Sultanahmet

Short version:

This morning when I got up there was no water. Welcome to the Third World! Fortunately it was back on in the evening.

Today's tour included:

The Hippodrome. Still lame even after a guide's explanation. Apparently the obelisk is real (Egyptian and representing Thutmose III). Doesn't look authentic; looks like granite.

The Blue Mosque. Built in the 1600s, it's stately and majestic. Women are allowed into the mosque without headcoverings, which galls the Muslims in Damascus. The Blue Mosque is called that because of some blue tiles on the inside. The mosque itself isn't blue.

The Hagia Sofia. Built by Justinian in the 6th Century; it was a chuch for a thousand years until the Ottomans came and made it a mosque. Today it is a museum, thanks to Mustafa Kemal Attatürk, the founder of the modern secular Turkish state. This picture shows how the Muslims adapted the church into a mosque by adding their own decor in a way that blended with the existing architecture.

Carpeters! Of course they made us stop and get a lecture about Turkish carpets, made tolerable by serving apple tea. No one bought anything. He asked where everyone was from. Now that was interesting. People from Azerbaijan, Brazil, Korea, Malaysia, and Germany, but only three of us from the US--a Jewish couple from California and me.

The Grand Bazaar. If you've seen the Spice Bazaar, this is that, on steroids. It's huge and touristy. Ugh. I have to tell those of you expecting souveniers, I haven't found anything yet worthy of bringing back to you! Seriously now. Who needs a fez? 'Cause I can get you one! Or a painting of an Ottoman officer with a big moustache? Pointed slippers? I haven't even bought myself anything yet except for a CD.

Lunch was at the SAME RESTAURANT as the day before. They served the SAME MEAL. And somehow it was less adequate.

Topkapı Palace is actually a complex of buildings used by the Ottomans. There is a place for the harem there. They said the Ottomans would take Russian and Ukranian girls as slaves about age 6, then raise them in the Ottoman ways and traditions. The best were married off to the sultans. Boys fared little better; they wree castrated about the same age and given the job of tending the harem. I wonder what the human rights people would have to say about the Ottomans if they were still around. Today is a national holiday and the place was packed with locals. Turks come in all styles. You can see a woman covered in black robes walking arm-in-arm with one in tight pants.

The Suleiman Mosque looked a great deal like the Blue Mosque, but with better carpet.

I'll try to update later.

By the way, it has been pointed out to me that I have been to Kuşadasi, so yesterday was in fact not my first time in Asia. Give me a break; it's been a while since I had geography!