I loved this carpet at our first hotel!
The Blue Mosque — only named by tourists because the dome looks blue. More ostrich eggs hanging with the lights. One minaret is being repaired.
The first floor is still being used as a mosque. The second floor is now a museum, but was always the floor for the women to pray.
This may be was Alexander the Great and he gave the church a bunch of money to be on the wall. They took the money, but they didn’t like him much, so they threw him in a small corner.
This is all real marble which goes to show it is not very hard and eventually cracks.
Interesting to see the back of one of those huge round signs. The place was huge.
Even back then, they had graffiti.
They found the Christian mosaics under plastered walls. In the first picture, note the full scene is in the lower right corner. Also, they used to put Jesus in blue to depict that he was a man and then when they put him in gold it meant he was no longer mortal. But THIS mosaic shows him in BOTH blue and gold.
Guns and chainmail in a museum.
This was the Hippodrome area when they used to house and race horses.
This obelisk has a matching one in Egypt. But this one is several feet shorter, since they had to hack off several feet to get it into the ship that brought it to Turkey.
The Grand Market is really just for tourists. Locals don’t shop here due to the high prices.
We continued to have dinner across the street from our hotel because the owner was so friendly. One night a group of men were smoking the hookah, so the following night, Liz decided to try it. It’s only flavored tobacco, since THC and hash are HIGHLY illegal in this country.
Fun times. CLICK.
CLICK.
Lamb meal for Liz. CLICK.
m-m-m-m.
Last call to prayer of the day .. as seen from my room. CLICK.
Cistern under the city streets. It used to be full of water in the days when they needed to hide from the Romans. The Romans would stop the water flow to the city or poison the water flowing into the city. So the people needed a water source during sieges. Now it’s a tourist attraction and decorated with local artwork.
Medusa was a beautiful Priestess who was required to remain chaste for the Goddess Athena. But Medusa had a fling with the God of the Sea, Poseidon. Instead of punishing Poseidon, Athena directed her wrath toward Medusa, transforming her into a Gorgon—a monster with snakes for hair and the ability to turn anyone who gazed upon her into stone. Medusa’s metamorphosis serves as a powerful commentary on how society often vilifies women who have been wronged. Medusa’s transformation into a Gorgon imbued her with a new kind of power, making her a symbol of female rage and empowerment. Rather than being merely a victim, she became a formidable figure whose very existence inspired fear.
I love the photo of Medusa and her shadow profile on the wall.
I believe the columns with Medusa upside down is so that she doesn’t turn men who look at her to stone.
I love the colors.
Took a boat ride to nowhere on the Bosphorus from the Golden Horn through the waterway separately the two coninents. We left the European port of Istanbul and followed the river to the Asian side and back. The mosques, fortress walls and palaces were awesome.
Some crazy guy was on a water bike vehemently trying to keep up with the current. The residences right on the water with balconies had their own description and the houses were passed down to their children as time goes on.
This is Europe and Asia — all in the one and only city like it — Istanbul.
This was the only time I needed to use a hole to relieve myself during this trip.
It was the smelliest toilet I have ever, ever. Ever, ever, ever been in. It was at the back of the boat and I was told in no uncertain terms, without words, that I MUST wait my turn. (With finger wagging and pointing). When the door opened for my turn, I almost fainted. An old Turkish women went in before me. She needed help from strangers to get into the bathroom over the doorstep, and she wasn’t in there very long. So I cannot believe she was able to unclothe herself and squat to pee. I doubt she did.
When I got in there, I HELD MY BREATH and hurried!! I always leave a toilet like that GRATEFUL for the good ole U S of A.
Our sweet little Tour Guide, Leyla, brought us tea and cookie wafers.
Leyla was great, taught us so much and told us not to accept our moniker of UGLY AMERICAN. We were much more polite and quiet than many other nationalities.
The Egyptian Bazaar!! So many things to see. Nothing we wanted to buy. So we ate instead.
We found the Turkish Ice Cream. Dondurma is the Turkish name for ice cream, which is made from cream, salep, mastic, and sugar. It is known for its hard texture, resistance to melting, and tricks performed by vendors. Yes, we paid $10 USD, but it was worth it. Pistachio, chocolate and mulberry!!
Leyla described Turkish cheese cake and we found it. It’s a cake with a special cheese sandwiched in between and fried so the special cheese melts, then the entire thing is covered in a sugar sauce and crushed pistachios are added. m-m-m-m!
Silly. Telephones that look like the Jetsons.
Leyla was upset abott the woman in the photo and I explained I had MAGIC ERASER and would remove her. ….but it’s too much work!
This seemed SO FAMILIAR! I realized it was a street I walked down to my hotel in Georgia (the country). Of course it looks the same — the countries are neighbors!! (Although they dislike each other for telling lies about each other.)
They sell baked potatoes (kumpir) with every kind of topping you can think of — onion, butter, black olives, corn, seared hotdogs, Turkish bulgur salad, (kisir), ezme, Russian salad, pickled red cabbage and dill pickles.
Too bad we weren’t hungry and we never got to try them.
Thank goodness for phone data and GPS!!!
It was interesting all this fencing was around this statue because there was rummblings of a protest.
100 years ago Turkey became a free country in 1923.
We left our tour guide for good and she gave us explicit instructions to watch our purses, don’t go down side streets and follow the subway stations home. We didn’t follow everything she said, but we survived. I bought cat food at a little grocery, since Leyla taught me about feeding the cats.
Liz stopped to buy herself a ring. It was $5 USD and I told her it would break within a day. She wore it every day on the trip and continues to do so once we got home. You’ll notice it’s in almost every picture of her!!
Managed to see every day life in Istanbul on our way across the bridge to our hotel.
Met a woman who sought us out because she heard us talking and knew we were from the states. She’s lived in Istanbul, working for a non-profit for 15 years. Three of her kids were born in Turkey. They were moving to another European country in the next few days.
I discovered Raki (pronounced Rocky!! — with a rolled “R”)
It’s licorice flavored and turns milky white when you add water or ice cubes.
NOTICE THE RING!!
