I’ve got to be honest, the days are starting to blur.
Most of the sites we are visiting have been around since JC was in diapers. Some of these landmarks are dated B.C. It is totally mind blowing to walk around these places and touch walls or statues that have been around for such a long time. Australia was colonised 200 years ago… that’s small fry compared to the history in Turkey. And there is so much to see!
We headed to the Blue Mosque and slipped up on the ‘early start’. So by the time we got there (around 9:30am) it was packed with a 2 hour wait to get in. But never fear, there were plenty of ‘tour guides’ loitering around. We stood at the top of some steps just outside the back of the Blue Mosque and looked despondently at the large queue. Not only was it not moving but we knew it would come to a complete standstill once the prayers started (no entry to the mosque at that time). We were about to go when we noticed that certain small groups of people were being escorted through the large queues right to the very front. There was some exchange of money going on, need I say more.
A couple of these tour guides had approached us but we fobbed them off. We decided the next guy who approached us, was our man. His name was Sheriff, he claimed to be an official tour guide but displayed no identification. He quoted 100 Lira to get us in so we went with that. He moved us through the queue in less than a minute and before you could say ‘I ate a chicken kebab at the Grand Bazaar and it was good.’ we were inside the Blue Mosque! OMG this place is impressive. It was built in 1609, so it’s just a baby. The outside walls are adorned with posters that talk about the lineage of Islam’s prophet Mohammed and while I’m not religious it was very surprising to see how they talked about the prophets of the old and new testaments. Here was a muslim stronghold reinforcing the relevance of Jesus Christ and all those that went before him. Good stuff. Jelly tells me Pope Benedict visited this Mosque in 2006, so I think these are all very positive indicators that the Christian/Catholics and the Muslims should all just get along.
Anyway, check out the photos below, there’s even one of Sheriff before he took off back to his family carpet store – seriously.
Next we moved onto the Egyptian Bazaar, which is a much nicer (read: saner) version of the Grand Bazaar. They say its good to barter with the Turks but I found this very difficult. They are often happy for you to walk away. But at the Egyptian Bazaar you can find outer stalls (and I mean out there in the surrounding streets) where you can buy the items very cheap. No haggling required. So we came away with a good supply of Fez’s, scarves, cups and more.
Then it was back to the hotel for a quick refresh before out to the local ice cream man for a cool sticky icecream. Creamy deserts consumed we boarded the tram to the famous Taksim square. 20 minutes later and 1 change to a different tramline we are at Taksim square. This square is a central meeting place for the locals to rally and protest but luckily today they were all just sitting around trying to sell the tourists water! The square itself is large but empty apart from a statue of President Ataturk (The Monument of the Republic) at one end. We took Independence Avenue back down to Galata Tower. The Avenue is very long and full of up market shops. Prices are no different here than in Australia.
Galata Tower surprised us a little because one minute we couldn’t see it and the next minute we were stood right beside it – and its huge! Also called Christea Turris (the Tower of Christ in Latin) it was built in the 14th Century by the Genoese – whoever they were. The queue to get inside was long and we were tired so we took a few photos and continued on back to the tramline near the Bosporus. Another 4 lire each and we were back near our hotel.
Time for a dip in the hotel’s underground swimming pool then a seat out the front of the hotel with a couple of Heinekens to watch life go by and enjoy the balmy weather.
One more quick walk after dinner to Hafiz Mustafa (who have been around for 150 years) to buy our supply of quality Turkish Delights then back home to pack our bags and get some sleep.
A long day with many miles covered and quite a few cats photographed!
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