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Published: March 15th 2010
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We have been to Istanbul before so and had a look at her most impressive sights of the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya and Top Kapi Palace, so this time we decided to poke around a little deeper. Our first stop was the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. This museum was fantastic with some great exhibits from Egypt including the Royal Necropolis of Sidon which was discovered in 1887 by Osman Hamdi. It is thought that the sarcophagus date from the 5th century. They were huge, made of marble with amazing detail and most of it had been preserved. The museum also had a statue section - the sheer size and detail of these creations was incredible. You can see the definition of the calf muscles on the legs, the straps of the roman sandals and even the toenails!
This time we decided to go and see the whirling dervishes which was set in an old haman. This is a Mevlevi worship ceremony or sema representing the union with God, the full skirts represent their shrouds, the black cloak symbolise their worldly tombs and the conical hats their tombstones. The ceremony began when the hafiz who is a scholar and who has committed
the Quran to memory intones a prayer and recites a verse from the Quran. The dervishes hold their right arms up to receive the blessing from heaven and the left arm down communicating to earth and slowly rotate. They twirled for a long time, then they would stop, bow and rotate and continue to twirl. It was amazing - they looked so graceful and delicate with their white robes flowing and spinning - they looked like spinning tops. I am not sure how they don’t get dizzy with the constant whirling!
We decided to head out to the Western districts and look at Kariye Muzesi or Chora Church. The original building was a church but the one that is now on the site is from the 11th century and was converted into a mosque. All the interior is from 1312. The mosaics depict the lives of Christ and Mary. They are simply stunning and the smallest of tiles are used - it must have taken forever to put these mosaics together.
So the part that everyone wants to know.....
On Thursday 11 March, after we had visited the church, Matt said that he wanted to go somewhere
nice for a drink. He even put a shirt on and tried to encourage me to put mine on but I couldn’t be bothered! So we walked to Mamara Hotel at Taxim Square. We got to the roof top for the terrace bar and sat down but this was not the place Matt had in mind, it was quite sterile and there was no-one there. The drinks were also $20. We took off without drinking anything and Matt insisted that we try and find the place that he was talking about, turns out there is another hotel located elsewhere near the Galata Tower. The rooftop bar called Mikla was really nice - probably too nice considering we were in jeans and trekking shoes! We had a nice glass of wine and then Matt suggested that we go out onto the terrace to look at the view over Istanbul. He then told me he had taken a box of our Turkish delight from the hostel and opened it up. I went to get some but there was a ring in it, covered in icing sugar and he proposed. It was so emotional, a few tears were shed! The ring is beautiful.
We went inside and had another glass of wine. It was all very surreal. He had then arranged to have dinner in the restaurant which was rated as one of the best in Istanbul. After dinner he then raced me back to the hostel to pick everything up and took me to a boutique hotel called the Tom Tom Suites. It was beautiful but I couldn’t sleep all night!
We tried to get the ring resized but when we heard what had to be done, we decided to wait till we got back to London and its not like I will be wearing it through Africa anyway!
We have just started our tour. Its quite good because we still catch public transport and stay in small hotels but it is just great to have someone else organise it for a while.
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Scott McGregor
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Wow, cool, congratulations
Wow, the ring is beautiful. So happy for you both, and what a lovely proposal story to tell your kids one day :-) The Mosaics look like paintings... I can really see what you mean Birgit that the tiles must have been really small!! The sacophagus looks incredible, and the discus thrower is one of my favourite statues - now I know where to find it!! :) So stoked for you both. Enjoy your time through Africa together. Scott and Steph