Istanbul, not Constantinople

After a week of living out of my duffle bag, it was not time to go back to Rome and normal Centro life, but time to repack the duffle and do some quick laundry (with 35 other people) and head out on spring break trips. We had people go to London, Prague, Budapest, and Barcelona. Seven of us, however, went eastward to Istanbul, otherwise known as Constantinople, and the later capital of the Roman empire.

Hell yes we represent classics nerds wherever we go.

I only had 4 days there, as I had to get back to Rome and work on my site presentation (how lame), but those 4 days were incredible, and like nothing I had ever experienced before! It was a busy 4 days as we rushed around trying to see as much as possible, but so worth it! It's a pretty cool place.

I need to give a shout out to Bahaus Hostel though, because it was a fantastic place. Super hospitable, the staff was so friendly (and quite hilarious when evening fell), and we met some cool people. Owen made some good friends in a group of young Japanese men who treated us all to a wonderful rendition of "I want it that way" by the good ol' Backstreet Boys on karaoke night. If you go to Istanbul and are looking for a lively, cool place to stay, Bahaus is your place! Lu, one of the staff was fresh off the boat from Australia, and she said HEAPS all the time!

Anyway, the first day we were there we saw the giant Cistern (a giant well), the Blue Mosque, and ate some great food that was not pasta or pizza. The Blue Mosque is HUGE, and is quite a spectacle inside. There are so many things to look at! It was built to be a competitor to the Aya Sofia (coming later), so the king made it larger and more ornate. Here are some pictures...

Basilica Cistern...used to be the main water source for the city

Where?!

Oh. Apparently someone thought this was the way it went.

Outside the Blue Mosque

Inside the Blue Mosque

The lights hung all the way from the ceiling to just barely over your head! Maybe so low for candles back in the day?

The chains are from the lights

Saul, at the hostel, after a long day's work

The next day took us to Troy, which is kind of a pain to get to, so we had to use a travel agency. Pretty much, as far as I'm concerned, Troy is a pilgrimage for lovers of ancient culture. The Iliad is one of the first texts that was written down and influenced everyone from early Greeks to the first Christians. It also didn't hurt that the intermediate Greek class at the Centro is translating it! If you don't know the story, or don't really care either way, don't go to Troy. There really isn't much there, and the first excavations were conducted by a rather shady german guy named Herman. I loved it though!

The walls of Troy (the Troy from the Iliad)

The theater (from a later date)

Yep, that's my copy of Iliad in Greek

Reading the Greek....haha

Model of the Troy of the story

Trojan horse, from the Trojan horse

A silly reconstruction (why would it have had a house?)

Coffer from a later temple

We got to see the Trojan horse from the movie, but didn't stop by it. Apparently all the girls like to touch it because they think Brad Pitt touched it. It was a 5 hour drive back to Istanbul though, so we were a tad short on time. I think we got back around 11 pm...just in time for the karaoke night that I was talking about.

Now, since Wednesday was the day after Troy, we decided to take it kinda easy the next day. The morning was filled with Museums (landmarks), so that afternoon we decided that we just had to experience a Turkish Bath. BUT before we got there, we saw one of my favorites, the Aya Sofia, and Topkapi Palace. Aya Sofia was originally a Byzantine church, chalk full of splendid gold mosaics (like the ones from the Duomos in Sicily), gold paint, and beautiful Christian art. It's also enormous, and until the 1530's, it was the biggest cathedral in the world. Well, Constantinople was take by the Ottoman empire in the 1400's, and then the Sofia was converted into a Mosque. It was a mosque until only recently, though the Blue Mosque was built to be the 'true mosque' of Istanbul.

Mosaic over the entrance to the church (only the emperor could come through these doors)

Some Muslim elements...view from the second floor

Surviving mosaic of Madonna and child with some angels to the right

Crosses rubbed out for geometric designs

the dome!

Where the Byzantine emperors were crowned

Mosaic over the door (I'm kinda surprised this wasn't rubbed out when it was converted to a Mosque)

Another mosaic from a doorway outside the Sofia

Crosses that weren't rubbed out

So we next went to the museum that once was the palace of the Ottoman kings, Topkapi Palace. It's right next to the Sofia and the Blue Mosque, and is no less lavish. The complex is unending, and I'm not kidding. We were there for a few hours and didn't see everything! What we did see was the unbelievable collections of jewels and armor that used to belong to the royal family. I had never seen anything like it! It's almost like you think the stuff is fake because there's no way that many jewels and that much precious metal can exist together, and that someone is not only wealthy enough to own it, but own multiple things like it. Of course, you're not allowed to take pictures of any of the stuff, so I don't have any examples...you'll just have to take my word for it!

First entrance, takes you through the courtyard

Second entrance, and where the king used to sit when receiving envoys and all that

Inside of one of the other buildings on the complex

Tiles.

Then we went to the baths....

We all decided that we had to pay a bit extra for the whole experience, so along with time in the plunge pool and the steam room, we bought a salt massage. At the old-fashioned baths (which is what we did), you're split up so men go one place and women go another. They give you stuff to change into, a towel, and then you go into the baths. Haha. It's a great octagonal shaped room with smaller rooms radiating off with fountains for cold and hot water. In the middle is a big stone platform (also an octagon, and the entire room is made of stone). Everything is also heated, so it gets a bit hot. The doorway opposite the entrance leads into the plunge pools, which are basically hot tubs. You go in the pools first, and then lay out on the platform. Then a woman comes and first rubs you with something that scrapes the dead skin off (it's so weird, but it feels amazing), rinses, and then basically lathers you up with soap and salt. haha I can only imagine what you're thinking as you read this, but afterwards, you feel soo amazing. Clean, soft skin, and utterly relaxed. It was a fantastic end to the day...and last full day in Istanbul.

Alas, Thursday was our last day. The first half of the day we went to the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, which definitely deserved more than half a day, but we had to get to the Grand Bazaar, after all. I went a bit out of control with the pictures, but here are a few.

Basalt Lion at the entrance to the pre-Classical stuff

Egyptian Altar

Mosaic that used to flank the Ishtar Gate(?)

Some of the earliest texts

Shoes.

Zeus and Zeus

Athena about to kill something. ha

Scenes from the Alexander tomb

A dog's tombstone!

The Grand bazaar was hectic, as you would expect, but things were relatively inexpensive, and I made friends with one scarf salesman and scored a discount for the people I was with. I think I'm getting better at this bargaining thing...but anyway, Istanbul was a fun time. As I said, it's a gritty city, but it's so culturally rich, a a trip is most definitely worth it. Just avoid the Turkish Prisons!