Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Istanbul: Basilica Cistern

Our flight out of Istanbul left at 5 PM, which left us time that morning for a little more adventure.  We went to the Basilica Cistern, which was an amazing thing.  I'm so glad that we fit this in before we left.

You can read the sign below to learn more. 



And here's what it looked like inside; actually, there's more light in this photo.  It was dark with small lights at the bottom of each column.  They also had some sort of new-agey soft music/sound stuff playing, which drastically increased the creepy factor.  We loved it.  Absolutely incredible.


A pathway leads through the cistern, but you actually do have a destination...to find the Medusas.
Sorry for the poor focus in the dark.




And here they are!


Istanbul: Food

Oh the food...the food on this whole trip has been wonderful so far. For reasons I may explain later, we only ate one meal out as a family in Istanbul, typically lunch. Then we'd get a few things from the corner store and make dinner at the flat. Dinner is generally noodles of some sort, because that makes the kids happy and is inexpensive, easily available. The kids have come light years from where they were, in trying new foods and not complaining when nothing very familiar is on the menu.

Here's a sampling of the nosh.

Mezza plate from an outdoor cafe where we ate the day we arrived. The tomato stuff at the top was especially yummy.

One of the at-home dinners.  We found some smoked sausage, with Turkish spices--peppery and delicious.  Lots of olives were eaten as well.


This is our dessert sampler at a restaurant in the Grand Bazaar, Havuzlu.  We ate traditional foods from the region.  The boys had gyros, I had a vegetable casserole similar to moussaka, and John had a casserole dish that included ground meat.  Then we ordered the cheese-stuffed pastries soaked in syrup, the creme caramel, and the "milk pudding" (a pastry stuffed with light sweet vanilla yumminess).  Here's a not-very-impressive shot from the restaurant:


And some apple tea, served everywhere, but this time at Havuzlu.



This stand was one of our favorite places--shade and ice cream.  What else can you want?


Istanbul: Flat

Our flat in Istanbul was about 5 minutes from the Blue Mosque and very close to a small artsy bizarre that had maybe 50 shops. The flat had two bedrooms, a small living room, and a tiny kitchen. The kitchen window looked out onto a small space and the next building. People would chat across from open windows, hang their laundry out to dry, etc. It would be a neat community place to live, assuming you liked your neighbors...




Thursday, July 21, 2011

Istanbul: Randomness

 On the metro, checking the map.

 Big kid.  He loves to ride trains just like I love to ride trains.

 Smart cat demonstrates fine carpets.  Would you like to come inside and see my shop?

 Twirling amidst the pigeons: "Watch this, chickens!"

 Big jump on the hippodrome (no, no...that's not a place where hippos do rollerderby. 
Read more about it here
).

Big prizes...a heart-shaped nazar and the little ceramic cat that she doesn't know I'm stealing from her.  Hannah is blessed to be loved wherever she goes, even when she's not wearing a Spanish cha-cha dress and twirling around like a Carmen Miranda Dervish).  The Turkish shopkeepers LOVE her.  They come out and give her gifts (like the cat in this photo...or the napkins full of fresh french fries...or Apple tea) and want to talk to her and touch her hair, and oh boy, if she consents to a high-5 or a hug, then it's like the world stopped...and no one ever tries to sell her a carpet.  I hope she can go through life with such an open heart and friendliness but without some warped sense of entitlement (and the people of Athens spoil her the same way...a lady tonight gave her a bracelet!).  

It's good to be king princess.Lord have mercy on your soul if you get in her way...

Istanbul: Spice Bazaar

We also went to the Grand Bazaar, which may appear in another post, but the Spice (Egyptian) Bazaar was our favorite. Smaller, a little less touristy (but still touristy), with shop owners who didn't accost you nearly as much and a little better prices. Poor shop owners...they see me and think "Ah! A crazy Australian! I can make a good sale off of her!" (yes, we are constantly asked if we're from Australia...sorry about that, Aussies...), but then my Doha Souq bargaining skills kick in and the shop keepers goes through visible signs of surprise, annoyance, and defeat. I'll pay a fair price...not a rip-off-the-tourist price.

I had many nice interactions here--the shop keepers were very friendly, even after the bargaining.  Really nice people all over Istanbul.  In various stages, we sat for a long time in the shade of an outdoor cafe as some of us would shop and others would just enjoy the lovely breeze and people watching.

At one point, a young father brought his 5 year-old daughter to sit at the table next to us.  People seem to really listen to our accents, and then, after discovering (1) we speak English (good for practice) and (2) we're American (after they ask), they love to just chat.  This Dad was trying to teach his daughter to say "My name is Leifa" in English (he spoke good English, she did not).  Thankfully, my sweet friend Joseph had lent me his Turkish phrasebook, so I pulled it out and got Hannah to say hello and "my name is Hannah" but in Turkish.  Lots of fun.  Then I found the phrase book page where the dirty word slang was listed...

