Old Town Istanbul

We slept in and got a late start to the day. The beds at the Ritz are hard to drag yourself out of. We went downstairs to have some breakfast before heading out into the city, but it was already lunch time. We started with a Mediterranean plate of humus, olives, cucumber/tomato/feta salad, and pita. I had a club sandwich. There is nothing like eating bacon in a Muslim country to make you feel like a rebel. Tres had Turkish pide (mini pizzas), one with spinach, tomatoes, and cheese, the other with Turkish pastrami and cheese. Lunch was a much better experience than dinner the night before.

On the way out of the hotel, we asked our friend Tarik for directions to the ATM so we could get some Turkish Lira. As he escorted us to the shops and services downstairs, he said that the king of Kuwait would be in residence at the hotel. His advance team had already spent a million dollars redecorating and preparing for the His Majesty's two day visit. First to go was the bed. Too soft. And we thought the beds were just fine.

Istanbul is divided by bodies of water. The Bosphorus Strait runs North and South and separates Asian Istanbul in the East and European Istanbul in the West. The strait connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean and Mediterranean beyond. It is the only outlet for the ports of the Black Sea. European Istanbul is further divided by the Golden Horn, with the Old Town to the South and the New District to the North. The Ritz overlooks the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn from the New District.

Finally, ready to see the sights. It was a short taxi ride to the Sultanahmet, the historic core of Istanbul. As soon as the taxi came to a stop, hustlers opened the doors trying to sell us tours and visits to their shops. It is uncomfortable to ignore them, but that is the only way to make it through the gauntlet.















First stop: Aya Sofya (Divine Wisdom). One of the greatest houses of worship in the history of Christendom and Islam. Built by the Byzantines as a church and the "Eastern Vatican" in 537 A.D., it was converted to a mosque by the Ottomans in 1453, and became a museum with the secularization of the Turkish Republic in the 1930s. Renovation is ongoing and there is much work left to be done.


After walking through the grand stone entryway, there is a vestibule with museum displays detailing the history of the building. Then there is an antechamber entirely filled with scaffolding. From there you emerge into the central dome. It is awesome, grand enough to fit Notre-Dame or the Statue of Liberty (minus the torch) inside. Much of the finish work has been lost to history and the scaffolding distracts from the architecture, but the grandeur and the enormity of the space remain.



Next: the Blue Mosque. Muslims are called to prayer five times a day and Mosques close to tourists thirty minutes before and reopen thirty minutes after the prayer service. We left Aya Sofya at about 4:45 PM, half an hour before the next call to prayer. The Blue Mosque would be closed to tourists shortly and would not reopen until tomorrow, so it will have to wait. We did get a nice view of the fountains and the Blue Mosque beyond from Sultanahmet Park.



















So, faced with sunset and impending darkness, we went underground, to the Underground Cistern. Built by the Byzantines in the Sixth Century A.D., this reservoir could hold up to 27 million gallons of fresh water under a ceiling supported by 336 Roman columns recycled from older sites around Istanbul. Flooded in red light, this is far more hauntingly beautiful, architecturally impressive, and cleaner than the Underground Seattle Tour.
















Now, back to the Ritz for a rest before dinner.