Istanbul - Grand Bazaar, Mausoleums, Spice Market

Today was truly what a "Europe Through the Back Door" day is supposed to be about. While I love Rick Steves travel philosophy, all too often I've been really disappointed with the content of his guidebooks. Why? I think mainly because he's, like, the number one Europe travel writer in the USA, which means everybody and their brother is trying to squeeze through the same little tiny back door at the same time. This is evidently not the case (at least not yet) with his Istanbul guidebook.

We spent the day doing the Old Town Back Streets self-guided walking tour (not as convenient reading it as the audio ones he has for Italy are, but still good). The first stop was a lovely cemetery and mausoleum. I thought I'd seen enough of this stuff on this trip already, but they decorate them up differently here. Lovely!

From Istanbul

From Istanbul

Then we saw the old column that is all that is left of the old Roman Forum.

From Istanbul

And then it was lunch and the Grand Bazaar. We weren't really expecting much of the Grand Bazaar, having read that it's become very touristy, with jewelry shops and souvenir stalls having displaced a lot of the sellers. With locals mostly preferring to shop across the Golden Horn in the New District., and with high rents having forced out most of the workshops. However, it was still really cool to be in the old bazaar building and to see and hear it all. In one section there were a bunch of guys standing around yelling into cell phones (it sounded like there was a fight going on), who are evidently the currency exchange. We dropped in at one recommended jewelry shop where we were invited upstairs to see the craftsmen at work. One was putting some final touches on a solitaire ring, and another seemed to be stringing together settings for something, an eternity ring perhaps? We didn't have our camera out for most of it as it is recommended that you keep your valuables out of sight and close to your skin in here.

From Istanbul

The best part was the gold smith we were directed to. One particular guy who apparently doesn't speak any English, and doesn't want any payment, but loves to show his craft off to tourists. When we arrived and were invited in he was placing a crucible on the fire and getting it all very hot. When it was ready, he put in a bunch of scrap gold (old jewelry mostly), and as that melted he added more. After a while he added a bunch of white powder, stirred it up, then seemed to remove a glob of the white powder. Then he poured the gold into a mould. After a minute, he cooled it in a couple of water baths, then polished it, then handed it to me to hold for a minute before it went to his customer. Seriously. Just like on TV. It was like 2 inches by 2 inches by 1 inch, and was really heavy. He said it was 18 kt. We asked how much that much gold was worth, but like I said above, he doesn't speak English. There was evidently more gold to be rendered than he could do at once (or maybe his customer wanted two pieces), so we got to see the process a second time. This piece of gold was smaller.

From Istanbul

From Istanbul

His next customer had some bent up silver wire which he put through a tool with a couple wheels and a bunch of grooves many times to make it into nice straight wire of a smaller gage and longer length.

From Istanbul

After this he wanted to see our book (we guessed: he was making a book-opening gesture with his hands and seemed pleased when we showed him the Rick Steves cover on our iPod Touch), then suggested that we get tea at the little teashop across the alley from his shop, and watch the backgammon game outside. I guess he must have paid for our tea because the teashop owner refused payment from us. They play backgammon really fast here, maybe 4x faster than Josh and I play. And we play pretty fast. It reminded me of watching Grant and Adam playing speed chess at Mudd.

I didn't see this part, but evidently one of the guys made some gestures to Josh at me that seemed to be about me being pretty, followed up a big thumbs up. We got this from the guy selling tram tokens the other day too. And here I thought I was the only woman in the city who wasn't some exotic beauty. Or maybe it's just that I let my hair and elbows show...

From the Grand Bazaar, we moved on to a couple mosques that were kind of small and unimpressive compared to the Blue Mosque yesterday. And a third that was supposed to be very nice and we had a really hard time finding, but turned out to be closed for renovations.

Finally we went to the Spice Bazaar, which is kind of like a smaller version of the Grand Bazaar that specializes in spices... and generally in selling stuff to tourists of a more home and bath variety. We also stopped to pick up some souvenirs. After all, we'll be going home very soon!

From Istanbul

Josh thought I looked so good in the scarf that he had to try it on. Doesn't he look like a man who isn't afraid of anything?

From Istanbul

Istanbul - Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Monuments, Museum

Our first stop of the day was the Hagia Sophia, which is a fantastic old building that was first one of the greatest cathedrals of all time (completed in 537), then one of the greatest mosques of all time (converted in 1453), and is now a grand museum (since 1935). As such, it is in wonderful condition for its age. Plus, it's a marvelous work of architecture. It's like a pantheon built atop a bunch of partial pantheons. And for all the crowds, it is moving to see such wonderful Christian and Muslim art displayed side-by-side. Hopefully someday this will no longer be a mark of uniqueness.

From Istanbul

Before heading in, we stopped to look at the 18th century Ottoman fountain for pre-prayer ablution.

