What a bizzare bazaar! Day 5

2/8/2010

Today was our first day that the whole “Team” was together. We decided to make our first trip into the “Older Town” to see the Hagia Sofia, Topkopi Palace, Blue Mosque, Grand Bazzar, and more.

Our goal was to see as many things as possible, but not focus too much on exploring each one yet, knowing that we’d definitely be back. It’s only a 15 minute metro ride from our appt.
We took a very modern tram over the Galata Bridge and got off one stop over the bridge at the European Train Station.

The European Train Station was once the Terminus of the Oriental Express and the building was beautiful with ornate Ottoman tiling and glass. The station was worn down and the trains couldn’t have been younger then 50years.

We then began to walk up a hill following a massive stone wall. We finally realized that this was the wall for Topkopi Palace. The wall was maybe 25-30ft tall, made of sandstone with strips of red brick layered into it. Large portions of the wall had been removed in between towers and replaced with small local stores.

We then walked through the massive gates of Topkopi. The grounds of the palace are as beautiful as any park you’ll ever step foot in. Humongous smooth skinned trees lined the paths, brown wooden pavilions, and statues of regal lions and musing Ataturk were scattered around the park. On one side of the park are the massive walls of the actual palace that must be at least 50ft tall. The terrain is extremely hilly but from the top of the park is a spectacular view of the Bosphorus and the European side of the city.

NB: Many of the smaller buildings in the Old Town are made of wood and their second floors protrude out over the street. These old Ottoman Town Houses and shops are some of the most striking buildings in the city. They are quite refined and beautiful. Unlike the massive mosques, palaces, and public buildings these wooden structures have an undeniable warmth to them. They are smaller in scale and are covered in a wooden siding. Some are ornate with many decorations, but most are simple with a single pushed out center bay that overlaps the street. These bays are called “Cikma” and they developed from traditional balconies into enclosed indoor space. There is a law against demolishing these buildings now and many of them have been restored and are quite spectacular. In all wood is becoming quite popular is the contemporary architecture in Istanbul, giving the city a break from drab polished concrete with a more a material that is more dissolved in the applied form and more to the human scale. Most government and public buildings were built as large scale monuments to the power, strength, and prestige of the emperors, sultans, and other rulers of the time. While impressive these buildings are often hard to maintain due to the scale and material and frequently fall into disrepair.

A few of the many places we pasted by but didn’t take the time to fully explore today, we’ll be back, included the Archeological Museum, the Spice Bazaar, the Calligraphy Museum, and the Basilica Cistern. Keep an eye out for future posts.

Next we walked past a couple big mosques (they seem to be everywhere in the city), who were in the middle of prayer calls. To hear a prayer call, click this link. Bear in mind these happen 5 times per day 7 days per week. We can hear them from our appt. http://www.flickr.com/photos/alaskapine/2402178742/

The area of Old Town near the palace and the Blue Mosque is nice but very touristy. For the first time we began to hear many English conversations. We turned a corner and saw the Blue Mosque.

Side note: I really needed to use the bathroom and got to go by sneaking into the ruins of an old building. We were not sure what it was, but it was eerily similar to Aladdin’s hideout: big and ornate, with no roof. Definitely the coolest place I’ve ever gone to the bathroom.

The Blue Mosque (real name Sultan Ahmet Camii) is huge but its size is broken down by the multiple terraced levels around it. Even with all the pieced together levels around the center dome you can still understand the building as one monolithic structure. The bigger mosques originally contained complexes, that held shops to pay for the temples upkeep and support hospitals and schools the mosque provided. Its six minarets are controversial as it is one of only two Mosques outside of Mecca to have six (the Ottoman’s supposedly did it to show their superiority to the rest of Islam).

We then turned around and looking right back at us was the Hagia Sofia (real name Aya Sofia), directly across from the Blue Mosque. Between the three of us we debated which one was more captivating. Backless benches allowed you turn back in forth to take in the two famous structures.

The Hagia Sofia is centuries older than the Blue Mosque. The Hagia Sofia was dedicated in 360 AD and the Blue Mosque was completed in 1616. Hagia Sofia served as the cathedral of Constantinople until 1453 when the Ottomans converted it to a mosque. In 1935 it became a museum under the rule of Ataturk. It has four minarets that are not original to the building and appear to have been built in three stages, only two out of the four match. Unlike the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sofia seems to envelope many surrounding buildings of different styles creating one giant temple, in contrast, the Blue Mosque slowly builds up from smaller, similarly designed pieces towards the dome at the center. The Hagia Sofia’s Dome hovers above the complex allowing the red painted stone supports and shiny dome to stick out amongst the gray stone. The Blue Mosque seems to sit in it complex while the Hagia Sofia seems to loom over its front plaza. We entered neither of them as the Hagia Sofia is closed on Mondays and we get a steep admissions discount when we get our student ID’s (we start language school tomorrow).

NB: we got Turkish ice cream while walking, Will: “an elastic, almost chewy combination of American ice cream, gelato, and taffy.” Turkish ice cream is served by Fez wearing men who always mess with you when you order. Check out the video to see what we mean. Our guy messed with us each for about 3 minutes, much more extensive than the video below but it gives you an idea. We’ll be sure to take a video next time.
http://vimeo.com/7422047

We then wandered over the Grand Bazaar. The bazaar is a city onto itself. It is supposedly the largest and oldest “covered” bazaar in the world (1461). It employs over 30,000 people in more than 4,000 shops and stalls. Inside the bazaar was not what I expected. It was huge and was maze, but it was very clean and well maintained. Shops were not rickety lean-tos that we had expected and many had glass store fronts. Each was set into an even brick arched space. The covering was stone domes that had decretive mosaics inside each one. Walk through the bazaar speaking English and you’ll never feel unloved. They had anything you could imagine inside: antique pots, pans, weapons, rugs, jewelry, tea sets, modern clothes from the most popular futbol jerseys to lacoste polo’s, tons of trinkets and souvenirs. I’d go on but it would fill the entire bog.

We left and got back onto the tram to take us home (we got on going the wrong way at first; it only took us 4 stops to figure it out).

Food Editorial: We got off the train after crossing the Galata Bridge and got a fish sandwich from a little old man. The fish was grilling on his small charcoal girl along the banks of the Golden Horn. The fillets were pretty good size and for 4tl ($3) you got on fresh bread with fresh vegetables and lemon and great sandwich that absolutely hit the spot.

Earlier in the day we had eaten a massive lunch in a small café with no menus. We were led into the back of a small store front into a lady’s kitchen who pointed at food, and served us a “home cooked” meal with more food then we could eat. All ordering was done with pointing and smiles, really our kind of place. At the end of the meal we had tea and Turkish Coffee, which is a small cup of thick, really, really, (x5) coffee that is drank straight and slowly to allow for the maximum caffeine effect.

We arrived home, after picking up some grocery’s at a small local store (really cheap, 50 Turkish cents for a load of bread) and went home. Tomorrow we begin language class at 9am so we have to be rest and prepared.

-Lee (yhup guess who fixed most, nobody is perfect, spelling mistakes, Will)
*all apologies for the generic pictures I promise to get our originals uploaded soon*