Another nice interaction at the spice bizarre--I was in a spice shop to buy some apple tea.  We'd been looking for the WC (toilet), and the shop worker had helped me avert Jack watering the plants, so I went back for a small purchase.  An older couple was there, too, the woman in conservative Islamic dress (everything except the face veil) and the gentleman in conservative pants/shirt but nothing "traditional."  They both had heavy accents but spoke English, and we struck up a conversation.  They were Palestinian but through his job had located to Santa Clara, California.  They were then surprised when I told them I was from Texas but was living in Qatar.  The man laughed and said, "We've switched places!"  Then, as we said our goodbyes, he said (in the heavy accent), "It's good to see another American!"  Yes, that it was.

Photopalooza...

Twirling wherever we can.  Cause that's what we do when we're not skipping: twirl.

Feeding the pigeons outside the bazaar. A beautiful elderly lady sold us the plate of feed and said "one lira."  Then she really tried hard to hand us another plate.  I thought she was being pushy and politely but repeatedly refused.  She spoke no English.  I was useless with the Turkish.  Then I found out later it was two plates for 1 Lira.  She was trying to give me the rest of what I bought, but I refused to take it.
FAIL.

One of the Spice Bazaar entrances...it spills out onto streets behind it, too.  Boys underwear were a bit sale item this day, but for some reason, I couldn't get Hank or Jack interested?

Busy, crowded day.

Spice shop.  Smells like Souq Waqif.  I'll never get tired of that smell.
They had something that looked like a big ol' yummy bonbon rolled in chopped pistachios...it was marked "Turkish Viagra."  WE DID NOT PURCHASE THIS.

Plants for sale next to our cafe table.

Turkish delight.

The gorgeous "New Mosque" ("Yeni Camii") next to the bazaar.

Nazar bracelets to protect Hannah from the evil eye.

Istanbul: The Dress

Day 2 for the tourists...
Somebody is totally into picking out her own outfits.

Istanbul: Hagia Sophia

The Hagia Sophia is an incredible sight.  It has been a church, a mosque, and is now a museum.  It has been the site of incredible beauty and terrible acts of horror.  More on it is here.  Beyond its amazing size and breath-taking architecture, what was most moving to me about it (and I'm only speaking for myself) was to see important symbols of Christianity and Islam together under one roof.  Part of being a museum is the architectural restoration of the church markings that had been covered once the building was converted to a mosque.

So now, much like the incredible citizens and tourists and flavors of Istanbul itself, the Hagia Sophia demonstrates the beauty of diversity and the possibility of co-existence.  I. loved. this. building.

Much like the Blue Mosque, pictures cannot capture the actual feel, but here's a sampling...
Incredible size and scale.  Notice how the lights are hung low via cables.

Above the main entrance, a mosaic of Jesus; just inside an Islamic inscription.

Christian markings recovered from behind later patterns.

The center dome is inscribed with an Islamic prayer in amazing Arabic caligraphy.


This is very close to the holiest point in the building--it's above the front where the Christian alter would sit (thus the huge gold mosaic of Jesus and the Virgin Mary), and it's almost at the point that faces Mecca (so Muslims face almost this direction to pray).  Again, two sets of religious symbols in one space.

This part has been restored, and I didn't hear the tour explanation of it very well, but I believe it long ago might have served as a pulpit but then more recently served as the mosque's minbar. For more on the architectural elements of a mosque, please see here.


A third Christian mosaic being restored on the upper balcony.

At the edge of the upper balcony...Viking graffiti carved in the marble. Seriously.


And so below is a photo that gives me enormous joy...up close is the mark of Vikings, and further away are central Islamic and Christian insignia.  None of these "markings" came without a price to others, but now I can stand peacefully in awe at the layers of faith that are here.






I really wish that even just a few times per year some sort of joint prayers could be held here.  Being filled with polite but bustling tourists is fine and good, but the real power of this building would seem to be in the indescribable thing that must emanate from it when its occupants are gathered in worship.

Istanbul: Skipping Goofies

Overall, there's a lot of silliness going on during this vacation, and it is a much-welcomed change from being imprisoned inside the house as I scream at them to hush so I can read/study/write about feminist rhetorical theory and try to get something even anything else productive done for work and they pick at each other and snap and mope about being bored and wanting to have KFC or Pizza Hut delivered and why do they have to take off their 3-day old pajamas and perhaps even bathe and cut their toenails if there's nothing else remotely interesting to do anyway.

To the side of the Blue Mosque is a carpet museum, but it was closed. However, the kids had quite a time skipping down the ramp. 




And this is a park between the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia (you can see it beyond the fountain), which is coming up next.  There's Hannah next to the bench, enjoying the fountain as we stand in the shade.