Day 2 in Istanbul, continued: The Milion Monument Hippodrome, the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts.

After lunch, we visited the Milion Monument, which marked the beginning of the Roman way, the Via Egnetia, which led to all the European cities.

We  then wove our way through a market, which was obviously appealing to locals, but which did very little for me, to the site of the Roman Hippodrome.  Although there is little evidence of the racecourse, these obelisks still, amazingly, exist.  The first was this 1450 BC Obelisk of Thesodius.  Originally  from Egypt, it was brought to Turkey in the 4th Century AD by Emperor Thesodius I.  It sits on top of a  plinth which depicts scenes with Emperor but looks much more modern.  I found its presence in Istanbul ironic, because, as we have visited the museums, there have been very pointed complaints about the amount of Turkish treasures which have been removed from Turkish soil by European countries like France, Germany and Denmark, which all refuse to return them.  I wondered whether Turkey would return the treasures it has taken from other countries?

The second monument is the remains of the 4th Century AD Serpent column.  Made of bronze, it was taken from Delphi by Constantine I in 324.

The third monument is the Walled Obelisk which was originally covered in gilded stone plaques and was built in the 10th Century AD by Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus.

We next entered the Museum of Turkish and Islamic arts, a converted Ottoman palace which has part of the Hippodrome building on display.  It also has a collection of fascinating artefacts which remind one of how many cultures influenced Turkey and still do. I thought this mural fragment looked rather Asian:

and I thought this looked a bit Scandinavian

This tile on the other hand seems to have definite Arabic influences.

However, my favourite pieces were the collection of old carpets.  They were really beautiful and in amazing condition considering their age.  

After this extremely busy day, we decided to wend our way back to the hotel.  On the way, we discovered the most beautiful shops which sold jewellery, carpets, hats and fabric.  If I feel very rich later on, I may return to the Mehmet Cetinkaya Gallery.  Its wares are so beautiful.

Day 2 Istanbul: The tombs of 5 Ottoman emperors, and the Aya Sofya

It is hard to believe that Istanbul has anything but beautiful warm days with refreshing sea breezes. The perfect day made us enthusiastic about getting museum passes and checking out some of the many museums in the city.

First we stopped and admired the Fountain of Ahmet III, built in 1792, which stands outside Topkapi Palace.

Next, we visited the tombs of 5 Ottoman sultans which adjoin the Aya Sofya.  Each of the rather pleasing white domed buildings contains the tombs of an emperor and his immediate family.  What makes them different are principally the decorations at the entrance of, and within, each tomb.The first is that of Sultan Mehmet III, but it also contains the tombs of others in his family. It has this rather stylish ceiling outside:

But it is inside where you can see the splendid tilework:

The second contains  the tomb of  Sultan Selim II and several others. 

 

Once again, the tiles are really worth examining:

My favourite contains the tomb of  Murad III and others. The tiling outside is attractive

 but inside, the work is stunning

This one contains the tombs of the four sons and one daughter of  Sultan Murad III and is called the Tomb of Princes.  In comparison to the others, it is very simple in style and it is probably my least favourite:

The Baptistry was transformed into the last tomb, the tomb of  Sultan Mustafa I and Sultan Ibrahim.
It too is very plain after the first three.

After the elegance of the tombs, I found the Aya Sofya one of the ugliest buildings that I have ever seen.  It was intended to be a church and was built in 537 AD.  In 1453, Mehmet the Conqueror decided to have it converted into a mosque.  Then in 1935, Ataturk converted into a museum.  ( The day before we visited, there was a demonstration convert it back to a mosque.)  All the various religious changes, plus the need to rectify some structural problems make it, in my opinion, look lumpen and misshapen from the outside.  The queue was immensely long, it was unclear which queue was for those with special tickets and which was for people needing to buy a ticket, the Visa machines were not all working and so neither of us was feeling particularly fond of the building, despite all the testimonies of admirers.

However, once we entered, in spite of the necessary  and extensive repairs which spoil a lot of the impression of the building,  we were converted into admirers.  The inside is beautiful and quite stunning, whether one goes up to the balcony or remains at ground floor.

The artists that worked on this building did amazing work.  Some of the best, in my opinion, are the mosaics, the paining, the stonework and the metalwork.  However I was pretty chuffed to see the viking graffiti on one of the railings too.

Bob, on the other hand, was also fairly worried about the structure of the building,  Floors are buckling, pillars are listing and sinking, tiles are cracking.  He wasn't confident of the safety of the building.  Let us hope that they never have an earthquake in the area.

There is lots more to see outside of the main vaulted area too.  The baptistry is home to these beautiful oil jars.

 

 Outside, the gardens are festooned with old carvings and stonework from previous buildings.

contrary to the exterior impression, the Aya Sofya is  really worth visiting more than once.

Turkey adventure. Istanbul Day 1: the Blue Mosque, the Gulhane Park, the view across the Bosphorous, The Spice Market,

 

My husband is attending a conference in Istanbul, so I decided I needed to accompany him.  I need a new adventure ...and a chance to wear hijab!

