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| In one of the courtyards at Topkapi Palace |
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| In the harem section, actually.. |
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| In the background are Europe (left) and Asia (right) |
We just got back from a week-long trip to Turkey.
We visited Istanbul for four days and then the Cappadocia region, in central Turkey, for three. In Istanbul we saw some of the oldest and most significant sites from the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, in Cappadocia we explored ancient cave dwellings built by early Christian monastics and refugees, and overall we met many friendly, generous, and welcoming Turks. It was a real eye-opener of a trip and we saw and did so many remarkable things that it'll take a few blog posts to cover it all!
We stayed with an Olmsted scholar family, the Williams, in Istanbul. As usual, it was really helpful to have the perspective of someone who's lived in the city and knows the language and culture. You could certainly visit Istanbul without knowing someone and get along just fine, but it's nice to have that insider knowledge. The size of the city took a little getting used to since we live in a provincial village compared with the megalopolis that is Istanbul (750k in Krakow versus 12 million in Istanbul), but the people are friendly for a city of that size. There were many times when people offered Jill their seat on the bus and JR got plenty of smiles (and plenty of candy from shopkeepers).
We visited the big sites, such as Topkapi Palace, where the sultans hung their turbans for four centuries. The architecture and decoration were beautiful. I think if you were into interior design, Istanbul would be heaven for you. Alas, I am not. But it looked good to me.. One of the things I read in a guidebook was that because Islam forbids depictions of holy figures, the Ottomans focused on elaborate patterns and designs. Sounds believable. Another interesting thing about this location was that it looks out over the Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus, so you can take in the view of two continents and the waterway that separates them. (Sarah Palin would love it!)
More on Istanbul in the next post.. Grand Bazaar, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and more. Stay tuned!
