Amazing Architecture, Pipes and a Crazy Fish Market

[caption id="attachment_59" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Ottoman empire period band"][/caption]

Surreal experience. I'm sitting in the lobby of our hotel and the night staff is watching "The Postman" in Turkish. The post-apocalyptic Kevin Costner one. I just realized that his love interest is one of the main characters in "Dollhouse." Weird.

Okay. On with the real stories. Today we walked along the Marmara Sea watching dolphins jump in the water until we got around the city wall and could enter the grounds of Topkapi Palace. That part of the grounds is a large park with beautiful old trees, tulips and other flower gardens and lots of secluded nooks.It was finally warm enough to wear short sleeves for a bit.

As we walked on it became clear that the nooks are well used by young lovers.It was sweet -- something I don't see much at home. Young couples everywhere holding hands and kissing.

The Topkapi palace was built in the 1400s and was a seat of the Ottoman Empire for about 400 years. It is enormous, and built on a promontory that looks out over the Marmara Sea, the Golden Horn and the Bosphorous. Stunning views. The entry gate looked just like Camelot, except with Arabic writing over the gate. It is made up of many buildings and rooms, and filled with ornate gold trim and tilework in the most wonderful colors. We saw head wear and scabbards and jewel cases the likes of which you see in old movies. Really. A chest full of emeralds, each one the size of a fist.

We also saw a parade by a band in period dress. Great pointy-toed shoes, fabulous hats and big mustaches. Patriotism is very strong in Turkey. The kids and women sang along with the bands songs. Very fun.

For lunch we went to an outdoor cafe outside the Blue Mosque. A young couple next to us was smoking a nargile (a water pipe for smoking flavored tobacco). We decided it was time for Patty to try one. The tobacco is soaked in syrup. We had our choice of all kinds of flavoring, including banana, melon and coconut. We decided to go for apple -- which is very popular here.

The waiter brought out the nargile and got it going for us. Then he gave each of us our own mouthpiece -- all very sanitary. He showed us how to smoke it.The funny thing is that none of us smoke cigarettes, and of course had no idea how to use the pipe -- so the whole things was hilarious. One by one all the tables around us got into the show -- laughing hysterically with us. The young couple practically cheered us on. I don't know whether Patty will still buy one. But at least she knows what she's in for if she does.

Next we went to the Hagia Sofia. It was initially built in the 300s and this current version was built in the 500s. It was at that point the central christian church in the world. When the Ottoman emporer invaded Constantinople (the old name of Istanbul) in 1453, he ordered it converted into a mosque. It became the model for all the other mosques in the world. It is an amazing feat of architecture and its interior is jawdropping. Incredibly high dome decorated with gold leaf and intensely colorful designs. Ataturk had it converted into a museum in the 1935.

We had a guide take us through the Hagia Sophia for a very funny reason. We were running out of Turkish lira and when we got to the front of the line we realized they would take no other form of payment. A guide who had wanted our business offered to pay our way and let us pay him in Euros. So there. Deal done. In the end it was great because he was a history and religious studies teacher and knew all kinds of fun info.

Tonight we decided to try a restaurant at the fish market. Little did we know that we were heading to a street full of restaurants all competing to get our business. It was overwhelming. We had no idea how to choose. And until we made a choice, we were bait for all their aggressive sales pitches.

Finally we just walked in to one and sat down. It was so interesting to watch how Turks ate and were treated compared to us. They had relaxed fun and seemed to eat really good stuff. We were oversold everything. It was one of those bad moments when you wish you could just be a regular person rather than a tourist. Between their reliance on foreign tourist dollars, their desire to please us, their misunderstanding of what we would really like, our inability to communicate clearly and our inability to distinguish genuine tradition from tourist pitch, it was an expensive and misfit evening. We made ourselves just go with the flow, but I kept watching the tables of Turkish men around us and wishing I could be experiencing it the way they were.

The other odd thing about the experience was that we're pretty sure that the other couples in the restaurant were men out with their mistresses. (The waiter confirmed this.) We did enjoy the folkloric group that came through and played for us. The "mistress" at the table next to us sang along with them. Hey Rick! One of them played the oud!

Tomorrow is our last day in Istanbul. We plan to see the inside of the Blue Mosque and the whirling dervishes at the Sirceki train station (the end of the line for the Orient Express). Jan also wants to go back and buy some spices at the market.

I'm starting to look forward to Bodrum, where we will slow down the pace. I'm also looking forward to doing laundry there. This packing light thing is tough in cool weather. I've been wearing everything all at once and it is time to refresh!

ps: I can't get photos to download into this blog easily. But go here to see a few photos

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=76289&id=546859239&ref=nf