From Istanbul

Here is the main "donation mosaic" showing Constantine presenting a model of Constantinople and Justinian presenting a model of the Hagia Sophia to Mary and Baby Jesus. There were others of this nature throughout.

From Istanbul

I seem to be facing Mecca.

From Istanbul

Next we went to the Blue Mosque, which is just a couple blocks away across a park. The Blue Mosque was built in the 1600s by Sultan Ahmet, and is very similar architecturally to the Hagia Sophia. However, it's always been a mosque, and they'd worked a lot of the architecture kinks out in the intervening millennium, so the dome has never collapsed and there are more windows. The decor is also completely different: all red, white, and blue tiles and mosaics rather than dark marble. Although the Blue Mosque is slightly smaller than the Hagia Sophia, the light colors made it feel bigger.

From Istanbul

From Istanbul

After the mosque, we walked along the park that used to be the Hippodrome, or old racetrack. In the park, once surrounded by the Hippodrome, are a number of interesting monuments. As you can see Istanbul is quite a crossroads.

There was a fountain given to Turkey by Germany.

An Egyptian Obelisk with a Turkish foundation showing, among other things, the Obelisk being erected on this spot. Cool, eh?

From Istanbul

The Column of Constantine, which was actually made in Turkey, but is now just a brick obelisk because the bronze plating was stolen during the crusades.

A triple serpent column looted from Delphi (the heads disappeared just 300 years ago). You can see the Column of Constantine in the background.

From Istanbul

And finally this area also used to have 4 beautiful bronze horses. They were looted during the crusades and we saw them at San Marco in Venice. They are thought to have come from Greece originally.

Our final stop was the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum where we saw many beautiful things.

Lots of Koran holders like this one.

From Istanbul

Some beautiful calligraphy. This is the sultan's signature.

From Istanbul

And, of course, carpets.

From Istanbul

The museum also had a fantastic view of the Blue Mosque with the Egyptian Obelisk in the foreground.

From Istanbul

Downstairs were exhibits on various nomadic peoples of Turkey. It looked pretty interesting, but we were dead tired and about out of time.

From Istanbul

Pamukkale - More Travertine

And today we have... more travertine! We took an early bus to Pamukkale where we left our luggage and went to see the travertine pools, ruin of Herapolis, and the Antique pool.

From Pamukkale

First were the travertines. Back in the day (when all the promotional photos were taken, and when Rick Steves was there with his camera crew), the pools were all open and full of people. Over the years, there's been a lot of damage to them, largely algae growth. Not sure how much of this is due to large numbers of people in the pools, since I normally associate excessive algae growth with phosphates. Anyway, now most of the travertine pools are off limits, and most of the water has been diverted in the hope that sunlight and dryness will bleach them white again. While not as beautiful in as the old photos, the formations are still incredible, and some do still hold water.

From Pamukkale

From Pamukkale

To allow visitors a similar experience of swimming in the pools, some concrete pools have been constructed along the road leading up through the natural pools. Incredibly, this isn't such a fake experience as you might imagine. The "fake" pools are overflowing with the same mineral-rich water, have the same fine mud bottom, and most astonishing, the travertine is growing off the concrete, at what we guess to be a very fast rate. So maybe these pools aren't so inauthentic after all. Is it really a fake pearl if you purposely put the sand in the oyster?

After hiking up the travertines hillside we wandered along to the right-hand side looking for better views of the travertines, with no luck. Then we found our way to the Antique Pool. This was portrayed to us as something fairly authentic where the old ruins had flooded and were now used as a swimming pool where you get to swim among the ancient fluted columns like you were at Atlantis or something. Well, that's not really what it seemed like. Closer inspection said it was $16 to swim in a skuzzy and overcrowded pool. In water that was reported to be basically as hot as the baking air. With fluted columns covered in green algae. It would have been a cool thing to have said we'd done, but other than that, it didn't look all that appealing.

From Pamukkale

Up next we hiked up to the top of the 12,000 seat amphitheater. This is probably the very nicest old amphitheater we've seen with a largely intact back wall with a good bit of decorative work on it.

From Pamukkale

We followed that by exploring the views out over the travertines going the other way from where we came up. These were better, and we also found a pool (not natural) where we could put our feet in for a few minutes to cool down.

Further along we found a bunch of overgrown travertine that looks like it hasn't had water flowing over it in quit a while. Yet evidently not a hugely long time, as it appears to have formed around a plastic bottle.

From Pamukkale

And there was also a huge travertine wall with a giant hole in it, evidently not having held water in a very long time indeed.

From Pamukkale

Also an old cemetery. Cool, eh?

