Carrell Clips: Istanbul or Constantinople? Day 6

We docked at Istanbul as we were eating our breakfast. Being on the water and seeing the city is really quite cool. Istanbul is the only city (to my knowledge) that is located on two different continents. One side is in Asia and the other is in Europe. The Bosphorus Strait is right in between the two (which also links the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea). If you are looking at a map there is also the Golden Horn (which is an appendage off of the Bosphorus Strait) which divides the European side of Istanbul. These parts of the city are known as the Old Town and New Districts of Istanbul. Are you completely confused yet?

So, we docked near the new Galata Bridge (the first bridge you can see going up the Golden Horn). Istanbul has a very unique skyline for Europe. It is liberally dotted not with church steeples- but the minarets that flank the mosques.

This is getting rather lengthy and I haven’t even started to tell you about our day! I’ll try to summarize.
What we saw today:

• Topkapi Palace (where the Sultans used to live a long time ago)- we saw the Sultans clothing (cool caftans that were even 500 years old!), crown jewels (an 86 carat diamond) and a couple of wicked swords and daggers (Jake liked the sword that had 3 giant rubies on the hilt- I liked the dagger that had 2 big emeralds). I would have liked to see the Harem where the Sultans wives spent their time, but it cost more so we didn’t…

• Hagia Sophia- A Christian Church built in the 6th century (it took 5 years to build) and was converted into a mosque when the Ottomans took over (in the 1400s). The Turks put plaster over all of the amazing mosaics and covered them up. So now, the Hagia Sophia has parts that are beautifully Christian and others that are also beautiful and very Muslim. It is now a museum. There is a hole in one column that is called the wishing hole (it’s actually called the Miracle Column of St. Gregory).

To get the wish you have to stick one finger into the hole and then move your hand in a complete circle- 360`. It’s trickier than it sounds! Several of us tried our luck.) The mosaics are very impressive. I just can not imagine how hard it would be to create such beautiful art with those itty bitty tiles!

• The Blue Mosque- It is right across the street from the Hagia Sophia. The only mosque in Istanbul to have 6 minarets (towers). It was built in the 17th century and the tiles inside are all blue- hence the name. The girls were very excited to be able to cover their hair- so we all had to buy pashminas for the occasion. We were able to hear the Call to Prayer as we were headed to the Hagia Sophia and just the sound of it brought back wonderful memories. (FYI- The Call to Prayer is sung/chanted over a loud speaker at the mosques 5 times daily. I heard it everyday when I was on Study Abroad in Israel.) We decided that the Blue Mosque is pretty, but not nearly as impressive as the Hagia Sophia.

• The Grand Bazaar- This place is huge and very fun to visit. However, the shopkeepers are not great barterers like they were in Marmaris. We didn’t even get much stuff here- but you HAVE to go there if you visit Istanbul. One salesman looked at us and asked how many children I have (just like several others had already done) and I told him. Then he said, “Are you a Mormon?” I was very surprised, but said yes, I am. He told me that some of his best friends were mormons and live in Utah. So we had a lovely chat and he wanted me to buy a carpet (“All of the mormons buy their carpets from me.”). I told him that it was too bad that I didn’t want a carpet. (He was very nice about it.) The people we meet!