Category Archives: Turkey

Day 449 In Beijing: The Basilica Cistern.

By | | , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

Entering the cistern.

Entering the cistern.

The Basilica Cistern is about 500 feet from the Hagia Sofia.

It is actually quite easy to miss because it is just a rather small building, made of brick, that is fairly simple in the midst of all the hustle and bustle all around this area of Istanbul.

Luckily, both Jill and I had been to the cistern before and knew that we wanted to go see it again.

It truly is an amazingly beautiful, and totally strange, place out of history.

It is the largest of several hundred cisterns that lie below Istanbul.

It was originally built in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian.

Well, to be honest, he didn’t build it.

His slaves built it.  And, according to ancient texts, there were over 7,000 slaves that built it.

The cistern, at this point, only has a few feet of water in it since it is used as a museum and people are allowed to go inside it.  If it was full, it could contain up to 100,000 tons of water.

As you can see, we walked on fairly secure walkways around the cistern.

It was definitely slippery but we loved it.

Imagine this: Up until 1985, they used boats to float around the cistern.

How incredible would that have been?

I wish we could have done that!

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Day 448 In Beijing: Hagia Sofia, Part 5.

By | | , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

The mirror over the exit reflects the mosaic.

The mirror over the exit reflects the mosaic.

Jill and I have back in Beijing for 2 weeks and we keep finding more and more amazing pictures of our trip as I write these blogs.

It is actually making us itch for another trip as soon as possible and rekindles our desire to live in both Turkey, and Greece, in the not to distant future.

There is just something about the people, the culture, and the land that calls to us.

I have lived in a lot of different places ranging from Healdsburg, to San Francisco, to Albuquerque (home of Breaking Bad!), to Edinburgh, Scotland, to Sendai, Japan and now to Beijing, China.

For some reason, Turkey and Greece just seem like home already.

Maybe it is just because we are on vacation but Jill lived in Turkey for 3 months, 3 years ago, and she absolutely felt like it was home.

This will be the final Hagia Sofia post for this trip, unless I run across more pictures and have to throw them in, and I hope you have enjoyed seeing this magnificent building through our eyes and lenses.

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Day 447 In Beijing: Hagia Sofia, Part 4.

By | | , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

The scaffolding and the interior of the Hagia Sofia.

The scaffolding and the interior of the Hagia Sofia.

 

Jill and I decided that the pictures were not quite enough to show the beauty of this amazing structure.

We decided we’d do a quick video.

It really is hard to comprehend all the work, time, and architectural knowledge that went into making a building like this about 1500 years ago.

I hope you have enjoyed visiting it and might even be tempted to go to Istanbul and see it yourself.

Trust me, as you will see in the next few weeks, this is just the start of places, and things, to see in Turkey.

 

 

Day 446 In Beijing: Hagia Sofia, Part 3.

By | | , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

 

The view of the dome through the chandelier.

The view of the dome through the chandelier.

Jill’s and my journey continues.

You would think that one blog post about the Hagia Sofia would be enough.

However, it isn’t even close to enough.

I’ve got hundreds of pictures that I could post but I’ve decided to limit them.

I’ve cut it down to about 40 or so and they barely even touch the surface of the amazing Church/Mosque/Museum that is the Hagia Sofia.

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Day 445 In Beijing: Hagia Sofia, Part 2.

By | | , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

The dome. Notice how it is not perfectly circular.

The dome. Notice how it is not perfectly circular.

 

Jill and I continued our tour around the Hagia Sofia.

We were both in awe and could barely talk.

I know, this doesn’t happen that often.

Enjoy the moment.

 

 

 

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Day 444 In Beijing: Hagia Sophia, Part 1.

By | | , , , , , , , , , , ,
2 Comments

 

A mosaic of Mary and Jesus.

A mosaic of Mary and Jesus.

This might take awhile.

So, I’m going to keep it short and sweet and let the pictures speak for themselves.

The Hagia Sofia is mind blowing.

There is no other way to describe it.

From the outside is it monumental and awe inspiring.

From the inside it compares to anything I’ve seen in my travels around this Earth.

I’m planning about four days of posts on the Hagia Sofia because there are so many pictures and a video or two.

For starters, the history of this museum is amazing.

It was build in 537 and was an orthodox church until 1453.

It was then a mosque from 1453 until 1931.

In 1935 it became a museum.

It was the focal point of the Eastern Orthodox Church for nearly 1,000 years.

The amazing dome has collapsed at least once and had to be rebuilt.

The other domes have also collapsed.

It has been ransacked and almost totally destroyed through the years but somehow survived.

It had many Christian mosaics on the walls that were then covered by the Muslims who took control of Istanbul.

Luckily, they didn’t destroy the mosaics, but instead, were plastered over and, therefore, saved to be renovated and shown as they are today.

It was a joy, and a wonder, to stand underneath the dome of the Hagia Sophia and just take in the history, the art work, and the power.

The best way to explain it is to click the wikipedia link and then look at my pictures.

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

 

Day 443 In Beijing: Rooftop Lunch And Call To Prayer.

By | | , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

Cheers!

Cheers!

After stopping by the Blue Mosque, Jill and I decided to grab some lunch.

We walked around a bit of Istanbul and found a few restaurants that looked nice.

One, in particular, had a rooftop area that allowed us to look out over the Bosphorus.

We decided that would be the perfect way to spend our first lunch in Istanbul.

We climbed up the 4 flights of very steep stairs and found the place almost empty.

There were two other Canadian couples sitting there, but that was it.

We talked with them for a bit and found out that one was a psychiatrist and ran his own department back in Toronto.  Small world.

They were on a cruise and only in town for a day.

Jill and I thought of how we had a week and were grateful that we had so much time.

The view from the rooftop terrace.

