The Memory Box: April 2012

Day 9: Istanbul (then back to Hong Kong)

Fishing along the Bosphorus River

The first thing we did that morning was to take a boat trip along the Bosphorus River, it was a wonderful day to do a river cruise - the sun was out, there was a slight breeze.... mmmm

The bridge in the background is the Galata Bridge - there are three bridges that go across the Bosphorus River

buildings along the Bosphorus (1)

Buildings along the Bosphorus (2)

The Four Seasons along the Bosphorus

Ciaragan Palace - once the summer palace, now a hotel

The local university - what a nice building right?

Summer homes along the Bosphorus

Again, feeding seagulls...

Look at the colorful beanbag chairs?
I wish we had that boat for our river cruise!

After the river cruise, we went to visit the Blue Mosque. What makes the Blue Mosque unique is all the blue tiles that were used so that it looks like the main colour is blue, that's why it's called the Blue Mosque. Also this mosque is the only one in the world that has 6 minarets (the calling towers which sound when it is time for Muslims to pray - 5 times a day) - only The Holy Mosque in Mecca is allowed to have six minarets, other mosques usually have four. This is because the architect that designed this mosque mistakenly heard that the King wanted 6 minarets when the King actually said he wanted gold minarets (six and gold in Persian sound similar)... so the mosque in Mecca built one extra minaret.

Look at the big arches!
School field trip for these kids... love how colorful they look :)

One of the six minarets

Entering the hallway to take off our shoes before entering the mosque

above left: women are not allowed onto the main floor of the mosque so there is a special section behind some separators for them to worship.

below: the main floor of the mosque where only Muslim men and boys can enter - we tourists had to stay behind some metal barricades - like the ones that police use to cordon off areas

the combination of blue tiles used throughout the mosque

Tulips in the garden of the Blue Mosque.

Did you know that tulips are originally from Turkey? I didn't, always thought they were from Holland originally. While we were in Istanbul, we saw tulips everywhere, in particular all the main roads had tulips on either side and there were all in full bloom!

It was also the annual tulip festival while we were in Istanbul - and it was at this annual festival many many decades/centuries ago that the King used to ask the tulip growers to present the best tulip in a competition, when the Dutch came to Turkey and saw these beautiful flowers and asked to take some seeds back to Holland and they nurtured these flowers into the different varieties that are now available.

The Blue Mosque - you can see the six minarets clearly here

View of the Hagia Sofia from the Blue Mosque

Lunch at a Korean restaurant below... it wasn't good at all - sorry restaurant owner!

I strongly believe in eating local cuisine whenever I travel, they never make international cuisine taste as good/authentic.

After lunch we went to visit the Topkapi Palace... in the garden, we saw many tulips and also a black cat... it was quite difficult to take a photo of this kitty...

This building is where the council met to discuss important issues. Only officials were allowed into this front inner court of the palace. The King did not attend these meetings, but sometimes he would sit in a room that was behind the council chamber and listen in on the discussions, just in case they were plotting to overthrow him...

A cafe at the back of the palace overlooking the Bosphorus River

below: yummy - a cup of cappuccino and Doner sandwich

The Golden Horn - an area on the Bosphorus that is in the shape of a horn

above left and below: the mix of tiles and patterns that is seen in many Turkish architecture

above right: this room used not only tiles, but also tortoise shells and mother of pearl to decorate the window panes

Next stop: Kapali Carsi (Grand Bazaar)!

We made a quick stop in a carpet store because some of our group members were interested in this local product. It is very impressive - the design, the effort and time used to make one carpet, and the PRICE!

above left: a carpet of the last supper

above right: we were served apple tea - which we purchased from the supermarket to bring back to HK, but it doesn't taste the same, I think they may have added apple juice to the actual tea.

The owner told us about the carpets -
there are wool carpets, wool mixed with silk carpets, silk carpets
But look at the design and colour!

This carpet above is very interesting - it's made of silk, and when you look at it from one side it is darker (left photo), and when you look at it from the other side (right photo) it is lighter. But guess the price... it's USD 55,000!

There were some people interested, but I'm not sure if it was the price or if they couldn't find a pattern that they liked, but no one bought anything. Ok off to the bazaar to shop!

Gate 1 of the Grand Bazaar
It's easy to get lost as there are many different gates and all the streets look the same...

Actually, we walked around the bazaar, but a group of us were not really interested in the items, as we had seen a lot of these things during our trip. Plus, we were all not into buying things to bring home to decorate our house as it takes up space, so we ended up sitting at a cafe and listened to this uncle tell us about how he got together with his wife... he's quite funny and direct, so it was really funny listening to his story.

For dinner we had Chinese food, but it was NOT good! Again, eat local cuisine when in a foreign country!

From the first day we were in Turkey, I had already seen Turkish Ice Cream stands, but for some reason we never had the time to stop and enjoy the show.... so when we were at the airport waiting for our flight, we had Turkish Ice Cream.... mmmm the pistachio ice cream was good!

I had a wonderful trip and really enjoyed all the places that we visited, the weather, the beautiful weather that we had each day! I think there's probably more that I haven't seen of Turkey and hopefully one day I'll get to go back again..... hey, I missed out the chance to go on the hot air balloon over Cappadocia, that's my only regret.... :)