Spice Market

Saturday began with an extended stop at the Spice Market, at Eminonu.

Shoe-shine district

Sadly, Istanbul does not re-cycle; to compile this load,

someone had to go through a lot of trash, for plastics,

glass, aluminum, carboard, etc.

Ablution, outside the New Mosque

Pigeon district

In the Spice Market; not nearly as large as

the Grand Bazaar, nor as varied; but no less

interesting; especially if you like food...

Spices; I think we saw more at Tangier, but it was still

impressive

Outside it's no less interesting

This is the Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi coffee place; the

wonderful coffee aroma hit me half a block away; and then

I saw a line of people waiting to buy their sacks of

Turkish coffee

Inside, there was a production line of young
men filling, weighing, sacking, folding,
stapling, sorting, piling, selling, delivering the
marvelous coffee; I bought some to try, then
went back a couple days later for more

This patisserie, however, was our undoing

Especially these puppies, honey-soaked doughnut holes;
but also the baklava, etc. 



Somehow, we managed to soldier on, through the

olive/pickle/grape leaf shops, and on to our next destination

Asian Lunch

The ferry parks at Anadolu Kavagi, on the Asian side, for 3 hours or so, and there we had a leisurely lunch and stroll around the village.

Restaurateurs welcome the ferry and it propsective diners

Figuring they were all about the same, we

stopped at the first restaurant we came to,

this place, and chose a sea-side table on the

2nd terrace

Our view of the "port" and our vessel, the imaginatively-

named Istanbul 9

Menu: you can have this fish, or this fish, or

this fish...

Or the land-lubbers' selection; I opted for the fixed price deal:

nice Turkish salad, fried mussels, and a grilled fillet of fish;

and coffee; Vicki had the chicken shish and frites

After lunch, we strolled; at the bakery I bought some local

anchovy bread--actually a corn meal cake with olives,

onions, garlic, and anchovies; I don't think the inscription

over the oven says "give us our daily bread"...

The mosque and its cemetery with turbaned tombstones

Thought about hiking up to the Yoros Castle ruins; but

decided not

The cruise back to Istanbul was uneventful. Same stuff, reverse order.

Bosphorus Cruise

Friday we took the train from nearby Cankurturan to Eminonu and then boarded the ferry that runs the length of the Bosphorus, up to Anadolu Kavagi, on the Asian side, and back. It is indeed a ferry service, stopping at a dozen or so places along the way, but, so far as I could tell, it carried only tourists, Turkish, European, and us.

The ferry left from a pier adjacent to the

Galata Bridge, wherefrom we could look at

the bridge's under-side restaurants; and also

the fisher-persons, whose lines must cross

over the diners' tables...?



The Cunard Lines' Queen Victoria was in port

Dolmabahce Palace, the 19th century abode of the sultans;

very European; we'll skip it

Statue of Barbarossa, famous pirate/admiral

The Bosphorus Bridge, one of two spanning the straits;

they're working on a tunnel now; oh, did I mention the

Bosphorus is the strait linking the Sea of Marmara (and

the Mediterranean) with the Black Sea?

Looking into the financial part of the new district

On the European side, Rumeli Fortress, built by Sultan

Mehmet II (the Conqueror) just before the final siege of

Constantinople; it was the last nail in the coffin, so to speak

On the Asian side, Anatolian Fortress, built by Mehmet's

grand-dad, 50 years earlier

The Black Sea; again

Enlarge: the column rising in the middle marks the shoals

that figure in Jason and the Argonauts...

Finally, rising above Anadolu Kavagi, the ruins of the

Byzantine Yoros Castle

Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque--early 17th century--faces the Hagia Sofia, about half a kilometer away. It has many adjoining buildings, a seminary, etc., and it is difficult to get an exterior view that really does justice to this quintessential Istanbul landmark. Tourists can enter freely, however, whenever prayers are not in session. We toured the Blue Mosque just after the Hagia Sofia.

The Blue Mosque, one of Islam's largest and

most famous

Main dome

Like the Hagia Sofia, it is impossible to get

an interior camera view that does justice to the

place; note particularly the huge pillars

Ditto

Facing Mecca



I found the huge grill-work for lighting, and all the cables

and wires, to be a huge distraction; FWIW

Beautiful stained glass

And outside, afterwards, today's wedding pix

After a light dinner at the Lale restaurant, we did the

Turkish bath thing, at the 16th century Cemberlitas Hamami,

Vicki, the full treatment, me, the economy/budget

deal

Vicki really enjoyed it; I thought it edifying, enlightening,

an experience not to be missed, but too hot and humid

Hagia Sofia

Thursday, among other things, we did the Hagia Sofia. In a city of knock-out sights, the Hagia Sofia was for me the ultimate knock-out: it's age, sixth century, and its size (only St. Peter's, in Rome, a thousand years later, is larger). The Muslims took it over in 1453, but, happily for posterity, left much of it intact. They converted it to a mosque, added minarets, but what one sees today is still identifiably an early Byzantine Christian church, the capital of Christendom in these parts.

Hagia Sofia, from the Blue Mosque

The Hagia Sofia was the third Christian church to stand on

this site; Theodosius' 5th century church was destroyed in

the Nika ("just do it") revolts (religious revolts, in the 6th

century); pictured is a remnant of art from the 5th century

church

Minaret and humongous flying buttresses

Inside the narthex, the first of many huge, famous mosaics

The emperor's door

Inside; no camera can convey the enormity

of the place, the height and width of the great

dome

One of the famous ceiling features (religious
insight: this is an angel, not a feather dancer)

Another of the great mosaics

Interior arches

St. Gregory's column; you are supposed to place your thumb

in the hole and rotate your hand; cures infertility and eye

issues, they say; apparently they don't have one for joint
problems

The gallery is 30-40 feet above the main floor,

and you can walk all around it for more

spectacular views

An arch in the gallery



Another of the famous mosaics

Graffiti of Halvdan the Viking, who toured in the 9th century

Cut-away: arch-building 101

Restoration never really ends in places like

this

The Zoe mosaic; look in the upper left corner and you'll see
where the names of her first two husbands have been
replaced by that of her third



And another

Last view of one of the world's greatest buildings