Turkey – Istanbul: Day 1

We left our hotel and were driven the long two hours back to the Kayseri airport from which we flew back to Istanbul. Istanbul is huge! It is one of the top five largest cities in the world. It is home to nearly thirteen million people. The traffic is ridiculous! The drivers are only slightly better than the drivers in Jeddah. It is unique in that it is the only city to span two continents, Europe and Asia. The great Bosphorus marks the division between the two. The Bosphorus is a strait which connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea which then connects to the Mediterranean Sea. It is Turkey’s largest port.

One of the employees of the newly acquired company in Turkey was kind enough to tour us around Istanbul for two days while Dano attended meetings. I could not have done it without her. The language barrier would definitely have been a hinderance to our getting around. It was a little overwhelming to think about all of the historically significant events that have taken place in this part of the world. We were so fortunate to be able to visit just a few of the structures and sites that make up this history.

The few sites we visited were on the other side of the Bosphorus. We had to ride a ferry across the strait, much to the children’s delight. They enjoyed throwing crackers up in the air off the side of the ferry and watching the seagulls dive to catch them.Upon reaching the other side we rode the tram a short distance and then walked and walked and walked some more. The first site we stopped at was Kaiser Wilhelm’s Fountain. It is a beautiful gazebo-style fountain constructed in Germany in 1898 and then presented to the sultan by the Germans in 1900.
There are women there selling plates of seed to feed to the many pigeons. Berra, our guide, treated the children to a couple of plates so they could feed the pigeons. As I took pictures, I couldn’t get the “Feed the Birds” song from Mary Poppins out of my head. Now, as you look at our pictures, maybe that song will be stuck in your head, too!As I was attempting to get a picture of the beautiful fountain, a pigeon passing by happened to poop on my shoulder. Gross, I know. Berra told us it’s actually considered good luck to have a bird make its mark on you. Personally, I think that’s just some senseless rationalization made up by someone who wanted to seem cool after he'd just been bombed on his head!

From there we headed just a short walk up to the Obelisk of Theodosius. It reminded us of the Washington Monument.
This is the oldest monument in Istanbul and was carved in Egypt in the BC 1500s for Pharoah Thutmose III. The Emperor Theodosius had it brought from Egypt to (then) Constantinople in AD 390. It is constructed of red granite.
The base was constructed by Theodosius with incredible carvings of him, his wife, sons and state officials observing chariot races, a popular pastime. This entire area we were walking through was once the Hippodrome.


These two sites were situated on our walk to the famous Blue Mosque.The mosque was constructed in the early 1600s and has six minarets compared to the normal one or two. It also has a large courtyard with carvings and beautiful detailed painting.
We entered the mosque on the south side as only worshippers are permitted through the main entrance. We got in just before they closed the doors for prayer. As it is a holy spot and Muslims remove their shoes before prayer, we were also asked to remove our shoes and were provided bags in which to carry them around.The interior was impressive with its tens of thousands of blue tiles (hence the unofficial name) and its nearly three hundred stained glass windows. Hopefully the brilliance is conveyed in these pictures (even though the photographer had not been briefed in how to take indoor pictures with the new camera!).


The Hagia Sofia is just across from the Blue Mosque. It was completed in 567 AD by the Emperor Justinian (who wanted a greater temple than Solomon’s) and was the world’s largest cathedral for nearly one thousand years. In 1453 Constantinople was conquered and the cathedral was converted into a mosque. Under direction of the conquering sultan, many Christian emblems and artifacts were removed. One of the changes made was the plastering over of many of the faces of the mosaics. Part of the Muslim belief is to not replicate faces. It remained a mosque until 1935 when it was turned into a museum. It is a UNESCO site and, as we were told, seems to be under constant renovation (note the scaffolding in some of the pictures).

One of the changes they’re making is removing the plastering from the angels’ faces that float in the dome of the museum. You can see one angel's face in this picture and the other is still covered.Again, the detailing is magnificent and the mosaics impressive.

This final photo is of the Haydarpasa Train station which we could see from the ferry. I just thought it was a striking train station. The sky really was this beautiful. It’s the last time we’ll see blue skies for quite a while.
When we arrived back at the hotel, it was fun to see several of Dano’s friends from Greif, as their meetings were there in the hotel. They were meeting for dinner so the kids and I ordered a pizza and watched a movie on our bed. It was very easy to crash. We were all so tired and would be repeating our walking tour the next day.