Arrival into Istanbul went without incident, although with some relief when we were finally able to procure some Turkish Lira. Neither Adelaide nor Singapore trade in it!
The Hotel is small, but beautifully proportioned! Arriving as early as we did we didnt expect our room to be ready, & it wasnt, but the Hotel staff were very helpful & happy to feed & water us before setting us out on the streets of Sultanahmet to find our way around.
Our first delight was seeing the Egyptian Obelisk in the Hippodrome & immediately spotting the owl, an important character in the Theodora book! We brushed off about 3 touts in the first 25 meters trying to sell us something.
We identified that the Blue Mosque is NOT, actually blue! But it is magnificent & the golden tips on the domes, radiated off the grey of the stone she is built from. The Arista bazaar was just round the corner & we enjoyed window shopping whilst trying to find the entrance to the Mosaic Museum. We found the EXIT, but spent about half an hour walking up & down trying to find the entrance...eventually we spotted the little sign & turned off to the right spot.
The mosaics were magnificant examples of the art, using 5mm tessarae & managing to achieve realistic 3 dimensional forms. These had once adorned the palace of Justinian & theodora..mind boggling in itself. I took a lot of photos!
After this we found Jennifer's Hamam, a shop in the bazaar run by a Canadian & specialising in handmade, crafted towels & bathware...that is Turkish Bath-ware. She is an advocate for maintaining the skills of small community craftspeople & quite a warrior. Well worth googling if you want to know more. She has a few other artisan shops that she is associated with & took us to each, explaining the value of the work. Our final stop with her was a carpet & kilim shop, where we had our first invitation to have 'tea'. It was so refreshing when we were really beginning to flag. We listened to a very interesting explanation about the different carpets sold there, by Hasaan. However, it changed slightly when we realised that we were being primed to buy something. We werent in the right frame of mind for this! HOWEVER, I think we managed it very politely, even when the 2 pieces that I had expressed interest in (only by admiring!) were both over $1000.00 each!
It was a great experience, but we were glad to leave & finally meet our Hotel room!
After freshening up & eventually working out how to get our turkish sim cards to work, we went exploring again. This time we came upon the Basilica of 1001 columns & were the only ones there, except for the guys running the cafe. We sat down with another Turkish tea , lapped up the tranquility& listened to classical music bounce off these ancients columns...along with the drips! It was a treat.
From there we made our way to the other Basillia Cistern & this time we were just 2 of hundreds as we queued for this experience. Aside from the hordes we shared the space with it was impressive. And a very good spot for photography!
Topkapi Palace sits back from some beautiful gardens which we enjoyed sharing in a communal stroll along, before heading down hill in search of a couple of restaurants that had been recommended. It was in this area that we saw more locals & less tourists & gorgoeusly done up hotels alongside old buildings that were literally crumbling to the ground.
The call of the Mezzuin drew us back up the hill to our home for the next 2 weeks.
I took some GREAT photos, but have discovered that not only did my phone recharge chord not make it into the packing, but also the WRONG attachment to transfer my photos from camera to computer! There have been tears of frustration...I HAD LISTS!!!!! The photos of this post & the last are coutesy of wikipedia!
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