Hagia Sophia, Istanbul Archaeology Museums, İstiklal Avenue and baby's first İskender kebap!
Well we certainly had a busy day today.
First up was Hagia Sophia (or Ayasofya, as the locals say), pretty much the tourist attraction of Istanbul. And amazing it was. A bit scruffier than Sultan Ahmed Mosque but also in the process of being renovated (which, from what I understand, is a rather permanent state.)
It's easy to see that Hagia Sophia used to be a church before it was turned into a mosque. Mosques, impressive as they are on the outside and intricately detailed on the inside, are still basically big, empty rooms. Christian churches, on the other hand, have much more happening in them. Floors, balconies, pulpits, columns, you name it.
On our way to the museums, we took a stroll in the nearby Gülhane Park. Flowers, so many pretty, colourful flowers! I just can't get enough of all the colours.
The Istanbul Archaeology Museums were interesting but after a couple of hours a certain exhaustion set in again and I really couldn't tell you that much about some of the pieces. Here, though, was the great exception to the lack of women; at least half the guards seemed to be female.
After a quick bit on lunch, we bought a few of the tokens that function as tram and metro tickets here, and hopped on a tram to Kabataş. I was hoping to witness us crossing the Golden Horn but the tram was so full we managed to just barely push our way inside the doors, so we saw mostly other people's armpits.
From Kabataş we took a funicular ride to Taksim. Before today, I hadn't even heard the word but funicular is a particular type of railway where the cars ascend and descend a deep slope. In this case the entire trip was done underground, so it was a really weird feeling. Like being inside a metro but not, because you could feel the climb.
After a bit of confusion (covered by the map software and compass on N's iPhone), we located one end of the İstiklal Avenue and found our World of Warcraft guildie. He treated us to İskender kebap and we chatted away about our lives.
He was very vocal about the things he thought are wrong with Turkey and we tried to steer the conversation away from the topic of politics whenever it came up. If there's one thing you don't want to do abroad, it's criticize the country's government. We also got a bit more info on the dorm guards incident. The guy he'd been mistaken for had participated on some demonstration on the university campus and that was apparently a big no-no on university premises.
To work off the early dinner, we walked all the way to the other end of the street and back, seeing the night fall and the colourful hangings above the street light up. The avenue is obviously a place where the locals come to shop and hang about, so the lack of tourists kept also the street vendors to a minimum, and no one bothered us.
After a couple of hours we felt it was time to head back to the hotel, because we had no idea what the tram was like later (I have always lived next to a railway line where late night traffic is bad, in terms of the people, so I've grown to be very paranoid of it). Obviously there was absolutely no trouble at all, and we topped off the night with a midnight stroll past the beautifully-lit Hagia Sophia and Sultan Ahmed Mosque.
If those two are amazing to look at during the day, it's nothing compared to how stunning they are at night. I wish we had more pictures but N managed to bring his camera and the charger but not the battery for it, whereas my camera was supposed to just complement his, so I didn't even consider packing a charger. So we're pretty much out of batteries at this point.
But the night was warm, the sights gorgeous and streets finally empty of vendors. I can only go to sleep happy at having experienced that.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.
First up was Hagia Sophia (or Ayasofya, as the locals say), pretty much the tourist attraction of Istanbul. And amazing it was. A bit scruffier than Sultan Ahmed Mosque but also in the process of being renovated (which, from what I understand, is a rather permanent state.)
It's easy to see that Hagia Sophia used to be a church before it was turned into a mosque. Mosques, impressive as they are on the outside and intricately detailed on the inside, are still basically big, empty rooms. Christian churches, on the other hand, have much more happening in them. Floors, balconies, pulpits, columns, you name it.
On our way to the museums, we took a stroll in the nearby Gülhane Park. Flowers, so many pretty, colourful flowers! I just can't get enough of all the colours.
The Istanbul Archaeology Museums were interesting but after a couple of hours a certain exhaustion set in again and I really couldn't tell you that much about some of the pieces. Here, though, was the great exception to the lack of women; at least half the guards seemed to be female.
After a quick bit on lunch, we bought a few of the tokens that function as tram and metro tickets here, and hopped on a tram to Kabataş. I was hoping to witness us crossing the Golden Horn but the tram was so full we managed to just barely push our way inside the doors, so we saw mostly other people's armpits.
From Kabataş we took a funicular ride to Taksim. Before today, I hadn't even heard the word but funicular is a particular type of railway where the cars ascend and descend a deep slope. In this case the entire trip was done underground, so it was a really weird feeling. Like being inside a metro but not, because you could feel the climb.
After a bit of confusion (covered by the map software and compass on N's iPhone), we located one end of the İstiklal Avenue and found our World of Warcraft guildie. He treated us to İskender kebap and we chatted away about our lives.
He was very vocal about the things he thought are wrong with Turkey and we tried to steer the conversation away from the topic of politics whenever it came up. If there's one thing you don't want to do abroad, it's criticize the country's government. We also got a bit more info on the dorm guards incident. The guy he'd been mistaken for had participated on some demonstration on the university campus and that was apparently a big no-no on university premises.
To work off the early dinner, we walked all the way to the other end of the street and back, seeing the night fall and the colourful hangings above the street light up. The avenue is obviously a place where the locals come to shop and hang about, so the lack of tourists kept also the street vendors to a minimum, and no one bothered us.
After a couple of hours we felt it was time to head back to the hotel, because we had no idea what the tram was like later (I have always lived next to a railway line where late night traffic is bad, in terms of the people, so I've grown to be very paranoid of it). Obviously there was absolutely no trouble at all, and we topped off the night with a midnight stroll past the beautifully-lit Hagia Sophia and Sultan Ahmed Mosque.
If those two are amazing to look at during the day, it's nothing compared to how stunning they are at night. I wish we had more pictures but N managed to bring his camera and the charger but not the battery for it, whereas my camera was supposed to just complement his, so I didn't even consider packing a charger. So we're pretty much out of batteries at this point.
But the night was warm, the sights gorgeous and streets finally empty of vendors. I can only go to sleep happy at having experienced that.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.