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...

Ayasofya/Hagia Sophia

After walking around so much yesterday, my energy levels were severely depleted this morning.

Speaking of yesterday, here's some clouds on our way out of Ankara.
They looked painted on!

I was planning to get up for breakfast at 9:30 and go back to sleep after, but found the idea of getting out of bed when my alarm went off entirely unappetizing, so went back to sleep immediately. I ended up sleeping until 2:00, at which point I still felt massively tired but not so much that I couldn't get out of bed. It took us awhile to get ready, but we headed out for the Ayasofya around 4:00. We had considered combining a visit there with a stop at the Basilica Cistern, but I knew my body wouldn't put up with that much so we opted just for the church/mosque/museum.

For anyone who's not been to İstanbul, let me tell you a secret: it is super hilly.

Exhibit A: A hill.

You will walk up hills big and small, so any distance should be taken with a grain of salt, as 500 m on flat ground is rather shorter than 500 m on incline. The Ayasofya was on top of one such hill, naturally, but we got there with relatively little issue.

Approached from the back, which meant we saw this
lovely building.

And this amusing sign: we're sorry, too?

It's 25 TL to get in, tied for most expensive place we've visited with Ephesus, and it is Turkey's most-visited monument. It was built by Emperor Justinian I in the 530s and was Christendom's most magnificent church, apparently, until the 1400s, when it was converted into a mosque by the Ottomans.

An intervening ruler: Empress Zoe's sarcophagus

It remained a mosque until 1931, when Atatürk started the process of changing it into a museum, which officially opened in 1935.

In front of the Ayasofya, after we'd visited

Sorry about the strangers in the background, Mother.
Don't worry, there's a stranger-free one later on!

The building is huge, and incredibly spacious; unlike most domed structures, there's no visible pillars holding the nested domes up, so it looks like it's floating.

This does not include the biggest
central dome, because I could not fit
it in the shot.

Here's part of it, though

And more!

There was some major renovation going on in part of the building, which definitely impeded the view, but even so, it was quite impressive.

Hello, gigantic ugly scaffolds.

It was also impossible to take photos that captured the scale, so you'll just have to believe me.

Everything that's painted used to be mosaics, which must have been quite magnificent.

Imagine it all shiny!

Some of the paint is flaking off now, too :(

Gigantic hallways of mosaics, once upon a time

Some of the mosaics are still intact, though,
like part of these crosses

I will admit, I was less floored than I was expecting. Some of it has been restored, but a lot is rather faded, and many of the mosaics have disappeared. With some imagination, you can see how incredibly awe-inspiring it once was, but in its current state, I found it merely "very nice". I know, I'm a heretic. I'm sorry.

Like this mosaic: pretty, but depleted

Jesus is looking pretty good there, though 

A no-longer-mosaic'ed seraph, one of 4 at each corner of the
ceiling 

This mosaic was magnificent

I felt sorry for the guy around the corner, though.
No one was taking any notice of him!

Yes, this was beautiful, too, obviously.

Mary and baby Jesus, above the mihrap.
It was a very interesting building for its mix of
religious iconography! Props to the Muslims
back in the day for not destroying all the Christian
mosaics.

The afore-mentioned mihrap

Jesus being offered some stuff from some dudes,
above the doorway on the way out (I'm real tired, y'all).

We were there at the very end of the opening hours, so right before we left there were very few people in it, which did increase its grandeur somewhat. I'm sure without the construction scaffolding, it would have been even more impressive, so I hope to return in a few years!

Slightly better idea of scale, maybe?

Check out how empty it is!

I am extremely exhausted right now, so I will not regale you with tales of what we did after. Plus, well, all I did was go back to the hotel and lie like a lump, then we went out and had kebap for dinner.

Much of the stone in the building was smooth and curved from
millennia of being walked on. So cool!

More domes

I liked the contrast of cool marble
and warm murals

Some gorgeous stained glass

It was pretty exciting stuff. Tomorrow, we're waking up early to go to Topkapı, which is supposed to take 3 hours but I may run out of steam before then.

The Blue Mosque at sunset, courtesy of Marcos

We've got nothing planned for the afternoon, though, so I can come back here and catch up on rest!

Stranger-free photo! Insane gold
detailing.