Istanbul, not Constantinople

I made it to the outer edges of Europe (and even a little into Asia) last week in my voyage to Istanbul, Turkey. It was a very interesting city with, as we all learned in school, a lot of history. To be in a place that traces its history back to B.C. was a very cool experience.

It could not have been more different than French culture. I knew it the minute we checked into the hotel when the man at the desk looked slowly at each of our passports, read our names allowed, then looked at us and said (read with thick Turkish accent), "I may have to change my name to Charlie because you are all angels."

Generally, people (and by that, I mean men) were extremely forward. Store owners stood almost exclusively outside of their stores and yelled for everyone who walked by to come in. And they don't ask; they demand. Or they beg and plead. Some of our favorite cries were: "Why are you breaking my heart?!" or "Why do you hate me? I know you hate me, but why!" But, for what it's worth, they were also extremely friendly. If we did go into a shop, they would ask our names (which some remembered as we walked by two or three days later), where we're from, what we'd seen in Istanbul, if we were enjoying ourselves, etc. Within a few hours in Turkey, one vendor declared himself our first Turkish friend.

So overall it was a great experience and a lot of fun. I managed to take close to 400 pictures in the 4 days we were there, so here are some of the highlights:

Our first stop was the Blue Mosque, which is Istanbul's oldest mosque. It was built in the early 1600s under the Ottoman Empire. It is called the Blue Mosque because its interior decorations are mostly blue.

The Blue Mosque was less than a five minute walk from our hotel so we passed it often and it was always an exciting sight to see. We also had the pleasure of experiencing its call to prayer, which involves a man calling out over a loudspeaker 5 times a day, including what we guessed to be around 5am although none of us managed to check a clock.

Across the street from the Blue Mosque is arguably Istanbul's most famous sight:  the Hagia Sophia (or Saint Sophia). It was built under the order of Emperor Justinian in 537. It served as a Christian Cathedral for 900 years until it was converted to a Mosque in the 1400s. Today, it is a museum.

Our third stop was also right across the street at the Roman Cisterns. The Cisterns are ancient underground columns. It was very dark so it was hard to get good pictures, but it was really beautiful.

One of the mysteries of the Roman Cisterns are two columns with giant sculpted heads of Medusa at the base. It is unknown how they got there. People also wonder about the positions of the heads. One is upside down, while the other is on its side.

I have many more pictures and sights to share, but along with all of those I brought back a nasty Turkish virus with me so I am going to take a break and blog more tomorrow!