From Pamukkale

For one final stop before getting into the fake travertine pools, we went out on the point of land right near where we came up the travertines. We hadn't seen anyone out there so it didn't seem promising, but we'd booked ourselves on an 11:30 PM bus, so we had lots of time. And WOW, were we ever glad we did! These pools were spectacular and full of the loveliest blue water! Further around we were able to get a much better angle on the pools we'd seen on the way up, with no people in the way to boot. I think this place would have been truly breathtaking with all the pools full.

From Pamukkale

From Pamukkale

We went swimming next, well, more like wading. It was fun.

From Pamukkale

Since we still had lots of time, we deciding to try hiking up to the monument they built to St. Philip, to see it's unique octagonal shape and good views. We evidently took a wrong turn since we didn't find it, but we did find some nice views anyway.

We then went to a nice dinner. Kabobs and pizza, yum! Now we are at the bus station waiting for our overnight bus to our next destination (well, most of the way, we have to change at 5 or 6 am since we booked too late to be on the direct bus). It's gonna be a long night, I fear. Hopefully smelling good is not a requirement for riding the bus here...

From Pamukkale

Rhodes - Arrival

Spent the better part of the day (9am to 6pm) on the ferry from Sitia on Crete to Rhodes. We enjoyed the enforced rest time playing cards, reading (Josh on Kindle) and listening to (Mary from LibroVox on iPod), "The Scarlet Pimpernel." It is more than a little gratifying to recognize aspects of European history we learned on this trip in the story. Also, the flowery verbiage is fantastic. I love how when people get excited they ejaculate their remarks. Granted, I think it might be a little hard to follow if we didn't already know the story from watching the movie. We also did a bit of planning for what little remains of our trip.

From Rhodes

From Rhodes

Anyway, once we got to Rhodes we struggled to match the reality of the streets we saw on the ground with the ones in the map in the Rough Guide. You see, the Guide had assured us that all ferries dock at the middle port. It was wrong, ours came in at the southern port, which was just off the map. Once we figured this out we were quickly able to make it to the old town at around 7pm.

The Rhodes old town has got to be the most enchanting old town we've ever been to. It feels right out of a fairy tale with its crumbling stone walls, towers, and churches. The hotel we wanted to stay at was full, but they directed us around the corner to a nice little pension, which doesn't have all the amenities we might have hoped for (Internet, breakfast, kitchen), but was about 30% less than we expected to spend for any room at all.

From Rhodes

After checking in we wandered around the old town, walked through the old mote, went to dinner in the "new market," awwed at the kitties, and generally marveled at what an incredible little town this is. Oh, I'm sure it will be crawling with tourists tomorrow, but for tonight off the main drag we wandered the loveliest narrow allies under flowering shrubs and arching stone supports. Of course most of the nighttime pictures didn't come out that well, so you'll just have to stay tuned for tomorrow's photos of it.

From Rhodes

From Rhodes

Athens - Arrival, Archeology Museum, Parthenon

"I think that one is our hotel." "Which one?" "That one, with the two prostitutes out front."

We arrived late at night in a somewhat seedy part of town. Our hotel seemed nice enough at first, but there was only one electrical outlet that we had to climb on the nightstand to reach. And the AC hummed incessantly. Eventually (at like 3am) we went down to reception to have it turned off. Ugh.

So it was a slow start in the morning, made slower by discussion of moving and laundry.

In the early afternoon we went to the Archeology Museum, which was great. They had wonderful statuaries ranging from the most ancient which looked very Egyptian, up through Roman. There was also a gallery with the very impressive finds from Mycenae, starting with the Mask of Agamemnon, which I'm sure you will all recognize, along with a wonderful collection of jewelry and gold leaf. Upstairs was a wonderful array of pottery, and at the back was a bronze collection including pieces of what seems to have once been a geared astronomical clock, a good 1500 years ahead of anything else similar.

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

We took so long at the museum that we found ourselves in a big rush to get to the acropolis, since we thought we wanted at least 3-4 hours there before closing time at 7pm. Well, it was a bit of a let down after Paestum. As promised, there were cranes and a lot of scaffolding, though less than there might have been. The Parthenon is in pretty bad shape. The Caryatid porch was smaller than it seemed in class, and they are doing work in the ceiling, so it wasn't that picturesque. The temple of Athena Nike was completely scaffolded-in. The entry gate, the one building up there you get to go into, however, was pretty amazing.

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

The day really made me think of my high school Humanities teacher, Mrs. Mortland. I'd like to tell her about visiting the wonderful places I learned about in her class. She asked us to keep in touch and gave us her email address right before graduation, but it was her address at the school and she has moved on to somewhere else. Even google doesn't know how to find her.

On the way down the hill we stopped to see a variety of minor ruins.

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

We could see this temple in the distance. Should try to go over to it tomorrow.

From Athens

In the evening we walked through the districts of Plaka and Monastiraki, which are supposed to be some of the nicest in Athens. This strikes us as not a great sign for the city. They weren't that nice.