Istanbul - part 1

We arrived in Istanbul early in the morning. Altho' Istanbul is the largest city, it is not the capital. The capital of Turkey is Ankara. We collected our luggage and then exchanged currency...we were practically millionaires - US$1 is equivalent to 1,000,000 Turkish lira (yep, that's 1 million!). The inflation was so incredible that by the time we were at the end of our 2-week trip, we actually got 1.17 million lira to the US dollar! We changed about US$60 to the local currency and off we went to our 1st destination which is the Hippodrome.

In its glory, the Hippodrome is a stadium similar to one we see in "Ben-Hur" but what remains now are only the 3 center pillars - one Egyption obelisk, a broken one with intertwining serpents and one in which the bronze exterior has been stripped bare. Even tho' all three are in such a sorry state, one can only wonder how great this place once was when chariot races are being held here to cheering audience in the thousands.


Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii)

The Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii), within walking distance, was our next stop. The reason why this is called "blue" is because of the tiles in the interior. Ordinarily, we would not have visited any mosques (I'm from Malaysia, a Muslim country and I've seen a fair number of mosques in my lifetime) but this is one amazing piece of architecture with the huge dome roof(s), large wooden doors, and stained glass.


Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofya)

The Hagia Sophia, situated directly across the Blue Mosque is a rust-red building which used to be a church before it was converted into a mosque. Since Islam does not allowed any images to be on the church walls, the entire church was whitewashed to hide the images. Now that it is restored as a museum, the paint was removed and all the images and mosaic were back in its almost original condition. There are a few huge pillars in the Aya Sofya, in which 2 were reputedly plundered from the Temple of Artemis (one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World). My only complaint is that there is this huge scaffolding right in the middle of the mosque (for restoration) which, according to our guide, was there since he started leading tours and looks like it will be there when he retires.


Topkapi Palace

Unfortunately for us, the best exhibit in the Topkapi Palace, the crown jewels exhibit was closed to the public - I think they are doing some renovation work. This place actually reminds me more of a museum rather than a palace with its various other exhibits such as armour, ceramics, art, etc. There's even one (really crowded) hall where they exhibit Islamic relics such as a piece of beard from the Prophet Mohammed.


A few scenes at Istiklal Cadessi (Freedom Street), including those from the back-lanes

Thus concludes our 1st day in Turkey but not before we went out for a stroll. The hotel that we stayed in is in Taksim, and our guide recommended that we walk around Taksim Square or should I say, Istiklal Cadesi (the most "happening" street in Istanbul). This street is where most of the trendy youngsters congregate. With is endless rows of shops, this is almost like the ultimate "hang-out" street, and it even has its own tram!

Early tomorrow morning, we're taking a plane ride to Kayseri to start our tour of Cappadocia.

Proceed to Cappadocia | Back to "Honeymoon in Turkey"


http://www.oocities.org/wei-kwan_ng
Copyright Ng Wei Kwan 2001 all rights reserved
Romans 8:28