Istanbul, How I Love Thee

Merhaba, little readers. Words cannot describe how excited I am to begin writing this post. 

I went to Istanbul.

OhmygoshIwenttoIstanbul.

It was so history-tastic. Walking around the city made me relive so many history classes I had taken at Rowan that stressed the importance of Istanbul not only as the base of Ottoman operations, but also of the importance as Constantinople as the seat of the Byzantine Empire. More importantly, however, it made me miss all of the wacky bastards with whom I took those classes.

... I'm looking at you, Kuski, Ward, Tyson, and Amadeo.

Anyways, last Friday Russell and I hopped a train from Balikesir to Bandirma so we could hop on the ferry to Istanbul. First all, the ferry was AWESOME. It was like a floating airplane, but ginormous. 

Bandirma!

Getting off the ferry in Istanbul was so exciting, I decided to take a picture.

Backs of peoples' heads! And... Istanbul!

OH MY GOSH. THIS PICTURE ALSO CAPTURES MY FIRST TRIP TO EUROPE.

Sorry. It was super exciting.

Russell and I then walked from the ferry port to the neighborhood we were staying in... and I snapped a picture of this little banner for posterity's sake.

... when I was under the impression that participating was going to be a good idea.

On the way to the hostel, I was pretty much falling in love with everything I saw.

Can you dig this Ottoman architecture or can you
dig this Ottoman architecture!?

And then we got to Sultanahmet, where our hostels were for the weekend. For those of you history nerdos who might feel as thought the name "Sultanahmet"sounded familiar, we'll get to that soon.

After we settled into the hostels, a bunch of reunited Fulbrighters ventured out for some dinner, where we passed the following awesome things.

Awesome.

Awesome.
(I also didn't realize the gravity of awesome in this situation because
I couldn't recognize what building this was in the dark from the back.)

Awesome.

Then we got all cultured and decided to have a fancy dinner on the Galata Bridge. So fancy. Unfortunately, in my serious need for sustenance, I forgot to take pictures of our dinner. But let me assure you, it was more delicious than any pictures could show. 

The Galata Bridge... so cultured. And also, awesome.

We also decided to walk around the city, because why wouldn't we. All of a sudden, we turn a corner in the neighborhood of Galata, and WHAM- the Galata Tower!

I mean, look at that tower. It's intimidating.

The Galata Tower is a medieval stone tower that was building in the middle of the fourteenth century. It's one of the most recognizable structures in Istanbul. It was not, in fact, built by the Ottomans-- its constructions predates the Ottoman HulkSmash of Constantinople--- but instead, by the Genoese.  It's pretty awesome.

Afterwards, a few of us went out for a beer and then made our way back to Sultanahmet. As I got into bed that night, the only reason why I wanted to go to sleep was so I could wake up to another day in Istanbul and find more stuff to see!

On Saturday, Kara, Emily, and I decided to hit up a few staple Istanbul sights, since we were only in town for two days. This was totally fine by me, since I literally could not wait to get my little yabanci feet into their confines.

First on the day's agenda was the Blue Mosque.

Oh my gosh. The Blue Mosque. (History nerd alert: also known as the Sultanahmet Mosque, named for the sultan that commissioned its construction).

Oh. My. Gosh.

Just look at it for a second and appreciate the fact that it was constructed in 1609. The settlers at Jamestown couldn't even get their shit together long enough to make it successfully through the winter. This is the travesty we do to American students by not properly teaching world history in tandem with early colonial history... but that's for another blog post.

Since pictures will never do it justice, trust me that it's one of the most beautiful man-made places I've ever been in my entire life.

The Blue Mosque is named so for the massive number of blue tiles that decorate its interior. The more than 20,000 tiles that like its walls were all created in Iznik, a city in western Turkey for their blue pottery and ceramics.

Enlarged so you, my dear readers, can appreciate the beauty.

It's literally got everything.

Even their carpets are fancy!

I was so excited that I forfeited any hope of a nice picture of myself from this angle so I could be photographed in the Blue Mosque. I'm not mad about it.

BFFS.

Getting this picture literally took the efforts of four separate European women.

After the Blue Mosque, we took a quick little hop and a skip over to the Hagia Sophia (or, the Ayasofya, whichever you prefer, readers.)

As we made our way into the Hagia Sophia! Swoon!

The Hagia Sophia. Another awesome holy shit moment. 

