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Published: November 3rd 2006
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Aya Sophia Dome
It was really dark, so this picture isn't very good. The main thing you can see is the scaffoloding. Like Pushkin, you need to see the original. Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Good? My rain gear works extremely well. The bad? You can guess. It has rained on three and a half of the five days I've been here. I should warn you that the photos won't be as stunning as they could be, as they are all shrouded by a layer of mist between subject and lens.
Cities are hard to appreciate alone. By nature, a city is a place where many people pack into a small space, thereby deriving benefits from cooperation and sharing of public works, resources, etc. But to an outsider in a strange city, the entire experience can seem a bit flat, like watching a hive of bees, which has many complex behavious, but which seems, to the uneducated eye, like so many little bugs wiggling around. That's how I've been feeling about Istanbul. There are few native English speakers. There are lots of Russians and Japanese people in the tourist section of town, and the language divide is just one of our differences. They are also in large groups, which are hard to squeeze into, since they converse with one another in their own language.
Aya Sophia Mosaic
Constantine, Virgin Mary and Justinian Although I do have a friend in Istanbul, unfortunately, he works, and, so, can't exactly show me around during the days. So, I've had a lot of me time. Seeing the sights is nice, but that gets tiresome after a few days alone. I think this wasn't such an issue in India and Nepal because I usually had someone to hang out with, so many tourists there were. Another thing - I didn't realize how spoiled I was by the smoking ban in New York. Over here, most people smoke most of the time. The only places where it is banned are museums. I find it very annoying.
I'll try to keep my griping to one paragraph per email. So, for all those people who went to Istanbul, lemme give a rundown of what I've done so far. Starting with the food, since that's what everybody wants to hear about anyway. The staple food in this town is meat, plain and simple. Grilled, fried, stuffed in dumplings, wrapped in bread, on a stick, in your mouth, you name it, it's got meat in it. I have begun to scan every menu I pass by for any meat free dishes.
Aya Sophia Arabic Plaque
Jarring in an historic church, but graceful nonetheless. This is not to say that I haven't had some world class kebabs already. I had dinner with my Turkish friend Sinan, who took me to one of the top kebab joints in the city, and the pistachio kebab was phenomenal. I think Turkey is one of those countries that views edible vegetable matter as garnish, not eligable to be a full meal. The irony is that some of their veg-only side dishes, like roasted pureed eggplant, are world class vegetarian food - filling and flavorful. I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't like eating meat for two meals every day, so I'm slowly finding my way around the city, to restaurants that don't serve meat exclusively.
Wandering around the city, I tripped over the Spice market (aka the Egyptian market), one of the city's several storied covered markets. I passed up the love potions and natural "Turkish Viagra" the vendors purvey, opting instead for the more tame, but also more delicious lokum, aka Turkish Delight, a chewy jelly candy concoction of honey, nuts and I don't know what. It is very good, but if you ask me, as with oatmeal raisin cookeis, it would be even better with
Aya Sophia Mosaic
Jesus, Mary and John the Baptist some chocolate.
I shall now undertake the obligatory summary of the sights, which Istanbul, being at the crossroads of civilization for over two millennia, has in abundance.
The Sultan Ahmet Camii - Aka The Blue Mosque. Beautiful from the outside, with four slender soaring minarets, a glorious fountain and graceful gardens. The interior would look cosiderably better if it didn't have about 500 wires hanging from the dome to just above head level to suspend a gigantic iron lamp, which didn't even shed much light. I expect it must have a devotional importance, but I just don't understand why so many cables are used! Surely, modern materials could be employed to consolidate them to a few, slightly thicker steel cables, no? At any rate, the interior is squat and claustrophobic. I apologize for sounding insensitive, but I miss the figurative sculpture and paintings found in churches, which is, of course, forbidden in the Muslim religion. Instead, the walls are covered by a dizzying array of geometric patterns and Arabic lettering. On the other hand, I am quite in awe of the grace and beauty attained by Arabic lettering in mosques. It seems to stretch and twist into elegant
Aya Sophia Plaster Travesty
How could anybody plaster over tilework like this?!? I suppose I should be happy he didn't demolish it. swooping artwork, while still (I think) conveying ecclesiastical meaning.
