Sunny and cool in the morning. Perfect for our day tour of the city walls and several sites outside the city walls: 7 towers fortress, Chora Church, Eyup Mosque, and Pierre Loti hilltop. Place that are difficult to get to w/o a car. After only an hour into the tour with our 4 other companions I started to go numb with the information overload. I detest listening to narration of historical events when I'd rather be rambling and roaming.
I want to know about the thousands of names of Allah, what the calligraphy says, more about the call to prayer. I'm fascinated by this world that is different than the one I inhabit in Los Angeles. I tried to pay attention, but my efforts failed. She spoke, our guide, but all I heard was, blah blah blah. The Eyup Sultan Mosque was my favorite stop along the rushed tour. It is considered the 2nd place of pilgimage after Mecca for Moslems. I found it distractingly beautiful. I could stare at the Arabic calligraphy on the walls for hours. There was not a single other western tourist here.
Today the mosque was filled to the brim with women in head scarves, some in full robes with only their eyes and nose showing. We donned our own scarves, removed our shoes and stepped inside. An enormous ring of blue glass globes hung low in the middle of the praying area for men.
Carol and I have noticed how soft and velvety all the carpet is inside the mosques we've been in so far. We think they must change it often in the Blue Mosque to keep it so fresh. Bare feet or not that's a lot of foot traffic!
Pierre Loti hill was charming, but again we were only allotted 15 minutes for tea. Rush, rush, rush. I'm glad this is our only tour the entire trip. Tours are not a good fit for a piddler like me who must be unleashed to wander freely. I can't experience a place as vast as Istanbul by ingesting facts.
Everywhere we go there are cats and kittens. Some better fed than others. We did our duty and have given a portion of all meals to the cats who have visited while we're eating. These have to be the most relaxed cats in the world. They sleep on cars, ledges, sidewalks, stoops and walk unhurriedly from place to place.
Bought tokens and got on tram to funicular. The tram was like a big sardine can. Packed to capacity when it arrived with every car filled, yet somehow the 50 people crowding the platform are supposed to squeeze on anyway. I told Sister, "Get behind me, grab my shirt, and don't let go!" She grabbed my hand instead and I pulled her through the mob and onto the tram. Tight fit doesn't describe. The funicular ride was much easier and we got seats. Up to Taxsim Square then walked home down streets that were at first grimy then tree lined and draped with grape vine garlands and ivy. All the way back to Cihangir. All the way back down the 103 steps we have to climb twice a day. It's worth the pain in my tuckus to be in this neighborhood. I will try to suffer with dignity. At least, as Sister says, these stairs are not spiral, leaning, and slippery like the ones in the Paris apartment!
More of the travel journal coming soon!
I found THIS site to feed some of my curiosity. Good stuff. Maybe if more people knew about Islam they would be less hostile to the mosque being built near ground zero in NYC.
I enjoy reading your travelogs to this exotic place. I will never be able to go, but seeing the kind of pictures you take and commentary helps me to live it. I like how you took local color pictures, the kitties, the streets, shops, the ladies with scarves. Those details are so helpful.
You write travelogues as beautifully as you journal your experiences!! I have enjoyed reading and looking and listening! to your adventures. My own work lately has taken me down some sufi Muslim roads and I am continually flabbergasted at the underlying, mystically similarities of ALL spiritual practices….I’ll share with you sometime if you’re interested 🙂
welcome home and thanks for the memories
x..x
Those kitties. Just melting over their perches like they weigh a ton, but you know it’s all fluff and wiggles.
I have many faults, but one of them is not thinking that where a mosque is has anything to do with anything. People’s minds are so crotchety.
The fearlessness with which you explore these strange, new worlds is a large part of what I find so fascinating about your travels. I try to imagine myself wandering around a foreign country like you do and where once I might have failed, now I see myself having similar adventures. You give me courage with each travelogue and I anxiously await every new post!!
your journals are lovely!! i can’t wait to see more!
being pretty sure i will never be able to travel like this i am loving seeing a foreign country through your and your sister’s eyes. i agree with you, if i wanted history and facts i would ready a book, pick up literature, or research the internet. love seeing all the kitties in all their “comfy” spaces.
Thank you! Thank you! I love each and every entry!
Ah, Maryann, I agree 100%! Thank you for sharing your experiences on your blog. I’m utterly jealous, but appreciate you taking the time to reflect and share your journeys.
Hey You world traveler, I devoured every morsel of your post. And agree with you about the lack of understanding towards Islam. If I closed my eyes and relaxed I could almost feel that carpet under my toes, I could almost hear the purr from the kitties. As far as guided tours, couldn’t agree with you more. I like to wander on my own, I don’t want historical data, I want emotion, I want time to connect with the place and the people, I want to touch textures, day dream, wonder and time to be in awe and present in that moment and that is hard to do if someone is moving you along and chattering about facts. Facts simply cannot compare to what is right in front of you, the history is in the rock and stone which needs to be touched with our eyes, our fingers, and most importantly by our hearts. I am loving each and every word and photo you are sharing. Will sit here quietly and wait for more. 🙂
Heaven….loving the kitties….I’m with you on the guided tours. I only sign up if it’s a place that would be really hard to get to/go through…otherwise I’m a lollygagger….LOL! Beth
Fascinating and beautiful. Fantastic in every way.
Loving your trip updates, what a fascinating place to visit!
I just returned from a trip to Central Europe with my husband and MIL so I can relate with both you and Renate (comment above) about the guided tours…my MIL was big on tours, as well as reading from, and following to a T, the guidebook we were using…as for me, I was often hundreds of steps behind the group taking photos, breathing in, drinking in the visual buffet, or as my husband says “imbibing the culture.” I’m an imbiber, and I won’t apologize, haha.
Keep the wonderment coming!
such awesome pics you have been posting…but the kitties!!!! aggghhh!! I would want to steal them all. Too precious
I completely sympathise about guided tours. My MIL thrives on them. I hate them. How can you experience a place, when somebody is bombarding you with facts, numbers, names…?
Love the kitties.
Speaking of, I hope the posse is well.
So interesting. i am curious and maybe you told this long before you left on your trip, but why did you go to Turkey? Just someplace you always wanted to visit or how did you choose it?
Oh how very wonderful, I’m more than a leetle bit jealous! Someday I’ll get there, there’s an awful lot of world to see 🙂
oh thank you!!!!!!!!!!!! MORE!!!
Susan
sigh, sigh, heavy sigh
these are lovely!!!