Trip to Turkey - The Grand Bazaar...

The last full day in Istanbul was Tuesday, April 15th. Tuana drove Noah to our hotel after her boys were put on the bus to school (she had kept them home from school on Monday just so they could be with Noah) and then the four of us headed to the Grand Bazaar in the old part of the city.

From Wikipedia:
The Grand Bazaar (or Covered Bazaar, Turkish: Kapalıçarşı ("Covered Bazaar")) in Istanbul is one of the largest covered markets in the world with more than 58 streets and 4,000 shops, and has between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily. It is well known for its jewelry, pottery, spice, and carpet shops. Many of the stalls in the bazaar are grouped by type of goods, with special areas for leather coats, gold jewelry and the like. The bazaar contains two bedestens (domed masonry structures built for storage and safe keeping), the first of which was constructed between 1455 and 1461 by the order of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. The bazaar was vastly enlarged in the 16th century, during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and in 1894 underwent a major restoration following an earthquake.

Here is one of the many covered streets (58, according to Wkipedia).






















Here is Tuana helping Kathy buy some scarfs (pashminas). It helps to have a local with you to help secure the best prices. Americans are not used to haggling for everything (in the US nowadays even the price for a car normally isn't negotiated). Imagine going into Walmart and haggling for every purchase.






















Noah and I waited outside the shop while the wheeling and dealing for scarves went on. We went to a nearby shop and found a jersey from another of the four top level football (soccer) clubs. It was offered at 20 Turkish Lira ($15.50) and I got it down to 15 ($11.50). Not bad.



We then had a nice lunch in one of the many restaurants in the bazaar. It was a very interesting experience and Kathy and I both wished we had gone there sooner to shop. As you can imagine, with 4,000 stores they have lots of neat stuff.

Turkey Visit - We meet our friends...

Continuing with our Istanbul vacation, on Sunday (April 12th) we met our Turkish friends, Armin and Tuana and their two boys, for brunch at the Istanbul Hilton. Armin had managed the Hilton in Prague before returning to Istanbul last summer. He was there when President Bush visited last June and was able to him. He now manages three properties in Istanbul, two Hiltons and a Conrad (an upscale version of the Hilton).

They hosted us for Sunday brunch at the Istanbul Hilton, which is the flagship of the properties in Istanbul. There was a lovely view and the food and service were excellent.


Here are Kathy and I with Armin and Tuana.


Here is Noah with his best friend from ISP last year, Ares, and Ares's younger brother Marco. They got along like long lost friends, which is what they were (but it sounds odd to say about 10 year olds).

After brunch they took Noah for 2 days giving Kathy and I the chance to explore a lot of Istanbul on our own. And Noah had a great time.

Trip to Turkey...Visit to Asia

Turkey is known as the place where Europe and Asia meet. The Bosphorus is the waterway that goes from the Black Sea in the north to the Sea of Marmara in the south. The old historic portion of Istanabul, Sultanahmet, where we stayed is on the European side of the Bosphorus, so we took a ferry ride to the other side so that Noah could say that he had been to Asia. There are ferries that go to many places on the asian side, but we decided to go to Uskudar. See the map. The price is extremely reasonable, about $1 per person, for the 15 minute trip.


Here we are after arrving at Uskudar. As soon as we were all off of the ferry they allowed the returning passengers board - that is them in the background.



We walked around for about an hour on the Asian side before jumping on the ferry back to Sultanahmet. We found these stairs and climbed to the top. Noah is much faster than Kathy and me.



Here is one of the views from the top - looking back to the European side. After this we climbed back down and explored the shopping area near the port. As you might expect, this area was much less touristy than Sultanhmet.

It was a good (and very cheap) excursion for us to take.

Trip to Turkey...Aya Sofya

After visiting the Blue Mosque we walked across the way along the hippodrome to the Hagia Sofia (or Ayasofya in Turkish). It is now a museum but was built as a church and later converted to a mosque.


From Wikipedia:
Hagia Sophia (Turkish: Ayasofya, Latin: Sancta Sophia or Sancta Sapientia) is a former patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, now a museum, in Istanbul, Turkey. Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture. It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, until the completion of the Medieval Seville Cathedral in 1520.

The current building was originally constructed as a church between 532 and 537 AD on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, and was in fact the third Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site (the previous two had both been destroyed by riots). It was designed by two architects, Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. The Church contained a large collection of holy relics and featured, among other things, a 50 foot (15 m) silver iconostasis. It was the patriarchal church of the Patriarch of Constantinople and the religious focal point of the Eastern Orthodox Church for nearly 1000 years.

In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and Sultan Mehmed II ordered the building to be converted into a mosque. The bells, altar, iconostasis, and sacrificial vessels were removed, and many of the mosaics were eventually plastered over. The Islamic features - such as the mihrab, the minbar, and the four minarets outside - were added over the course of its history under the Ottomans. It remained as a mosque until 1935, when it was converted into a museum by the secular Republic of Turkey.

For almost 500 years the principal mosque of Istanbul, Hagia Sophia served as a model for many of the Ottoman mosques such as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque of Istanbul), the Şehzade Mosque, the Süleymaniye Mosque, and the Rüstem Pasha Mosque.

