"Merhaba" means "hello" in Turkish!
Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night
Welcome to Istanbul!
Look carefully and you can see the two most famous mosques in Istanbul - on the left is the Blue Mosque and on the Right, the Hagia Sophia.
Every day in Istanbul you can hear the call to prayer from the minarets (which are the towers) five times a day.
If you are standing inbetween the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, you will hear two Imams (the guys who sing the call) echoing each other. It's pretty intense.
You are allowed to go inside the Blue Mosque during visiting hours.
You have to take your shoes off.
And if you are a woman, you must cover your head with a scarf.
The people who come to pray at the Mosque will stop here and wash their hands, feet, and faces before they go inside.
All the walls and ceilings are covered in flowery designs.
Unlike inside Christian churches, in Mosques all the decoration is made of geometric designs and/or flowers. There are no images of people or saints. They do have large calligraphy with phrases or scripture.
The Blue Mosque is called "blue" because of the many blue tiles and decorations on the inside. (It's gray on the outside.)
Here we are with some students we met from the University of Istanbul. We helped them with a research project they were doing about tourism in Istanbul.
Kieran jumping in front of the Blue Mosque.
Here is the Blue Mosque at night.
If you look across the square from the Blue Mosque, you will see the Hagia Sophia.
The Hagia Sophia was originally a Catholic Church in Constantinople.
It later became a Mosque, and now is a museum.
You can see the remains of Christian Mosaics that were once covered up when it was a Mosque.
In other areas, you can see tile-work with Islamic designs like in a Mosque.
The Hagia Sophia at night.
We also went to another very important location in Istanbul. It was a modern shopping mall...
With....
Krispy Kreme Donuts!!!
(That was mostly for Kieran...) but we did try other local delicacies like Turkish Baklava and Turkish Delight.
Another interesting place was the Underground Cisterns, where they used to store water for the city. For some reason they kind of forgot about it for several hundred years. But now you can down there and check it out. It's pretty much a bunch of pillars underground with some water.
And this is Topkapi Palace, where the Sultan lived.
It's good to be Sultan.
They had more crazy elaborate decorations and cushier thrones than any king of Europe we've seen.
Check out this awesome huge couch in a gazebo.
Yes, this is just a gazebo....just a random building out on the palace grounds.
As you leave the palace, you get this great view of the Blue Mosque.
It's good to be Sultan.
We also had a little adventure shopping in the Spice Bazaar.
And on the Galata Bridge, every day you can see hundreds of fishermen, dangling their poles off the bridge...
Why did Constantinople get the works? That's nobody's business but the Turks!
Next time, another day in Turkey...
