Turkey (Istanbul Day-2 and Day-3)

The rest of Istanbul we saw after coming back from the tour i.e. after a week and by then the weather had changed and had become very pleasant. The biting cold had vanished.

Ayasophia

‘Full-day Istanbul Tour’ is very tiring, because you have to walk a lot.

The Hippodrome is interesting. It immediately brings to mind the thrilling chariot-race of ‘Ben Hur’.

http://www.istanbulinfolink.com/the_city/monuments/hippodrome.htm

Please refer to the link above for more info. about the Hippodrome.

The Hippodrome

We saw the Obelisk in the Hippodrome and I said to Avi,

“Cleopatra must have been a wonderful seamstress. See how many needles she had.”

He immediately understood the reference. After all, we have seen those Egyptian obelisks in London, Rome, Paris, New York as well as Egypt.

However, now I have discovered on Internet that there are 28 obelisks all over the world but only three (London, Paris and N.Y. ones) are called ‘Cleopatra’s Needles’ because they were from the temple built by Cleopatra for Mark Antony. However, the Needles were much older and originally were at Heliopolis.

So, I surmise that Cleopatra was good at sewing as well as sowing seeds of contention.

(BTW, ‘hippo’ is a horse and NOT a hippopotamus.)

Interior of Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque is grand. So is Ayasofia.

Ceiling of Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque is so called because its interior is blue. Its inside walls are fully covered with blue Iznik tiles.

Interior of Ayasofia

Ayasophia went through many transformations. It was a church to begin with, then converted into a mosque and now, it is Museum, thanks to Turkey’s secular policy. Whatever remains of its mosaics is impressive.

Mosaic

Topkapi Palace is another proposition hard on the legs and Grand Bazaar is a maze calculated to make you lose your way and keep on buying useless and expensive ‘kitsch’.

We had ‘finished’ the Hippodrome, the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sofia, and the Grand Bazaar and now it was time for lunch.

“Now I will take you to a very good restaurant for lunch and when you have become delicious, we will go to the Topkapi Palace.” the guide said.

This I have put in as a sample of ‘guide English’.

I was delirious with happiness at the prospect of becoming ‘delicious’, and so we proceeded to the restaurant.

After lunch, only the Topikapi Palace remained to be seen.

I was particularly interested in Topkapi Palace’s Treasury. The movie ‘Topkapi’ has made one of the museum pieces very famous, the ‘Topkapi dagger’, but my main interest was in the Peacock Throne. I had read somewhere that it was in Topkapi Museum.

Topkapi Museum has many different thrones and the so-called ‘Peacock Throne’ looked cheap and shabby in comparison. Moreover, there are no peacocks anywhere in its design. Instead, it is just a piece of ordinary ‘minakari’. No precious stones either!

I somehow suspect that Nadir Shah would not have gifted the original throne to the Ottomans. He would have kept it himself.

I was a bit disappointed, to say the least.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takht_e_Taus

Moreover, after seeing the photo of the Peacock Throne in the above link, I am convinced that it is NOT the original Peacock Throne that is on display in the Topkapi Palace.

Istanbul Day-3

View from Galata Tower

We had a half day for sightseeing before we had to leave for the airport and several options – Dolmabahce Palace or Princes’ Island or Galata Tower. We chose Galata Tower because it practically dominates the skyline and is visible from almost all over Istanbul. The chance of going up on a one-stop tram ‘tunel’ also added to the attraction.

We took the tram that crosses the Galata bridge and got down at the other end of the bridge.

I looked up to see our landmark, the Galata tower and was mystified to see that it had vanished. I could not see any vestige of it. The houses covering the hill had hidden it totally.

Avi is 6 inches taller than me and so he could just spot the top of the tower.

Anyway, we took the ‘tunel’ up the hill and walked down to the base of the Galata Tower.

The elevator (and a hefty sum of 11 lira) took us to the top of the tower.

The 11 lira tickets were worth it. The panoramic views of Istanbul from all the sides are stupendous.

We spent a lot of time taking pictures and then walked across the Galata bridge to shop at a bazaar where the local population shops. Not, not the Grand Bazaar, which is a fraud perpetrated on the tourists.

Grand Bazaar

We were told that Turkish people are good at three things – Calligraphy, Carpet-weaving and Ceramics.

We can’t read their calligraphy and we do not need carpets in Mumbai, so we only bought some small pieces of ceramics from Istanbul, though Turkish ceramics is expensive compared to other countries.