Day 28 - Thursday May 11 - Istanbul Turkey

By Ellen Outten

 


What a day!  I had no idea what to expect in Instanbul Turkey.  I had an early morning.  My tour left at 7:30 am.  The port talk about Istanbul told us all about how busy the city was and how we would have to get from the ship to the bus.  The marine terminal in Istanbul is completely underground.  It took over 10 minutes of fast paced walking to get from the ship to the bus.  It was explained well.  We were told to think of it like an airport terminal.  It was exactly that.

My tour (additional charge) was called "Istanbul's Amazing Edifices" and the tour lived up to its name.  The bus took us close to the Topkapi Palace.  Because we started so early, it wasn't open yet, so we walked to the Blue Mosque.  The real or correct name is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. It's named because all of the blue tiles inside.  It was incredible.  

The mosque was absolutely amazing.   It was constructed between 1609 and 1616 to reassert the power of the Ottoman empire.  It's a functioning mosque that allows visitors and tourists to go in.  We had to stay behind the area reserved for prayer.  And, we had to take our shoes off before entering as well as wear a head covering.  It has 13 domes and six minarets. There are about 200 stained glass windows and and over 20,000 hand painted tiles.   The mosque was incredible.


















From there we walked to the Topkapi Palace.  It means Cannon Gate due to all the holes in the fortress walls where the cannons once were.  The palace is now a museum and holds amazing jewels, war relics and there is an entire building full of "holy relics".  What is kept there is incredible.  After four weeks of listening to stories about wars and conquering nations, it feels like all the relics of war are plundered by the national conquering the other country.   

The palace was more than just a palace.  There have been 22 sultans living in the palace and each one built more buildings.  It is a complex of buildings each holding more treasure than the next.



























After an hour walking through several of the buildings we took about a 15 minute walk to the Istanbul Grand bazaar.  WOW!  600 shops and stalls.  An amazing number of spice shops, 'real fake' jewlery, watches.   What a show!  I had an hour to wander and shop.  Yes, a few more things for the suitcase, which by the way, I managed to get everything to fit!  I can't even begin to describe the experience.  Shop merchants chasing you, trying to get you to buy.   They threw out great lines as you walked by like "Lady, do you want to buy something you don't need".  Or, Lady, want to spend some money".   It was absolutely crazy, and fun.   






I ended the tour with a stop for a coffee and a small piece of baklava and then the walk back to the bus.  14,969 steps today!






Tomorrow, a very early rise.  We have to be on a bus to the airport at 3:30 am.  We have an 8:25 am flight and the airport is about a one hour drive after the 15 minute walk through the underground marine terminal (aka airport) tunnel system to our bus.  If all goes well, we will be in Phoenix by 5:30 pm.  



  

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