Joshasaurus, Princess Kate and Mr. Mouse

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Geo: 41.1075, 28.7079

Josh: Istanbul was Constantinople. Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople. If I was a melting snowman, I could still go to school...in a thermos. Bu-dum-cha!

Thank you, thank you. Now for the blog. We woke up and went to Topkapi Palace, the sultan's palace. When we got in, we got an audio guide and started walking around taking turns with it. We saw a kitchen. We saw where he kept his babes and where he kept a lot of other stuff. We also saw his treasury with an 86-carat diamond with other ones all around it and it was lighted up for a sparkly effect. You could look at it forever. It was called the spoon-maker's diamond because the way the person got it was he traded 3 spoons for it, diamonds don't look that good before they are cut. Oh yeah, and the person that found the diamond and traded it for the spoons found it in a trash can...if only he knew. We went on the balcony and saw a really cool view of the Golden Horn.

After a while, we left and mom gave us one lira each to buy a hat or a top. All of us bought a top and we all had fun trying to make our own tricks like spinning it in the palm of our hand and Walking the Dog.

On our way to the spice market, we went to a park. I wouldn't mention it except for one detail: there were at least 5 kids splashing in a fountain in their underwear. It was pretty crazy. One of them was wearing a loin cloth with a ribbon to tie it up.

We went to the spice market. Mom bought 2 bags of spices and a lot of Turkish Delight. We walked through without buying anything else and walked on a path under a bridge. The air smelled strongly of fish. Luckily, we did not smell strongly of fish, except for Kate who stole some out of a guy's bucket and put them in her purse.

There were lots of restaurants down there. If found myself a comfy chair and made myself comfy. Alex and Kate made themselves comfy too until mom made us get out--unwillingly. We went back to the hotel on a tram. We stopped one stop early and got dinner and ice cream.
(Typist's note: Alex is blogging while his sister gives his a pedicure) Alex: I had a wonderful day. We went to the spice market and we bought Turkish Delight and I love Turkish Delight. We went to Topkapi Palace. At Topkapi Palace Daddy got wet when we were taking a picture by a fountain. We went to dinner and we watched them make pide. If you wonder what pide is, it's a type of Turkish pizza. I like mine with plain cheese. They flatten out the dough by hand. He pinched it. He put it on a pizza board with a long handle. He put it in the oven and took it out when it had risen. He pushed it down, he put the toppings on, put egg whites on and swooped it back into the oven. He took it out and it turned into a delicious pide. He put the finishing touches on it and then he served it. It was really yummy! I can still taste it in my mouth. Yummy, delicious pide. The end.

Kate: Today I slept until lunch. That was nice. I like sleeping until lunch. The first thing that we did was we went to the Topkapi Palace. I found out meaning of "gilded cage." It originated from Topkapi Palace. They used to put princes is rooms that were really nice but had gold bars on the windows. The prince was confined to his room. It was literally a gilded/golden cage.

I also learned from listening to the audio that the sultan would sometimes be entertained by dwarves in boats on a pool in the courtyard. Some people's idea of entertainment is boggling to the mind. Topkapi was a really beautiful place. When we went to the treasure room it was filled with diamonds and rubies and emeralds. Another thing that was in there was St. John's (the Baptist) arm and skull. The arm was covered in gold except in one section where you could see the bone and the skull was in a gold case with crystal replacing glass. It was also studded with precious gems. I had never seen a holy relic before.

Today we also went to the spice market. We got some Turkish Delight while we were there. He gave us some free samples and I liked the rose coconut one best.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the Galata Bridge. We were walking and we passed a restaurant. The owner came out and asked, "Would you like to see our menu? Where are you from?" When he walked up to dad, Dad said, "Hayir! Teshekur Ederim." (no, thank you) And the owner asked, "Why not? I wait on my own customers. I am the boss." As we passed each restaurant, more people would come out and talk to us until we were swamped with people begging us to come eat in their restaurant. Mom and I were laughing our heads off because it was so funny. The sad thing is that we might have eaten in one of those places, but it was so overwhelming that we had to get out of there.

It was a great day for us, but not for the restaurant owners.

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Photos

Diamond in the rubbish
This diamond (in its uncut state) was found in the trash and traded for 3 spoons, hence its name the spoonmaker's diamond. Since you couldn't take pictures in the room in which it was displayed, I found this one on the Web.

Galata Bridge restaurants
We may come back another day to have drinks under the bridge. It's a great view from there.

Trying out "street corn"
Alex and Kate both tried corn on the cobb on the street near the Galata Bridge. Josh wanted to try it as welll, but we can report to Dr. Beyer that Josh kept his braces in mind and didn't have any.