Beyoğlu and Grand Bazaar

I don't particularly feel like writing a whole lot about our last couple days in Turkey, as it's just weird to try and do so from my house here in the US. So this is mostly pictures, with some commentary thrown in!

Yeni Cami at sunset

Sunday evening, we tried to go to a meyhane (tavern) in Beyoğlu, across the Golden Horn. When trying to make a reservation, most meyhaneler were closed on Sunday, which should have tipped us off that it's not the night to go to one, but it was the only time that worked, so we went anyways.

Mini bazaar at the wharf

The view from Galata Bridge at sunset

Birds! Mosque! Bridge!

What a cutie

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Google Maps is basically hopeless in İstanbul, so we got lost, and ended up asking at least 5 people for directions, all of which were conflicting. It took us 45 minutes to find the place (inside a hotel, which hadn't helped the search!), and upon arriving found it to be nearly empty, with only two other customers.

Beyoğlu: a tiny slice

Meyhaneler are supposed to be rocking affairs, with music and lots of people and drinks, but I was incredibly hungry so we ate there anyways. It was a nice restaurant (free water!!!), and we got the cheese plate, which was enormous, and some sigara böreği, cheese-filled pastries shaped like cigars.

sigara böreği

bajillion cheeses

Aww

It was all very tasty, and the view was beautiful over İstanbul, but it was definitely not the experience I had been hoping for. Oh, well––a real meyhane visit is on the docket for next time!

We came across a steel drums player
on our way home, which was cool.

Our last day, we visited Süleymaniye Camii, which was recently renovated.

Imposing!

I wore my black maxi skirt and brought a headscarf, but it turned out I hadn't needed to––they had robes available for Western visitors. At least I didn't have to worry about sweating in something someone else would have to wear! The mosque was beautiful and very large; there was some gorgeous painting detailing and stunning stained glass windows, but it was overall quite simple, which just emphasized how huge it was.

Gorgeous, no?

Stained glass at the front

Concentric domes! 

Big.

Really, really stunning glass 

Main dome

It was approaching prayer time when we
were there, and before we left, the
imam started singing.

Seriously, the cutest.

I'll have to visit the Blue Mosque next time I'm in İstanbul, but I liked Süleymaniye very much!

We spent a couple hours at the Bazaar, where I found a lot of presents to bring home. If you want the best prices, don't wait until the Grand Bazaar––Marcos saw carpets for much, much cheaper in Selçuk, and we found some knick knacks for cheaper (even post-bargaining) just out on the street in front of our hotel. Still, it's worth checking out the Bazaar just for kicks!

Along the main jewelry street; we saw a 30,000 USD
diamond dragonfly pin in one of the stores. We did not
buy it, surprisingly.

Surreptitious photo of some insanely detailed ceramics

My tiles!

Just don't ask how much things cost out of curiosity; sellers will always think you're wanting to purchase and will get offended if, upon being asked how much you'd be able to pay, you answer honestly and very low, as happened to us at a carpet shop. Some people really love the process of bargaining, but Marcos and I do not count ourselves among that crowd, so I am frankly quite happy to be back in the land of fixed prices. For myself, I got a couple of hand-painted tiles; they were originally 160 TL, but Marcos bargained him down to 100 (roughly $52). They're absolutely gorgeous and I plan to get them framed to have forever more!

For our last meal, we decided to splurge and get a terracotta stew, which is cooked in fire in a terracotta sealed vase, then broken open with a knife when ready to eat.

The breaking-open process

It was an obscene amount of food, and absolutely delicious, but I ate way too much and paid for it on the flight back the next day.

He gave me more than he gave Marcos; I guess he
could sense I eat more!

Om nom nom

Oh well! We had hoped to try rakı, aniseed liquor, but after dinner I was just too tired and wanted to pack. Another thing for the next trip!

The trip home was fine, though very long, and I'm still not on a "normal" sleep schedule.

