It is Friday morning and I’m in the hotel where we have our usual breakfast spread. I’ve tried all the food and I always come back to turkish coffee and a chocolate-filled croissant. Or 2. The hotel has filled up quite a bit, which may be the reason the internet broke yesterday. I can hear quite a few Americans, a French couple, Turkish, and another I can’t quite catch.
BTW, overall, Turkish sounds slavic to me. It makes sense because, as a close friend who has a head like Google reminded me, the language trail goes back to the Huns of (now) southwest China. This line of people and their language over thousands of years became HUNgarian and Turkic. I will admit that my first (incorrect) expectation for Turks was either Middle Eastern Arabic or somewhat Greek. But it is neither.
The Turkish people are so friendly. Not just those in the service industry or shop owners. Though I very much loved my visit to Paris and I actually (kinda sorta) understood the French language, it is true that Parisians are not the friendliest bunch. So if you, like many Americans, are so very scared of anything other than London, Paris, and Rome, PLEASE reconsider.
BTW, to give you an idea of how large Istanbul is, see this. It is by far the largest city in Europe with Paris the second. Istanbul is smaller than New York City and Los Angeles back in the states. Though the HUGE majority of Turkey is in Asia, Istanbul is a large western European city with a big portion of Muslim culture. But it is secular. It is so very interesting and I wish these words and pictures could relay the feeling.
BTW, overall, Turkish sounds slavic to me. It makes sense because, as a close friend who has a head like Google reminded me, the language trail goes back to the Huns of (now) southwest China. This line of people and their language over thousands of years became HUNgarian and Turkic. I will admit that my first (incorrect) expectation for Turks was either Middle Eastern Arabic or somewhat Greek. But it is neither.
The Turkish people are so friendly. Not just those in the service industry or shop owners. Though I very much loved my visit to Paris and I actually (kinda sorta) understood the French language, it is true that Parisians are not the friendliest bunch. So if you, like many Americans, are so very scared of anything other than London, Paris, and Rome, PLEASE reconsider.
BTW, to give you an idea of how large Istanbul is, see this. It is by far the largest city in Europe with Paris the second. Istanbul is smaller than New York City and Los Angeles back in the states. Though the HUGE majority of Turkey is in Asia, Istanbul is a large western European city with a big portion of Muslim culture. But it is secular. It is so very interesting and I wish these words and pictures could relay the feeling.
I am alone most of the day today and have an appointment for late this afternoon at an actual Turkish bath. Don’t worry, there will be no pictures to share from that aside from before and after. ;) I need to play catch-up with the blog because I want to SHARE the experiences as they happen. Not the day after.
SO BACK TO YESTERDAY…
Woke up. Had breakfast (turkish coffee and chocolate-filled croissant…I will be twice my size when I return). Off to Topkaki in my usual yoga pants, then a flannel shirt, sweater over that, plus my leather jacket and a scarf to wrap around my head to stay warm. It’s also funny because the photographers I am with like how the scarf around my head makes me look Armenian/Turkish (though I am neither) and great for pictures. :)
This grounds of this palace are HUGE. We easily walk there from the hotel, past the Blue Mosque, Hippodrome, and Hagia Sophia. Along the street, we experience the many extremely well-fed cats. There’s a reason we witnessed not a single rat during our stay. The felines are also often fed leftover scraps from restaurants and tourists. And heck, they have plenty of rugs on which to sleep.
Dogs are around too and most are pretty healthy. There are a few who have seen better days. All of them are male and we didn’t see any aggressive types. Most have some sort of plastic in an ear, like a municipal tracking and control of canine population.
When we arrived at the palace, we witnessed the first military-looking personnel with guns that we have observed here. They stood out to me. In fact, it seemed so odd that I thought at first it was just costume to add to the effect. Only in retrospect do I understand that those are VERY real. There are valuable - to the point of priceless - items stored within these walls.
Please see captions on the following images. For example, the view from across the bay (without the 3 photographers in my company) shows Galata Tower that I shared in earlier posts. It’s handy because one can reference that is north and it is also Europe and therefore, all of this land across this big bunch of water is Asia - though all of is is the city of Istanbul.
Please see captions on the following images. For example, the view from across the bay (without the 3 photographers in my company) shows Galata Tower that I shared in earlier posts. It’s handy because one can reference that is north and it is also Europe and therefore, all of this land across this big bunch of water is Asia - though all of is is the city of Istanbul.