The Aya Sophia - Built by Byzantine emperor Justinian in 537, the church of the Divine Wisdom is, rightly, one of the most famous in the world. From the outside, it looks like something that dropped off your car's wheel well after a snow storm. I say this in the most loving way, for it has many good excuses for its ungainly appearance. One, we are comparing it to churches 700+ years its junior. Architects learned a few things between the start of the middle ages and the construction of Notre Dame de Paris in 1200-1350. Notre dame has only now reached the age that the Aya Sophia was when its first grimy cornerstone was laid. Romans were engineers, and they built things to last, which makes them a bit more sturdy, and less spindly. Two - the building has had two personality transplants: in 1453, Mehmet the Conqueror converted it into a Mosque, glueing on a set of minarets, plastering over the glorious Byzantine mosaics inside, and substantially altering the interior. In 1935, Mehmet Kamal Ataturk, founder of the modern Turkish Republic and a secularist, converted it into a
museum. And, finally, there is the interior. When you step inside, there can be no doubt that the ugly duckling exterior engenders the swanlike interior.
The dome of the Aya Sophia is nothing short of awe inspiring. A true Roman dome, I believe (Architects, correct me if I'm wrong) it is hemispherical, unlike the renaissance domes that followed, which took the form of a catenary shell. It evokes the supremely powerful pantheon dome in Rome, only much, much further from the ground. The support columns needed to keep all that masonry aloft were skillfully concealed in the walls of the narthex (I love that word). The overall feel, despite the black eye of a massive shaft of UNESCO scaffolding rising from the floor to the pinnacle of the dome, is of soaring open space. It is truly one of the greatest early works of ecclestical architecture, and worthy of Justinian's arrogant boast: "Oh Solomon, I have outdone thee!"
The Grand Bazaar - It really has to be seen to be believed. A seemingly endless warren of narrow streets, all covered, so the place feels like one gigantic building. Forgive me, but this is the original mall. No
Aya Sophia
Ungainly. Is being nice. Sbarros, though. The only problem with it is, if you aren't looking to buy anything, it gets old fast. Still, very cool, and good thing to do on a rainy day.
Cagalogulu Hamama - A fantastic, classic Turkish bath. Basically, you sit in a hot, steamy room and dump water on yourself, or pay somebody to dump water on you, then massage you if you want. Actually, it was really nice, and very relaxing, and the setting was uplifting, but I think I prefer the modern sauna treatment, all things considedred.
Topkapa palace - Some people might recognize the name of this palace ending in an "i", but it's actually a different letter in Turkish - an "ı", which, you will note, has no dot. The sound is like the "a" in "ago". Topkapa palace is a sprawling complex, 80,000 square meters in total. It's where the Ottoman Emperors lived from the time they took Istanbul around 1450, until the end of the 19th century. It's a spectacular palace, ranking right alongside the greatest I've seen in India and France, with tilework that is like nothing I've ever seen. It's built right on the tip of one of
Basilica Cistern
Crazy underground cistern. It was hypnotic, with all the dripping water. The Turkish coffee in the subterranean cafe was delicious. Istanbul's peninsula, with breathtaking views of the Bosporous strait and Sea of Marmara. They might have been even more breathtaking if it hadn't been raining all day.
I think that's enough tour guide claptrap for one entry. On Sunday, I plan to head south to Selchuk / Ephesus, then Pammukale, then Cappadokia. Until next time, I miss you all. Tickets are cheap, so if you got vacation time to burn, come meet me!
Dan
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Colleen
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Istanbul!
Let me know if you'll be in Istanbul on Monday (write me at colleen@gurhan.com). When I'm back at work I'll send you the e-mail of a friend of mine that lives there! Unfortunately, I don't have her e-mail at home...(and I think it's a different than those in our NY office). I'm sure her and her husband (both speak English very well) would be happy to show you around a bit, or get dinner. They're wonderful!