Istanbul, Turkey
Waking up to the Ezan from the mosque across the street is an unusual experience. From our hotel balcony we can hear the calls to prayer from at least two other mosques, as well. Despite the fact that Turkey is a less religiously devout country than its neighbors, you get a real sense of the cultural significance Islam and the ever present Ezan have in this area.
Before heading out, we had a traditional Turkish breakfast at the hotel. This consisted of a wide array of eggs, cheeses, Greek yogurt, dried fruit, humus, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, something the staff told us was “lemon juice” (neon yellow, NOT lemonade – but Josh likes it) and milk with hot tea.
We were third in line for the Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) when the doors opened.
By the time we left a couple hours later, the place was packed. The Hagia Sophia (now a museum) was a church built by the Romans in the 600s. The largest building in the world for hundreds of years, it was turned into a mosque by the Ottomans in 1453.
When the Ottomans transformed the building from church to mosque, they covered much of the Christian motifs and carvings by painting over them or covering them with tarps. In some of our photos you can see where crosses were scrapped off some parts of the marble walls (and not scrapped off on other parts).
This was the site Josh was most excited to see and it definitely did not disappoint. One of my favorite things in the Hagia Sophia was, surprisingly, the graffiti. Names and initials in Greek lettering could be found here and there in the marble balcony railing that surrounded the upper level. These flagrantly carved markings were likely hundreds – or even thousands – of years old. It really makes you think twice about the initials you carved in your high school desk top, huh?
What drew my attention to the graffiti was the fact that the museum thought it appropriate to acknowledge and preserve one such marking. It was a Viking name carved in the 9th century on one of the balcony rails, most likely carved by a Varangian Guard Solider.
We also go to see the famous cat who lives in Hagia Sophia. Apparently she is somewhat of a tourist attraction herself and has taken up residence in the museum for years. She was lounging in a chair – in front a tv watching an informational video – when we spotted her. See what I mean about the cats? Everywhere!
Next, we crossed the street and made our way to the Blue Mosque. This was, essentially, the location of the January terrorist attacks and it was a little unnerving to be in an area where so many people, so recently, lost their lives.
As the Blue Mosque is a “real” mosque and not a museum, women are required to cover their arms, legs and hair before entering. Everyone is required to remove their shoes. Knowing the dress code for entry, I came prepared with my own scarf, a below the knee dress with sleeves that could be rolled down and tights to cover the bottoms of my legs.
Much to my surprise, this was still too immodest to go inside and I was asked to wear a floor length skirt (provided by the Mosque staff) before entering.
Many of the women we’ve seen here wear head coverings to varying degrees (from simple head scarfs to full-body burqas), so I was not at all out of place. But I didn't have any peripheral vision and I felt very strange. Obviously, the choice to wear a head covering is a personal one, and this blog is not at all intended to be about political or religious commentary.
But, speaking from my personal experience – during the short time I was expected to mute my appearance – I found it very uncomfortable and unenjoyable. Especially, standing next to Josh (who, I think, was more uncomfortable with my new look than me) in his normal, everyday clothing, I felt stifled and secondary.
But enough about me, the Blue Mosque itself was a beautiful structure. Colloquially called the “blue mosque” for its blue Iznik tiled walls, the mosque was certainly something to behold. Dome ceilings capped the giant mosque and soft (never touched by shoes) red carpet stretched from wall to wall interrupted only by the gigantic marble columns and rails that separated the worshippers from the public.
We opted not to walk around the mosque grounds and instead crossed the street to the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art.
The Museum layout was very user friendly. With arrows guiding you from room to room through history, curators highlighted items from the ruling societies of the times. Each room housed only a handful of pieces from the featured era, which made it easy to appreciate and not at all overwhelming.
Islamic art, as I am discovering, is very accessible – even for those who don’t enjoy art in the traditional sense (I.e. paintings & sculptures). Made up primarily of word portraits, vases, calligraphy, books and other items, you can avoid the sometimes tedious nature of reviewing painting after painting after painting as seen in many European themed art exhibits.
We eventually stumbled back into the streets and in front of the Great Palace Mosaic Museum. The museum pass card we purchased on the first day of our trip happened to offer free entry – so we went inside. This museum was a rare gem and completely empty except for us and the staff. This museum featured mosaic art from the Byzantine era uncovered when excavation work was being done at the hippodrome (race tracks).
The mosaics were large in size and intricate in design. Most featured scenes involving people or animals. We were impressed to say the least.
One of the best and most satisfying parts of travel is being able to make connections between the things you see from one place or time to another. This happened for us at the mosaic museum when we saw an almost completely intact “monkey art” mosaic.
This theme was apparently common among Byzantine artist who would feature monkeys as if the were people, doing everyday people things. We had just learned about this at the Chateau de Chantilly (earlier in the week) where two rooms in the estate were called “monkey rooms” because they featured Byzantine inspired monkey art all over the walls.
To see the similarities, you can look at the picture from one of those rooms in our first blog post of the trip and today’s photo of the actual Byzantine art in this post.
The Mosaic Museum exited right into the middle of the Arasta Bazaar – another, nearly empty gem! Partially open-air, this bazaar was less crowded, less expensive and less touristy than what we saw of the Grand Bazaar. The shop owners here were less aggressive and simply let us look around without interruption. We found some amazing spice shops and bought a few souvenirs.
By this time it was late afternoon and, though hearty, our Turkish breakfast was wearing off. We decided to stop inside a street cafe (the Baran Ottoman Kitchen) for what turned out to be the best meal of our trip so far. I had Manti – a traditional Turkish dumpling, stuffed with meat, potatoes, carrots and other veggies. Josh had another Adana Kebab.
Later in the evening we strolled around our Saltanahmet neighborhood (in the old Istanbul area) and later had drinks and dessert at our hotel restaurant – where we laughed and talked with the hotel staff well into the wee hours of the night. . . .Which is why the post is so late.
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