We left Melbourne (population about 4 1/4 million) at 2.40am and arrived in Istanbul (population about 14 million) at 5.35pm on the 24/5.  Pity the trip didn't really only take 17 hours (Istanbul is actually 9 hours behind in Melbourne).  Emirates may have great lounges and the seats on the planes are passable in terms of available width, but I have a very sore coccyx from the thin hard seats.  Luckily,  the ticket forgot to inform us that we had a stopover in Kuala Lumpur as well as Dubai, so at least we had the chance to  break the extremely uncomfortable sitting down twice on the way over.

Ataturk airport proved to be as much of an exercise in disorder and queues as any other airport in the world.  We were very chuffed when the airhostesses told us that we would be fast tracked through the passport queue, but it turned out to be fairly slow.  The wait was only leavened by locals who broke the queues and argued loudly with the officials, and a German man who complained continually and regaled us all with tales of how the Austrians had saved the Germans from the invading Ottoman armies.  Once we showed our passports though, all we had to do was to collect our bags and leave.  There was no customs at all! 

My first impressions of Istanbul were: hilly, men very loud and with a sense of humour, diverse looking population, a lot of women wearing coloured headscarf and tesettur / a topcoat, and cafes everywhere.  Most tourists had not apparently read the advice that I had: bare shoulders, bare legs and bare midriffs abounded - much to the pleasure of some of the Turkish men and the disapproval of some of the Turkish ladies.  I felt hot but virtuously modest in my long pants and sleeved top.

After a much needed sleep we decided to explore the Sultanahmet area we are staying in and maybe focus on the Topkapi Palace.  That plan was scuppered when Bob got hijacked by his new friend, Omar, who insisted that we should go and see the Blue Mosque before it closed.  I recognised it as a scam to get us into a shop, but Bob had engaged in conversation for too long and was embarrassed about being rude, while Omar proved to be quite adept at turning my resentful bluntness into jokes, so we ended up in a line waiting to get into the mosque.  It is a beautiful 17th Century building

with gorgeous Iznik tiles (many of them blue- hence the name) and coloured glass windows adorning the inside.  There is a  large central area where the men pray, and smaller latticed areas for the women.

Very beautiful.

Because I am not a nice person, I wanted to sneak out the side way to avoid the waiting Omar, but we enjoyed the Blue Mosque so much that Bob felt we had to visit the shop, so we meekly followed Omar, who turns out to be a Kurd from Anatolia with a liking for Prime Minister Abbot and the USA because of their activities against ISIS.  I kept stopping to take photos of jackdaws, Turkish delight and flowers, but he hurried us on.

We got to a bazaar, where we thought his shop was but that turned out to just be part of his grand tour:

 
Once in the carpet shop ( just around the corner from the hotel we had left 1 1/2 hours ago) we were deposited with the big boss who proceeded to try and sell us several carpets which he swore were naturally dyed and hand made of wool (which I had my doubts about).  I rather enjoyed asking questions, looking at the admittedly beautiful rugs, and discussing the dimensions of our rooms at home, but we eventually we escaped without buying anything.

Blaming jet lag, Bob promised faithfully not to engage in conversation with helpful men again  and since we were now over guided tours, so we decided to follow our noses and explore.  We followed the wall of the Topkapi Palace gardens, passing houses which had been built against the walls, but which were now gently decaying

past an artist's shop

and entered the rather restful Gulhane park.

 We reached the road that runs along the coast but were disappointed to find that it was impossible to stroll along the Bosphorous.  We just encountered rather grotty looking tin fences and guard dogs.  Going towards the Sea of Marmara though, we did manage to get a view of  the eastern side of Istanbul over the heads of some fishermen trying their luck on the rocks, and through the doorway of a government building, but the best views were through the wire near the ferry terminals.

We then explored the wonderful Spice Bazaar.  How I wish we had something like this at home.  The most gorgeous displays of spices, nuts, Turkish Delight and other sweet treats, tea sets, soaps, gold jewellery, dried fruit, meat, offal, fish, and crowds and crowds of shoppers.  Pure heaven.  Gee, I wish I had a kitchen handy.  We got to taste some of the spice mixtures and they were delicious.

Next we headed up hill and realised just how unused to climbing our legs were.  However, it gave us a better understanding and view of the local population:  the women shopping for lace curtains and bedspreads, the men with carts pushing their loads up impossible high hills, the local office workers having lunch from the bains maries in the lokantas. The streets in the Yeni Vami Meydani, Saridemir and  Tahtakale areas seem to specialise in different types of goods- a street for clothes, another for shoes, one for bedlinen, another for stationary, one for caneware, one for sewing accessories. Reminds me of guild streets.

Collapsing slightly, we found much needed refreshment in a rather posh cafe in the rather  posh Nuruosmaniye street, then limped slowly back to the hotel for a well deserved rest.

Several hours later, after dinner I took Bob for a stroll through the back streets to get another glimpse of the sea..... and several seafood restaurants we ear-marked for future reference.  On the way there and back, we met huge families of cats going for evening strolls, and came across many local families socialising outside their homes in the cooler air.  Bob started getting twitchy about safety, so we returned to the domain of tourists and spruikers and collapsed into bed.