Still posting photos from Istanbul, Tue, Apr. 14.

The SD card on Kim's camera filled (she took over 1,000 photos), so in Hagia Sophia she spent about half an hour sorting through pictures, deleting duplicates and out-of-focus shots so she'd have space. We bought a second 2 GB card later that day.

Istanbul, like many cities, had lots of contrasts.
Of course there was the modern mixed with the

ancient. We saw women who were covered in conservative Muslim clothing from head to foot, and there were belly dance shows and women provocatively dressed. There were very nice well-maintained areas and there were buildings literally crumbling and trash piled.

The video below shows Kim twirling her hand around the Stele of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus . We're still waiting for her to receive her miracle.



All the rest of the pix are also Hagia Sophia, so I'll just include them here. No commentary - links in yesterday's blog provide all the info. Just trying to finish posting all my Istanbul pictures.

This is taken out one of the 2nd floor windows. In the distance you can see dome and minarets of the Blue Mosque. In the foreground is all Hagia Sophia.

This is also out the Hagia Sophia windows looking up at one of the minarets.

After all the barrel-vaulted ceilings, I just thought this ceiling pattern was different so I took a picture.

That's all the pictures from Agia Sophia, but I still have more Istanbul pictures for tomorrow's post.

All of today's pictures of from St. Sophia in Istanbul and were taken Tuesday, April 14.

For the uninitiated and those who didn't watch the wall-to-wall coverage of Obama's trip to Hagia Sophia when he visited Turkey, here's just a little info. The original church on the site was built back in the 4th century but it burned. The current structure is much newer - from the 6th Century! Amazing.

There are some impressive mosaics but I think the most amazing thing is just the sheer size. The dome is 102 feet across and 182 feet high. Lots more detail is available online for diehards who want to read.


It was the seat of the Orthodox church until 1453 when the Turks conquered Constantinople and turned the church into a mosque. All sorts of modifications and renovations took place.

Then in the 20th Century, Ataturk declared that it should be a museum. Carpets were removed (which I suspect are probably for sale somewhere in Istanbul) and the plaster that had been put over the amazing mosaics was removed.

Since I'm not going to fill all this space with information on Hagia Sophia, I may as well mention some of the many people who approached us.

I know I've mentioned the carpet guys, but I can't get over it. One guy directed us to the
entrance to the Blue Mosque (we never asked for any help), then showed us the plastic bags for our shoes, and told us he would meet us when we came out, which he did. The whole time, I told him I wasn't buying carpet.


Another guy asked us where we were going when we were looking at a map, and Kim told him the Hippodrome. He walked us there. Again I told him I wasn't buying carpet, but he never left, waiting while Kim stopped to take pictures.

As we walked down the street, a guy with 5-6 boxes of perfume approached. When we wold him we weren't interested, he told us he had others and asked Kim what she liked. We went into a pharmacy just to lose the guy. He was there when we came out!

In a similar vein, when we came out of the Basilica Cistern (pictures tomorrow) someone there told us that because we had been underground we were turned around. He offered to help us find our way. We declined.



Anytime we walked past a restaurant we were invited to come in or just to take a look at the menu.


When we were standing in the line outside Hagia Sophia, guys were constantly working the line, telling us that if we bought a guidebook from them, they could get our tickets for us and we would not have to wait in line. I never saw anyone take them up on their offer, so I don't even know whether they could so it or not.



Now, just random thoughts to fill the space:


Why can't the passport checks be done together?
I know the answer - because each country would not want to conduct them in the other's country. It's just annoying to fall back asleep at 3 a.m. only to be wakened 30 minutes later.





It's really disconcerting to give your passport to someone in the middle of the night and then have them walk away with it, as well as a pile of others. I knew he was an officer but he with the stack he had, couldn't he lose one? We were a long way from a US Embassy. I regretted that I left the photocopies of the passports back in Athens.