The Empress Zoe mosaics (right) on the eastern wall of the southern gallery date from the 11th century. Christ Pantocrator, clad in the dark blue robe (as always the custom in Byzantine art), is seated in the middle against a golden background, giving His blessing with the right hand and holding the Bible in His left hand. On either side of His head are the monograms IC and XC, meaning Iesous Christos. He is flanked by Constantine IX Monomachos and Empress Zoe, both in ceremonial costumes. He is offering a purse, as symbol of the donation he made to the church, while she is holding a scroll, symbol of the donations she made.


Here is a depiction of what the Hagia Sophia looked like before it was converted to a mosque in the 15th century.


View from the second floor.

The Blue Mosque...

After the visit to the Basilica Cistern we walked across the hippodrome to the Blue Mosque. It was quite busy but it only took a few minutes in line to make it to the north entrance, which is for non-Muslims. We had to remove our shoes before we entered the mosque.

From wikipedia:It was built between 1609 and 1616, during the rule of Ahmed I. Like many other mosques, it also comprises a tomb of the founder, a madrasah and a hospice. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque has become one of the greatest tourist attractions of Istanbul.

The mosque was to be built on the site of the palace of the Byzantine emperors, facing the Hagia Sophia (at that time the most venerated mosque in Istanbul) and the hippodrome, a site of great symbolic significance. Large parts of the southern side of the mosque rest on the foundations, the vaults and the undercrofts of the Great Palace. Several palaces, already built on the same spot, had to be bought (at considerable price) and pulled down, especially the palace of Sokollu Mehmet Paşa, and large parts of the Sphendone (curved tribune with U-shaped structure of the hippodrome).

At its lower levels and at every pier, the interior of the mosque is lined with more than 20,000 handmade ceramic tiles, made at Iznik (the ancient Nicaea) in more than fifty different TULIP designs. The tiles at lower levels are traditional in design, while at gallery level their design becomes flamboyant with representations of flowers, fruit and cypresses. More than 20,000 tiles were made under the supervision of the Iznik master potter Kaşıcı Hasan,and Mustafa Mersin Efendi from Avanos(Cappadocia). However, the price the builders were able to pay for tiles was fixed by the sultan's decree, while tile prices increased over time. As a result, the tiles used later in building were of lesser quality. Their colours have faded and changed (red turning into brown and green into blue, mottled whites) and the glazes have dulled. The tiles on the back balcony wall are recycled tiles from the harem in the Topkapı Palace, when it was damaged by fire in 1574.

Until recently the muezzin or prayer-caller had to climb a narrow spiral staircase five times a day to announce the call to prayer. Today a public address system is used, and the call can be heard across the old part of the city, echoed by other mosques in the vicinity. Large crowds of both Turks and tourists gather at sunset in the park facing the mosque to hear the call to evening prayers, as the sun sets and the mosque is brilliantly illuminated by coloured floodlights.


The interior of the Blue Mosque - basically one big room.



The ceiling of the mosque, showing some of the many hand made tiles.



A sign that must be obeyed.


Noah later that evening in front of the well lit Blue Mosque.

The Basilica Cistern...

The first morning in Istanbul (Saturday) we started off by visiting the Basilica Cistern. The cistern is in the center of the historic section of old Istanbul called Sultanahmet. Many of the other main sites are also in this area - the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome, the Ayasofia and Topkapi Palace. Our hotel was just a 5 minute walk to the Hippodrome, which is really a long and narrow park with the other sites around it.

When I was here in 1993 I stayed in a cheap hotel very close to the Hippodrome. I remember visiting the Basilica Cistern and that it was just a block away. When we were exploring the neighborhood I think I found the hotel that I stayed in then, and the carpet shop where I bought the two beautiful wool carpets that I still have today.

Anyway, I remember the cistern as being a great palce to see so we went there first.

From wikipedia:
The Basilica Cistern (Turkish: 'Yerebatan Sarayı' or 'Yerebatan Sarnıcı'), is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that still lie beneath the city of Istanbul, former Constantinople, Turkey.

The cistern, located in the historical peninsula of Istanbul next to the Hagia Sophia, was built during the reign of emperor Justinian I in the 6th century, the age of glory of Eastern Rome, also called the Byzantine Empire.

This cathedral-sized cistern is an underground chamber of 143 by 65 metres, capable of holding 80,000 cubic metres of water. The large space is broken up by a forest of 336 marble columns each 9 metres high. The columns are arranged in 12 rows each consisting of 28 columns. The capitals of the columns are mainly Ionic and Corinthian styles, with the exception of a few Doric style with no engravings. According to ancient historians, emperor Constantine had already built a basilica and cistern on the same spot. As the demand for water grew, emperor Justinian enlarged the cisterns and incorporated the basilica.

The cistern is surrounded by a firebrick wall with a thickness of 4 meters and coated with a special mortar for waterproofing. The cistern's water was provided from the Belgrade Woods—which lie 19km north of the city—via aqueducts built by the emperor Justinian.

