It’s day 4 in Istanbul and we decided that 4 days is just the right amount of time. Staying in the old city has been wonderful because everything is walkable. Today we started our tour of the Topkapi Palace at 8:30. Unfortunately about 5 tour buses arrived around the same time so, entering was a little difficult. It was the primary residence of the Ottoman sultans for about 400 years starting in 1465. It’s in a prime location overlooking the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara, with the Bosphorus in plain sight. The palace compound is divided into four main courtyards, the harem, library, kitchen, council meeting, pools, fountains, physician, and more. The kitchen could serve 6000 meals a day, and more when they would give soup to the poor during ramadan.

For some reason I loved a section with three Kiosks. There was a fountain in the middle and some of the rooms served as a religious retreat of 40 days. The İznik blue-and-white tiles were beautiful.

The Imperial Harem occupied one of the sections of the private apartments of the sultan; it contained more than 400 rooms. The harem was home to the sultan’s mother, the concubines and wives of the sultan; and the rest of his family, including children; and their servants. One section was the courtyard and apartments of the eunuchs who acted as guards. The harem consists of a series of buildings and structures, connected through hallways and courtyards. The mosaics were beautiful and covered every inch of wall space in some of the rooms. It was our favorite place in the palace to visit.

After leaving the harem, we realized we were 10 minutes late to meet our group. I forgot to mention the fountain outside the palace. It is square, and one side used to dispense water, while the other 3 sides, dispensed juice. Cool eh? We’re picking up some Canadian phrases from the others in our group. The only Turkish we know is sag ol, which means thank you. I’ll tell you later where we, learned that.

Our next stop was the Blue Mosque. It is called the blue mosque because there are 20,000 blue tiles that line the high ceiling. Before entering the mosque you have to take off your shoes, cover up bare arms (if wearing a sleeveless shirt), and cover up legs if wearing shorts. It was recommended that the women cover their hair, which we did. Outside every mosque, There is also a place to carry out the ritual washing required before prayer. This includes washing hands, then face, then feet.

The whole building is carpeted, and no pews like churches. Everyone sits on the floor for equal status. There are also no pictures or statues because Muslims do not worship images and believe it’s blasphemous.

The building is beautiful, but I think we were both more impressed with the architecture than the inside. It was also very crowded. There are 9 domes, but its supposed to look like one from the air. There are six minarets, most mosques have 4. It’s really a site and so much a part of the Istanbul skyline.

We had the afternoon free to do our own thing. That included relaxing a little in our room because this tour is wearing us out. Many of the places we visited have unusually high marble steps and its work to get up them. Then we returned to the Grand Bizarre to do some more shopping. Mom found her first Christmas present. The shop keeper there taught us sag ol. He was very nice after she bought the item. Mom was telling him about Cagla and Isik. But the shop keeper looked at her funny. The way she pronounced his name meant donkey vs. of the light if pronounced differently.

We’ve learned that one way not to be bothered by the store keepers is never look them in the eye, and ignore them. Feels rude, but it works.

Tonight we went to a dinner/show to eat traditional turkish cuisine and watch some belly dancing. It was called Kervansaray. The food was okay, two of the four belly dancers were good and the Turkish dancers from the various regions were quite entertaining. We had NO idea what we actually ate. It would arrive at the Tabriz with no explanation. When the appetizer came, it looked like melted american cheese on a mound of lettuce and a dab of red food coloring on top. But it ended up being crab and the best thing we had all night.

We leave for Troy and Gallipoli in the morning so we’re mostly packed and ready to go.