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Wednesday, September 19, 2007 The folks at my hostel arranged the car service from the Ataturk Airport outside Istanbul, and I really appreciated the ride since my flight arrived around midnight Monday. After riding in the car for about twenty minutes, I checked into the Nobel Hostel, and went straight to bed. The cool night temperature was very pleasant, and a remarkable change from the very cold night in Berlin just a day ago. At 5:00 a.m., I awoke to the startling loud call to prayer from the minarets. My hostel is in the old part of the city, in a district called Sultanhamet, with many historic mosques and minarets. Loudspeakers on the minarets call Moslems to prayer five times a day. Turkey is a secular country with separation of church and state like America; most Turks are Moslem, of course, but I was surprised by how large the Turkish Christian and Jewish populations are. By way of orientation, Istanbul is divided by the Bosphorous, a body of water running from the Mediterranean north to the Black Sea. The Sultanhamet is on the western, European side, of the city. The eastern side of the Bosphorous is the Asian side. The Sultanhamet district is at the tip of a hooked peninsula called the “Golden Horn,” and the waters leading into the Mediterranean are called the Marmara Sea. My hostel is really nice, and much less expensive than those in the other countries I have been in; the fee includes a nice breakfast, free Internet, and free, self serve coffee or tea all day.  I
remember in Norway, a cup of coffee cost about $6.00, so free coffee is
really something. The Turkish people I have met are very friendly and very
helpful. On my first day, I walked around to get my bearings and take some
pictures. There is a lot to see in Istanbul. Near my hostel are two amazing
sights, the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, and only a little further on
is the Grand Bazaar. On my first full day in Istanbul, I started out by visiting the Hagia Sophia, a monumental domed edifice that started as a Christian Church under the Roman emperor Constantine in the early 300’s, it was destroyed and rebuilt twice, and the current Hagia Sophia is more than fifteen hundred years old. It’s older than St. Peter’s in Rome, and for a long time was the largest church in the world. To give you some idea of the size of the place, the main dome is about 150 feet high and almost the length of an American Football field in diameter. The interior space is much bigger than that, of course. It took a thousand skilled workers and ten thousand unskilled workers to rebuild the current Sophia, and they did it in less than six years. They used the most costly marble and reused parts of other ancient temples and palaces from all over the Mediterranean. The Emperor Justinian dedicated the third Hagia Sophia in 537 A.D. Then in 1453, the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmet the Conqueror, captured Constantinople (Istanbul), and after alterations converted Hagia Sophia into a Muslim Mosque. Since Muslims do not show “graven images” in their Mosques, many of the incredible tile works of Christian iconic art were plastered over when Sophia became a Mosque. During the First World War, the Ottoman Empire aligned itself with Germany. They lost the war, and afterwards, Turkey became a Republic with a new leader, Ataturk, who turned Hagia Sophia into a national historic site. So now, Hagia Sophia is no longer a church nor a mosque, but rather an incredible place to visit. The interior of Hagia Sophia is an immense space with columns supporting four half domes that surround and support the huge central main dome. The plaster has been removed from much of the original tile artwork on the walls, but there is still a lot of Moslem art too. One of the columns has a small hole-like depression. People stick their thumbs in the hole and rotate their flat had around the column surface. There are several stories about this. The first story has the stone coming from the home of the Virgin Mary. She was supposed to have wept on the stone and when she picked it up, her thumb made the depression. So now, visitors put their thumbs in the hole and rotate their hands. If your thumb comes out wet, you’re supposed to get a wish. I did this, and my thumb came out wet, as do most people’s thumbs. I am not sure why thumbs come out wet. However, if there is a Ferrari waiting for me when I get home, everyone will know my wish. The second story about the depression, is of course, the Moslem version, and it says that when the Roman Emperor Justinian converted the Hagia Sophia into a Mosque, he needed to rotate the building a little so that the special prayer niche, the mirhab, was aligned with Mecca. Moslems are supposed to pray facing Mecca, and the mirhab shows them which way to face. So the story is that Justinian, with the help of God, put his hand on the column, and his thumb made a depression, and as he rotated his hand, the massive building turned to line up correctly! What do you think? There are probably other stories too, but I thought these two were good. Thursday, September 20, 2007 Yesterday, I visited the Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar. The Topkapi Palace is a gated community, a massively gated community, where the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire held court and ruled from about the year 1300 until the end of the First World War, more than 500 years. There was a total of 36 Sultans, many with the same name, Mahmed I, and Mahmed II, etc. Today the Topkapi houses a rich display of the wealth and art of the Ottoman Empire. One of the buildings was the Harem; most Sultans had many wives. The palace kitchen would regularly prepare feasts for five thousand guests, but none of the Sultan’s wives had to work in the kitchen. You should see the size of the cast iron pots. Other buildings in the palace include private mosques and prayer rooms, and there are buildings that have large sitting rooms where the Sultan conferred with his advisors and military leaders. There are separate buildings with rooms where the Sultan would meet dignitaries and official guests, and, of course, there are buildings with private bedrooms and other living quarters. One royal bed on display could easily use up the space of a regulation-boxing ring. The bed was at least 20 feet on a side; I have never seen anything like it. Can you think of a reason why a Sultan might need such a large bed? I have some thoughts on the subject. One building housed the Royal Circumcision Chamber.  I
am not joking. Muslims, like Jews circumcise their male children, and when a
Sultan had a baby boy, he needed to have a special place to perform the
ritual. The room is actually quite ornate with beautifully tiled walls and
ceilings, but the baby probably did not appreciate the splendor of the
place.The Grand Bazaar is one of the largest oriental shopping centers in the world. I have been to the one in Cairo too. In both, people loose their bearings easily, and they wander for hours before finding your way out of the place. The Grand Bazaar, like the Khan el Khalili in Cairo, is a labyrinth of small shops and stalls on streets going in every direction. The shop owners, their sales people (sons and relatives) stand outside to entice shoppers in. It takes some stamina to resist the entreaties by shop keepers to “just have a look.” However, if something does catch your eye, bargaining is expected. There are countless shops selling the same or similar things. In Turkey, of course, incredible oriental carpets and rugs are for sale, as are gold jewelry and fine leather goods. Turkish pottery and china, and tiles that are intricately hand painted also catch your eye as these items are colorfully decorated with intricate designs. Believe me, shopping here is definitely not like shopping at Macy’s back home. Friday, September 21, 2007 I took a two-hour boat ride up the Bosphorus. The combination of western and eastern architecture of Istanbul stands out clearly from the water.  Mosques
and minarets share the landscape with high-rise modern buildings. Villas and
expensive looking private homes with patios have spacious lots close to the
water and on the green hills near the shore. About halfway through the boat
trip we saw another Ottoman palace, called the Dolmabahce Palace, sitting on
a prominent stretch along the European side of the Bosphorus. A mosque with
the same name is right next to the palace. Further on is the old
fortification that defended the city in the middle ages.After the boat trip, I took a tram to Askaray, where I changed to the metro that took me to the main bus station in Istanbul. The bus station is like none I have ever seen before. There are almost two hundred bus company offices in a circle around the metro exit. Each office has a counter and a small waiting room, and the large signs outside the offices show the name of the company and give some idea of where their busses go. My goal was to get information and make tentative plans for my future travels in Turkey. Part of the fun of travel in foreign countries is figuring out how things work, and getting from place to place; it’s like solving a puzzle. Philip Sternberg Scoutmaster, Troop 1131 |