The cracks and the columns were repaired in 1968. Having been restored in 1985 by the Istanbul Metropolitan Museum, the cistern was once again opened to the public on 9 September, 1987.

And this, from another web site - guideistanbul.net:
The interior of Underground Cistern is breathtaking. It is 138 m, 452 ft long by 65m, 213 ft wide. There are 336 columns in the cistern. Most of the column capitals are either in Corinthian or Doric Style. At the far end of the Cistern, there are two heads of Medusa which are put upside down or side ways. The Medusa Heads are taken from an ancient Pagan site but they complement the pillars very beautifully and add a different taste to the building.
Because of its magic atmosphere and great acoustics, this cistern is now hosting many Classical Music Concerts. There is also a little café which one can sip his or her coffee and enjoy this unique building. On the way to the exit, there are two small bookshops which is full of postcards and informative books as well as some silver jewelry.

We visited at about 9:00 in the morning. I think the restaurant in the cistern is used only for specially catered occassions.



A couple of other facts about the cistern: it covers an area of 2.4 acres and can hold 21 million gallons of water (or 80,000 cubic meters).







Here is Noah with one of the two medusa heads (referenced above). One is upside down and one is sideways (this is the sideways one). It is believed that they were placed this way by design, but no one is sure why.

Sarnic cistern restaurant...

We got back to Prague a few hours ago after a successful vacation in Istanbul. Where to begin? I've already downloaded the 148 photos from our digital camera and they cover a whole lot of ground.

I'm going to go with something out of the ordinary for my first post-Istanbul post. With Noah staying with our Turkish friends for a couple of nights we got to have a couple of great dinners alone. The best was at a place called Sarnic, which is in a 1,500 year old cistern located just behind the Aya Sofia.

The ceiling is about 30 feet high, and the room has six marble pillars supporting it. Until recently it was used as a car repair shop and had a second floor added. Renovation, though, meant the loss of the additional floor and back to all brick. The restaurant has tons of candles and lots of wrought iron.

Here I am - with the fireplace in the background. Obviously, this was a feature added later.
















This gives some idea of the ceiling height as well as the wrought iron gates.























Here is a photo from the web with better lighting than I am capable of.



















I found a Frommer's review on-line:
The setting for this restaurant, an old Roman cistern tucked away behind the Ayasofya, is nothing less than dramatic. The flickering light of 500 candles bounces off the iron grillwork, the lofty brick domes, and the stone pillars, while the crackling of the fire in the massive stone chimney (an inauthentic but effective addition) supplies more romance than a girl can handle. It's hard to believe that only a few years ago, before the Turkish Touring and Automobile Association bought and restored it, the cistern served as a greasy old auto repair shop.

I found a few food reviews for Sarnic on the web and they say the food is so-so. Actually, we found the food and service to be quite good and reasonably priced. The wine, while good, was quite expensive and next time we would probably pass on the wine.

Istanbul update...

I'm sitting in one of the many internet cafes in Istanbul - just $2 an hour for a computer with a high speed internet connection.

Noah is staying with our friends, Tuana and Armin, and their sons Ares and Marco. We will get him back tomorrow, so tonight will be another nice evening at a better than usual restaurant (where we won't have to worry of there is something that will appeal to Noah.

Spent all day so far (it's 4:30 in the afternoon) site seeing. We spent all morning at Topkapi palace - very interesting. Then we went to the spice bazaar to look around - also very interesting. We had lunch at a restaruant on the 5th floor roof of a building overlooking the Golden Horn - the waterway that separates the older and newer European sections of the city. Finally, we went to the shopping district of Beyoglu and bought Noah a jersey from one of the four top league teams in the city - Fenerbache. Fenerbahce had beater Aresenal in a shocker here in Istanbul a couple of weeks ago, but then they lost in England and are out of the UEFA cup. Still, even though they lost we got the jersey anyway.

That's the quick update for now. Back to Prague on Wednesday.

We're off on spring vacation...

The three of us are heading to the airport shortly to take a flight to Istandul and will be there until next Wednesday. I wanted us to go somewhere exotic for a vacation and Istanbul seemed like a natural destination. I visited Istanbul (along with much of the rest of Turkey) way back in 1993. It's a great place.

We will see some friends who left Prague last year to return to their native Turkey. I posted on their going away party here. Armin ran the Prague Hilton, and met President Bush when he stayed there while visiting Prague last June. His wife is Tuana and is a good friend of Kathy's.

Armin and Tuana have a son, Ares, who was in Noah's class last year and the two of them were best friends. While we are in Istanbul Noah is going to stay with them from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday morning - he is very excited to stay there and see his old (relatively speaking) friend. Of course, Noah being with them for a couple of days gives Kathy and I the opportunity to see some sites that we wouldn't be ablr to otherwise.

Istanbul is a very large city with 17 million people and we will be staying in the old historic section called Sultanahmet where the most popular tourist attractions are. The hotel terrace has a view of the nearby Blue Mosque (see picture).

I haven't decided yet if I will bring the laptop. I wasn't planning on it, but noticed that the hotel has free wi-fi so I might bring it (if anything just to keep up on the Wild playoffs scores and fantasy baseball). Posting will either be light or non-existent through Wednesday.