The view from the rooftop terrace.

There is so much to see and do in Istanbul that a day, or even 3 days, wouldn’t be nearly enough for us.

Honestly, we could spend a month in Istanbul alone, if we had the time, and still feel like we haven’t seen everything.

They were nice enough to take a few pictures of us and we enjoyed meeting them.

When they left, we had the whole rooftop terrace to ourselves and it was incredibly peaceful and serene.  And the food was fantastic.

Just watching the clouds, the Bosphorus and the ships go by as we enjoyed our meal and our time together.

In case you were wondering, the mosques have speakers attached to them so that is how the sound is projected for the followers to hear and know to come to pray.

 

 

Day 442 In Beijing: The Blue Mosque.

By | | , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

Happy!

Happy!

Jill and I wanted to see the Blue Mosque, since it was free, and we knew the other sites we wanted to see would cost money.

The reason this matters is that we could buy a discount pass to see all the other sites but it is limited in regards to time (3 days total) and we didn’t want to start at this point since the lines were pretty long.

We figured out that we’d see them, starting tomorrow morning, when there were less people and shorter lines.

Also, July and August in this part of the world is incredibly hot so there aren’t as many tourists, which is nice, and the sites are usually less crowded.

The negative is that some places are closed and others may have shorter viewing hours.

We didn’t notice this on this trip but it has happened to us in other places.

It is a chance we take to get away from the crowds and lines.

To us, it is worth the trade-off.

So, we walked up to the Blue Mosque and prepared to get in line.

I had shorts on so I had to pull them down to below my knees (it is respect in the Muslim culture to have your knees covered if you are a man).

Jill, on the other hand, has to put on a head scarf and also put on something covering her up down to her feet.

This makes it incredibly hot and uncomfortable.

To be honest, I’m not sure how women do it.

I’ve been told that some don’t wear anything underneath their robes but most seemed to be wearing leggings, at the very least, and I could not imagine the heat and dehydration that would accompany such clothes.

When we arrived, we realized it was in the middle of one of the prayer sessions and, as we aren’t Muslim, we wouldn’t be allowed inside.

We decided to just take some pictures from the outside, grab some lunch, and then see what else we wanted to do.

It was a bit anti-climatic to not be able to go inside but since Jill and I have been there before, it wasn’t a big let down.

We knew we’d be seeing it in a day or so and wouldn’t have to rush.

Isn’t that what a vacation is all about?

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Day 441 In Beijing: The Spice Bazaar.

By | | , , , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

Love this shot.

A man and his store.

Jill and I went through the spice bazaar on the way to see the other sites around Istanbul.

It was a quick trip, and this isn’t the huge bazaar that Istanbul is famous for, but it is very cute.

There are lots of spices, and other things, that are hanging on the walls and put out in front of stalls.

We didn’t spend a lot of time in this one because we wanted to get a move on and get situated in regards to our plans for the next week of what we wanted to see, when we wanted to see it, and how long everything would take.

We aren’t big time planners but we like to make sure we can get done what we want to get done and not miss out on things because we don’t set our plans accordingly.

We also knew we’d be back by the spice bazaar, a few different times, because our subway stop drops us so close to it and we could easily go through it.

It was probably about 2 football fields long and wide and full of all kinds of yummy looking spices.

It also had a lot of soaps that were made with spices in them and Jill said they smelled wonderfully.

That is another thing that hit us immediately: the smell of the city is so different from Beijing.

It smells clean and fresh.

People from Istanbul may not agree, but compared to Beijing, it smelled like we were in a place much closer to nature and much more clean.

We also didn’t see nearly as much litter and there was almost no graffiti at all.

We actually didn’t really notice this until we went to Athens where there is graffiti everywhere.

It was a shocking difference considering it was only a one hour flight and the two cities are so much alike in many other ways.

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Day 440 In Beijing: Istanbul Subway.

By | | , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

Riders on the subway.

Riders on the subway.

Beijing has a massive subway system.

A lot of it has been built in the past 10 years because the population has exploded.

Beijing has over 25,000,000 people living in it.

Istanbul has about 14,000,000.

The difference, when riding the subway, is mind blowing.

In Beijing, subways are almost always crowded, busy and full of people just staring at their phones or tablets.  There is so little communication and connection that it seems almost unreal.

In Istanbul, the subways, even during rush hour, were more calm, less filled with people and people were talking, connecting and it seemed much more like the culture I’m used to being in.

It felt much more normal and I found myself smiling a lot more and looking at people.

Not only that, they looked back at me and smiled.

This does happen, sometimes, on the Beijing subways, but not that often.

The cool designs on the subway doors.

The cool designs on the subway doors.

Again, everyone is so distracted by their mobile phones or tablets that they don’t see other people.

Which also causes them to run into you when you walk into, or out of, the subway.

Or on the street.

Or in a store.

Or pretty much anywhere.

I have lived in Silicon Valley and lived through the tech boom.  I’ve never seen people that stare at their phones as much as here.  Believe me, the intoxication of the techie phone addiction in the SF/Bay Area is bad enough.  Here it is epidemic.

Istanbul, on the other hand, has just really invested in a massive subway system.  It has grown, and continues to grow, to fit the needs of this growing city.

The subway sign for one of our exits.

The subway sign for one of our exits.

It, like Beijing’s subway, is very clean, very punctual and very fast.  I love that about both of them.

Istanbul’s first modern subway started in 1989.

It seems to have taken a bit of time to get going but now if flying along.

I believe they have added about 100 kms of subway lines in the last 5 years alone and plan to have a total of 244 kms within 3 more years.

It will reach well into the suburbs and hopefully reduce some of the traffic congestion.

We truly enjoyed our rides on the subway and were grateful to have space, quiet and people that smiled and laughed with us, while we were riding it.