Tuesday: Snoozing in Istanbul
Jun. 13th, 2007 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deirdreBy Tuesday, Rick was running a fever and really not feeling well. We ate breakfast in Tsar's palace, taking our time, then got off the ship around 9:30. Because we'd waited for the crowd to die down, we were easily able to find our bags. No sooner had we gotten them out to the pick up area than we met our guide (Classic requires that either the driver speak English or be accompanied by someone who does speak English, so this was an instance of the latter case).
We arrived quickly at our hotel, which is a wonderful boutique hotel two blocks (approximately) from the Blue Mosque. Despite having slept all night, we were both tired, so Rick suggested that we sleep all day and eat a hotel dinner that night.
I was just about ready to go to sleep when I went into the bathroom -- and saw the bathtub. Not only is it sufficiently deep and sufficiently wide for me to relax in, it has jets. At that point, I forgot all about sleep (by that point, Rick was already soundly asleep) and had a luxurious bath, soaking in anti-pain bath goo. After that, I went to sleep, being awakened by the call to prayer in the afternoon. The Blue Mosque starts the first call to prayer, which is echoed by other mosques in the area, sort of like a complex round. I counted later: there's five mosques within hearing distance of the hotel, so I probably heard at least three of them. It's one of those things where you wake up and say, "Oh yeah, I'm not at home, am I?"
We slept until 7:30 at night, and went upstairs to the rooftop for dinner, not quite getting that one side was the bar side and one side was the dinner side -- an easy mistake to make, since most of the people who wanted dinner wouldn't even be there until at least 8:30. One side was dominated by the minarets and domes of the blue mosque, where the view over the other three sides covered the remainder of the Sultanahmet district and a view out to the Bosphorus.
By the time the sunset call to prayer happened (around 8:45), we had enjoyed our appetizers, were working on our main course, and enjoying the guitarist, who took a break during the call to prayer. The food was odd, but good, though I forgot to ask for a substitute for the ravioli and couscous (both of which contain wheat).
Later in the evening, Rick's fever finally broke and he started feeling better.
We arrived quickly at our hotel, which is a wonderful boutique hotel two blocks (approximately) from the Blue Mosque. Despite having slept all night, we were both tired, so Rick suggested that we sleep all day and eat a hotel dinner that night.
I was just about ready to go to sleep when I went into the bathroom -- and saw the bathtub. Not only is it sufficiently deep and sufficiently wide for me to relax in, it has jets. At that point, I forgot all about sleep (by that point, Rick was already soundly asleep) and had a luxurious bath, soaking in anti-pain bath goo. After that, I went to sleep, being awakened by the call to prayer in the afternoon. The Blue Mosque starts the first call to prayer, which is echoed by other mosques in the area, sort of like a complex round. I counted later: there's five mosques within hearing distance of the hotel, so I probably heard at least three of them. It's one of those things where you wake up and say, "Oh yeah, I'm not at home, am I?"
We slept until 7:30 at night, and went upstairs to the rooftop for dinner, not quite getting that one side was the bar side and one side was the dinner side -- an easy mistake to make, since most of the people who wanted dinner wouldn't even be there until at least 8:30. One side was dominated by the minarets and domes of the blue mosque, where the view over the other three sides covered the remainder of the Sultanahmet district and a view out to the Bosphorus.
By the time the sunset call to prayer happened (around 8:45), we had enjoyed our appetizers, were working on our main course, and enjoying the guitarist, who took a break during the call to prayer. The food was odd, but good, though I forgot to ask for a substitute for the ravioli and couscous (both of which contain wheat).
Later in the evening, Rick's fever finally broke and he started feeling better.