Saturday, July 5: It was 44 years ago today that we were married at the Manor in West Orange, New Jersey. We spent that night on a plane to Amsterdam and the start of a two month honeymoon driving all through Europe. So it seemed only fitting that we spent today, our anniversary, traveling and on this grand vacation in Istanbul, Turkey. We had hired a guide named, Nursal, for the day and she was wonderful. After spending some time in the hotel, questioning us about what we wanted to see and experience, we set off to see the sites of the Old Town. She was extremely knowledgeable and had much information about the history and art of the area. We had four main things that we wanted to see today: the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, the Cisterns, and the Hagia Sophia, and she fulfilled all of them and then some. All of these areas played a major role in Dan Brown's latest book, entitled Inferno, and we both had read it so we had some frame of reference. After today's visit, we fully expected to read the Istanbul part of the book again. Additionally, Mark had read a Clive Cussler book, entitled Crescent Dawn, that also takes place in these locations and in the waters of the Bosporus.
The Blue Mosque is a huge, domed building with many minarets. To enter the building we had to remove our shoes, for which they provided a plastic bag so that we could carry them, and Joani had to wear long sleeves, long pants, and a shawl that covered her head. The inside of the building is beautiful with a red-carpeted floor that is used for prayer, which occurs five times during the day. Visitors cannot be in the building during these times. The mosque got its name from the amazing blue tiles all over the walls and domes.
From the Blue Mosque we proceeded to Topkapi Palace. This is a compound of many buildings spread over a large garden area - it was a palace after all! We started our visit in the Harem and moved through the Eunuch quarters - big, castrated, black men - and then through the king and princes' quarters. We also saw buildings that were dedicated to showing costumes and armament - some of the two-handed swords were enormous! From the patio areas on the grounds there were great views of the Bosporous and of the bridges linking the Asian and European sides of Istanbul. BTW, Istanbul is the only city - purportedly - that is both in Asia and Europe. To say that the Topkapi Palace was opulent would be putting it mildly.
On the grounds of the palace is an ancient church that was no longer in use, and, in fact, most of the plaster was off of the walls, so what we saw was a "naked" church. It was striking in its beauty anyway!
The Cisterns were absolutely fascinating. The location was completely underground with pillars and arches holding up the ground and buildings above. The water in the cisterns is only a foot or two deep - it would have been at least 20 feet deep when it was really in use as a cistern - and carp had been placed in the cistern to help keep the water clean. Carp are garbage eaters - they reminded us of our koi in our home in Concord, California. We spent much time exploring the walkways in the cisterns and taking many, many pictures.
The Hagia Sophia is an ancient domed building that has served as a church, a mosque, and now as a museum, and which is undergoing restoration. Like the Blue Mosque, it is a huge building and it is very interesting to see the parts that are left from when it was a church and then those from when it was a mosque. The walkways from the ground floor to the top floor are not steps but rather are inclines that keep doubling back on themselves. Mark commented that these walkways reminded him of the old Yankee Stadium which had similar inclines, although not of slick stones! The architecture was fascinating and the remnants of ancient mosaics was beautiful.
Since we still had time, our guide took us to see some amazingly beautiful ceramic plates, which we did not buy, mostly because there was no way to get them home, and they cost a fortune! We also saw the hippodrome and two ancient obelisks, one of which is actually similar to one in Central Park in New York City.
For dinner our hotel suggested a restaurant called Fener. A driver from the restaurant picked us up at the hotel and the trip reminded us of something out of a James Bond movie - amazingly narrow and winding streets with cars coming at us from all directions. The driver was very boisterous and didn't mind shooting a couple of Turkish expletives at other drivers that got in his way. He loved the gas pedal and was not a fan of the brakes. The hotel had told us that this was a local restaurant that was located near a tourist-trap square that had 20 other fish restaurants. Fener was off of the square and the hotel said that it was the only one they could trust with their clients - oh, and they said the food was great.
The driver came to a halt down a narrow street that ended where someone had placed some planter boxes out in the street and set some tables for dinner. This was Fener, and we couldn't have picked a more charming place for our 44th wedding anniversary dinner. We sat under some paper street lights, air conditioners, and some blue jeans drying on the line. The waiter brought out mezes - small plates of appetizers - for us to choose from. We selected a salad of mussels, olives, and pickles, and a plate of anchovies in oil. Some crusty bread and a bottle of Turkish wine and we were into it. For the main course he brought out a platter of beautiful fresh fish and we chose a two-pound branzino - a Mediterranean sea bass. The fish was grilled to perfection and deboned at the table. For dessert we chose baklava, but the waiter said, "You like sweet? I bring you sweet. If you don't like it, I eat it and bring you baklava!" It was a cheese and carmelized sugar dish and needless to say, it was great and the Turkish coffee and tea finished the meal. We wandered down some of the other streets and saw the square with all of the restaurants and while there certainly was an energy there, we were very pleased with our hotel's suggestion. Oh, and our driver got us back to the hotel alive!
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