Istanbul ~ Wednesday June 8, 2011

A day as a tourist in Istanbul . . .
from the Spice Market, to Jennifer's Hamam and shopping in the arcade behind the Blue Mosque, Istanbul Handicrafts Center, to Hagia Sofia, the Basilica Cistern and a trip up the Bosphorus to Babek for dinner  . . . it was harder than working all day!

The first stop was the spice market . . . Outside of the spice market were vendors selling seeds, seedlings, animals and fowl and leaches!

Inside the covered spice bazaar, there were amazing stores full of spices and dried fruit and honey . . .
The smells and fragrances were transporting, and when I left the stall I still smelled of curry and cinnamon . . .

 As I was walking across the  greenarea by the blue mosque. There was a man with a type writer and paper, and this couple was standing next to him. It looked like he was typing up something for them . . . (When the man in the red shirt of the left saw I was taking a photo, he stopped walking and stayed near them.)

I then walked past the hippodrome - or the area where it used to be. . . past the Egyptian Obelisk (was built in 1500 BC and stood outside Luxor until Constantine had it brought to his city)

  and the Serpentine Column (which was shipped here from Delphi and is believed to date from 479 BC ~ the head of serpents was knocked off in the 18th century)

Then I went shopping at a store called Jennifer's Hamam behind the blue mosque, and the Mehmet Cetinkaya Gallery, pictured below. The salesman was not pushy, but I was so intrigued with all the textiles he had in his shop, he kept showing me various old handiwork, in addition to the yards of silk ikats.

This is the hat I wanted to buy for Laura, but it cost 600TL! Of course I only seemed to like the very expensive items in his shop - most of them antiques.

Notice the calligraphy under the embroidery . . . who knows what it says or why it is hidden below the stitching . . .

I then wandered past the Istanbul Handicrafts Center. Unfortunately the bookbinding area was closed.

I did watch this women painting on glass in her studio.

Then off to Haghia Sophia. This "church of holy wisdom" is among the world's greatest architectural achievements. It is more than 1,400 years old, as was of paramount influence on architecture in the following centuries. I was lucky to time my visit when there was not a line or many tourists off the various cruise ships. (You can get there when the line if filled with dozens of coaches than have brought in tourists from the ships.)

Designed as an earthly mirror of the heavens, the interior succeeds in giving a celestial feel.

The vast space is covered by a huge dome, that is 56 m or 184 feet high. One feels very small is such a grand and vast space.

One of two marble urns, carved from a single piece of marble, thought to date from the Hellenistic or early Byzantine period.

 The churches splendid Byzantine mosaics are now fragments of what originally would have covered the upper walls, but have mostly disappeared.

 The sultan's loge . . .

 Eight great wooden plaques bearing calligraphic inscriptions hang over the nave at the gallery level.

This Byzantine frieze with sheep on it, was among the ruins of the monumental entrance to the earlier Hagia Sophia dedicated in AD 415.

I then went to the Basilica Cistern . . . a vast underground water cistern from the Byzantine era. 336 columns hold up the roof, and fish swim in the water below . . .

After visiting the cistern, I headed back the the hotel to pack and get ready for a trip to Bozcaada.