Istanbul -- Pictorial

Just got back to Moscow on the 2 am flight out of Istanbul. I am too tired to be properly snarky so here is Istanbul in 10 words. Blue, blue, blue, mosques, bazaars, Europe, Asia, randy old men.

Here are some pictures to accompany the 10 descriptive words. Full commentary tomorrow (ish).

Blue Mosque-- so named not for the slate gray color of the dome, but for the beautiful blue tiles inside. Our hotel was right around the corner, so we heard every single one of the 5 calls to prayer, each day, starting at 6 am. The mosque has 6 minarets, which was the maximum number a mosque could have, but then (not to be outdone) the mosque at Mecca added a 7th and now 7 is the maximum.

Hagia Sophia, or the Church of St. Sophia or the Church of Wisdom. This 1,500 year old structure was originally built in 537 as a Christian church. When Islam came to Turkey, it was converted to a mosque-- note the 4 minarets. It is now a museum. The inside is exquisite. The Hagia Sophia is right (literally) across the street from the Blue Mosque.

This is the famous underground Cistern. This cistern held water collected in the forest outside Istanbul and transported via aqueducts. There are 28 rows of 12 columns. This cistern also house the famous Medusa heads. If this location looks at all familiar to you, then you must be a Bond fan. Part of "From Russia with Love" was shot in the cistern. While the water is only about 6-10 inches deep, many, many fish live in the cistern. There is also a wishing well. I threw in 5 lira and wished that I would be fluent in Russian before I leave. I am telling you my wish, dear reader (and thereby invalidating it) because I know that it will not come true. So I prefer to believe that I "broke" the spell, rather than to believe that wishing wells don't really work.

Europe


Asia

The blue wavy stuff is the Bosphorus Straits.

By the way, on about a 11 on the ick factor, the Bosphorus is filled with jellyfish. I have never seen more jellyfish in all my life. They were literally hundreds of clusters of hundreds of jellys. Ick, ick, ick.

This is me at the top of Pierre Lotti Hill. Pierre Lotti was a French writer who came to Istanbul and fell in love with a cafe, the city and a Turkish woman (I think in that order). He said that the best view of the city was from the site that now bears his name.

This is a picture of a totally licensed legitimate sweatshirt featuring Teutonic basketball sensation Dirk Nowitzki. Now, I have always thought that Dirk bore more than a passing resemblance to Ben Wallace (separated at birth?), but I could never articulate my thoughts until I happened upon this sweatshirt. If anyone in the blogosphere has access to Dirk's e-mail, please make sure he sees this.





I am really working hard on getting Hep A before this Fellowship is over. My latest attempt revolves around buying one of these fruits -- still attached to the tree branches -- and asking this guy with his super-clean hands to peel and cut the mystery fruit for me. Yeah, I ate it and two of my fellow Fellows did as well. The fruit tastes like an apple that really wanted to be a pineapple and at the last minute decided to be a pear, but it was too late. Again, if the blogosphere has any idea what this fruit is, holla back.

This the carpet that I purchased on my last day in Istanbul. Uber-long story, but the carpet is a Bukhara-type (Uzbek) carpet. I found out that I don't really like the typical Turkish carpet design.




Hope this quick pictorial satisfies you, dear reader, for the time being. I would strongly recommend Istanbul to any traveller - old, young, married, single, with kids or without. There is something to do and see for everyone. Kids will love the playgrounds and ubiquitous sweets. Adults will love the bazaars, fresh seafood and the nightlife.