Athens & Istanbul - Day 3.5
Never did post the rest of our first full day in Istanbul...
After Topkapi Palace it was just down the cobblestone road to the Istanbul Archeological Museum.
Which we overshot at first, and came upon a city park at that is enclosed on one side by the old City Walls and features giant squirrels for some reason:
Bri spotted another cat she could not resist (I will spare you most all the rest of the pictures of Bri and Istanbul's cats):
We retraced our steps and found the museum this time :P It used to be part of the outer Topkapi Palace grounds, before being converted to this use.
I haven't looked it up, but the Istanbul Archeological Museum must have the most sarcophagi of any museum in THE WORLD.
I liked the Alexander Sarcophagus, which was busy with the details of warriors and horses and weapons. Bri really liked the Sarcophagus of the Weeping Women:
So, I'm not gonna lie - I like art museums, but I am generally bored by ancient history museums. I can only take so many broken shards of pottery and half reconstructed statutes, you know? I thought this was pretty cool, though:
It's part of a chain that was used in antiquity to block ship access to Constantinople (as depicted in the mural).
Also on the museum grounds is the Tile Museum, which is located in a beautiful 15th century Ottoman building:
A view of the Archeological Museum from the Tile Museum. I didn't know this at the time, but I've since read that the architectural inspiration for the main entry way of the Archeological Museum came from the Sarcaphagus of the Weeping Women (compare the columns and arches). Isn't that cool?
After the museum, we just walked around the city streets for a little while. Didn't take too many pictures, but here, people are lined up for Turkish Ice Cream at the local McDonald's:
We had dinner at side street cafe the name of which I unfortunately cannot remember right this second, which is a shame, because the waiters were really nice and friendly and the food was good. Orhan told us to encourage more Americans to come to Istanbul. Apparently, the American turnout has been low in the past 2 to 3 years and he says we're missed ;) He'd done quite a bit of traveling himself, and spoke with such nostalgia about his recent trip to the Ukrainian countryside that I might just have to add it to my list of places to visit some day. Another young man working at the restaurant was a recent transplant from Morocco. I thought it was so sad that such a bright and sweet kid had to leave Morocco to find work.
You know she fed that cat, right?
I believe this dish was called the Sultan's Favorite.
And then it was back to the hotel for sleep, and a wrap on Day 3.
After Topkapi Palace it was just down the cobblestone road to the Istanbul Archeological Museum.
Which we overshot at first, and came upon a city park at that is enclosed on one side by the old City Walls and features giant squirrels for some reason:
Bri spotted another cat she could not resist (I will spare you most all the rest of the pictures of Bri and Istanbul's cats):
We retraced our steps and found the museum this time :P It used to be part of the outer Topkapi Palace grounds, before being converted to this use.
I haven't looked it up, but the Istanbul Archeological Museum must have the most sarcophagi of any museum in THE WORLD.
I liked the Alexander Sarcophagus, which was busy with the details of warriors and horses and weapons. Bri really liked the Sarcophagus of the Weeping Women:
So, I'm not gonna lie - I like art museums, but I am generally bored by ancient history museums. I can only take so many broken shards of pottery and half reconstructed statutes, you know? I thought this was pretty cool, though:
It's part of a chain that was used in antiquity to block ship access to Constantinople (as depicted in the mural).
Also on the museum grounds is the Tile Museum, which is located in a beautiful 15th century Ottoman building:
A view of the Archeological Museum from the Tile Museum. I didn't know this at the time, but I've since read that the architectural inspiration for the main entry way of the Archeological Museum came from the Sarcaphagus of the Weeping Women (compare the columns and arches). Isn't that cool?
After the museum, we just walked around the city streets for a little while. Didn't take too many pictures, but here, people are lined up for Turkish Ice Cream at the local McDonald's:
We had dinner at side street cafe the name of which I unfortunately cannot remember right this second, which is a shame, because the waiters were really nice and friendly and the food was good. Orhan told us to encourage more Americans to come to Istanbul. Apparently, the American turnout has been low in the past 2 to 3 years and he says we're missed ;) He'd done quite a bit of traveling himself, and spoke with such nostalgia about his recent trip to the Ukrainian countryside that I might just have to add it to my list of places to visit some day. Another young man working at the restaurant was a recent transplant from Morocco. I thought it was so sad that such a bright and sweet kid had to leave Morocco to find work.
You know she fed that cat, right?
I believe this dish was called the Sultan's Favorite.
And then it was back to the hotel for sleep, and a wrap on Day 3.