A Crowded Bazaar

Istanbul, across the Golden Horn to Galata

We had some friends that were visiting Istanbul and it was so much fun to spend time with them. Actually, it turned out to be a busy week for visits. We ate a traditional Turkish Breakfast with some of our colleagues and their guests and then we headed off to the Spice Bazaar to meet our friends and to do some touristy sites.

Turkish breakfast!

It was fun to spend time with them. We did the Spice Bazaar—the tourist part, and then we took them out to the place where the ‘locals’ shop. It was SO crowded! Normally there are people, but this was exceptionally busy. There are two other times I have been in a small spaces with thousands of people pushing me in a direction I was not planning to go and those were Chinatown in NYC during Chinese New Year and Divisoria (a shopping district) in Manila, Philippines. Much like this trip to the Bazaar, those other trips we had some unsuspecting tourists who thought we were taking them for a leisurely experience at the mall! HAHAHA…well they found out better and have plenty of stories to tell!

We spent the day trying all the exotic foods—some we had sampled before and others that were new—Pomegranate juice (completely good for you but completely SOUR…Lady said she felt like it was literally eating away her enamel), a Turkish version of a hamburger crossed with a  sloppy joe, Turkish icream (it is a little more elastic than US Icecream), warm pida with cheese (think tasty cheese bread) and some kind of grilled cheese with sugar were among the most memorable.

Do you want to join with our closest neighbors?

Lets play a game of "who can find J.?"

The kids seemed to unfazed by the sheer number of people jostling for space and we would pop in and out of stores along our way. Forget squeaky clean malls, this is much more interesting!

We ended the day with another trip to the Hagia Sophia. I could never get sick of this building no matter how long we have been here or been inside. It is simply grand. This time the Lucky Dragon was obsessed with the marble stairs. I stood there while he went up and down and up and down and up and down again. I finally picked him up and walked to find the rest of the group and he was thrashing until he arched his back in defiance and looked up and saw the roof. He stopped immediately and spent the next ten minutes just staring at the ceiling and talking about it (in Dragon jibberish of course). 10 Minutes is a really long time for a little guy to stay still. It must have been really impressive!

His form of prostest that I would not let him through the signs on the ground

We are so happy to have people come visit. We hope to have many more in the future! And don’t worry, I am sure we will find a crowded place for you to visit while you are here…hehe!

Below is Lucky Dragon boy in his Tongan outfit ready to go to Church! 

Ready for Church

A Building of a Thousand Histories

 

We were able to enter the building of with a thousand histories today. The Hagia Sophia (or Ayasofya). Just like the city of Istanbul itself, the Hagia Sophia has changed names, allegiances, and in physical appearance over the years. Depending on who controlled the city, named the building and worshipped within its walls as they deemed proper.

Romans made it a Christian Cathedral, Bizantines adorned it with their love of gold and art, and Islam revered it as a mosque. Today, due to a decision after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Hagia Sophia is a museum. The history of a thousand years in preserved for all of us to see. They are doing extensive restoration projects (including a big one right in the main hall) so there is scaffolding there.

Blue Mosque. On our way to Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia

The building itself was awe inspiring. It covers a massive area and the dome stands nearly 180 feet high and is dizzying to stand there and look up. Even Tau’aho was excited about seeing the beautiful scenes. He would lean back as far as he could in the ERGO to see it.

We loved walking the halls where worshipers from many religions have walked. From an art, history or architecture standpoint, this building is impressive. We walked up the rough stone ramp that wound up to the upper tier and I was amazed at how that must have taken an engineering feat to do so many years ago. Not to mention what it must have done to make the arches support such a heavy dome.

Lucky was SO interested in the ceilings too

Lady Hiva said at one point, “It is too bad Sala is not here with us, she could give us the tour and historical details too.”

As we exited Hagia Sophia we could hear a commotion outside the compound. When we walked out we saw there was a HUGE protest—common in Istanbul—happening. There were chanting people carrying their flags and banners flooding into the streets. As the chanting became louder and more people came to join the procession, we looked for the fastest way out of the area. Other than it being really loud and in large number, it wasn’t threatening yet. But we did not want to wait around to see if it would get violent later.

We found a taxi down the street and we headed back home and passed several areas with swat teams staged and ready for the protest to escalate. Phew…glad we didn’t witness that!