{"id":1264,"date":"2010-08-22T17:34:46","date_gmt":"2010-08-22T21:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=1264"},"modified":"2015-02-14T13:49:55","modified_gmt":"2015-02-14T18:49:55","slug":"istanbul-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=1264","title":{"rendered":"Istanbul Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 22, Sunday<\/span><\/p>\n

Roseanne and I felt a little sad to have to say good-bye to our cousins. \u00a0We had many incredible experiences and wonderful memories and a ton of photographs of our Anatolia journey. \u00a0Today was a beautiful sunny morning with a cool breeze blowing so we decided to go out for a walk. \u00a0It was Sunday morning and there was very little traffic, few people on the street, and the shops were closed. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>View of Istanbul from the Hotel on the Corner <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jeff was expected to arrive in a couple of hours so we had some time to explore. \u00a0We walked to the corner and wanted to see the roof-top restaurant at that hotel. The view was excellent!! \u00a0We were the only ones there and we took lots of photographs!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

You can see how close our hotel was to the Hagia Sophia in the background. \u00a0As we were starting down in the elevator, I received a text message from Jeff. \u00a0He arrived at the White House Hotel and was waiting for me! \u00a0Roseanne and I walked back up the hill to the hotel. Jeff had checked in and was comfortably sitting in the lobby with his welcome-glass of fresh orange juice and Turkish Delight “lochoom”. \u00a0He dropped off his luggage in the room and was ready to explore the exciting city of Istanbul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We all walked down the hill toward Haghia Sophia and stopped at the ancient Roman Cistern. \u00a0Roseanne had missed seeing it during her first week in Istanbul and Jeff was curious, so we went in. \u00a0It’s dark and damp and musty. \u00a0 The huge underground space does not have the most ideal lighting to take photographs, but it is worth seeing. \u00a0It is amazing to realize that this place was the main source of fresh water for the people of Istanbul about 2000 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Entrance to Topkapi Palace<\/span><\/p>\n

Then we walked further down toward Topkapi Palace. \u00a0The last time I visited the royal palace, it was a hot sticky drizzling day. \u00a0Today the sun was bright and a cool breeze blew the humidity away. We bought our tickets and entered the beautiful park-like inner courtyard. \u00a0Jeff and Roseanne wanted to see the harem so we went there first.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Interior Courtyard of the Sultan’s Harem<\/span><\/p>\n

I suppose most people are curious about harems because they are not part of our culture. \u00a0It was interesting to learn about harem culture and the hierarchy among the women and the prominent role of the Sultan’s mother.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sultan’s Reception Room<\/span><\/p>\n

The walls were richly decorated with beautiful blue and white Iznik tiles. \u00a0Gold trim glowed warmly in the sunlight in every room. \u00a0We walked through the lovely grounds of the palace and visited the buildings and museums along the way. \u00a0We stopped again at the restaurant at the end of the peninsula where Topkapi is located.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>View of the Asian Side of Istanbul<\/span><\/p>\n

The palace has a fabulous view of the intersection of the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus Straight, and the Golden Horn.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Imam Reading the Koran on Stage Before Sunset<\/span><\/p>\n

We walked back to the White House Hotel to rest a little while before venturing out for dinner. \u00a0The park between the Blue Mosque and Haghia Sophia were crowded with people. \u00a0A large stage was set up with musicians quietly waiting and listening to an Imam recited from the Koran. \u00a0It was still the month-long celebration of Ramazan in the Islamic world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Families Waiting for Sunset<\/span><\/p>\n

People were seated on the ground in multi-generational families around picnic blankets. \u00a0Bottles of water, covered bowls of food, and wrapped sandwiches were placed in the middle of the blankets. There was a festive air and the people were talking and laughing with each other. Children ran around happily.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A Carnival Atmosphere at Night During Ramazan<\/span><\/p>\n

Then the “Call to Prayer” was loudly broadcast from the mosques. \u00a0A collective cheer was heard from the crowd and water bottles were opened and food containers were handed around. \u00a0The noisy crowd was hushed as hundreds of people broke their fast and ate dinner.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A Side Street Filled With Restaurants<\/span><\/p>\n

We walked through the crowd of people as the sun set. \u00a0Vendors were selling everything from roasted corn-on-the-cob to hand-painted plates to balloons. \u00a0We went to the Adonin Restaurant, which became our stand-by for consistently good food and ate a tasty Turkish dinner. \u00a0It was a good end to a good day.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 22, Sunday Roseanne and I felt a little sad to have to say good-bye to our cousins. \u00a0We had many incredible experiences and wonderful memories and a ton of photographs of our Anatolia journey. \u00a0Today was a beautiful sunny morning with a cool breeze blowing so we decided to go out for a walk. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5,8,3,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-armenian","category-family","category-istanbul","category-travel","category-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1264"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8708,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions\/8708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}