Living Through It: Turkey Day 3: Istanbul

We went back to tour Hagia Sophia, since it was closed the day before. We took a few more pictures in front of the Blue Mosque, since they're just across the plaza from each other. The Bernadacs:

Hagia Sophia

Apparently Hagia Sophia is very famous in the art world, so Luke was nerding out hardcore, since he's an art teacher. He pointed out a lot of things that I now don't remember (the effects of waiting 2 months to blog), but I do remember something about the mosaic of Christ above this door being the first of its kind.

It's hard to show how absolutely cavernous this place was inside. The ceilings were incredibly high and everything inside was just huge. I guess you can see by these chandeliers, which were probably about 9 feet off the ground and then you can see how much distance there was between them and the ceiling. And then the doors, which were about 3 times as tall as an average person.

Hagia Sophia was built in 537 A.D. as a cathedral during the Byzantine and Latin Empire, then was converted to a mosque during the reign of the Ottoman Empire and now is a museum open to all. It is featured on many Seven Wonders of the World lists and it's not hard to see why.

Also for scale, that circular sign with Arabic writing on it is probably ten-feet tall.

When Luke first told me these pictures on the wall were mosaics, I had a hard time believing him. It looked like painted plaster to me. But sure enough, the closer you get the easier it is to see that they're made up of thousands of tiny tiles. Most of them have not yet been fully restored.

View of the Blue Mosque through the window in Hagia Sophia.

After we were finished at Hagia Sophia, we found a cafe on the plaza and had some tea (or water) and baklava. I've never really been a huge fan of baklava - it always seemed soggy to me, but my time in Turkey has converted me. This baklava was probably some of the best we had the whole trip, and trust me, we had a lot.

We went back to the bazaar that afternoon, but also went to some outdoor markets. This part also reminded me of Argentina - masses of people shopping for everything at very specialized shops. No Wal-Mart or Target here.

Like I said, there are mosques everywhere in Istanbul. It's like LDS churches in Utah, except these have very tall minarets so they're easy to pick out among all the buildings. I think there are three different mosques in this picture.

That afternoon we went on a boat ride along the Bosphorus, which is a strait that connects the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea and forms part of the border between Europe and Asia. It's a high traffic area, with tons of boats and ships of all sizes, from fishing boats to ocean liners. There was plenty to see in the water and all of Istanbul to see on land.