Basilica Cistern

Remember how I told you I wish I had taken more pictures?  It applies to more than the Blue Mosque.  The rest of our day in the old part of Istanbul was spent in the Basilica Cistern, Elegance Rug Store, and the Grand Bazaar.  Our guide took us straight from the mosque to the cistern via a park area with really cool planters.  We got to the cistern just as it started to rain a little.  We paid our lira, and down we went.  Oh, WOW!!!  This place was SO cool!!!  The symmetry of the columns is incredible.  It's hard to believe that something this big (even though it is underground) was "lost" for a while.  A better explanation than Wikipedia is here.  After we finished in the cistern, we headed up the street to go to the rug shop.  There was a lady tying a silk on silk rug right there!  Unfortunately, the camera never made an appearance here.  Oops.  Mike reminded everyone that we weren't going to buy a rug, then we sat down and received our rug education.  Did you know that Turkish rugs are better than any other rugs made?  They are!  They use a double knotting system (as opposed to the single knot of Persia) that makes the threads tighter as they are walked on.  They explained how their shop only purchases rugs from families that have made them for their own use, because they are so much better and more natural than factory made rugs.  The families shear the sheep, spin the wool, dye the wool and let it sun for 2-3 summers to get the right color and sheen, then tie the rug and use it.  Rug after rug was unrolled in front of us to show us different techniques and patterns by region.  "Newer" rugs (15-25 years old), "older" rugs (85-90 years old).  Rugs that are over 100 years old are considered antique, and cannot be sold.  There was only one rug that we REALLY liked and would have even considered (even though I probably would have died if I knew the price) that was from a region where there were 5 different colors/shades of sheep.  The wool hadn't been dyed, but the shades and patterns of white to black were so awesome!  Again, sorry for the lack of pictures after the cistern.  More on the Grand Bazaar later.

Bear planter.  Chris wanted a picture with it, because just before our trip he finished his Wolf, and it was his birthday, so he was officially in the Bear den.

One of the 2 Medusa heads used to support pillars.  The other is sideways, but the picture came out blurry.  All the columns were scavenged, so the guess is that the Medusa heads were used to bring the columns to the correct height.

It's amazing that these have stood for so many years!

 

For some reason all the pictures the guide took of us are blurry.



Nick was captivated by the fish.  Mike took 3 pictures to make him happy.  Later we saw some REALLY fat carp, but Mike wouldn't take any other pictures of fish!



The Blue Mosque

I never want to live in Istanbul!!!  Our second day we drove into the old city to see the sights.  It took us 1 hour and 15 minutes to drive the 10 miles.  I can't count the number of times we were almost hit or side-swiped.  Luckily, we made it in one piece, with no extra marks on the car.  We were able to park at a pay lot that was across the street from our first stop - Sultan Ahmed Mosque.  It is also called the Blue Mosque because of the tiles on the inside.  While Mike and the kids were standing out in front of it, a guy approached and started asking talking with them.  It turns out his family has a rug shop (SHOCKING!) and if we come visit their shop later, he'll be our tour guide.  Mike made sure to tell he we were NOT going to be purchasing a rug, and off we went!  It was nice to have a free tour guide.  He knew exactly where we needed to go in, and as it was getting close to prayer time, we barely made it in before they closed the doors.  We all put our shoes in bags, Aubree and I covered our heads with scarves we borrowed from Kendra, and in we went.  WOW!!!  It is so beautiful inside!  The area we were able to walk around in is where the women pray.  The space in front of the railing where we weren't allowed is for the men.  I'm realizing now that I need more pictures!  The carpet has a pattern in it so everyone has a spot to pray, and they are packed tight!  There are also some galleries in the back that I missed.  Next time...
Here's the story we were told by our guide about the building of the mosque:  Sultan Ahmed wanted his mosque to be amazing, incredible, etc.  Normally, mosques have 4 minarets, because the mosque at Mecca had 6.  He told his architect he wanted "altin" minarets.  His architect heard "alti".  So, instead of getting gold minarets, he got six.  Once the mosque was finished, he had to pay to add another minaret to the mosque at Mecca. 



Nick took this picture.  We were in the courtyard where Muslim people would wash before prayers.  (I wish I would have taken a picture of the washing stations.)



Chris took this one.  We entered through this door to get into the inner courtyard.  The arch at the bottom right led to the washing stations.



This is the fountain inside that only the Sultan was allowed to use.

 

The inside of the dome - isn't it just fabulous?  That is why it is referred to as the Blue Mosque.



