them as homing pigeons? I still don't know.

They were proud of their birds and willing to show them off. By the way: not only were there no women in shorts in the compound, but no men in shorts either. I always wear long pants in Muslim countries.

As we walked along, Jessica led us to a busy, busy Muslim mosque. It was packed with people. 

Above it, on the hill in the back, was a huge cemetery with Muslim, Ottoman and Byzantine graves dating from way back in history all the way up to last year. It was a beautiful oasis in the noisy city.

 I was interested in some of the plaques mounted on the cemetery walls. I think, but don't know for sure, that they held quotations from the Quran (Koran).

At the top of the cemetery was an outdoor restaurant where we had the national drink, tea, and ice cream. The view out across the city from up there was breathtaking.

But for a shift in scenery, lets go underground, down where the huge cisterns are. 

These things (there are several) were built back in Roman times by the Christian Emperor, Justinian the Great, who began the Byzantine Empire and helped start the Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church. He had these cisterns built to supply water for the growing city of Constantinople, and brought in water by aqueducts leading down from the forests in Hungary.

Afterwards, the cisterns were forgotten, and only rediscovered many years later, in our own times, by people how found they could drop buckets through holes in their basements and draw up water and sometime fish. Look closely at the picture above, and you can see some carp. There are a bunch of them down there.

This cistern, or reservoir, was only opened to the public recently, but since then it has found its way into several books and movies. It is just as I pictured it as I read about it in novels.

I got interested in the reflections down there.

I suppose the real life of the city is above ground, in the many mosques, the few churches, and the thousands of shops and bazaars, of which, the "Spice Bazaar must be one of the best.

Want to make some perfume? 

This busy bazaar certainly smells good (I bet you can't tell that it smells good from this video).

                         

Maybe the best view of the city is from a Byzantine tower from which you can see all the activity out on the Bosporus.

From up there you can see the "Golden Horn" sticking out into the Bosporus, with all its marvelous mosques and palaces and the Sea of Marmara back behind it all.

Only a couple of days more here, and then we head toward Greece, I on my motorcycle and they in a bus. We are going there to climb Mt. Olympus. I think that will be fun.

Goodnight from Ron in Istanbul.

Hi from Istanbul

Hi again:

This post has absolutely nothing to do with motorcycles or motorcycle riding, so I don't know how interesting it will be for some of you. I am in Istanbul where I was to meet up with my daughter, Jessica, and son-in-law, Renaud. It took me a hard two days of riding from Cappidocia to get here. Jessica and Renaud arrived at her friend's, Gonca's, apartment after their flight from Paris a mere five minutes before me. Gonca has a lovely apartment in a gated complex. I left my motorcycle in the apartment's lower level garage, and the three of us moved into our own, much less expensive apartment in Istanbul.

Jessica has been to Istanbul many times, and she is our very able tour guide. She certainly knows this city, and her being able to speak some Turkish helps as well.

I told her I had three or four things I really wanted to do here. One is to visit the famous "Blue Mosque".

The "Blue Mosque" certainly stands out among the many mosques in Istanbul. Located on the "Golden Horn" on the European side of Istanbul, it dominates the skyline.

This is Ramadan when all good Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. They get up early in the morning to eat their breakfast well before dawn. A man with a drum, accompanied by a chanter, goes down the streets at 2 a.m. to wake everyone up so that they can eat. It works. He certainly woke me up.

People are really hungry by the time dusk comes around. They sit around in huge numbers waiting for the signal from the mosque that they can eat their evening meal.

Each family or group of friends has a picnic laid out, waiting patiently.

I bet the "Whirling Dervish" is almost ready to drop by the time the signal to eat comes around.

The rules say that if you are traveling, you are exempt. That's us. We can eat! Hooray!

Another place that you really have to see in Istanbul is the huge Sophia Hagia. For a long time it was the largest Christian church in the world. Later it became a Muslim mosque. Now it is a museum.

Inside, you can see both Christian icons, and Muslim symbols.

And, of course, ya gotta go to Topkapi, the original home of the sultans of Istanbul before they built the more modern palace further up the Bosporus.

Tour guide Jessica has had us climbing all over Istanbul. The place turns out to be kind of hilly.

Time to stop for a snapshot. Smile, kitty.

There are wild, but well behaved, cats and dogs all over the place. There are also some fortune telling rabbits if you will only pay their owner a small fee to get them to do it.

We pack a lot into each day. Yesterday we took a boat ride up the Bosporus to the Black Sea. There it is: the Black Sea. Not very impressive is it?

It was dark coming back on the boat. The lights of the city were impressive, but I was more interested in the reflections in the water

It was after midnight (again) when we got back to our apartment. Yawn. We sure pack a lot into a day. We are in a tiny street, but it is easy for me to remember its name (Calli means street).

So, with the full moon over the Blue Mosque, it is time to end another day in Istanbul.

Goodnight.-- I guess I will try to dream about lights along the Bosporus. That'll put you to sleep.

Ron