When you think of Istanbul, you have to think of the local legend that is the Grand Bazaar. In modern day, its more of tourist shopping place than something the locals use but it still has an attraction that brings in up to half a million people over the course of a busy day. It was built in 1461 and has grown to include: 2 mosques, 4,000 shops, 4 fountains, many restaurants, 58 streets, and 22 entrances. Haggling is the way of getting what you want at a better price.
The famous items up for sale are jewelry, scarfs, rugs, lights, and clothing.
We bought a lamp from the bazaar and spent an hour and a half trying to get it packaged and sent home. First, we couldn't find the post office in the area until we finally figured out it was closed. We went to another one and the girl there was one of those people that hates being bothered to do her job. The nerve of us to ask her to do her job! She didn't want to ship it because we didn't have a box. We knew this and wanted to know where to find a box but she wouldn't tell us. Luckily, a guy in the line pointed us the in right direction. We got a box then had to run back to the hotel to wrap up the lamp so it wouldn't break. We bought some tape along the way and used half the roll on the box. A guy back at the post office tried to take our tape. He never said a word to anyone and just stood in the corner staring at it. Quite strange. Finally, after an hour and a half, we got the package sent off. Now, we wait to see if it arrives and if the lamp is still intact.
We met up with our friend's uncle again at the Dolmabahçe Palace. He thought it would be a nice place to see so we agreed to meet him there. The post office fiasco made us arrive a half hour late. We got in line with only an hour until the ticket office closed. This wouldn't have been a big problem except the line was incredibly long and moved like a snail.
We got to see the ceremonial changing of the guard as we waited. This wasn't the only show. A bunch of people started yelling at the security guys because they felt they weren't going to get in and they wanted to know what part of the line would be the last to get in. Security told them they weren't sure but this wasn't good enough. After a twenty minute argument, the people were escorted in free of charge. I guess making an ass of yourself in front of a lot of people works sometimes.
The palace was built in the middle of the 19th century by the Ottoman Turks. The famous Topkapi Palace, where the Sultan was living at the time, wasn't considered to be luxurious and modern enough. The new palace showed lots of western influence with inspiration from Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. It only housed six Sultans until the new Turkish Republic was established by Atatürk. He made the palace his summer residence and died there. His bedroom hasn't changed and the clocks all point to 9:05 a.m., the hour he died. Since we were some of the last in line to get tickets and all tours are guided, we could only select the Administrative part or the living quarters. We chose the living quarters. It was a nice tour but not really guided and we weren't allowed to take pictures of the lavish bedrooms.
After visiting the palace, we walked back to Taksim Square and down to the Galata Tower. We wanted to try out a restaurant in the area that is in an old British Jailhouse. It was used by the Allied forces in the first world war then later served as a prison and British consulate. The couple who owns now cooks delicious Russian and Georgian cuisine. They had just reopened that day after a week of vacation so not many people had come and we had the place to ourselves for a while.
Istanbul has many stray cats running around. We noticed a culture of people providing them with food and water though. Check out this little guy who hit the motherload.
The Hagia Sophia and Bosporus at sunset. It never gets old.
After three full days, our time in Istanbul was over. We purchased tickets for the night train to Sofia. The third member of our cabin was a 22 year old guy from Seattle. We had a great time even though we had to wake up and line up at 4 in the morning for Turkish passport control. Then at 6, the Bulgarians came knocking for the passports again. We arrived an hour late but it was nice to have a place to lay down and stretch out for the 15 hour journey.
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