Istanbul Was Constantinople

You know the song. Istanbul was Constantinople. Well, we have had a marvelous last couple days in Istanbul!

We checked in on the cruise ship yesterday, and feel like we are in Heaven. We have discussed continuously how great it is to have American luxury and convenience on this trip, while being able to leave and see such exotic places.

Yesterday, we visited the Grand Bazaar, but didn't enjoy it as much as the smaller Bazaar the day before. We visited the Blue Mosque, which was our first time in a mosque. It was actually quite beautiful. You have to wear the head covering (for women), and remove your shoes - which is OK, because they have the entire floor covered in plush Turkish carpet. We were there right before the 5 p.m. prayers, so there were already men in there praying, which was kind of strange, to be completely honest. Part of me wanted to stay to observe the prayers, but I had an overwhelmingly urge to not do that, so we went back to the smaller Bazaar and wandered that for awhile.

I ended up buying a beautiful tile necklace with a tulip on it, as well as a couple of incredible hand-embroidered pillow covers.

Our favorite sight of the day was the Hipprodome, which is now a public park. It was modeled after the Circus Maximus in Rome, and has monuments that are all tied to different incredible places like Egypt and Greece. My favorite story, though, is that the four horses on the facade of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice (one of my favorite places in Venice) were stolen from this site during the Fourth Crusade. I just thought it was so cool that these statues that I see all the time came from this ancient place.

Today, we saw the Topkali Palace, and saw the palace compounds that the sultans lived in. This place was incredible. They have the third most important porcelain collection in the world, a spectacular Treasury, and the largest holy relic collection in the world.

We saw the supposed staff of Moses, a turban that belonged to Joseph (of Old Testament fame), a pot that belonged to Abraham, and the forearm and skull of John the Baptist. What is actually interesting is to see the stories of these men from the point of view of Muslims. I am not really sure why they emphasize the things about these men that they do, but I still enjoyed seeing these things.

We have now left Istanbul, and are enjoying dinner with our friends tonight. We are on our way to Ephesus, and I will hopefully be sharing some more stories with you tomorrow! For some reason, the Internet is not cooperating well, so I will try to upload pictures later.