Weather - 85 degrees and sun
Plans - Hagia Sophia visit, Bosphorus Strait cruise, paper Ebru marbling, Turkish tiles, dinner on the Bosphorus at Villa Bosphorus.
Hagia Sophia (Ayasophya)
Well our first day with planning was an eventful one. The first thing we did was go to the Hagia Sophia, one of the most recognizable holy grounds in the world. The current structure, which is the 3rd on this site, was completed in 557 AD. The Hagia Sophia (meaning "religious place of wisdom") wasn't just the biggest church in the world, it was the biggest building in the world for 100s of years.
After it was conquered by the Turks in the 1400s, it was converted into a mosque. It was Mehmet the Conqueror's crown jewel to defeat of the Byzantium Empire, and he immediately (overnight) had his artists cover the Christian idols in plaster, since portraits of humans and God are forbidden on a mosque. They also converted the altar (which faced the east) to the mihrab (which faces now the southeast, towards Mecca), and actually allowed the cross and other symbols to remain.
It is utterly amazing. I have so many photos (40+), but I'm just going to share some of my favorites. I'll describe each below, too. The first photo (upper left) is the Sultan's private quarters at the mosque. I thought this was probably my favorite photo. In the second photo (upper right), you can see a leather & gold hanging medallion that says "Allah," which to us looks like a "w" and an "l."
In the 3rd photo (bottom left), you see the mosaic of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus, which overhanged the alter before replaced by plaster. The final photo is of the mihrab, facing Mecca, with the Ottoman stained glass in the background.
One thing I learned about the culture while here is that the Turks aren't really fans of deodarant. There were a lot of them, and it was a hot day. It was different for me, let's just say that. Also, they're really persistent to tourists, and the one's who know English well will bargain with you and use wordplay to get you to buy things. They're pretty good at it, too, but I convinced a guy to give me 12 postcards for a $1 after bothering me for at least 2-3 minutes. They also let stray cats wander all over the place. You think it'd be disgusting, but apparently they care for them & revere them so much they even let them walk on the alter / mihrab in the Hagia Sophia.
I also have an awesome video showing the entire ceiling and main prayer area, and I'm glad I captured this because the photos don't do the spectacular site justice. I also have a video of a thing in the Ayasophya called the "wishing column," where you spin your hand in a crevice in the back entrance of the prayer area, and I, of course, wished for a place where Muslim & Christian worship isn't so segregated. The Hagia Sophia shows how they can co-exist, and we can all stand to learn from it.
Bosphorus Strait cruise
Yep, this was a lot more awesome than I thought it'd be. The views were great, and Ohran, our travel guide, hooked up a microphone and speakers and gave us an explanation of all the things we saw. This guy knows his stuff. I'll, again, attach some of my favorite photos and try to explain:
The first shot (upper left) is of Cynthia, Mark, and me with the Rumelian Castle in the background. Mehmet built this fort in the early 1400s to put a stranglehold on Constantinople, as it is at the shortest distance (800 meters) from the European - Asian divide of the city. The 2nd photo (upper right) is of the Bosphorus Bridge, which was built in the 1980s. It's amazing that this city of 12 million people has only 2 bridges crossing the Strait, while Harrisburg metro (and <100,000 residents) has 4 different bridges.
Probably my favorite thing of the cruise was just snapping photos of the houses and neighborhoods of Istanbul. It really was just an awesome site, over and over again. Down below, one thing that astonished me was that with all this prime real estate, the Turks built a ton of atoparks (kids' parks) right on the Strait. The one we parked our boat on had an outside gym, and here you see Mark and me doing hip abductions.
Also, at the Atopark, Mark did his burpees for the day. The polis were laughing their heads off watching him do it, slapping their knees and everything - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RoPzoCDJFk
Ebru Marbling, Turkish tiling, & dinner
I'm no artist, but the marbling was fun and intense. We all received a lesson on how the Ebru came from Iran and how they did it (mixing different liquids in the water that didn't allow the paint to blend together), and how they used different brushes and, more importantly, shears, to make different shapes and backgrounds. The young artist was awesome at this, and then we all got a crack at it. I made a sun for Devin.
It was amazing to see a photo of First Lady Bush on the wall doing the marbling like we did. And while we waited for the others to finish, we had çay (tea) and chocolate / banana wafers outside on the owner's back lawn, my 3rd & 4th cup of the little cup of tea for the day.
Tiling and dinner were both slightly above average, which made it stand out differently from the incredible day. Dinner was an incredible view at the Villa Bosphorus (I sat first next to the Strait, and it splashed up near my feet), but the Turks like dill a lot. They also like bread a lot (I fed my 3 pieces to the fish, and they gave me 5 more). They also like sebring fish a lot, and while it's good, this was the 3rd time in 4 days that I had fish. The cheese appetizer, however, was the most awesome thing I've ever eaten from a dairy aisle, and the desserts of fresh Turkish fruit (watermelon, apple, grapes, and the juiciest peaches) were both phenomenal. And check-out my sunset photo (below right)
The tiling artists do great work (below left), but the shop was small and since I'm no artist, I felt puckered out after the Ebru marbling.
Tomorrow we head back into the city to visit the Grand Bazaar and the Blue Mosque. These are probably the 2 things I'm looking forward to the most on the trip, so I'm excited!
Fun fact:
Did you know that the Turkish word Istanbul has evolved, over time, as a derivation of the word Roman word Constantinople? When the Ottoman Turks conquered the city, they didn't like the amount of syllables in the word, so they shortened it to 'Stantinopolis, and then to 'Stanpol. However, proper Turkish struggles to have two consonant sounds next to one another, so they add the "I" (actually pronounced "ee") to the front of it, to create Istanbul ("EE-stahn-bol").
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