"Baggage check" was a bit of a joke. Most of the 4 times (one on each side, each way) they just looked in our cabin to see our bags - never opened them. One time a guy actually looked and pulled out some Turkish coffee. Practical - it's known the smell of coffee masks drug odors. He held it to his nose and smelled! Unless he has a basset hound's nose, there's no way he would have been able to tell if there was anything in there.


Kim did a lot better in learning simple Turkish phrases (like thank you) than I did. She would ask people how to say things. They loved it when she used her few words. I guess I just didn't work hard enough at it.

This is not the most skillful pan/tilt ever, and you can't really see a whole lot. The whole point was my attempt to show the size of the place.

Still trying to finish the pictures from Monday the 13th. This one is actually taken from the nearby Istanbul University campus.


It's interesting that every Greek we told we were going to Istanbul was very happy for us. They all love the city, even though some may have only visited once or twice during their lives.

People in Turkey were extremely nice to us. You
sort of expect people in hotels and shops to be
friendly, but random people were, too. As Kim was lining up to take a picture outside a mosque, a car pulled over and a woman told us (in English) that we could go around to the other side of the building and we would be able to see much more. An elderly man who spoke no English actually led us to another mosque. Kim was looking at the map and he came over and spoke (in Turkish). Kim pointed on the map, he saw, and waved for us to follow him.


I promised a picture of Kim with her head scarf - here it is.

Looking at this picture in Suleiman's mosque I could swear I was in a medieval Italian church with the striped archways and whitewashed walls.

After the mosque we walked onto the main portion of Istanbul University. I was really quite surprised. Having seen a number of European universities I know that many are decentralized, with buildings scattered all around town, and no real central location. IU really reminded me of an American university. It had glass enclosures for poster announcements, real classroom buildings (unlike buildings that have classrooms and some non-university business or offices), even had a manicured quad, and we saw what appeared to be a class being conducted on the lawn (I guess even Turkish professors can be old hippies).

The flag proclaims the university was founded in 1453, which would correspond to Ottoman rule in Istanbul. We saw an audio production truck parked outside one of the building, which I assume to house the communications program. Interestingly the truck had a German license plate, German website, but the words painted on the truck were in Turkish.


Forgive me for obsessing, but let me say just a few more words about the techniques carpet salesmen use to engage people. They will offer you directions, whether or not you look like you know where you're going (looking around or having a camera is a cue you're a tourist). They will ask you where's you're from. If you say "America" or "USA" they immediately start to guess states, and they almost always begin with California. One guy actually started with New Orleans - I still don't have any idea why. Some just directly ask "are you American?"

I was told on a couple of occasions that I looked Turkish because of my moustache. "Looking Turkish" is a reason someone would want to buy a carpet, I guess.

One guy told us he was practicing his English by talking with us. I started right off by telling him I wasn't interested in buying a carpet. He replied he wasn't trying to sell me one, but shortly after revealed that he did have a shop and would like to be able to show me, even if I wasn't interested in buying anything. He just wanted to practice his English.
Every mosque all over town has minarets with speakers on them. At prayer time they all have cantors (live or recorded) leading prayers. Even if they were synchronized, because of the distance between them you would never hear things simultaneously. During the day it's not bad, but some of the prayer times are extremely early in the morning (like 4 a.m.).
This very short video is to illustrate how deliveries get made in Istanbul. Yes, there are delivery trucks, but there are a LOT of these guys with carts, hauling hundreds of pounds of stuff up sidewalks and down streets.

This bank advertisement is not Obama, but a look-alike hired for the bank's ads. Obama is very popular in Turkey. When they found out we were Americans, a lot of Turks told us they liked Obama but didn't like Bush.

That finally concludes Monday's pictures. On to Tuesday, April 14.

Kim was struggling in Istanbul between the
train ride (both sitting and sleeping tough on her), cold weather and all the walking. After breakfast, she fell asleep in the room before we left for a full day.

First stop was St. Sophia, called Hagia Sophia in Turkey, Agia Sophia in Greece or Santa Sofia in Italy. Anyway you slice it, this was the line outside - about a half-hour to get in. Obama had been here 8 days before. Good thing he came on a day they're closed so he didn't have to stand in line ;)

More tomorrow.

