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Published: October 26th 2012
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View from Bogazici
View from the campus of the Bosphorus and the Rumeli Fortress Another great day! We started off the day with a trip to Bogazici University (pronounced Bow-OZ-a-chee... never would have figured that one out) because that's where Shahar is spending his semester! The campus is absolutely beautiful! It is on the top of a hill about a 25 minnute drive from our hotel and there is a gorgeous view of the Bosphorus. He took us around campus a little bit and because of the holiday no one was around, which was kind of nice. We walked down to get a nice view of the water and a view of part of an old fortress called the Rumeli Fortress and then we got flooded with cats. Yes cats - SO MANY cats. Because we were the only people there, they started to follow us around campus - I counted 25 at one point. Ridiculous.
After our visit at the university, we stopped briefly at Shahar's apartment which was a little bit outside of the gates to the university, but it was a pretty nice size for off-campus housing (twice the size of my mini apartment when I was abroad). We then made our way back to the old city to see the
Cats Cats Cats
Grandma and Grandpa surrounded by felines Topkapi Palace. I was looking forward to seeing this palace because we saw the two palaces yesterday and I wanted to compare since I didn't think anything was going to impress me more than the Dolmabahce Palace. We were not able to get in until 1:00pm due to the holiday (don't worry, we spent our time waiting for it to open shopping in a little bazaar that wasn't closed for the holiday!), but because of this, by the time we got in, it was very crowded.
The Topkapi Palace itself was very different from the two palaces we saw yesterday which makes it hard to compare. The palace was not one big building, but more of a small self-suffient town almost that was spread over many different buildings and courtyards. Size-wise, picture a large piece of land that covers over 172 acres surrounded by big stone walls with many separate buildings inside. It was built in the 15th century after the fall of Constantinople during the beginning of the Ottoman Empire for the sultans. (I believe this may have been the first of the 11 palaces, but not sure.) This palace was the primary residence for the sultans for
about 400 years and like I mentioned before, it acted as if it were a little town. They had the biggest kitchen in the world at the time with 20 chimneys and the ability to feed 4,000 (often times more) at a time. There was a school for boys that were selected from all over Turkey who would become pashas (generals) as well as a harem for women who were also educated to become the wives of the pashas. There were big decorative halls for the sultans to meet with important political figures, there were many little but decorative private reading rooms for some of the favorite students to study, and there were even religious areas for worship. The decorative theme of the place was mainly ornate ceramic tile, but there was a lot of it.
The palace is now basically a museum. Many of the rooms have been made into exhibits, so for example we saw an exhibit of their treasury (basically all the lavish pieces they had collected over the years that showed off their immense wealth - emerald encrusted daggers, gold and diamond candlesticks, etc.) which was located where they old pasha school used to be.
Tile in Topkapi Palace
Just one example of many of the tile work My two favorite things were the weapon room and the harem. The weapon room showed an exhibit of all the weapons they used throughout those 400 years and there were the most intricately decorated swords and even rifles and guns they used towards the end of their reign. They were so beautiful that it didn't make sense to use any of them as actual weapons! They did actually have a lot of decorative weapons that were used for when they campaigned around the country, but many of them were actual weapons. It was just another example of how much wealth the sultans had. The harem showed the original area (without any exhibits) and we really got a good sense of how big it was. It reminded me of an all-girls college or something along those lines and the tile work in the whole area was just beautiful. I joked with Aunt Dalia that it wouldn't be such a bad place to be a Turkish girl during the Ottoman Empire and she reminded me that I would never be let out of the palace - ok, fair enough.
After the palace we went back to rest a bit and then
Harem
Ladies in the Harem! the night adventures began. Before I came on this trip, Gurcan (my amazing doorman from home who is from Istanbul originally) told me that we had to go to this restaurant that his brother-in-law's friend owns. He promised us the VIP service and delicious Turkish food so we had been all about it from the beginning. A few days into the trip we realized that the restaurant was pretty far up the shore on the Asian side and most people we asked said it would be very difficult to get there. I reluctantly told Gurcan that we might not be able to go and he did some magic and arranged for the restaurant's boat to come pick us up personally at a meeting point and take us the the restaurant. Ok, that is certainly what I call VIP service. I was a little nervous for everything to work out (especially since my mother had been the one that suggested the not-so-successful trip to the Whirling Dervishes the night before - we had a strike against us already). It turns out that the whole thing was wonderful! Gurcan completely outdid himself! They picked us up in a boat, which was so
Boat over to Asian Side
View of the bridge on boat ride to restaurant nice because we got a quick little cruise on the Bosphorus and beautiful views of the bridges and both sides of Istanbul. The restaurant itself was on the water and we had a view the whole dinner and the food was some of the best food any of us have ever had ever (like even in the US). It was fantastic. They were so nice too - they made sure we got cabs home when we got back to the European side - it was the best experience!
Once we got back to the hotel, most of us were wiped (myself included) and of course Shahar had to suggest going out for some Turkish nightlife. At the risk of losing "awesome and cool older cousin" status (don't laugh, I'm being serious), I somewhat reluctantly agreed but not before we pressured Uncle Keith, Aunt Dalia, and my mom to come along. I actually really had been wanting to try hookah in Turkey, because it is everywhere so I figured when in Turkey, do as the Turks do. We ended up going to this hole-in-the-wall place that we had found a few days before and got ourselves some hookah! Mom, Aunt
After Dinner
Family outside of the restaurant's boat Dalia and I were basically the only women in the entire place (I don't think women go out after dark - we have noticed that there are hardly any women on the subway after dark also) but we made the most of it. Most people were there to watch a soccer game (also the only TV I had seen in a restaurant, bar, you name it) but everyone was very friendly. After about an hour of hookah, we decided to call it a night and walked back home to go to bed.
(Sidenote: There will be no pictures of the hookah excursion on the blog because we do not have permission from the "above generation" to post pictures of aforementioned shenanigans on the internet. Apologies.)
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