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Published: June 30th 2017
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The Sultanahmet Camii - the Blue Mosque
Built between 1609 and 1616, to rival the Hagia Sophia Greetings from Ankara, capital of Turkey!
I didn't feel very well last night so I ended up not going to the group dinner after the meeting, but Susan went and had a good time (they had Turkish pizza, which sounds great!). We have a group of 15 for our trip, from a variety of countries. Besides Susan and I, there are Grant and Chris (Australia), Veronica and John (New Zealand), Janette (Australia), Paddy (Ireland), Gerald (Ireland), Olga and Richard (Australia), Cathy (Canadian but living in Australia), Graeme and Rita (New Zealand), and Mark (Australia). I'm a bit surprised the group isn't a bit younger, but everyone seems friendly and well-travelled and I'm sure we will enjoy travelling with them. Some of the group are continuing travelling after the Turkey trip, and some have already been to other places and are finishing up with the Turkey trip. I think Paddy and Gerald are the only ones just doing the Turkey trip. Our trip leader is Nihat, who seems very knowledgeable and helpful.
We left the hotel about 9 this morning, after breakfast and check out, and walked to the Blue Mosque, which was lovely but not as impressive as I
thought it was going to be. The Hagia Sophia was more spectacular (I guess seeing it yesterday spoiled me!). It was very crowded inside, unlike the Rustem Pasha mosque yesterday, which was very peaceful. The tiles were beautiful, but not quite as beautiful as at the Rustem Pasha mosque. But I don't want to down play it, it was amazing to see and I'm so glad to have been able to see it. The domes and semi domes were very beautiful.
Some people in the line up to go in were not properly dressed and were supplied with cover ups (I find it kind of unbelievable tourists are not aware of proper dress at places like the Blue Mosque - don't they bother to do even the most basic research?). I wore long pants, which I later zipped off (they zip off below the knee so are ideal for a conservative country). And of course we have our scarves which we cover our heads with when we go into mosques. One of our group seems to feel affronted by this requirement, but I think, we are visiting their country and we should respect their customs. If you are not
prepared to cover your head, then don't go.
After the Blue Mosque we walked around the Hippodrome, and saw the Egyptian Obelisk and the German Fountain. The obelisk was taken from Karnak in Egypt, first by the emperor Constantinius II in the 4th C CE, who moved it to Alexandria, then later (390 CE) the emperor Theodosius I brought to Constantinople. It dates back to the reign of Thutmosis III (15th C BCE) and is said to be the oldest monument you can see in Istanbul. Seeing it made me a bit wistful that we aren't in Egypt as originally planned, but I know Turkey will be amazing.
We walked back to our hotel, collected our luggage, and left on our drive to Ankara. We are in a quite comfortable mini-bus, with Hassim as our driver. Susan and I sat right up front so we had a great view (but less leg room in that seat) for the drive. It was a beautiful drive out of Istanbul, over the bridge to the Asian (Antolian) side. It was kind of exciting crossing over into Asia! Some of the drive was through kind of industrial areas, and then we passed
through very pretty, varied scenery. We stopped for lunch as a cafeteria type place (I had lentil soup, wonderful Turkish bread, and a yogurt drink called ayran). Later on the drive at a WC stop we bought some Turkish delight and dried fruits. This was my second time using the "elephant feet" squat style toilet. Not so bad! (I'm glad I researched it beforehand so I knew what to expect).
We arrived at our hotel in Ankara about 7 pm (Akyuz Hotel), and then met the group for dinner at 7:30, at a basic little place down the street. Tomorrow sounds like an action packed day - to the Ankara museum in the morning, then we set off on the drive to Goreme, Cappodocia. We stay three days in Goreme. We've booked a balloon ride for Monday which we are very excited about. Now off to bed!
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