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Published: July 12th 2010
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Basilica Cistern
Difficult to get a good photograph, but very beautiful mix of ancient construction and modern artistic lighting. Photography taken by Lauren. We knew we had more things that we wanted to do in Istanbul than we could possibly squeeze in before our departure, but we got up and vowed to do what we could. Needing refueling we stopped at a very tourist-oriented sidewalk café in the Sultanahmet area in the hopes that it would be a quick lunch. A short walk from lunch brought us to the Basilica Cistern - an ancient underground cistern to provide drinking water for the city. It was beautifully lit and laid out for visitors to admire the re-purposed columns dating back to the time of Constantine, and especially the decorative “Medusa heads” on two of the columns. We pushed through a bit more quickly than we would have wanted so that we could make one more stop at the Grand Bazaar before heading to the airport. We all had ambitions of acquiring objects to bring home with us, and we were short on time. This is, of course, not at all the way one should approach the Grand Bazaar, because getting a good price requires patience and persistence. We undoubtedly overpaid, but did do some bargaining to acquire some ceramics, a scarf and a dagger (quick
Medusa Head
Two of the columns rest on "Medusa heads". This one is turned sideways, the other is upside down. quiz: guess who selected each item!). After a hurried walk home and a cab ride to the airport we arrived in time for our late afternoon departure to Greece. We were all left with the feeling that Andrew was right and we needed to come back to Istanbul. There were so many things we didn’t get to do … the spice market, the fish market, more time in the New Town, a trip up the Bosphorus, we didn’t even really get to try the street food. And the people were so welcoming and friendly that we found it very easy to be travelers here compared to other places we have traveled in Europe.
Our flight to Athens was delayed by one hour due to the air traffic controller’s 4-hour strike in Greece, but we all agreed it could have been much worse. In Greece, our next big adventure involved a rental car and a drive out to the countryside. The drive was pleasantly uneventful, and after three hours we arrived in the town of Arachova, (a ski resort in Winter), a short distance from tomorrow’s desitnation of Delphi. Despite the small size of the town, finding the hotel was
You look Marvelous!
Lauren models scarf with the Bazaar shopkeeper a bit of a comedy of errors (steet names unapparent, bad map, street addresses somewhat irrelevant - and place names in GREEK of all things!!) and we were all quite hungry by the time we were checked in at about 10 PM. The “family suite” was quite nice (two hotel rooms connected by a private hallway) and the mountain air was cool enough to warrant sweatshirts. We took a short walk to the town square, photographed more cats, and found a fine but eclectic dinner in a local tavern. Midnight no longer seems like a late bedtime, but we do want to get going early tomorrow for our trip to Delphi.
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