Day 2

Our first full day in Istanbul was a busy one and filled with many of the required tourist activities. It started with an early breakfast at the hotel, after which Mark and I headed into Istanbul proper. Our first stop, a purely practical one, was in the modern business district of Taksim to purchase ferry and plane tickets for the next leg of our journey and exchange money. As the exchange rate was approximately 77,000 Turkish Lira to the dollar, figuring out the real cost of things in our heads took math skills which are sorely lacking in my genetic make-up. I solved this problem by creating a little exchange rate cheat sheet that by the end of our trip would become a tattered and illegible reminder of the fact that Mark and I are incurable spendthrifts. Meanwhile, Mark created a mini-dictionary with those necessary phrases such as (phonetic spelling here) "Kash pura?" (meaning "How much?"), "Tuvalet?" (toilet?) and, for me, "Eht Estaymayorum" ("I don't eat meat").

From Taksim it was down the hill to the main part of old Istanbul, the one featured in all the pictures of the many-domed mosques cascading down into the ocean. We began our sightseeing at Topkapi Palace, a several acre site of your basic old palace-type stuff, similar in many ways to the Alhambra in Spain. To be honest, not much held our attention until we came to the section where the wealth of the Ottoman empire was displayed -- room after room of ruby and diamond encrusted jewelry, arms, and furniture, and a dagger with an emerald handle that was stunning.

From Topkapi we walked down a block for our first of many mosque visits -- the Blue Mosque. The mosque had stunning stained-glass windows and hand-painted tiles, making the quick visit definitely worthwhile.

After the Blue Mosque, Mark and I did what we would do over and over again on this trip -- we shopped, of course. In Turkey, as in most middle-eastern countries, this means wandering through bazaars, being convinced by a tout to enter a store, and then sitting for hours sipping tea and watching hundreds of beautiful carpets unfold before your eyes, or stacks of miniature paintings being sorted through, or piece after piece of jewelry displayed. It takes a strong will to walk away without buying anything, but there is wealth to be gained, not just spent, in these visits. Carpet talk almost always includes learning about politics ("This carpet comes from near Lake Van, which you can't get anymore because of the Kurd problem." "Really? And what is your view of the Kurdish rebellion?" and so on) and lifestyles (what our houses look like, what their homes look like, etc). Of course, Mark and I did not come away from Istanbul's Grand, or Covered, Bazaar empty-handed; a few miniature paintings somehow found their way into our daypacks.[p>
As the shops in the bazaar closed down, Mark and I wandered through a few neighborhoods and eventually found a small restaurant in the old city where we had a quiet dinner before returning to the hotel.

Istanbul, Turkey