Monday, Apr. 13.

At breakfast up on the 6th floor, we saw a funny seagull at the window. It was obviously someone had been feeding him. He was waiting on the sill, pacing back and forth, and periodically looking in. It was a riot.

We walked the short distance from our hotel to the Grand Bazaar. It's hard to describe. It's combination mall, tourist attraction, flea market and a lot of other things all rolled into one. The covered area has wonderful archways, barrel vaulted ceilings, domes and all sorts of interesting architecture. The place has tons of people and shops selling everything from expensive jewelry to cheap trinkets. Some of the shopkeepers call out to you, some don't. Those who try to engage passers-by use all sorts of techniques, but usually they know what language to speak. Quite a skill. Carpet salesmen are amazing. They are everywhere - not just in their own shops, but they walk around the bazaar an d even in the streets near their shops. Carpet shops are all over the place. We stopped at a coffee shop in the

bazaar to sit down and take a break, and three men were "flirting" with two women in the coffee shop. Anywhere else in the world, the men would be trying to pick them up. Here, they were trying to get the women to come to their shop to look at carpets. As we were leaving the coffee shop, one convinced Kim to visit his shop, just next door, to have some tea. Kim told him we had just had some, but he continued and Kim finally gave in.

We entered ABC Rugs Gallery. The guy who talked us in didn't stay. Evidently his job is getting people into the shop. Another man spoke with us, while two younger guys displayed the rugs for us. He proudly showed us a picture of Bill Clinton's visit to the shop in '99 (with all the entrances to the bazaar, I can't imagine what the secret service must've done). We got a lengthy lesson on carpet. Turks use double knots, as opposed to single used further east. Double take longer. Materials are cotton, wool and silk (in ascending order of cost and wear). One or two fabrics/carpet. We were given apple tea, despite telling them we had just had tea. We were showed a map of Turkey and told 450 different types of rugs are made, based on the village that makes the rug. A woman was brought over to demonstrate the carpet she was working on. Only

one woman can work on a rug; since each has
different strength pulling string, etc., the rug won't match if different people work on it. We were shown each carpet twice. It was displayed, then one of the guys flipped it 180 degrees so we could see that the colors looked completely different from the opposite side.

After all this time we finally got around to price. For a 4X6 foot rug, we were talking about prices
of $600 and up - not including shipping. Based on the fact that it takes a woman 15-18 months to make that rug, the price is reasonable, but not in our budget. Undoubtedly he would have come down on the price, but not to the $100 or so that we were willing to spend. Even his least expensive Kilim rugs would have been more than we wanted to spend. We told them from the outset that we weren't interested in buying and they said that was OK, but at least they wanted to show us. To their credit the salesman didn't give us a hard time, told us it was nice talking with us, wished us a good trip.

This video is interesting. Down one aisle of the bazaar we came across this auction. It was outside a gold shop, so we assumed it was for gold or silver.

We left the bazaar and wandered around the nearby area, making our way toward the mosque of Suleiman the Magnificent. We stopped for lunch in a square just outside the mosque and had some authentic food. I know it's authentic when there's no English menu, and they have you come in (we sat out in the square) to look at the food to order.

This is Beyazit Tower - relatively new (1828) and unfortunately closed - we couldn't climb the 180 wooden steps. Darn!
Unfortunately the mosque is undergoing major
renovation, so only a very small portion was open. Truly sad because it is such a massive structure. Constructed in 1557, one website I checked called it Istanbul's "largest and grandest."

As was the case with all the mosques, we had to remove our shoes to enter and like most (but not all) Kim had to wear head covering. She knew this and came prepared with a scarf, and had even learned the appropriate way to wear it (I'll post a picture tomorrow).

We were in the area of Istanbul University and tomorrow I'll post some pictures from there, as well as some more from other Istanbul sites.

