It is amazing what we can cram into a single day. As I write this, the windows are open, and a soft breeze carries the smell of assorted kebabs from the restaurants below. I am about to fall asleep at only 7:45. We have been active for the past 12 hours the day after getting off a flight and do believe we'll sleep like the dead tonight. If we can figure out how to keep this apartment below 85 degrees.
The morning started easy enough with a quick walk to the tram line where we headed into the Old City. The plan was to hit the Blue Mosque first because we knew it would close eventually for Friday prayers. Right on time, when we arrived at 9am, I pulled out my DSLR camera to line up a shot of the mosque. Epic fail. Something is wrong with the aperture. I left my backup Cybershot in the apartment, so I only had my iPhone. It would have to suffice for the morning. Happily, it does take good pictures, but I'm lacking features that adjust the lighting and depth of field.
At any rate, we continued into the beautiful Blue Mosque, which isn't really blue, but is only named for the decorative blue color on the tiles inside. There were only a few faithful in the mosque at the time, and furry of tourists. It was a vast space and quiet serene with the warm morning light streaming in. When we exited and headed across the park toward the Hagia Sophia, we stopped at a cart serving up breakfast breads and had our food on the run. We looked at our notes about the Hagia Sohpia and remembered that it was advised to return an hour before closing so the crowds are fewer and the light is better. Agreed.
Instead, we walked across the street to the way-to-easy-to-be-found Basilica Cistern, which was an ancient underground reservoir that fed the city. At least a foot of water was still present, occupied by happy-to-see-tourists carp that fed on scraps. I am convinced one of these fish ate Jonah. The space was amazing... Ambient lighting of the columns, eerie music, and the gentle drop of droplets hitting the ancient water. My regular camera would have had a field day, but the iPhone was holding up well in the low light. Ionic and Corinthian columns combined to form the architecture, along with re-purposed Medusa heads as two column bases.
Upon hitting street level again, we decided to mosey toward the Grand Bazaar, then return to the apartment to try to fix my camera, and head back to the Hagia Sophia. And this is where I am very glad we took the day with a grain of salt since a single event led to so many mini adventures. I like the turns life can surprise with.
As we walked down a side street toward the bazaar, I tripped on a gutter in the street. This is mostly my fault, not the gutter's. I am wearing Danskos, which although good for the feet, my ankles tend to take a surprising roll once in a while and send my tumbling. This time, in front of an audience, I went with it. Down I went, into the gutter, on the sidewalk, twisting my left ankle and my right knee. I sat there stunned for a moment because both hurt very much. Quickly, two older men from across the street ran over to each help me up on either side and walked me to their little table and chairs outside a shop. One offered me a cigarette (kind, but no thank you). As I flexed my ankle and knee, I was bruised but fine. No lasting damaged, I laughed and thanked them.
As I was standing up to check my balance and strength, I spotted a little bad that I wanted to hold some personal times. As I was inquiring with the shopkeeper about the bag, Carrie noticed some kebab skewers for sale that she knew my sister wanted. So I began to haggle for those, and at the end I got skewers for the price he wanted and my bag thrown in for free. As he was wrapping my purchase, I began talking with his friend who had stopped by the shop while on his way to the mosque. We were having a lovely conversation about our plans for the day, that we were headed to the bazaar to look for some jewelry. He said his brother and nephew owned a jewelry shop there and would be happy to walk us in and introduce us on his way to the mosque. Normally I am very tentative of a potential sales pitch or suggestion to follow anyone, but I was ready to roll with the day, so we agreed. We chatted about what we saw and were to see as we walked through the ancient cobblestone alleys. He highly suggests visiting Sulemaniye Camii, which I've heard from numerous sources.
It was great entering the chaos of the bazaar with him as we had a purpose and didn't look like lost tourists. We walked into his family's shop and I began looking at the goods after we were introduced to brother, nephew, and token old man friend in the corner. Since I developed a nickel allergy to cheap jewelry, I needed something pure. This was one of my exact goals on this trip, silver or gold. I found a lovely pair of basic white gold double hoops for everyday wear, and we worked out a good price. Our friend had to leave for Jummah prayers, so he bade us goodbye. Meanwhile the nephew offered us some tea, and their runner came back with apple tea for Carrie and black tea for me. We sat in the shop for a while, talking to each other about nothing in particular, sipping away from little glass cups. It was time for lunch, so he wrote down the name of a tasty place in the bazaar - Pedaliza - which we found alarmingly easily considering the bazaar is a living maze, and he also wrote down the name of a restaurant in Taksim that we may try on Sunday. While finding our way to the restaurant, the athan sounded again announcing Jummah. This is where I described to Carrie what was happening. Some people would make their way to a mosque. Most shopkeepers can't afford to leave their stalls for an hour, so in a section of the bazaar we were in saw many men set down their prayer rugs. As we looked down an inner street, men were lined shoulder-to-shoulder as far as we could see. The police blocked off that section of street to shoppers so the men could pray in peace. An hour later, all the bustle was back in the bazaar. I love the spontaneous sense of community that occurs with Muslim prayer.
