The sights we saw in Istanbul

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Well we have had a couple of busy days here in Turkey. On Sunday we spent the whole morning at the Archaeological museum. It is possibly the best museum I have ever seen. There was so much there! I couldn’t believe how similar it was to the Cairo museum. Lots of old tombs and statues, all in almost perfect condition. It was amazing! And our guide that we have in Turkey is awesome. He doesn’t talk a lot about one thing, he just says a little about everything. So that’s really nice because we are able to see a lot and it’s not a lot of waiting around. My favorite thing there was probably the sarcophagi (old tombs). They were in such good shape and so intricate. Most of them were around 2,500 years old. The thing that just astonishes me is the amount of stuff in these museums. I mean it took us three hours to get through the museum, and like I said, we didn’t really stop for a while at any piece. And not only is stuff in this museum, but obviously the British Museum has some of their stuff and there’s another big museum somewhere in Turkey (maybe Ankara?) that also houses many things found in Turkey. One thing that was really cool was that we saw part of their workroom. Well, really just where they have pieces on ancient ruins and they are working on putting them together. There were so many pieces and it’s crazy that they all belong to something. It’s like a giant puzzle that they need to figure out. After that museum we went to another one that housed old tiles. Most were from the 14th and 15th centuries. They were still in almost perfect condition and there were so many. That museum was nice to see, but not nearly as impressive as the Archaeological one. We also went to another museum that had many things from Egypt and some other things as well. One thing I thought was really cool was they had an ancient multiplication table carved into a tablet. They had many different, ancient doctrines, so that was kinda neat. They also had a long stick type thing that was used for measuring. They went by someone’s (not sure who) different body measurement. For example, there was a line where it said “one foot” another said “one arm” And so on. After the museums, we went to a local café for lunch. We all had Turkish pizzas, which were delicious. They had different types of meat and sheep cheese on a pita. Then the afternoon we spent going to the mosques and walking around the Sultanhamet area of town. We first went to the hippodrome which was where events used to take place. It’s not much now, just a few monuments that are still there. It’s kinda just a common, park-like area. There was an obelisk that was from Egypt which was pretty neat and a little gazebo-type place where different events used to be held. It was raining out at this point, so it wasn’t too much fun walking around outside. So after walking around that area for a little while, we went into the Blue Mosque. Wow, that was incredible. There was some sort of prayer going on at the time (not the one that they do five times a day, it was a specific one for a special occasion) so that was awesome to observe that. They have an area in the Mosque where the Muslims pray and then they have an area where the tourists can walk around. I didn’t like that as much that the two areas were divided, but since there were so many tourists, it had to be roped off. When I was in Egypt last year, we were able to go into a few mosques and none of them were busy with tourists so we got to watch the prayers fairly close and feel more enveloped in the religion rather than watching it from the sidelines like we did here at the Blue Mosque. But the Blue Mosque was still pretty cool. It was huge. I couldn’t believe it. And the ceilings and wall were just absolutely gorgeous and amazing. After this mosque, we went to Hagia Sophia. This is now a museum because it was a mosque to begin with (the first one ever….the original was built in the 4th century, but then it was made into the building it is today in he 7th century) and then it was a Christian church and then there was a debate to whom it belonged, so they agreed to turn it into a museum. Because it is now a museum, I didn’t really feel like I was being immersed in any culture. The building was still really cool and the different paintings and mosaics from when it was a mosque were incredible. Most of them were covered in gold and just in the center of the building on the ceiling, there was over four acres of gold. Incredible. There were also a few different paintings (I don’t think that’s the appropriate name for them though) that had the name of Allah (the Islamic God) and Muhammad written in Arabic. They were so detailed and gorgeous. After that museum, we went down in an old Roman cistern. It was huge and kinda scary. There were red lights on the pillar and water everywhere. There was actually a scene from a James Bond movie filmed down there. Not only was it a cistern in Roman times, but there were many illegal trades and even murders that happened down there because it was so big and so many different places to hide. It would have been really scary if there wouldn’t have been a lot of people down there. Now it’s just a tourist spot, like many places in Istanbul. After the cistern we went to the Orient Express train station and ate dinner there. The food was ok. I definitely like Greek food better though. Turkish food (or at least the meals we have been getting) are pretty basic. Just meat and potatoes and a basic salad. After the dinner we went to a performance of Whirling Dervishes. That was really cool. Whirling Dervishes are Sufi mystics. Within the Muslim faith, there is a group called the Sufis who date back to the poet of Rumi. They are still Muslims, but a part of their faith is this prayer that involves twirling in white dresses to music. It was really cool. Unfortunately it was tough to get a god picture, but I’ll still put some up because it’s really hard to explain what they are and what they do. One thing that really bugged me about this was the audience. A lot of people were talking and treating it more as a concert rather than a religious