There were a number of significant buildings surrounding the mosque as well. Suleiman's tomb, inside a small adjacent building on the grounds, was also closed for renovation.

One of the interesting things we noticed was the design similarity of the mosques we visited to the

Catholic churches we had seen in Italy. The vaulted ceilings, the knave, stained glass, etc. I guess it really was noticeable when Kim pointed out that we were standing in a mosque courtyard that looked an awful lot like a Catholic church cloister. This being the first time we ever visited mosques, we're learning.

We're back in Athens now, so it's time to catch up on the last 10 days.

On Sun. the 12th, we arrived in Istanbul. We left our bags in the high-tech locker at the train station. Kim bought a map and we started walking. First stop was Tokapi Palace, home of the sultans for almost 400 years.

The Gulhane Park gardens outside the palace were very impressive. There's no way to show how extensive they were. There must have been literally hundreds of thousands of tulips alone.

This is in the gardens - not a sultan but Ataturk - the first president of modern Turkey.


The weather on Sunday was really awful. It was cold, damp and windy. Istanbul is significantly north of Athens and on Sunday we really felt it.


Turkey's currency is the Turkish Lira - 2 for every one Euro. We changed some money at the
train station but found that a lot of places would not only accept Euros but US dollars and British
Pounds as well. Interestingly, they have Lira that differ in size for the same denomination. I got two different 5 Lira bills: one smaller than the other. It was explained to me that one was a newer bill and one older, and that the older bills were being phased out but were still accepted.


Just one of the windows at Topkapi.


Kim and I stopped at a place for coffee/tea. The street-level floor was a bakery and the floor above had the tea house. It was nice to sit inside for a little while and drink something warm. We had 3 1/2 days in Istanbul and we weren't going to kill ourselves trying to see everything.

The Topkapi entrance.


As it happened there was a major bicycle race in Istanbul that day. In addition to the regular tourists, many streets were closed and lined with spectators watching.

After a few hours of wandering around, looking at
sites and drinking tea, we headed back to the
train station to get our bags. We could have walked to our hotel but between the weather and Kim's aches, we decided to try the tram. It conveniently had a stop right outside the train station, but it was packed. I mean we were really like sardines. Some people just gave up and got off, while others pushed their way on.


To make my weekly call to my mom, I went around the corner from our hotel. There were multiple shops that offered discounted international calling. I chose one to call from. After I finished I was offered tea. Just one of the
many times during this trip.

We stayed at the Assos Hotel. We booked the place online and found it to be a very comfortable place, although if you didn't know where it was, you'd never find it. Although not far from the Grand Bazaar, it was not on a main road: in a regular working-class neighborhood, but not far

from the action.

We had a room one floor up from the lobby - very

spacious and comfortable.

I took this non-tourist picture because I liked the look of an "average" street.

We know hotel food is usually not the best meal in town, but we were both happy not to have to leave the hotel the first evening. We were only one of three tables in use in the dining room that night. The hotel had about 50 rooms, so you know most people weren't eating dinner there.


I figured out our food for the day up to that point had consisted of the three Bs: bread, borek and baklava.

One of the many views of St. Sophia. More about that in a future post.

We spent a little time down in the lobby bar having tea/drinks.


The hotel restaurant was on the 6th floor. Here is a picture of the view from our table during dinner. Not sure when you can make out the ships out in the harbor.


Some quick comparisons to Athens I wrote down after 12 hours in Istanbul:

-not as any dogs as Athens;
-generally things were cheaper;
-Athens is not exactly flush with public toilets (pun intended) but Istanbul is worse. When you can find a public toilet it's usually a pay toilet and not a very nice one at that;
-tour guides outside Topkapi did not constantly bother you to try to get you to pay for their services - a huge difference from the Acropolis, where one approaches you every minute or less (no exaggeration).
-Istanbul has lots more green spaces than Athens;
-Lots less graffiti.


The view of our working-class neighborhood from our hotel window.

More of Istanbul in tomorrow's post.

