Day 8 Istanbul

Yeah, yeah, I'm back in the USA now, but I'm trying to catch up.

My second day in Istanbul I hung out with Al and David, who were getting ready to take the train to Ankara that night (Monday) for their own CIEE experience. We strolled over to the Sultanahmet mosque (the Blue Mosque, though I saw little that was discernibly blue about it), and went inside. It's impressive, but like most big mosques apparently, it's pretty much an empty building with carpet and a place for a mullah to speak from (the minbar). The gravity of the place is in its sanctity, and the faith of the people praying in it. Just like a church or synagogue, the building isn't the thing, the belief is, though certainly buildings like Sultanahmet can emphasize that piety.

We wandered over to the Ayasofya as well, the former Byzantine Hagia Sofia church converted by Mehmet II, the conqueror of Constantinople in 1453, to a mosque, but now used for neither faith's services (at least, as far as I could tell). Impressive, too, especially the combination of Christian and Muslim images and decorations inside. Like Sultanahmet, it too has a massive presence, but more marred by the hordes of tourists in this case I think.

After wandering about through some shops in one of the bazaar sections of Sultanahmet (the district, not the mosque), Al and David spend some time with a carpet dealer at Harem 47, which despite the name is definitely not a bordello. No, it's a small carpet shop, with nice carpets. At one point I was thinking Al and David would get into a bidding war for a Kurdish piece (of carpet, you dirty minded people!), but they both left with promises to return. The prices seemed ok, but what do I know about carpet? The one I wanted, a smallish all-silk piece with a zodiac pattern, started at well over two thousand dollars, so I demurred.

Unfortunately that afternoon I had to part company with Al and David, who had a ferry then a train to catch. That left me to catch dinner at a restaurant up near the Grand Bazaar, where the food was decent and plentiful but the atmosphere was loud, with the street, the tram, and the crowds all rolled into one.

Shots:

1. Sultanahmet interior.

2. Al and David, shortly before being drowned in the Bosporus for philosophizing without a license from the Sublime Porte.

3. Mihrab in the Ayasofya

4. Detail of some arch work in the Ayasofya