Merhaba (hello) All,
Istanbul old city is impressive.
Day1. Bit cold overnight. Only one blanket. ineffective heater and 3 deg c...
What would you do if you went to istanbul? maybe goto the grand bazaar or perhaps the blue mosque. Not us. Before the morning was out Vanessa had broken the hearts of two turkish salesmen. How quickily their hearts break and repair each day. We went camera shopping then ate a kebab went to the spice market and bought 500g of authentic turkish delight then got called to prayer so went to a local mosque courtyard and ate every last piece of the turkish delight felt sick wandered back towards the hotel and bought another kebab each just to finish ourselves off. Sightseeing can wait for tomorrow. Should have bought some turkish viagra which claims 5 times a night on the sign. 5 times what...
Day2.
Hurray. We both have 2 blankets now so sleeping snug as a bedbug in a rug.
Still no camera. twice the price of that in usa so have started to arrange a camera purchase online. looking at canon SX10 which has a 20x zoom! Really frustrating and will take about a week if it works out.
Went to Hagia Sophia mosque. Wow Wow Wow. This served as a christian church for 1000 years and a mosque for 500 years and finally a museum since 1935.It is a remarkable building both from the architectural and secondonly the religious reasons. The mosque has been rebuilt or had major improvements 3 time in its history with the first building being roman. Christian mosaics under islamic mosaics. Quite the vandals. There is a viking soldier grafitti that say halvdan was here in the mosque.
This should be for another day as it was so big. We went to the Topkapi palace and haram. Truly a remarkable building with some grand displays of jewellery. One diamond on display is the 4th largest discovered in history. Not sure whether the islam faith would support the materialism. Well worth it.
The Haram was a bit of a letdown with no women left but with 400 rooms it would have been hard work for the sultan. is good to be king...
Also went to the blue mosque. It is an impressive building on the outside but not so impressive on the inside. Maybe this is because it was cloudy or maybe becaus it is a poor cousin to the hagia sophia mosque even though it is grander in size. The size of columns in the inside were impressive. Will have to have another look another day.
Hosca Kalin (goodbye).
David and Vanessa