We're just back from Istanbul, but these pictures are going to be chronological, so today's blog entry won't quite get that far. We leave tomorrow morning for Nafplio, so the I'll start posting Istanbul pictures and info Monday evening.

Sorry to have such a hideous image as the first picture, but it's what struck me first. Look closely: the WC sign is appears to be pointing into the trash pile. It struck me as funny.

For our trip to Istanbul, we first took a train to Thessaloniki,

Greece's second largest city. We had a few hours to see some of the city. Kim bought a map at the train station, we left our bags in a locker at the station and off we went. The picture of all the trash piled, as well as the unique building are just a couple of the many varied views. There's no way to get to know a city in a few hours. I'll say the same for spending a few days in Istanbul, or a few months in Athens. What we really come away with are "snapshots."

The train ride to Thes. was something. We had chairs facing two other people, so less leg room than most of the other seats on the train. Across from us: grandparents taking a 2-3 year old for the weekend. He was fine, but didn't make it more spacious.

This major pedestrian promenade is lined with coffee shops (including Starbucks), restaurants (including TGIFriday) and shops, and runs all the way to the sea.

The Athens train station is much smaller than you'd expect for a city this size. What's more, when I tried buying the International Herald Tribune at 3 different kiosks around the train station, none of them had it. Clearly they don't get many English speakers buying papers there. The kiosk on my little suburban corner carries it but the ones near the train station don't.

Ever wonder about US cultural exports? How about this kids' ride.

We had dinner in Thes. at a restaurant on a quiet sidewalk. We noted that the cost was less than what we've paid for comparable food in Athens. Kim says it was one of the best meals we've had.

We got on our Turkish train to depart at 7:40, and it pulled out right on time. We had a private compartment with two seats. You fold down the
seats and they make a lower bunk. An upper bunk pulls down from above. The room locked and had a sink (non-potable water) and a mini-fridge. The toilet was down the hall. A guy came by and provided us with sheets and pillowcases. We made our own beds.

This is a tourist boat in Thess.

On the train were people from the US, Canada, Greece, Turkey and Romania. There were probably other countries represented - those are just the passports I saw.

This was the restaurant in Thess. where we ate. I was trying to get a shot of all the kitsch inside.

We spoke with a Greek woman on the train who makes the trip regularly. She said we were wise to book the Turkish train. Though she is Greek, she had to admit that theirs were the better trains (we were to find out for ourselves on Wednesday).

As we got on the train, a man showed us to our cabin and kept our tickets. He told us he would return them to us in the morning. It was OK, but I wished I would have separated the return tickets and kept those, just in case.

We were awakened (as we knew we would be) somewhere around 3 a.m. for the first of two passport checks - the first on the Greece side. The officer knocked on our door, asked for our passports, flipped them open to check the pictures, then looked at us to see if we "matched." Then he took our passports. Forget about having our tickets kept, this was more nerve-wracking. After about 30 minutes, he returned and gave us back our passports.

The train pulled out and about 30 minutes later we were stopped again, this time on the Turkey side. The difference this time was we would need to purchase a visitor's visa (as we knew we would). I went to a little shack of a place where a man straight out of central casting was seated in a small "office." He was unshaven and smoking a cigarette (Kim said he smelled of alcohol). The office had a small heater, a transistor radio and a single desk with a few chairs. He looked at our passports, asked me for 15 Euros each for the visa and told me to return to the train (again, he kept the passport).

A short time later back in the cabin, we were visited by "baggage check." A guy came buy asking to see what we had. He didn't really do much checking. I suspect smuggling was not an issue, or else Kim and I didn't match the profile. In any event, another half-hour or so passed, and our passports were returned to us, we closed our door and went back to bed for a few more hours.

According to what I'd read online, the train's scheduled arrival time was 8:05 a.m. but a great train travel website said that the train is regularly late, and not to schedule any appointments for 8:15.

We actually pulled into the station (picture on the left) at about 9:30. The Greek woman in the cabin next to us told us that was the "normal" time.

Now it's time for me to get to bed. I'll blog about Istanbul next week.