Spice Market

The Spice Market is a smaller more manageable version of the Covered Bazaar/Grand Bazaar. You still get the same experience....you just aren't so overwhelmed.

Additionally, I feel like more Turks might shop there instead of just tourists?

Topkapi Palace

Topkapi is one of my favorite places in Istanbul; it is the palace complex where the Ottoman sultans lived and reigned from for 400 years.

I do as I would assume like most people do as they walk through the various areas...what would it have been like to live here then? Clearly, a much different live for the sultan than for the chief eunuch for the harem. A much different reality for the Grand Vizier than for one of the 200 kitchen staff that cooked for and fed what essentially was a small town of a couple thousand behind the palace walls.

I liked the tiles in this wall one of the small passageways in the harem. All the drama and intrigue......the harem is not a seedy, sordid place. It was the royal residence and his family. The queen mother, the up to three other wives of the sultan who had given birth to one of his children....plus the eunuchs to protect them all and the concubines to serve the queen mother, the other wives and the sultan.

Suleimaniye Cami

Yesterday was a visit to one of the mosques in Sultanahmet, the old part of Istanbul. First thing in the morning, before the heat, before the bustle of the end of the work week, before the worshippers come to worship on the Muslim holy day of Friday.

It was us and another tour group who had the space to ourselves. You could envision it full of people, each taking their designated spot on the rug marked by the red shape on the floor.

There is something very peaceful and calming about any empty space of worship. It didn't feel empty; it felt full of peace and a place to be with your own thoughts.

Full On Day of Meetings.

A long morning of school visits both private and public. The private school was established in 1863 for fatherless students who showed potential. Impressively, today they continue to crank out (no longer responsible shopkeepers for the Grand Bazaar) good students who now go to college.

That in and of itself is not necessarily impressive, but the fact that the school not only provides scholarships for all its students grade 4 to 12 who live at the school but also if/when these students go to college for their bachelor degree but ALSO for a master's degree as well.

The afternoon was spent at the Turkish Cultural Foundation offices for speaker after speaker from various NGOs that deal with children or education. We then got to go out and about to whet our whistles for tomorrow and a full day of sight seeing.

The Blue Mosque in the picture is one we will not be going into unless I decide to go back during free time on Saturday.....I haven't decided if I am going to or go to the Turkish Baths.

I have a couple more pictures to share, but I don't know how to move them around on my blogger iPhone app, so I will just make separate posts.

Cistern. The Underground Kind.

We were releases from the meetings and headed to Sultanahmet to see the cistern that has been preserved from before the time of Constantine.....as in the guy that Constantinople was named for----before the city was called Istanbul but after it was called Byzantium?

Now a tourist attraction and a cool respite from the heat of the day (although, it really was pleasant today by the time we got outside). The previous times I have visited the cistern, I was told a story. It referred to the stone that holds one of the support columns that has the head of Medusa placed on her side and another with her head upside down. The story I was told on both previous visits was that she was not right side up because of superstition; namely, that to look upon Medusa with her snake-y snake hair would turn you to stone. The architects/laborers were protecting us by rotating the head so that you could look on her REFLECTION in the water.

Today, that story was contradicted by Orhan, our tour guide. It was placed on the side or top (upside down) because it provided a better base for support to the column. The base of the column would have under water as would the top decorative part when the cistern was full. So, then the question: "Why flipping bother with the decoration at all?" They didn't, they were just recycling old pieces of marble from pagan Roman and/or Greek temples---they didn't care about the decoration at all. And that made sense.

Me from twenty years ago likes the drama story of not turning to stone; the 2012 version of me is a little minuscule bit sad by that bubble bursting but at the same time, it makes more sense.

Regardless, it still feels like an eerie, magical, refreshing space to hang out for 15 minutes.

Shoe Shine Guy.

I love that this guy picks a spot and that is where he is to shine shoes. With his fancy schmancy kit, I think it is brass with brass topped containers of different polish colors and supplies.

Proud of his job, you can tell by his shiny kit probably polished during down times....dressing up by American standards, for a messy job.

I have wonder how many takers he had for shining shoes in a tourist area where many were wearing sandals.

Fifteen Minutes Before Supper

A chance to get to the heart of Old Istanbul. A dash to the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia which we will not and will see tomorrow respectively.

There were vendors selling roasted chestnuts and roasted corn. I am not sure the combination is about a tasty combo but rather, "Hey, I can roast stuff on my cart. What do people eat roasted?"

Just a Taste.

The back side of Hagia Sofia as we walked back to the bus. Tomorrow is full on day of site seeing in Sultanahmet....the oldest part of Istanbul and my most favoritist.

Istanbul.

Long day of travel that ended on arooftop terrace restaurant right under the Galata Tower built by the Crusaders.....Seriously?!?!