The extra weekend off also gave us some time to get ready for Istanbul (and for Amy to pack for her month back in the US). We arrived late Tuesday night at the Four Season in Sultanahmet, which is the old part of the City. Thankfully they kept the bar open for us and we ordered what would be our signature drinks for the week- the Ice Storm and the Sutlan's Martini.
After a quick sleep, we woke up to meet our guide Ziya in the hotel lobby. Our first stop- the Hippodrome. This was the place of the old coliseum in Istanbul. The only remaining pieces from it were two obelisks and a statue made from melted down Persian Army helmets. This was one of Anthony's favorite things.
From there, we crossed the street to the "Blue Mosque." According to our guide, if you ask a Turk where the Blue Mosque is they would be confused as it is not referred by that name locally. This mosque was especially important to Amy and Anthony as it was their wake up call. Every morning at sunrise the Mosque would call upon the people of Istanbul saying "its time to pray, allah is god etc." That call for prayer is one of the reasons for the six minarets of the mosque.
Before entering the mosque, we were required to remove our shoes as to not put our dirty feet on the prayer rugs. This was easier for some than others.
And in fact we had to put one of Amy's shoes and one Anthony's shoes per bag.
As you can see from the above pictures, the outside of the blue mosque- is not really blue. The nickname was given because at the time the whole inside was blue. Now, all that remains is the three blue pillars. Regardless of that slight misnomer the entire inside was amazing. Our tour guide was nice enough to give us a brief description of Islam and as a bonus also taught us some features on our camera that we had no idea about!
Next, we headed to the mosque's inspiration. When building the mosque, the Sultan wanted to make it bigger and grander than the existing religious building in the city- Hagia Sofia. This now museum started as a church back in the 6th century AD, but was converted to a mosque when the Ottomans gained control in the 15th century. In the Muslim religion any face in a religious center is considered idol worshipping, so they covered all of the mosiacs that were in the church. Now, since it is no longer a mosque OR a church, they have removed some of the plaster to show the mosiacs. The result is an inspiring display of both religions.
The next stop was the cistern that supplied the water to the people back in the day. This was a beautiful place and got Amy thinking it would be a perfect location for a wedding...
Most of the cistern was made from existing columns such as this Medusa column. In order to keep the power of Medusa away they turned her on her side.
After a quick bite to eat we ended up at our tour guide's friends rug shop. There we were invited to sit down and have a cup of tea, apple tea or turkish coffee, apparently a custom in Istanbul. Here we learned everything you could ever want to know about rugs. We learned the difference between tribal and floral and city. We learned how to distinguish between a Hereke and an Usak. We also learned that Anthony and Amy have completely different tastes in rugs!
Finally, we ended the day with a trip to famed Grand Bazaar. Basically, the world oldest shopping mall. It was packed full of many small shops with the shop owners standing out front encouraging passerbys to come in. The shop owners were very versatile with languages and could be heard asking people to come into the store in English, Turkish, Spanish, French, Italian, etc. For some reason, every time Anthony passed by, they started shouting in Spanish - maybe its the dark skin! Anyway- no purchases were made, just a lot of window shopping. FUN!
We then went back to the hotel and were exhausted from a long day, so we decided to cancel our dinner reservations and eat at the hotel restaurant which was OK.
Stay tuned for Day 2!
2 comments:
How come I think the Hippodrome is not as cool as what I am expecting . .. Also a good post christmas reminder, the boys may like hungry hungry hippos next year. Dibs!
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