Wednesday 15th August (Istanbul)
I have an all day tour planned to-day. I was picked up promptly
at 8.45, and taken to a mini bus. There are only two of us doing
this, so the tour is quite friendly. We started at the Roman
Hippodrome. This was the scene of ancient chariot races. Once there
were a large number of monuments here, but after the 4th Crusade,
they were removed to Venice. There are now 4 monuments in this tree
lined square. The Kaiser William fountain is by far the youngest,
being a present from Germany to the Ottoman emperor in the 19th
Century. Much older are the Obelisk of Theodosius, brought from
Egypt in 390AD, the bronze Serpent Column, again dating from the 4th
Century, and the Column of Constantine. This was in place in the
10th Century, but is known to be considerably older although its
history is unknown. Originally covered in bronze reliefs, those were
also removed after the 4th Crusade.
 |
| Kaiser William Fountain |
 |
| Obelisk of Theodosius |
 |
| Serpent Column |
 |
| Column of Constantine |
All the tourist attractions here are close together. The
Hippodrome is nicely placed next to the Blue Mosque, our next port
of call.
Built on the orders of Sultan Ahmed I in the early 1600s, the
mosque is in the centre of Byzantine Constantinople. Officially
called the Sultanahmet Imperial Mosque, it is commonly called the
Blue Mosque after the large number of blue tiles covering its
interior walls. It is the only mosque with 6 minarets. The story
goes that the Sultan instructed the architect to make gold minarets,
but the architect confused the word for gold with the word for six.
Whatever the reason, 6 it's got.
 |
 |
 |
A couple of hundred meters down the road to the Hagia Sophia
Museum. This building was originally a church, built in the 4th
Century by Constantine the Great. It was burnt down in 532, but
rebuilt in only 5 years, and was the 4th largest church in the
world.. It was converted into a mosque in 1453 by the Ottomans. At
the time the church was covered in icons, which not being permitted
in Islam were plastered over. This had the effect of preserving
them, and when converted into a museum in 1935, they were uncovered
and put on display.
A single picture is not enough to give you an idea of the
richness in this old church, so I make no apologies for going a bit
over the top.
On to the Grand Bazaar. This is reputedly the biggest "souk" in
the world. It has over 4000 shops, with each trade having its own
area. It's the place to go for jewellery, carpets and Turkish arts
and crafts.
It's a fascinating place to wander round, but you do have to tune
out the entreaties of the market traders. "Hello Sir, I have your
size." "You like leather jacket?" "I show you carpet" "I show you
genuine antique." etc etc.
A short break for lunch now, after which it began to get a bit
chaotic. As there were only two of us, it had been decided that we
should bolt on to another tour doing the afternoon portion. Our
guide left us in the hands of our driver who took us to a rendezvous
point. It soon became obvious that the guides for this new group
hadn't a clue who we were and why we were there! Not only that, but
we had been rushed through lunch to join them, only to find that we
had to hang around for 45 minutes while they finished their own
lunch. After a good deal of discussion between ourselves and the
tour leaders (our driver had by now disappeared) we finally were
allowed to join them.
The tour started by a drive past and explanation about the places
we had seen this morning, but finally we got to our first port of
call, the Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent. This was built between
1550 and 1557 and the architect's wish was to better the greatness
of St Sophia. This is the largest mosque in Istanbul, and although
predominately a mosque, is open to all religions for prayer.
Our final port of call was the Topkapi Palace. This was the home
of the Ottoman Sultans from the 15th to the 19th centuries. It now
houses a magnificent collection of crystal, silver and Chinese
porcelain.
 |
| The Outer Courtyard |
 |
| The Inner Courtyard |
 |
| The Bosphorus From the Palace |
I had a massage this evening. No, not the "Nudge nudge, wink
wink. Say no more" type, but a genuine Turkish bath. Or at least as
genuine as you would expect in a tourist hotel. I started with a
strip and a shower. As I left the shower I was greeted with horror
by the (lady) attendant. The towel I had been given didn't quite
cover my manhood. It turns out I hadn't opened the towel fully, and
sadly when I did it was more than enough to cover the said manhood.
Still it was nice to have a woman screaming at the sight of my naked
body. It's been a while!
| DNS error. URL not
found |
| Ian Showing His Bits |
On to a sauna and a plunge into a cold bath, (after which the
small towel would have done!), and on to a body scrub. That was an
experience. The scrubber (if that's the right expression), started
by rubbing me all over with what I swear was a bit of wet & dry
sandpaper. More cold water to clean off the gunge, and out with the
soap which was liberally applied with what looked like some ragged
bits of chamois leather. More cold water to rinse that lot off.
Having been rubbed down and washed, I would not have been surprised
if the Turtle Wax had come out at this stage! However I was told to
relax for ten minutes and got given a glass of freshly squeezed
orange juice.
On to the massage proper. This was quite violent, and involved a
great deal of pulling around. Strangely, although when I arrived she
was shocked at accidentally glancing at my bits, they were now
treated as something that gets in the way of the treatment. Thank
goodness for all that cold water! It wasn't all bad news, however.
At one stage she gave my stomach a good slap and said "Beer.", which
I understand is Turkish for "Boy! You really are in good shape for a
bloke of your age."
In spite of all the heaving around, I must admit at the end of
the massage I felt much better. (In much the same way as it feels
good to stop banging your head against a brick wall!)
I didn't much feel like eating tonight, so I bought myself a
bottle of Coke and a packet of almonds. I also thought I'd try a
bottle of Ayran, that milky yoghurty drink that gets sold in bottles
and look like milk. Don't bother!
<<<
>>>
