Istanbul, Turkey -- October 23,2010

---

Istanbul, Turkey ---- October 23, 2010

Istanbul means traffic, history, east meets west, peddlers and bargaining. The population of Istanbul is estimated to be 15 million or half of Canada’s population cramped into one sprawling city, hampered with ancient narrow one direction twisting streets. To put this into perspective you haven’t seen grid-lock until you have seen Istanbul. There are only 2 bridges over the Bosphorus separating the Asian side from the European side of Istanbul. Total credit has to be given to our bus drivers who navigated the narrow streets squeezing by seeming less than an inch from double parked cars. When we arrived our tour guide welcomed us to Istanbul and said that the drive to our hotel would take between 1 to 5 hours depending on traffic. He was only partially kidding.

Our hotel was the Crown Plaza, Old City a restore structure that is composed of 4 buildings 4 stories high. Mare and I were on the 4th floor, the elevator only went to the 3rd floor then we climbed some stairs to find that our room was formerly part of the attic with sloping ceilings and windows that were floor to below waist high, as long as the bed is comfortable and we have our own bathroom Mare and I are fine.
After settling into the hotel we were off to a diner in the fishermen’s market; fine but one has to realize that both Mare and I are not the greatest fish eaters particularly when the whole fish is delivered with the fish eyes looking at you as you are about to slice into the fish. Mare solved this by draping a napkin over the fishes head. My hearing and my musical ability is far below par, but I have to congratulate the restaurant that evening for a performance that was so far into the noise category that under no circumstances could it be classified as music. The next day we were off to the Blue Mosque. The attached pictures provide some perspective on this wonderful building. Across from the Blue Mosque is the church of St. Sophia now a museum that is being restored back to its original state. Originally it was the largest Christian Church in Constantinople converted to a Mosque when the Ottomans conquered the city but after Turkey became a Republic is now being resort to its original form. Again I will let the pictures tell the story for me. No matter where you turn, there is evidence of history including Roman times. One of the main roads we travelled on passed between 2 huge pillars that supported an aqueduct that carried water to the city. Once here some of the water flowed into a huge Underground Cistern that was filled to the top of the pillars you will see in the accompanying pictures.

Early the next day we visited the Dolmabahce Palace constructed in the 18th century as a summer palace for the Sultan. This was followed by a cruise on the Bosphorus, which connects the Black Sea eventually with entry into the Atlantic Ocean, so you can well image how busy the straits are with ships coming and going. The straits must also be great for fishing, since along the sides of the water everywhere and on the bridges there were people with fishing rods plus numerous small boats on the water fishing. Eventually we made it to the Grand Bazaar which is one the largest covered markets in the world. Here we discovered Mare’s bargaining ability is truly impressive, she even bargained for a box of tea. Neither of us is comfortable in large crowds so once we had made our purchases we decided to walk back to our hotel. It took us less than 10 minutes versus 1 hour for those that took the bus (Istanbul Traffic). A visit to a nightclub with belly-dancers finished off the evening.

---

Photos

Entrance to the Grand Bazaar
There are over 4,000 shops in the Bazaar. MAre did a great job bargaining.

Blue Mosque
The back of the Blue Mosque is in the background

Sultan's Palace
The shape of this tree attracted my attention

Sultan's Palace
These are the gates to the 2nd circle within the Sultan's Palace. There are 3 rings, the 1st being fairly open , the 2nd where the officials were and the 3rd being where the Sultan and his family resided.

Underground Cistern
In ancient times the Cistern would have been filled to the top with water for the city

Underground Cistern
This head was at the bottom of one of the pillars

Mosque
The size of some of the Mosques in Istanbul are huge

New Sultan
This clock tower was outswide the palace

New Sultan's Palace
The gates to the New Sultan's Palace. Mare and Sharon. This Palace was build in the late 1800's

New Sultan's Palace
In All of the Sultan's different Palaces there were visible soldiers with automatic weapons

Aqueduc
The remains of one of the Roman aqueduc's that brought water to the city

Watch Tower
This watch tower was orginally built by the city of Geneo, Italy when the Constantinople was fight ing Vience. Later it became a prison and is now a restaurant

Blue Mosque
On the approach to the blue mosque

Blue Mosque
This is the base for the egyptian pinnacle

Blue Mosque
When the Greeks beat the Persians when they tried to conquer Greece, the Greeks took the swords and shields of the dead Persians and melted them into this form. Part of the sculture was taken away by the 1st Crusaders

Blue Mosque
This is where the men wash themselvess before prayer

Dolmabahca Palace
This iss the 2nd gate for entry into the Palace

Comments

[G. Henderson]

Thank you very much for the pictures and dialog. I really enjoyed recieving them. George

[Inge Denzin]

nice photos and comentary
I can see mt Friend Gorden Sievwright is still OK Thank,s for the good job I.D.