On the way to Pedaliza we price-checked some other jewelry and lamps for reference, so while over a delicious lunch I established a budget on what I wanted to spend on a glass mosaic lamps. Following lunch of lentil soup, kebab, and stew, we ventured back into the main bazaar. The guidebooks and trip reviewers describe the place as aggressive, the shopkeepers too suggestive toward women, and overbearing. We found this quite the opposite. Really, if you're not interested in something, then don't respond, walk away. Eventually I scouted a few lamp vendors and walked away with a chandelier trio of some gorgeous colors. In the course of the day so far, I checked off nearly everything on my shopping list. I just have Kilim rugs and one other thing to find. We stopped to talk to another shopkeeper for a bit, a young man who was happy to talk to Americans.
We were laden with purchases so we chose to return to the apartment, settle our things, and rest for a few while I tried to fix my camera. No luck there, it's definitely in the body, because changing lenses did no good. Shortly after 3 we headed back out to the Hagia Sophia with the Cybershot in tow, which eventually proved of no use so the iPhone was back on duty. The museum was built in Byzantine times as a church but was converted to a mosque when the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in the 25th century. I mourned the loss of my camera for a few minutes, as I would have had a love affair through my lens with this place, but I put it in perspective that I was HERE regardless. After some creative thought and acrobatics, I pulled off a few good shots. As the museum emptied at closing I had more liberty to finish some photography before we were ushered out.
Standing in the plaza pondering our next move, we were approached by a gentleman who joked if we wanted to buy a carpet (everyone claims to be a carpet seller here), but he was nothing but just a friendly man. We talked about our plans and he also gave us some recommendations. We of course spoke of food, and he applauded our choice of neighborhood for our lodging, saying that if you want doner kebab in Istanbul, Aksaray is where you find it. As a matter of fact, his favorite place is on our street. (Or isn't it always?) A cart vendor with a samovar stopped nearly, so our new friend described that it was a type of spiced milk with honey, orchid bud, vanilla, cream, and sprinkled with cinnamon, an ancient Ottoman specialty. We heard a Syrian man nearly haggle over the price of a cup, and when it came to us, the vendor tried to charge us more, until Carrie piped up that he charged the other guy less. Haggling at its best! We spoke with our friend a little longer, and got his suggestion for nearby kebab and a smoking parlor down the road. Our plan was to have dinner followed by some fruity tobacco from a hookah and hot tea.
As we were looking for food, another gentleman approached us and asked if we've been to the Madrasi yet, which was exactly the hookah parlor we were looking for. He offered to buy us some coffee there, but being the usual pessimists we are, we asked him to show us where it was and we'd see him there after dinner perhaps. I smelled a scam. He may have been as friendly as any other person we met, but I didn't want to run down our luck. So it was agreed, we'd meet there in an hour. We walked on further where we found a kebab smorgasbord in a plaza outside the bazaar, and each ordered a delicious spiced lamb and yogurt kebab wrap. Nom! However, we didn't pay attention to the prices in the menu, and the check seemed unusually high. I asked some English-speaking locals next to us to help explain, and apparently the meat is sold by weight. Ah. That was a big wrap. Still satisfied, we settled our tab. We may have hit our breaking point. It had gotten colder and I had no ambition to spend more money on a hookah and tea when we had free tea in the apartment. I wanted to be warm and in pajamas. There were pictures to upload and this novel to write.
And here we are. Tomorrow's plan is to head back to the restaurant we were at last night for their 8:30 buffet, then on to Topkapi Palace, followed by perhaps Sulemaniye Camii and the spice market, and maybe ferry over to Asia. We'll see how we roll tomorrow. We have only 2 more full days here and based on our track record to date, we squeeze in as much as possible while still rolling with the punches. We pray for another dose of marvelous Turkish hospitality, which has served us well so far.
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