LEAVING ISTANBUL

Had a wonderful day in Istanbul!!! I left the ship around 9:00 am and was back on board when we sailed around 4:30 pm and saw all those wondrous sites  in between.  Istanbul is a city that you visit and rent an apartment and explore the city on your own.  Tours are wonderful because they give you a taste of a city and you know you want to go back and leisurely see what you were rushed through on your first visit.   The weather was great the entire day until we sailed.  The clouds moved in as you can see in the pictures.  As we were sailing out of the harbor, several schools of dolphins were following a fishing boat into the harbor.  I tried to get a video of it but they didn't show up in the video.

 You can barely see it but there is a bridge that connects two continents.  Europe and Asia

Water Taxi's or Ferries

These Mosques are Topkapi Palace, The Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.   The Hagia has 4 minarets and the Blue Mosque has 6.

THE UNDERGROUND CISTERN YEREBATAN SARAYI

The cistern is no place for the faint of heart on an organized tour.  There are a lot of steps down to get into it.  It's dark with a little light along the walk way.  It's wet.  It's crowded and you better keep up with your tour group or you'll be left behind.  I was trying to get the right light settings on my camera so that I could take some good pictures in this dark place.  I looked up and my tour group was gone.  I eventually found them so I didn't have to implement plan B.  Plan B was to retrace my steps to the entrance and wait for them to exit.  There is only one way in and out.  I would like to revisit the cistern on my own.  That way I can take my time  and not be rushed through.  It was built in the 6th century and I'm sure there is more to see than I was able to see.  Also better light settings will make for better pictures.

These pictures are of the head of Medusa.  They"re carved into the base of a pillar.  Same pillar, different sides.

THE BLUE MOSQUE

There isn't much I can say about the Blue Mosque.  It is simply exquisite.  I've posted all the pictures I took in the Mosque so I'll let the pictures do the talking.  For more information on the mosque click here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_Ahmed_Mosque

The bus dropped us off here at the Hippodrome.  This is where they held chariot races in the 4th century.  This obelisk is from the Temple of Karnak and was built 1500 years before Christ.

Ceiling of the hallway entrance to the mosque.  We had to remove our shoes before entering the Mosque.

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Keep in mind that this was built in the 1600's.  These are electric lights.  Think of how it looked in candle light.

One of the minarets.

RANDOM STREET SCENES

After our visit to the Hagia  we walked through the streets to have lunch in a small , out of the way hotel.  Lunch was served in a second story enclosed veranda.  It was very good.  I was sitting with a couple from Canada and happened to mention that my camera battery died.  The woman asked to see my camera.  I showed it to her and she happen to have the same camera and an extra battery.  She  gave me her extra battery to use the rest of the day.  After lunch we boarded our bus and was off to the rug demonstration and a visit to the Grand Bazaar.  

The Grand Bazaar is huge.  There is one main street with a lot of side streets and alleyways.  I walked all the way through and back and then explored a few side streets.  I read somewhere that bargaining was expected by the shopkeepers.  As Americans that is sometimes hard to do because we are used to paying full price.  I saw a pair of sunglasses that I liked so I asked the price.  The answer came back dollars, euros or Turkish lire?  I answered dollars.  He said 10.00.  I also read that you should start at 60% of the asking price and expect to pay 75%.  I answered $6.00.  He said OK.  I got a nice pair of sunglasses for $6.00.  I explored a little more and then walked back to the meeting place to catch the bus to the Blue Mosque.

HAGIA SOPHIA MUSEUM

After Topkapi palace we walked to the Hagia Sophia museum.  Since its dedication in 360 A.D., it has served as a Catholic church(both Roman and Eastern Orthodox) a Mosque and now a museum.  This is the third church built on this site.  The first two were burned during riots.  The existing building was built by Emperor Justinian in 527.  It is huge and unfortunately I didn't have a lot of time to explore.

 Sign at the entrance.

 Ceiling of the foyer before entering the church.

 At this point my camera died and the rest of these pictures were taken on my cell phone.

The interior

A different angle.

A little closer.

Scene over a door.

Scene over the door leaving the church.

TOPKAPI PALACE

Our first stop was Topkapi palace.  Construction started in 1459 by order of the sultan Mehmed ll.  He conquered Byzantine Constantinople.  It served as the residence of the Ottoman Sultans for nearly 400 years.  It is now a museum which houses many fine pieces of Chinese porcelain, jewels and the famous Topkapi dagger  There was a movie in the mid 60's called Topkapi  staring Peter Ustinov. They were trying to steal the dagger.  Also, the museum contains Holy Relics of the Muslim world including items that belonged to Mohammed. 

Our guide gave us our tickets and a time and place to meet and let us go on our own.  Pictures were not allowed in the museum and I can understand why.  The Topkapi dagger is jewel encrusted.   There is a diamond that is 86 carats. There is a lot of gold possessions of the Sultans.  It was quite impressive. 

The line of people waiting to buy tickets

Entrance to the museum

Palace grounds

The museum was made up of various buildings.  This is an entrance to a part of the museum. 

Thought this was an interesting scroll.  I have no idea what it represents.

ISTANBUL NOT CONSTANTINOPLE

Istanbul was not what I expected.  I'm not sure what my expectation was, but it was not what I got.  I was pleasantly surprised.  It is a very modern European city and very clean and beautiful.  The tour I took was jam packed with sites to see and very little time at those sites, plus a visit to the Grand Bazaar, a rug demo and lunch.  Please watch the video.  It has pictures of places I didn't visit and shows the beauty of Istanbul.

 It was a national holiday the day we arrived.  That accounts for all the flags and the crowds at the sites.

Photo ops on our way to our first stop.