The Toys

Istanbul: May I help you (and other threats)

please note: lots of images which may take some time to download
Welcome to Turkey. After having shed an over-zealous salesman (the first of millions) and extricating myself from the clutches of the evil foreign-exchange lady at the bank, I I walked a few yards uphill past a pretty park to change dollars into Turkish lira.

One can only wonder what this old, stone lion has seen over the centuries. And, note the interesting Turkish architecture in the background. It is so much prettier and interesting than the huge apartment blocks across the river.
The Egyptian obelisk stands in the center of the ancient course of the Roman hippodrome. Immediately behind it is the monument which was stripped of its gold plating by the crusaders of the fourth crusade.

There was amazingly little traffic around the Hippodrome, which made it a peaceful and contemplative spot. Immediately to the left of these two monuments lie the walls of the Blue Mosque.
Justinian's column. One can still see the gaping sections where the Crusaders ripped the gold plating off it during their orgiastic pillaging of Constantinople (now Istanbul).

What is also interesting is that the base of the column extends a good ten feet into the ground -- the old ground level of 800 years ago.
A bit beyond the obelisk and Justinian's column one finds this truncated bronze spiral column. It, too, was destroyed by the Crusaders.

Immediately in the background lies my hotel (uphill and in yellow). It had a wonderfully central location and was staffed with extremely kind and generous people.

What I didn't like were the twice-nightly passes by the streetsweeping trucks: one at two, one at four.

If you look carefully to the left of the road leading to the hotel you will see what appear to be trash containers. They are actually stone sarcophagi. Istanbul must have to many of them that they don't need to fence them off or put them in a museum.
I fell instantly in love with Turkish architecture. It's easy to see why: tasteful, refined, cultured.
At the far end of the Hippodrome lay Aya Sofia, one of Christendom's most famous religious buildings.

I took this photo on a cold day in the spring. One can only wonder how beautiful it must be at the height of summer, when the roses are in bloom and everything is so green.
This is a photo of the Blue Mosque, the photo taken from the rose gardens of Aya Sofia. I found it difficult to try and adequately describe its architecture. Care to have a go?

The Hippodrome runs alongside the Blue Mosque, and with Aya Sofia at its head, makes for a charming and quite accessible historical center.

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