practice. Also, there was a huge sign that said no flash pictures, and a lot of people were taking flash pictures, which just totally ruined the setting. So I wish I would have been able to go to one in a different setting. Roy said that there is a better place to see them, in Konya, Turkey, where they originated, but when we are in Konya, it is a day that they don’t perform the ceremonies. So it was either see this kinda touristy one, or not see one at all. So I was at least glad that we did get to see one. But anyways, then yesterday was another busy day. In the morning we went to the Chora Church. That was pretty cool, it did look very similar to all the other churches we have seen. But one cool thing about it was the frescoes followed the life of the Virgin Mary, which was a lot different than any other church we were at. The church was so busy though, so that really sucked, but it was still cool to see it. After that church we went to the Patriarchate and met with the Patriarch of Constantinople. That was awesome because he is such a prominent figure in the Orthodox Church. Almost as big as the Pope in the Catholic church. When we got to the Patriarchate, we got a tour of the church there and then we went to a room and sat and waited for His All Holiness Bartholomew the First. He came in and talked to us for a little while, which was really cool. He just talked about some of the things that he has been working on. He is very environmentally conscience and has been working with various people to help save the environment, so that was neat. Roy has met with him a few times before when he has been in Istanbul, so that’s kinda neat. But Roy said that this was the longest that he ever met with our group before. One thing that the Patriarch said at the end after we had given him some gifts from Concordia, he said “Concordia is such a lovely name. It means one mind, one heart.” So that was really cool. And he gave us chocolate and a little cross. So that was really neat that we got to meet such a prominent religious figure. Anyways, after that meeting with him, we went to another little café for lunch and had kebaps. They are pretty much just soft shell tacos. Very good. We weren’t able to stay long for lunch because we had met with the Patriarch longer than we thought, which was fine. Then we went to Topkapi castle. Parts of that were really cool. It was the Castle of the Sultan, so there were many different buildings and artifacts from the different Sultans. My favorite were the different treasury rooms. They had so many jewels, mostly rubies, emeralds and diamonds. Everything was encrusted with jewels. It was incredible. They had so many just everyday household things covered in jewels and they were all gold covered. There were a few mugs that had about 100 different probably one carat jewels on them. There was one chair that was covered in jewels and it was huge. There was even an 82 carat diamond that was surrounded by probably 100, four carat diamonds. And it used to be a ring. It was incredible. Pictures weren’t allowed in there, so that really sucked because the things were so cool. Then after the palace we went back to the Grand Bazaar. Ingrid and I walked around for a while, but since we were there the other day we had seen pretty much everything and we didn’t want to buy anything because we will be back in a week. So we sat at a café and drank apple tea, the typical Turkish drink. It was delicious as always. One of the typical things with apple tea is that shop owners will give you a small glass when you go into their store to encourage you to buy something. Accepting the tea doesn’t mean you have to buy anything though. Anyways, after the bazaar we went to the restaurant that we went to the first night (the one with the awesome view of Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.) The dinner was pretty good. The main course was beef wrapped in eggplant with a side of veggies. Nothing too special, but it was good. Dessert was awesome, but I’m not quite sure what it was. It tasted kinda like ice cream, but it was harder and not quite as cold. It was in a chunk so it kinda looked like a piece of feta cheese. When we saw the dessert we were all worried it was feta or some sort of cheese covered in chocolate. But we were pleasantly surprised with the ice cream type thing. After dinner we just went back to the hotel and worked on homework. David and Roy did some rearranging and deleting of some assignments for the rest of the semester because we are constantly on the road til the end of the semester. So that was awesome that they did that because we are not really going to have any free time anymore because we are in a different city almost every night and seeing lots of sights every day. So they thought that since we were doing that we didn’t need to be coming back to the hotel after 10 hours of touring and doing homework. So that was really nice of them. We actually have only about a week left in the semester because we are done on April 20th, but the day before that we have a free day in Athens and then the two days before that we are back in Istanbul doing more sight seeing. So I think our last thing we have is due on the 15th, which is only a week away. I can’t believe that this semester is almost over. It has gone by so fast. And I also can’t believe that Emily and I are on our own in a little less than two weeks for 19 days. That will be an adventure. I can’t wait! Right now we are in Pergamon (Bergama... depending on which language), Turkey. We drove for about 7 or 8 hours on the bus today. We stopped in Troy, which was pretty sweet. There are nine different cities built on top of each other dating all the way back to 3000 BC. The most famous of those is the 6th level of Troy because it is the one mentioned in Homer's "Illiad." They also have a replica of the wooden horse there, so that's kinda cool because we could go inside. We are only in Pergamon (Bergama) til tomorrow. We are going to see the ancient ruins here for a little while and then we are on to Ephesus!

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Photos

Pieces of pots
Puzzle pieces

The blondes
Ingrid, me, Brianna, Nina, and Peggy