Istanbul

Our first day in Istanbul we went to visit the Blue Mosque. On our way we stopped for juice. We had fresh orange and pomegranate juice. As we were getting up to leave a seagull pooped right on my dad’s head and then splattered on the rest of us. I hope it is good luck to get pooped on by a seagull, but I have my doubts.

We went to the Hagia Sophia, a church turned mosque that is a thousand years older than the Blue Mosque. It now no longer functions as a mosque and is only a museum. The ceiling used to be made up by a lot of mosaics, but after being restored much of it is painted. The big dome has been restored with mosaics, but it is constantly being worked on. When we visited there was a giant block of scaffolding going from the floor to the top of the dome. One really interesting thing for me was the ramp to the second floor. The ramp that we went up was made of slick stone, but the ramp that we went down had ridges on the stones. When we were in Jaipur, India we visited the Amber Fort. The Maharaja that lived there had many wives. The robes that the wives wore were so beaded and heavy that they had to use wheelchairs to get around. The ramps that they used were slick to go up and had ridges to go down. The ramps in these two places were very similar in shape also.

We also went to see the basilica cistern. They were first discovered when people said that they were getting water and fish out of holes in their basements. The underground reservoir was used to store water for the palace. Now you can go to visit and walk on elevated ground inside the cistern. We saw all kinds of little fish swimming in the shallow water.

So far Istanbul has been a magical city. I’m sorry to say that after our first lunch we struck out with food, but then again we aren’t willing to pay some prices. We leave this evening on an overnight bus to Cappadocia. Did you know that you can’t go to youtube in Turkey because someone posted something not nice about Ataturk (the founder of modern day Turkey), but for some reason I can still get it on my ipod. Go figure!