Further and further into the place we wandered. As the four of us discussed later, this was (of course) impressive and perhaps we were tired, but after viewing the Haggia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, this got old more quickly. Don’t get me wrong - it was beautiful. However, it seemed so much a display of wealth and power. I suppose both religious buildings were doing the same with a slightly different goal of genuflection. But this was room after room of very much the same gorgeous tile and luxury upon luxury. The best parts of this tour for me were the following:
1) The view over the Bosphorus. Europe to the north (and upon which we are standing) and Asia right there across the river.
2) The realization that with ALL of these people, we are all sort of the same. There were multiple tour groups. I heard English, French (actually spoke with him…very slowly and only in basic terms), and some dialect of Chinese, plus a Slavic sounding language that I assume was Turkish. There were a few women in full burqa, including one I heard speaking to her husband and both were definitely American. BTW, the pope arrives to Istanbul today and it is a possibility that this could pull Catholic tourists to the city. I have no idea, but it seems plausible.
The “same” part is captured in pictures like this. I know that neither of these two subjects are American or English. One is that all the small children with parents yesterday in the 35 degree weather (brrrrrrr) had on those big puffy snowsuits in brilliant colors and silly hats and big boots. They all wander around with arms not able to touch their sides and attempting to walk like a marshmallow man. Rosy cheeks and innocent eyes. Same thing, even if surrounded by parents dripping with a definite cultural heritage.
The other is a reminder we all fall in love - I mean look at those expressions when they take a group selfie. Awwww.
1) The view over the Bosphorus. Europe to the north (and upon which we are standing) and Asia right there across the river.
2) The realization that with ALL of these people, we are all sort of the same. There were multiple tour groups. I heard English, French (actually spoke with him…very slowly and only in basic terms), and some dialect of Chinese, plus a Slavic sounding language that I assume was Turkish. There were a few women in full burqa, including one I heard speaking to her husband and both were definitely American. BTW, the pope arrives to Istanbul today and it is a possibility that this could pull Catholic tourists to the city. I have no idea, but it seems plausible.
The “same” part is captured in pictures like this. I know that neither of these two subjects are American or English. One is that all the small children with parents yesterday in the 35 degree weather (brrrrrrr) had on those big puffy snowsuits in brilliant colors and silly hats and big boots. They all wander around with arms not able to touch their sides and attempting to walk like a marshmallow man. Rosy cheeks and innocent eyes. Same thing, even if surrounded by parents dripping with a definite cultural heritage.
The other is a reminder we all fall in love - I mean look at those expressions when they take a group selfie. Awwww.
Somewhere around here on the very northeast tip where the Golden Horn flows into the Bosphorus in a courtyard of a former kingdom, Kim and I recorded one of our messages. The still from this also says quite a bit about us in general - like I usually take myself WAY too seriously. :) So this is a reminder to go to your FB class page if you’re my student or see the AIGA ASTATE page.
The palace kept going and going. These are picture of the bits that COULD be photographed. The areas that we were able to see, but not photograph are the riches upon riches upon….whoa. I’ve never seen so many diamonds and gold and jade and rubies and…. In weaponry and necklaces and candlesticks and… EVERYWHERE. No wonder those guards had real guns. And then we got to the religious relics portion. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all share the Abrahamic lineage and many characters are the same. We saw (assuming any religious relic is the real thing) clothing from many mentioned in the Bible and then things like pieces of the beard of Muhammed.
So below are photos of the palace - both in full and in detail - and a link to understand ALL that we saw. Please see captions on the photos.
So below are photos of the palace - both in full and in detail - and a link to understand ALL that we saw. Please see captions on the photos.
Details...
Finally, we left the palace and headed back south. This means Hagia Sophia then the Blue Mosque and Hippodrome. Took a few pictures. :)
After all of that, we were hungry and it was Thanksgiving. There is very little turkey to be found in Turkey, so instead, we stopped at a nice restaurant. This place is part of a large Turkish bath house. In fact, it turned out to be the same place that I made an appointment (recommended by the hotel) for Friday and Sunday. Very nice place and the food was great! So I had the equivalent of a fancy grilled cheese for my Thanksgiving dinner. We all had dessert (of course) after that. I had Rice Pudding and Kim did some brownies. The other two had versions of ice cream. Turkish ice cream is different and I don’t know how to explain it other than “delicious”.
NEXT is a few images from the design show and the VERY EXCITING Grand Bazaar. Let's hope this posts correctly... :)