Turkey Day 1

The plane touched down at about 5 in the morning. It was a rainy day in Istanbul. The temperature was about 8 degrees celsius. It was super cold! It is the type that when you talked, you can see your breath like as if you are smoking.

Met our Turkish guide and we quickly got into a huge tour bus that drove us around Istanbul to bring us to this hotel to eat a typical Turkish breakfast. It was weird. The tea (cay in Turkish) tasted weird, the coffee tasted weird and there were lots and lots of olives in all different styles.


After that, we went to the Blue Mosque (see pic on the right). It is also known as Sultan Ahmed Mosque. It is called the Blue Mosque because it is covered on the inside with about 20, 000 beautiful blue-tinged tiles. It is one of two mosques in Turkey that has six tall minarets that seemed to hold the skies and clouds above it. Four of these minarets had three balconies while the other two had only two balconies. These are where the muezzin traditionally used to go up on one of them to call Muslims to prayer, five times a day. Now no longer done because they now have microphones and speakers. Also, the mosque looks more like a museum/tourist attraction now than a place for prayer.

Still, the magnificent architecture and rich cultural history was a wonderful way to start our tour of Turkey. The Central Dome of the Blue Mosque is supported by four marble columns. I think the marble are polished so often that it shines brilliantly. The one I took a photo of here on the left shows one that is so shiny, that it looks like as if it is made of a metallic substance as light is reflected from it. This main dome is about 34 to 35 meters in diameter and is about 34 to 35 meters high from the ground. The dome, like all the other smaller domes, is filled with beautifully crafted tiles, skillful calligraphy, and interesting stained-glass windows.

I was told by the guide that even Pope Benedict XVI visited this mosque on November 2006, and prayed here silently in a gesture to bring peace between the major religions.


After that, we went to the Byzantine's Hippodrome of Constantinople, which sits between The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. The feeling of standing at the heart of ancient Constantinople's political and sporting life was magical. In the middle of it was two very large and tall obelisks. The Obelisks shows the influence of Roman times, as shown on the picture on the right. One of them, the Obelisk of Theodosius is now more than 3500 years old and was brought here by the Emperor Theodosius at around 390 AD. There was also a fountain that Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany built in 1901 as a gift to the Sultan of Ottoman and his people.

We then went to Hagia Sophia. The name came from the Greeks, which means Holy Wisdom. It was formerly a cathedral, then a mosque but now a museum. Its construction was completed more than 1500 years ago. When the Turks conquered Constantinople, it became the main mosque of the Muslim Empire and other mosques in the empire copied its designed. It was Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey that converted it into a Museum as it is now.

Interestingly, there is a huge marble staircase that brings visitors to the second floor where you can see other ancient relics and even tombs of dead but important figures in history.

Later, we went to the another mosque, The Grand Mosque and finally Kuza Han (Sılk market). The temperature ıs sooo cold. about 10 degrees celsıus even in the morning, and ıt wıll get worse.

I'm now waıtıng for the bus to go to the snow fıelds of mount uludag. Hopefully the road allows us to reach the place. ıf snow ıs too heavy, we mıght not be able to go. my famıly and İ are now all wrapped up ın long johns, sweaters and jackets.

More about thıs when I reach back home. I am not sure ıf there are any more ınternet access after thıs. Bye!