We began the tour just past the Blue Mosque next to a giant obelisk with hieroglyphs from Luxor. I saw similar things at the Temple of Karnak, as you may recall. The obelisk was brought to the city by a Roman emperor. A similar obelisk can be seen in Paris on the Place de la Concorde. The obelisk marks one of the edges of the giant Hippodrome, an ancient (now mostly buried) Greek stadium for horse-racing.
After the obelisk we walked to a mosque called Sokullu (after the grand vizier who commissioned it). Along the way, we came across this very bizarre graffito. "I carry books since years but could not stop to be a donkey!" I have absolutely no idea what it means. As to the Turkish below: I know it means something along the lines of "a man is a man [something], a donkey is a donkey [something]". You're welcome for that brilliant translation. Any better/fuller translation would be much appreciated…
The Sokullu mosque was spectacular. Unfortunately you're not allowed to take photos inside, so I have none to post here. It was designed by Mimar Sinan, who also designed over 300 buildings. He now ranks alongside Snøhetta (the firm that designed the Oslo opera house and the new Library of Alexandria) as one of my favorite architects of all time.
Next, we went to another mosque, the Küçük Ayasofya ('Little Hagia Sophia'). This is a pretty, but small, mosque that used to be a church. From here we went to the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts.
The above image of the Blue Mosque and the obelisk was taken from the Museum. It is a gorgeous collection of calligraphic works, enormous kilims and other rugs, large metal candle holders and other pieces of Middle Eastern art. Below the art museum is the Etnography [sic] Museum, which houses costumes and scenes from Turkish/Turkic peoples around the globe. Based on the extremely musky scent of the place, my dad guessed they use a lot of mothballs to preserve the artifacts. One of my current dreams is to do research on the effects of Soviet policies of language standardization on cultural identity among the Turkic peoples of southern Siberia, so this part of the museum was especially interesting to me.
After that we went to the Grand Bazar. It is enormous! Extremely common were shops with rugs, hookahs (or narghiles as they're still called here), and fake D&G, Chanel and Abercrombie t-shirts. People were constantly calling out to passersby, hoping to attract people to their shops: "Let me help you spend your money!" "I can help you change your life maybe!" "Stop your horses!" Annaliese bought an evil-eye talisman and a scarf. I bought shot glasses. And yes, to aid in your judging me, they do have the Turkish flag and a nazar on them. Colin: typical, trashy tourist. We also stopped here to eat. I had some sort of lamb and vegetables dish (tasty), and rice pudding again for dessert. (It was caramelized on the top - I love it!)
Next we went to the Spice Bazaar (Mısır Çarısı in Turkish, or 'Egyptian Bazaar'). They were selling all kinds of spices, herbs and pastries. Alongside the baklava and Turkish delights was a strange, nut-filled dessert called "Turkish viagra". No, I do not know what that heck it is.
Both bazaars were jam-packed and loud. We could hardly wind our way through the enormous crowds. Shopkeepers were constantly shouting at us. Our tour guide and his wife, both of whom are Turkish "born and bred" as they said, have lighter skin and therefore also couldn't escape English-language entreaties. The woman, Şayeste, told us when she was younger she had blond hair (now it's black), so throughout her childhood she was constantly mistaken for a tourist and therefore hounded by shopkeepers and salesmen.
In closing, I leave you with a photo of the last mosque we visited (I don't remember what it's called) and a wish for everyone to have a very merry Christmas (even those of you who aren't Christians).
