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London to Kyrenia by Train and Bus
Wednesday 15th August (Istanbul)
I have an all day tour planned to-day. I was picked up promptly
at 8.45, and taken to a mini bus. There are only two of us doing
this, so the tour is quite friendly. We started at the Roman
Hippodrome. This was the scene of ancient chariot races. Once
there were a large number of monuments here, but after the 4th
Crusade, they were removed to Venice. There are now 4 monuments
in this tree lined square. The Kaiser William fountain is by far
the youngest, being a present from Germany to the Ottoman
emperor in the 19th Century. Much older are the Obelisk of
Theodosius, brought from Egypt in 390AD, the bronze Serpent
Column, again dating from the 4th Century, and the Column of
Constantine. This was in place in the 10th Century, but is known
to be considerably older although its history is unknown.
Originally covered in bronze reliefs, those were also removed
after the 4th Crusade.
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Kaiser William Fountain |
Obelisk of Theodosius |
Serpent Column |
Column of Constantine |
All the tourist attractions here are close
together. The Hippodrome is nicely placed next to the Blue
Mosque, our next port of call.
Built on the orders of Sultan Ahmed I in
the early 1600s, the mosque is in the centre of Byzantine
Constantinople. Officially called the Sultanahmet Imperial
Mosque, it is commonly called the Blue Mosque after the
large number of blue tiles covering its interior walls. It
is the only mosque with 6 minarets. The story goes that the
Sultan instructed the architect to make gold minarets, but
the architect confused the word for gold with the word for
six. Whatever the reason, 6 it's got.
A couple of hundred meters down the road
to the Hagia Sophia Museum. This building was originally a
church, built in the 4th Century by Constantine the Great.
It was burnt down in 532, but rebuilt in only 5 years, and
was the 4th largest church in the world.. It was converted
into a mosque in 1453 by the Ottomans. At the time the
church was covered in icons, which not being permitted in
Islam were plastered over. This had the effect of preserving
them, and when converted into a museum in 1935, they were
uncovered and put on display.
A single picture is not enough to give
you an idea of the richness in this old church, so I
make no apologies for going a bit over the top.
On to the Grand Bazaar. This is
reputedly the biggest "souk" in the world. It has over
4000 shops, with each trade having its own area. It's
the place to go for jewellery, carpets and Turkish arts
and crafts.
It's a fascinating place to wander
round, but you do have to tune out the entreaties of the
market traders. "Hello Sir, I have your size." "You like
leather jacket?" "I show you carpet" "I show you genuine
antique." etc etc.
A short break for lunch now, after
which it began to get a bit chaotic. As there were only
two of us, it had been decided that we should bolt on to
another tour doing the afternoon portion. Our guide left
us in the hands of our driver who took us to a
rendezvous point. It soon became obvious that the guides
for this new group hadn't a clue who we were and why we
were there! Not only that, but we had been rushed
through lunch to join them, only to find that we had to
hang around for 45 minutes while they finished
their own lunch. After a good deal of discussion between
ourselves and the tour leaders (our driver had by now
disappeared) we finally were allowed to join them.
The tour started by a drive past and
explanation about the places we had seen this morning,
but finally we got to our first port of call, the Mosque
of Suleyman the Magnificent. This was built between 1550
and 1557 and the architect's wish was to better the
greatness of St Sophia. This is the largest mosque in
Istanbul, and although predominately a mosque, is open
to all religions for prayer.
Our final port of call was the
Topkapi Palace. This was the home of the Ottoman
Sultans from the 15th to the 19th centuries. It now
houses a magnificent collection of crystal, silver
and Chinese porcelain.
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Topkapi Outer
Courtyard |
Topkapi Inner
Courtyard |
View of Bosphorus
from Topkapi |
I had a massage this evening.
No, not the "Nudge nudge, wink wink. Say no
more" type, but a genuine Turkish bath. Or at
least as genuine as you would expect in a
tourist hotel. I started with a strip and a
shower. As I left the shower I was greeted with
horror by the (lady) attendant. The towel I had
been given didn't quite cover my manhood. It
turns out I hadn't opened the towel fully, and
sadly when I did it was more than enough to
cover the said manhood. Still it was nice to
have a woman screaming at the sight of my naked
body. It's been a while!
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Ian showing his bits |
On to a sauna and a plunge
into a cold bath, (after which the small towel
would have done!), and on to a body scrub. That
was an experience. The scrubber (if that's the
right expression), started by rubbing me all
over with what I swear was a bit of wet & dry
sandpaper. More cold water to clean off the
gunge, and out with the soap which was liberally
applied with what looked like some ragged bits
of chamois leather. More cold water to rinse
that lot off. Having been rubbed down and
washed, I would not have been surprised if the
Turtle Wax had come out at this stage! However I
was told to relax for ten minutes and got given
a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.
On to the massage proper. This
was quite violent, and involved a great deal of
pulling around. Strangely, although when I
arrived she was shocked at accidentally glancing
at my bits, they were now treated as something
that gets in the way of the treatment. Thank
goodness for all that cold water! It wasn't all
bad news, however. At one stage she gave my
stomach a good slap and said "Beer.", which I
understand is Turkish for "Boy! You really are
in good shape for a bloke of your age."
In spite of all the heaving
around, I must admit at the end of the massage I
felt much better. (In much the same way as it
feels good to stop banging your head against a
brick wall!)
I didn't much feel like eating
tonight, so I bought myself a bottle of Coke and
a packet of almonds. I also thought I'd try a
bottle of Ayran, that milky yoghurty drink that
gets sold in bottles and look like milk. Don't
bother!
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