Reading: East of the Sun, about British women and their dreadful naievity in colonial India. Now I’m reading The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, apparently one of the top 10 texts which American readers want banned for under 18’s (hence why I was reading it) and you know what, it’s excellent. Every kid should read it.

 Doing: Today, sleeping in a cave. Best sleep of the trip so far. I contemplating going down the street to get a kebab, but really didn’t feel up to dealing with the kebab-kebab!/want-to-buy-a-carpet? people today.

Watching: Who forgot to tell me that Good News Week is back on??? Thank god for iPod touches, I can download it on the road.

Istanbul

Finally, I’m on a computer that isn’t ready for the scrapheap, and due to the serious lack of occupancy in this hotel, I can pretty much use it for as long as I want, so I can talk about my trip so far.

Right now I’m in Cappadocia, on the tail end of the Turkey section of this adventure, and I’ve been to Pammukkale, Selcuk and Gallipoli so far.

But going back to where I left off, I was in Istanbul.

Like I said, it’s a pretty wicked city, if filled with crazy drivers, somewhat interesting public transport and want-to-buy-a-carpet sellers.

The Orient really was a shambles: Brad and Pam came for the Anzac party on the 23rd, but I was so sick of the place that I and another guest I met – Anne Marie – retired to our room with smuggled kebabs and ayran, and I missed them. The $5 kebab I ordered, which ended up being upgraded to the $12 kebab without my knowledge, is below: it tasted like re-heated spam and frozen spinach. The rich was alright though. And the wine was very very nice, although ludicrously overpriced.

This meal cost me $20. Not happy Jan. I thought this was supposed to be a low-socio-economic country?

 But anyway, I wasn’t there to sample to hostels.

The Grand Bazaar

Grand Bazaar

… is a lovely tourist attraction, but not quite the bargain hunters paradise I had hoped. I was in quite the disagreeable mood on the day, which doesn’t help when you are hasseled by “Yes! Madam! Please! Hello! Hola! Bonjour! Where are you from?” at every other moment. I did enquire about some prices, but wasn’t in the mood for haggling, especially when I felt I was being taken for all I was worth. I ended up buying my scarf from a seller who advertised his prices: oh how I love it when things have price tags!

For the traveller to Turkey, I do have this advice: if you’re only going to Istanbul, then sure, buy from the bazaar (if you’re prepared to haggle aggressively, you might get a decent price). But if you’re going to any other part of Turkey, then wait: I’ve found most stuff goes down in price once you get closer to it’s point of origin. For example, a backgammon board I looked at in Istanbul was 30lira; the same one in Selcuk 20lira, and I finally bought it in Goreme for 14 lira (from a lovely old guy whose items all had price tags! Yay!).

Also, with the Grand Bazaar, get out of it: go for a walk through the rabbits warrens of streets to the north, and you’ll find the bazaars that the locals shop in, eventually leading you to the Spice bazaar, another tourist attraction. It was rather nice (this was where I got my scarf from). I almost bought the place out of lokum (Turkish Delight), though, so it’s dangerous.

Spices in the Spice bazaar

 Basilica Cistern

Basilica Cistern

… is a Roman underground water tank. Awesome for photographs.

One of the Medusa statues

There are two Medusa sculptures in the cistern, one upside down, one on her side. They were apparently stolen from some conquered city sometime previously, and placed here to protect from evil spirits.

Medusa on her side.

Chora Museum

… is a Byzantine church in which magnificient mosaics were discovered covered in whitewash when the church was convertered into a mosque. The most interesting thing about the church though was the walk there. I went off with American/Brit Anne-Marie who was armed with a Rick Steves tour guidebook, and vague directions from the Orient’s desk clerk. We ended up lost, but wandering past several interesting places, including the remains of an old aqueduct, and the Fatih Camii, a rather pretty mosque (on the outside anyway); and down a main street lined with bridal shops, featuring the most decadent and frou frou uses of synthetic lace and taffeta I’ve ever seen. We did also see the ruins of the walls, and an old palace, now crumbling besides rows of slums.

The Chora Museum was really difficult to find: it’s in the middle of nowhere and it’s not until you burst into a square filled with overpriced tourist shops and touts that you find anything resembling a museum is nearby. It’s also surrounded by slums, shanty shacks and slowly degrading ruins, being a residential area.

But, with the help of a local and a Belgian couple in search of the same place, find it we did.

It was stunning. Incredibly wealthy benefactors at some point supported the creation of these mosaics which are so far beyond anything I’ve seen up to this point. They are so finely formed and detailed that they appear like paintings. Notably, they’re a lot more realistic and advanced than the medieval art I’ve seen much of in France, Italy and Germany – clearly the world lost a lot when the Roman empire collapsed.

Blue frescos, totally gorgeous.

Silk cut marble slabs.

There was a colourful array of marble brought from all over the mediterranean. Noticeably were the symmetrical marble sections as seen above – these are created by cutting marble blocks into fine slices using silk. Yes, silk, the only thing fine enough and strong enough to slowly saw through marble in those days. This kind of decoration is all over Istanbul, including the Aya Sofia.

Jesus mosaic, incredibly finely detailed. It's not a painting, it's done with mosaics.

Restoration works brought out what they could of the mosaics, then left the remaining spaces bare, showing the circular structure underneath.

Lovely dome, with spines structure, covered in gold mosaics.

Blue Mosque

One of the main draw cards is Sultanahmet, the Blue Mosque. Oh she’s pretty, and she’s big, and you know what the best thing is? She was free.

The Blue Mosque

She was also the first mosque I’d ever visited. It’s famous for having an unheard of six minarets – apparently, the Ottoman Emperor was a bit of a megalomaniac. When he was chastised for building as many minarets as the mosque in Medina – a big no no – and was ordered to tear one down, he instead paid for a seventh minaret to be built in Medina.

But the inside is gorgeous:

Interior of the Blue Mosque.

Well, now I’m dead tired and my cave-room is calling me. There’s still Aya Sofia and Topkapi Palace to come: the main events in Istanbul. Bye.