After, we headed out into Istanbul with our guide, Burak, who will be staying with us for the rest of the tour too. He's one of the coolest, smallest, cutest middle aged men I've met. Haha he's so great, we all tease him. We started out at the Grand Bazaar, just touring through it, but not really stopping to shop.
Streetsss
Outside the Bazaar
Bazaar carpet shopping
We then headed to the Underground cistern. It's a massive room under the city with heaps of pillars which was once used for holding the city's water supply. Now it has very little water in it, and some fish, but it was very cool to see. Although no water is manually added to the cistern today, the ceiling is porous and so water drops in occasionally, keeping the fish alive.
Underground cistern
There were two pillars that were shorter than the others,
they were supported by Medusa heads
We then headed to The Blue Mosque. It's one of the most famous mosques in the world, to the locals it's Sultahnamet Mosque (not sure if my spelling is accurate). The history of mosques was interesting and who's built them. There are also certain rules when building mosques in Turkey with the size and how many minarets you can have based on your importance. The Blue Mosque has 6 minarets because it was built by a sultan. If you're not a sultan or the queen mother, you can only 4 or less. It was also interesting that there used to be another mosque in Turkey with 6 minarets which was supposed to be the only one with 6. The architect of the blue mosque was almost put to death when it was built because it had 6 minarets as well. But he was saved when the other mosque had another minaret added! Phew. Inside the mosque was amazing. It was packed with people, and it can hold 8,000 to pray. The walls and ceiling were covered with paintings and coloured tiles. We had to have our heads covered whilst indoors and our shoes off.
Outside the blue mosque
In the courtyard waiting to get in
Blue Mosque from inside the courtyard
Inside
Inside hanging lights
The amazing ceiling
Just outside the mosque was the Hippodrome which was where chariot races used to be held. It's now just a square which two obelisks, one with hieroglyphics from Egypt. It was kind of hard to imagine as now it's just a paved public square, but it was cool to see nonetheless.
In the centre of town from the Byzantine Period.
Inscription: This stone pillar is all that remains of a
Byzantine triumphal arch from which road distances
to all corners of the empire were once measured.
Date IV Century A.D.
The hippodrome
Hieroglyphics column
We then walked over to Hagia Sophia which was a beautiful palace turned museum. Originally serving as a church when built in 360 during the Byzantine period, it was used as a mosque from 1453-1935 when it became a museum.
Entering Hagia Sophia
Inside from the second floor
Dome roof
Ceiling in the entrance. Baby Jesus being
held by Mary, between apostles Peter
and Paul
Mary Magdalene on the roof
Mosaic with Jesus in the centre and Mary and John on
either side
The coronation spot
Being photobombed by Shae (tour leader) and
Brant
Courtyard
Selfie in the courtyard
Then it was lunch time. Most of the group headed to a cafe for lunch, but Kathleen and I wanted to grab some jewellery, so we bought kebabs and wandered around and then found some ice cream! Every few hours, prayers occur throughout the city. It's pretty much a wailing voice over which comes over a very loud speaker that you can hear all over the entire city. Then a voice from another mosque answer it from a while away. People just stop and put cardboard on the ground and pray. It's pretty interesting to watch.
After lunch, we made our way to Topkapi Palace, where a lot of Sultans used to live. The history of this place and its rituals were also super interesting. The gardens were beautiful. 5000 people used to live at the palace with 800 cooks for them. There were also heaps of concubines who lived together like prisoners in one section of the palace. We were given a big of free time to explore so we went and saw some of the traditional clothes the Sultans used to wear. One of them was a huge man! The we went and saw a MASSIVE diamond. It was 86 carot and absolutely massive. There was also a big religious relics section, which I seriously doubted the credibility of. They had David's sword, one of Abrahams saucepans, Moses' staff, prophet Johns gold glove, Joseph's Turban, and Mohammed's foot print. They looked real, and by all means, they could have been, except for Joseph's Turban, the fabric was way to new and clean. And Moses' staff was too new as well. But it was interesting to see. On the way out, we saw wedding photos happening in the gardens. The bride was beautiful. Completely covered in white lace with only skin on the face showing.
Entering Topkapi Palace
The sultans massive bed
In the gardens
Palace gardens
View of Asia from Europe
View from the palace
We then walked back up to Hagia Sophia and headed down to the wharf for a cruise. The wind was a bit chilly, but the sun was out so it was nice. The coast of Turkey is amazing. It could have literally been the coast of Italy, or even the coast of some of the more expensive parts of Sydney. Istanbul is the only capital city to spam two continents, Asia and Europe. It was cool sailing down a riven between the two.
Heading to the boat
Some of the guys
Moi
Some of the group chilling in the sun
The beautiful coastline
After, those of us who had opted for the optional belly dancing dinner headed back to the hotel to freshen up and everyone else had free time to do whatever they wanted. About half of the tour had opted for the dinner. I would have liked a bit more time to explore Istanbul, but was looking forward to dinner. It was pretty cool. The food was traditional Turkish food, and even though the show was very touristy, it was interesting and cool. The show wasn't just belly dancing, it also included traditional Turkish dances, one being so traditional it wasn't included in every show, out tour guide had never seen it before. It was basically just a guy spinning around for a while. But he didn't even get dizzy, which was pretty impressive.
The show was one of those 'leave whenever you want' type things. It went until midnight, Kathleen and I headed off at about 10:30pm with a few of the others as our bus tomorrow leaves at 7am.
At the restaurant
Belly dancing
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