Espresso Freddo: 0
Today we spent all day doing a tour of the major historical sites of Istanbul. There were only 2 other people on this tour with us. A couple originally from Romania but who had been living in Canada for 25 years. They were an interesting couple. They have travelled widely and have strong opinions about everything, particularly the wife.
Our tour guide, Burak, was excellent. He had done a 4 year degree to become a tour guide. He had to learn about history, archaeology and the various cultures that have populated this part of the world. He was friendly and informative, even when the wife was trying to pick fights with him. Romania had once been part of the Ottoman Empire and apparently she hasn't forgotten.
Our first stop was a quick scamper about the Topkapi Palace. I say a quick scamper because we only spent about 2 1/2 hours here. You could easily spend all day here. We glanced in at a special exhibition on clocks before leaving too.
Istanbul loves it cats. Even in the time of the Ottoman Empire they were indulged as can be seen from the kitty prints in one of the pavilions in the palace.
Next stop was the Hagia Sophia. This started as an Orthodox church, then was converted to a mosque, then a museum and then, in 2020, back into a mosque. It is also currently undergoing renovations/repairs so there is scaffolding inside and out. The ground floor is dedicated to the mosque and can only be used by believers who want to pray. The upstairs gallery is open to visitors so we wandered about there. It was fascinating to hear about its history from our guide. It is a shame I didn't visit before 2020 when I could have seen it all.
After this we had lunch at a nearby restaurant. It started with lentil soup, then two types of dip (tzatziki, spicy tomato) and a salad of pickled cabbage and carrot. Next were some meatballs and chicken souvlaki with a token salad and some bread. For dessert we had something that was described as special sort of baklava but tasted like semolina dumpling, rather like gulab jamun. It was all Decent.
After our fortifying lunch we visited the Hippodrome cistern. It is in the basement of a commercial building so can only be seen by appointment so we had it basically to ourselves which was great. The palace had been overrun by hordes by the time we left and wasn't very pleasant.
The cistern itself wasn't particularly special but there were a lot of displays about the hippodrome which I loved. I've just finished reading the Sarantine Mosaic by Guy Gavriel Kay which is a historical fantasy version of the rule of Justinian and the building of the Hagia Sophia and the chariot races in the hippodrome so I was chuffed to see it all for real.
Then we went upstairs and were shown how hand-knotted Turkish carpets are made. It is insanely labour intensive. We were then shown various wool and silk carpets by a very persuasive salesman. It was only because my favourite carpet was too big for my living room (and the knowledge the cats would barf on it and scratch it to death) prevented me from buying a carpet. The wife got them to show her a good dozen carpets before not buying anything either.
After this we went to the Grand Bazaar which is where the wheels on our tour fell off. The wife decided she wanted to convert some money, so we had to wander about the bazaar until she found a place with a good exchange rate. We then had to wait while she (or rather her husband) queued up to do the transaction. After a bit Mary and I went to another shop so Mary could buy some turkish delight.
When we got back we were hoping to resume the tour. However, the wife then decided she wanted to get some of her gold jewellery cleaned. Mary and I left the bazaar and waited outside for a bit. We were about to send our guide a message saying we were done and were going back to our hotel, when he showed up. Turns out the wife had even more jewellery to do things with so he had said good-bye to them and rejoined us. Who expects everyone on a tour to wait around for 30+ minutes while you do some errands?
Free of the others, we went to the Blue Mosque - very pretty and then admired some obelisks in the square that is all the remains of the hippodrome. It might not sound very special but our guide knew so much of this history of every place it was very interesting.
This was the end of the tour so we said good-bye and thanks to Burak and headed back to our hotel. We plan on hitting up the Topkapi Palace Museum Shop for souvenirs tomorrow morning. Unlike some people, we don't expect others to wait around while we browse.
After resting our feet for a bit we headed out for dinner. The only thing I don't like about Istanbul is your choices for dinner are Turkish food, Turkish food or Turkish food. In Melbourne we are spoilt with having such a wide range of cuisines available. We randomly chose a restaurant and shared a vegetable pide and a meat pide. They were sadly very Dull. The cook didn't seem to have heard of using spices or really any seasoning at all. We had rice pudding for dessert which was Decent at least.
Tomorrow is a little souvenir shopping before leaving to fly home. I'm looking forward to having my own bedroom and bathroom but not looking forward to doing my own cooking and cleaning.