An assortment of some of the warnings on boxes of cigarettes

in Atatürk airport. They're pretty awesome.

I wonder how many people buying
cigarettes in an airport haven't yet
started smoking...

Hahahahaha, they should probably
focus on this in all the PSAs.

Marlboro kept it simple: Smoking Kills.

If you have the choice, don't fly into the US at JFK––customs and passport control there is a nightmare. Especially when you have to pee, as there is no bathroom between deplaning and exiting customs. By the time the hour and a half re-entry process had finished, I was about ready to explode. The joys of air travel...

I'll have one last wrap-up/reflections post up sometime later this week, but for now, thank you for reading!

Home

I made it home, safe and sound. Flew into Portland late Tuesday night (technically, Wednesday morning PST, and most definitely mid-morning Turkey time) and got back home Wednesday afternoon. I've spent the last couple days trying to get my body back on something resembling a normal sleep schedule, to limited success––I woke up at 6:30 am (!!) yesterday, went to bed at 7:30 pm last night, and got up for real at 11:30 am today, after a brief stint being awake and eating peaches at 8:00. I feel more like I'm now on PST time, at least!

I'll have a post on our last day (covering our attempt to visit a meyhane and our trip to the Grand Bazaar) up later this weekend or early next week, and a reflection post later that week after I have the chance to decompress and sort through everything. And at some point upload a few hundred photos to Facebook! Until then, I'm enjoying the beauty that is Oregon tap water and the view of our beautiful garden.

Topkapı Palace and a Bosphorus Cruise

This section was written yesterday, Saturday, August 10.

Today, we visited Topkapi. Unlike with Ayasofya, I was suitably impressed by the palace!

Little models of the palace near the entrance.

We woke up very early (well, very early for us, 7:30), and I was quite sure I would die. But I did not! I showered and made myself presentable, then we went down for breakfast. Mostly standard fare, but there were some delicious phyllo/croissanty rolls with mild cheese on the inside, which I thoroughly enjoyed and anticipate will comprise the main part of my breakfasts henceforth. Then we trekked to Topkapi, which is of course up a big hill, and waited in the already-long ticket line before figuring out we could use the automatic machine instead. We got through security at about 9:10 and headed straight for the Harem, which cost another 15 TL, bringing the grand total up to 40 TL each--yeesh. But guys, the Harem was *totally* worth it. It was actually my favorite part of the whole place. Here are a thousand pictures to show you why. (I decided to just collapse all the pictures of the whole palace into collages, but once I get around to uploading stuff to Facebook you can see better what things were where.) You should probably click on them to make them big.

There were lots of ceiling domes. Here are some of them.
The one at the bottom left is the original painting from
the 1700s! Crazysauce.

There were flat ceilings. These are some of them.

There were doors. The inlaid mother of pearl ones were stunning.

After soaking up the glory that was the Harem (with conflicted feelings, as it was home to many enslaved women, and we all know how I feel about forced sex--but they did get an education, which is something!), I ventured out into the main areas. Topkapi is very, very large, and today it was quite hot*. But I managed to walk around and see almost everything, I think--I missed out on the Physicians Rooms, but I'm not positive they were open anyways. 

A courtyard, complete with under-eaves gold filligree.

I was particularly fond of a lot of the junctures between walls, doors,
and ceilings, because they so rarely had anything carry over. I love
the mix of patterns and colors!

Very opulent

I just adore all the detail here––definitely worth enlarging. 

This was a small room offset of a large, domed room (you
can see part of the dome at the top of the photo). 

The last room I visited.

Compared to the British castles I've been to, Topkapı was airier and more open; there's no way to get to all the parts without going outside, which also meant better airflow. It's a very different style from English castles, unsurprisingly, and I was quite fond of it. Not quite as ostentatious (well, the contents of the Treasury were pretty over-the-top, but I wasn't allowed to take photos, poo), but still quite luxurious. It did have a bit of a summer getaway feel, though, with all the tiles and floor seating, but that is just my Western-centric upbringing talking. I really like the blue and gold and hope to purchase something (probs jewelry) with similar colors.

