Istanbul

Well I was off again on another adventure, with some ladies from the AWA here in Aberdeen. I have been on a couple of these trips and felt like a seasoned veteran. We headed off to Istanbul on Wednesday and arrived in the wee hours of the morning at our hotel. We were up early the next day for our group tour of some of the major sights. Our guide, Abdullah, came to pick us up and loaded us into the bus for a trip around the old city walls. These walls were impressive, he told us that when they were built they weren't just one wall but a series of walls and moats all to keep people out. The walls seemed to stretch on forever, I couldn't help but wonder how huge a feat it was to build them that long ago. Our next stop was the Hippodrome or what is now called the Sultan Ahmet Square located just in front of the Blue Mosque. The square holds a few adornments in the form of obelisks brought by the rulers of Constantinople. For example, the obelisk of Thutmose III was erected in 390 AD. There is very little remaining that hints of the former days of sport and chariot racing that once occurred there.

Next we headed through the gates to the Blue Mosque. The Blue Mosque is an impressive building, with it's six minarets reaching toward the sky. There are several rules when you enter the mosque, no shoes, women must cover their upper arms but the rule about covering your head was not enforced. The mosque was very different from other religious buildings I have been in, there was no furniture, only wall-to-wall carpet, low hanging lights, beautiful tiled walls and ceilings and some wonderful stained glass windows. The name - "blue mosque" is not the official name of the mosque but it is known by that name due to the blue tiles inside.

We then walked from the mosque towards the Aya Sofya. We weren't due to go inside the building so we passed it by and went to the Basilica Cistern. This cistern was built in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian I. It was really cool to see how they used this cistern to filter their water for the Palaces of Constantinople.

As we stepped out of the cistern, we were pleasantly surprised to see that we had missed a rainstorm. We walked on, to the Topkapi Palace. Again we weren't meant to go into the palace so we strolled through the gardens as Abdullah told us more about the palace itself. It made us mark it on our list of places to visit while we were there.

As all good tours go (well at least in the mind of the women) our tour ended at the Grand Bazaar, we bade farewell to Abdullah and started shopping. The shopping in the bazaar is an experience. The tradesmen are great sales people and make you laugh and catch your attention with their comments and questions. There are some very beautiful handmade things for sale here and we spent most of the afternoon strolling through the massive bazaar. Stopping every once and a while for a fresh orange juice or some hummus. We had a great time!

Back to the hotel to meet up for some food and share our shopping stories and early to bed so we could have a good night sleep and be rested for another day of sightseeing.