Wednesday: Braving the Bazaar
Jun. 13th, 2007 08:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deirdreWe slept in until 8 something, then headed upstairs to the rooftop again for breakfast. The rooftop not only has a stunning view, but has quite a bit of greenery. At one end, there's a small, shallow pool. The food selection was a bit odd (but not in a bad way): sausages were chicken or beef, as one might expect. What I initially thought were peaches in a fluorescent yellow fluid turned out to be apricots. It's a failing of mine, I know, but I can't bring myself to think of apricots as a breakfast food. The fruit yogurt was real yogurt, not the differently-textured stuff us Americans are used to. The corn flakes were more closely related to corn pops, as if the corn had been puffed and smashed or something.
None of it was bad, it was just unusual and unexpected. The orange juice and coffee tasted just as one might expect (it wasn't proper Turkish coffee, but we'd rectify that later).
As we ate our breakfast, we watched a huge sea gull come up to the small pond, drink some water, wash himself, and fly off.
After breakfast, we ventured off on foot towards the bazaar (after some confusion about whether we would be visiting Ayasofya first -- or not). I checked out a store Rick had scouted out two days before, but they didn't have what I was looking for. Next door, there was a place with a stunning room-sized carpet -- black background, obviously silk, very fine, and almost entirely black with some silver and gold. Knowing how people whine when they knit something black, I can't imagine how long that rug would have taken, but my initial guess is three women five years (based on information on other rug sizes of similar detail). It had stunning curliques. I tried not to show too much interest.
We went to a place called Coffee World, where I paid in US dollars and got change in Turkish Lira (it's the general policy that Turkish merchants will take anything approaching a major currency). We'd changed some money for the Aya Sofya, but this would just be a buffer for us. I got a large iced mocha, which had chocolate goo inside, and Rick had a genuine Turkish coffee. We sat, enjoyed the cool air inside, and watched the mesmerizing chocolate fountain.
After that, we entered the bazaar, fending off merchants trying to sell us rugs (several), leather jackets (one), and so forth. I found a place about a block into the bazaar that sold what I was looking for, and, after making my purchases, declared I was done with the bazaar. With that, we set off (on foot again) for the Ayasofya.
I've been in older buildings, including Newgrange, but I've never been into an older building that was as complex. This version of the Ayasofya has been standing since 537 -- more than 1500 years. For almost 600 years (I'd mis-remembered dates, so if I sent you a postcard saying a millenium, I sit corrected), it was a mosque, and the original Byzantine-era Christian mosaics were covered up.
When Ataturk made Turkey a secular republic, the Ayasofya was turned into a museum and the mosaics were uncovered, thus making everyone unhappy. It still has the beautiful Islamic calligraphy, and contains several major Islamic relics (including the Mihrab, which points toward Mecca), so it's an interesting contrast of ages and faiths.
We walked around all of Ayasofya, and I was glad that we weren't rushed, so I could sit in places and really take in the look of the place. It's immense. Unfortunately, there's huge scaffolding in it going all the way up to the dome at present, but that's the way life goes. I guess that means I'll just have to come back.
None of it was bad, it was just unusual and unexpected. The orange juice and coffee tasted just as one might expect (it wasn't proper Turkish coffee, but we'd rectify that later).
As we ate our breakfast, we watched a huge sea gull come up to the small pond, drink some water, wash himself, and fly off.
After breakfast, we ventured off on foot towards the bazaar (after some confusion about whether we would be visiting Ayasofya first -- or not). I checked out a store Rick had scouted out two days before, but they didn't have what I was looking for. Next door, there was a place with a stunning room-sized carpet -- black background, obviously silk, very fine, and almost entirely black with some silver and gold. Knowing how people whine when they knit something black, I can't imagine how long that rug would have taken, but my initial guess is three women five years (based on information on other rug sizes of similar detail). It had stunning curliques. I tried not to show too much interest.
We went to a place called Coffee World, where I paid in US dollars and got change in Turkish Lira (it's the general policy that Turkish merchants will take anything approaching a major currency). We'd changed some money for the Aya Sofya, but this would just be a buffer for us. I got a large iced mocha, which had chocolate goo inside, and Rick had a genuine Turkish coffee. We sat, enjoyed the cool air inside, and watched the mesmerizing chocolate fountain.
After that, we entered the bazaar, fending off merchants trying to sell us rugs (several), leather jackets (one), and so forth. I found a place about a block into the bazaar that sold what I was looking for, and, after making my purchases, declared I was done with the bazaar. With that, we set off (on foot again) for the Ayasofya.
I've been in older buildings, including Newgrange, but I've never been into an older building that was as complex. This version of the Ayasofya has been standing since 537 -- more than 1500 years. For almost 600 years (I'd mis-remembered dates, so if I sent you a postcard saying a millenium, I sit corrected), it was a mosque, and the original Byzantine-era Christian mosaics were covered up.
When Ataturk made Turkey a secular republic, the Ayasofya was turned into a museum and the mosaics were uncovered, thus making everyone unhappy. It still has the beautiful Islamic calligraphy, and contains several major Islamic relics (including the Mihrab, which points toward Mecca), so it's an interesting contrast of ages and faiths.
We walked around all of Ayasofya, and I was glad that we weren't rushed, so I could sit in places and really take in the look of the place. It's immense. Unfortunately, there's huge scaffolding in it going all the way up to the dome at present, but that's the way life goes. I guess that means I'll just have to come back.