There were tiles

Upon tiles

Upon tiles.

There was one other section besides the Treasury where photos were forbidden. It was where the religious relics were housed, and hot damn, it was pretty awesome. In an air conditioned room (only part of the reason I liked it) was housed the sword of David (as in King David), and the staff of Moses (as in burning bush, parting seas Moses), and the turban of Abraham (as in father of Isaac Abraham), and the sword of John (the Baptist), and the footprint of Mohammed (as in the founder of Islam). Also contained were some relics from the Kaaba in Mecca, and several bits of Mohammed's beard, and part of his tooth, which was enclosed in the most gloriously jewel-encrusted velvet box. All in all, it was quite impressive, even for little non-religious me.

There were walls, and beautiful stained glass.

There was a lovely gate, which I thought looked very French (but
I've never been to France, so...). A number of rooms in the palace had
a similar feel.

The front of the kütüphane (library)

The Audience Hall

Gangway between the gate to the Third Court
and the Audience Hall

A nice courtyard around a pool with fountain

I took about 2 hours at Topkapı, at which point I was very, very tired, so I made my way back to the hotel. Upon arrival, I discovered our room had still not been cleaned, so after investigating cafes nearby, I headed back out to have some baklava and tea. I got chocolate baklava, which is probably sacrilegious, and it was fine but not particularly awe-inspiring. I had to get at least 3 pieces, so after eating all that I was quite full, and have been writing this post while sipping my tea. Soon I shall return to the hotel and lie down and ultimately nap, though I also hope to do some work. And shower, because y'all, Istanbul is a wee bit hot. Now's a good time for that star!

*Istanbul's temperature has been hovering in the mid-high 80s with considerable humidity, but it's not nearly as bad as New York, contrary to what others may say (but yes, it is still humid--my dandelionesque hair can attest to that). Today there's a nice breeze, which helps, but there's only so much a breeze can do when the city never really cools down. The lows are in the low-mid 70s, and at 8:30 this morning it was already 78 degrees. Contrast that with Ankara, where the highs are roughly the same, but the lows are 10 degrees cooler, and Ankara clearly comes ahead in the weather department.

Everything henceforth was written Sunday, August 11.
I went back to the hotel and tried to nap, but my body was not having any of it––probably the tea I got (for free, from a waiter at a cafe on my way home) had just enough caffeine to screw me up. Marcos got back around 4:00; he'd spent about 6 hours at the palace, and found it not nearly as lovely as I had. He preferred Ayasofya, I preferred Topkapı––how can our love survive?! We went out later for cheap foodz and then stopped at Hafiz Mustafa, which is the #1 restaurant in all of İstanbul on Tripadvisor. They have tons of kinds of baklava and Turkish Delight (aka lokum) and börek (filled pastries) and rice puddings, but I just got a half kilo box of assorted flavors. Marcos and I have tried a few, and I must say, some of the kinds of baklava are a wee bit weird. We plan to go back tomorrow to try the kinds that weren't included in the box, and I want to check out the rice pudding. And probably get a couple boxes to bring back home :)

Topkapı from the Bosphorus

Today, we went on a short Bosphorus cruise, which was 2 hours and involved only one stop, at Ortaköy to pick up more passengers. It was nice to see the city from a different angle, and we got to see a lot of summer palaces (selection below, plus a bonus mosque, and a castle, and some rather ramshackle houses).

We did more stuff this evening, but I am tired and haven't uploaded the pictures yet, so you will have to wait for those tales until tomorrow (or, more likely, yet longer). In the morning, we're going to Süleymaniye Mosque, which is less popular than the Blue Mosque but supposedly even grander, and then to the Grand Bazaar, where I will purchase all the gifts, for hopefully somewhat less than all the money. Then we pack, and the next day we fly out! It's crazy how quickly it's gone by...