All the decoration on the wall is tile.



You can kind of see the pattern in the carpet here.  The box is one of 3 where an Imam sits and leads the worship service. 

 

Our family in the mosque.  It was neat for all of us to be able to go into a mosque, and explain to the children how another faith worships.  While we couldn't see them pray, we heard their call to prayer many times during the day.  While I am not publicly called to pray 5 times a day, it made me think how many times I kneel before my Heavenly Father each day.



All 6 (not gold) minarets visible.

The Haghia Sophia (or Aya Sophia) that we did not go to, but it's just across the street from the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, so I took a picture.  This WILL be visited on our next trip!

To be continued...

Rumeli Hisari

The kids had a week off of school for fall break, so we drove over to Istanbul. We have some friends that we met in our ward in Falls Church that live there, and we stayed with them. The first day we went to Rumeli Hisari. It is a fortress that was built at the narrowest part of the Bosphorus in 1452. The whole thing was completed in just over 4 months. The craziest part is that we were able to climb up onto the ramparts. They don't have guardrails anywhere! We had amazing views of the Bosphorus and Asia. You can read more about it here. After we finished up there, we walked along the sea wall to go to get hamburgers at a Turkish burger place. They were SO good!!! Along the way we saw a cemetery outside the fortress walls, and beautiful waterfront mansions on the Asian side.  It rained off and on in the afternoon, but it was a beautiful, FUN day!!!

The entrance.



Door at the gate we entered.



The open gate.



The outside of the tower.

The inside of the tower.



Stairs in the tower leading to floors that no longer exist.
(We couldn't go up there.)



Stairs in the tower headed down.
(We couldn't go there, either.)



Aubree on the rampart.



View across the inside.  We climbed all over!



The Bosphorus and Asia are behind us.



We showed the stairs who was boss!

 

Me and Aubree up on a wall.



Chis in the amphitheater.



This tunnel led to a big area under the amphitheater.



The cavern-y area under the amphitheater.

Mike and Nick up on a wall.



Now we're on the wall, and they are not.

Some of the stairs we climbed.



More stairs.



This is one of the treads on the stairs shown above.
(I thought it was pretty cool.)



Chris headed down these stairs.  It was a little scary at times, because some of the stairs were as tall as his knees, and most the time there was a drop of a couple stories on one side.



There were cannon everywhere!



More cannon!



A smaller gate, maybe for just people?

A much bigger gate is off to the right.



The bigger gate at the top of the fortress.



I'm thinking they used this as defense.  It was above the bigger gate.
(The stairs with the cool step led up to this.)



I liked this design on the outside of the tower.

Cemetery with Rumeli Hisari in the background.

Jellyfish in the Bosphorus!



Waterfront property on the Asian side!

Our Halloween(s)

This year we had 2 Halloweens!  The kids had this last week off from school, so the CLO (Community Liaison Office) decided to have the kid parties with trick-or-treating on the 22nd.  The boys got dressed up and we went to an Embassy house out here where we ate yummy food and the kids played fun games.  As soon as it was dark enough, we went trick-or-treating to the other 7 Embassy houses in our neighborhood.  Aubree stayed home and was able to hand out candy to the groups.  After we got home from that, I took Aubree and all the other teenage kids that live out here to the teen party at the Spivak's house.  They watched "Young Frankenstein" and ate food and had fun.  I didn't get a picture of Aubree as static cling, and the pictures she took of herself are reflections from the mirror with flash.  So, you only get shots of the boys.

Today after school, we went trick-or-treating at the Embassy.  The children of all the employees (including the local hires) dressed up and collected candy from the various offices.  The RSO (Regional Security Office) Office - yes, I know it's redundant, but saying RS Office sounds even sillier - all dressed up.  The ladies that Mike works with LOVE Halloween, and they brought him a costume.  AND HE WORE IT!!!  I have never been able to get Mike to dress up for Halloween, EVER!  He was a creepy jester, and he scared all the little kids, even though he just sat there.  Aubree and her friends also dressed up as models and made the rounds, but I didn't get a picture of that, either.  I'll have to have her dress up another day just so I can get a shot of it.  She was really cute!  We are totally set with candy for the next few months!



Chris was a Cub Scout.  What can I say - our costumes
didn't come and we had to make do with what we had.



Nick was a Mad Scientist.  He had a great evil laugh!!!

 

The creepy Jester.  Even Nick was scared
 of him until he realized it was Dad.