After waking at 5am to Morning Prayer broadcast at thousands of watts I caught the tram at Sultanahmet to meet Tanya at Ataturk Airport. It was foggy on the way out and Tanya’s plane from Dubai was the first for the morning not to be diverted to the other airport in Istanbul (close to Koc School). What chaos it would have been for us both if her plane was diverted as we didn’t have mobile phone contact.
Tanya had slept reasonably well on the plane, so was ready for some serious sight-seeing. After meeting Leslie we went to the Blue Mosque but couldn’t see it as it was prayer time.
We went to the Basilica Cistern and then found our way to Ortakoy, and the artists’ market which I had enjoyed so much a week or two earlier.
Tanya enjoyed the public transport experience.
On the way back to Sultanahmet Leslie was asked if she spoke Spanish by some women and she called me over. They asked where the Orient Express was (the terminal) and I gave them directions which I later worked out was exactly 180 degrees in the wrong direction. I hope they’re not still wandering Sultanahmet. I’ve heard that the Orient Express is not the wonderful exotic classy experience that it used to be, however, the terminal is right here in Istanbul.
Tanya and Leslie at lunch. Note the crumbling Ottoman wooden building in the background. If they burn down they have to be built to the same plan.
More of the Blue Mosque from the outside.
The ceramics here are a wonderful sight.
The Grand Bazaar is the world’s largest undercover market but this shot doesn’t show the grandeur.
Al and Rob, is this the spiral crystal set that you’d like me to buy for you?
We also visited the Spice Bazaar or Egyptian Market. It was a little more relaxed than the Grand Bazaar.
Leslie took a Sunday morning flight home to New York, while we went to the Anglican Church in town and later to Hagia Sophia.
On the way back home (school) via the service bus that we met in Kadekoy, on the Asian side, these buskers were singing with the crowd all singing along. The boy knew the songs as well as the men did.
1 response so far ↓
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Tanya
// Apr 18, 2007 at 12:26 pm
My version
Istanbul is such an interesting place. I would happily spend a week just walking around the old city. Apparently it is much more crowded during the summer tourist season, but the Easter holiday/spring break added more people to the cosmopolitan mix. The crush we experienced on public transport is very normal for the morning and evening rush hours.
Istanbul is particularly lovely at the moment, with many garden beds of tulips, with other flowers nestled between the bulbs. The sight of the Blue Mosque behind the tulip beds, with Hagia Sophia looking on from the other side, was wonderful. In Hagia Sophia itself the restoration work on the mosaics (covered in plaster when it was converted to a mosque) continues, but there are already many beautiful surfaces revealed. The bells and smells of the old Book of Common Prayer communion liturgy at the Anglican church in the morning didn’t come close to the sense of the numinous created by the architecture of Hagia Sophia.
We trod the floors where the early synods were held. We observed how the building was probably much more about empire and power than about Christianity. We appreciated that Ataturk had declared it a museum, so that both Moslems and Christians could call it their own.
The colourful bazaars and markets hold much to bring tourist dollars into Turkey. As usual, it quickly becomes difficult to know which of the beautiful things would still be thought useful and beautiful on return home. The stall holders constantly invite one to look (”Looking is free”), and generally the interchanges are friendly and cheerful.
911 and consequent alarmist messages about moslems, the middle-east etc have greatly harmed the tourist economy here. A couple of times we heard stories of how much business had declined in recent years. We would have been happy to single-handedly restore the fortunes of the carpetsellers and leather-craftspeople, but unfortunately there is only so much that fits in hand luggage.
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