Originally, the Hagia Sophia was the main cathedral of the Byzantine Empire prior to Istanbul replacing Constantinople. Construction of Greek Orthodox churches and buildings of worship date back to the early fourth century.

Readers, join me in doing some basic math.

The first church built on the present-day site of the Hagia Sophia was built in 360. Another structure was built at the order Justinian I, and then immediately after its construction, Justinian ordered another structure-- the present-day Hagia Sophia to be built as well in 532. He also had it reconstructed to an even more splendid state after it was severely damaged during the Nika riots of 532. 

In the infamous year of 1453, the Ottomans more or less bring the pain down on Constantinople and thus, Istanbul is formed. Do they knock down to the ground? No. They claim it for themselves. Not the point, though.

The point I'm trying to make before I got caught up in that little history fest is that this building has been in use since 532. That's almost 1500 years. It has survived a complete upheaval and reversal of power within its city and it is amazing culmination of Islamic and Greek Orthodox art. 

Fifteen hundred years. I literally can't think of anything that old in such beautiful condition.

 

A student in one of my classes (another blog post in the future!) told me that these large circular plaques were constructed by Ottoman sultans within the walls of the newly created mosque. Why? Because, readers, they were constructed out of iron plates that were too wide to fit through the door... in the event that Istanbul was re-Constantinoplized, the Ottomans wanted to make sure that in order to remove these sultan crests, the Christians would have to smash holes in the walls to get them out. Awesome.

Once again, take a second to appreciation the contradiction
in the angels and the Ottoman script seals on the same walls.

I love it.

BFFs with the Hagia Sofia, of course.

The Hagia Sophia is also know for its impressive mosaic murals which depict various images of Jesus and Mary, as well as a number of important Byzantine emperors and empresses presenting the holy duo with gifts. 

Things like famous mosaics hold the promise of breathtaking artistry, fantastic history, and...

EDUCATIONAL SIGNAGE!!

From left: Mary, the big JC, and John the Baptist.

The self-control I'm exhibiting to not create inappropriate captions for these mosaics is absolutely astounding.

Emperor Johannes and Empress Irene chilling with Mary and Jesus.
Note how their son (on the right) is added as an afterthought.
 Twelfth-century awkward family photo?

Well, that didn't last long.

Is it just me, or does baby Jesus look a little like Bill Murray in this mosaic?

That little hand gesture always makes
me think Jesus is giving people the OK sign.

So impressive. And that's not sarcasm.

Baby Jesus won't take your sass.

This is a minbar, from which the imam delivers prayer.

This was the COOLEST THING.
Sums up the history of this structure quite nicely.

Justinian and Theodora being BFFS with Mary and Baby Jesus.

After our adventures at the Hagia Sophia, we grabbed dinner. Pide... the best.

We also got coffee (or, in my case, hot chocolate) at this place called Kahve Dunyasi. That spoon is made out of chocolate. And it was deeelicious.

Third "OHMYGOSH" moment of the day: the Grand Bazaar. 

Complete with a state-of-the-art security system.

When we made our way through the Grand Bazaar, I went a little lantern-crazy. Why? Because they're awesome and I want a million of them in my future home.

                 

We also made our way through the antique market, where, unfortunately, I did not go picture crazy. But we did pass a store that specialized in antique nautical instruments. 

It was also here that I successfully haggled my way to a better price on a pair of evil-eye earrings. In Turkish. If you could, you'd high five me.

Turkish delight. Oh my gosh.

As we made our way back to the hostel, we paused to grab some night shots of the Hagia Sophia in its sparkly glory. Also, we helped a lone Korean tourist find her hostel. Fulbrighters doing good for humanity, hey!

We met up with some more Fulbrighters and went out for dinner. I had falafel and hummus-- the ultimate chickpea smorgasbord-- and it was fabulous.

On our way to dinner we passed this lovely mosque/tomb combination.
Then I realized that it was the tomb of Sultan Abdulhamid II,
at which point I had a history heart attack and nobody cared.

After dinner, we went out for some special little Fulbrighter's birthday!

Look how cute you are here in all your birthday splendor.

Birthday baklava? Yes, please.

Did I mention it was chocolate baklava? It was chocolate
baklava and every bit as delicious as you think it would be.

After Emily's birthday baklava celebration, we made our way back to the hostel so we could get ready for the following day's activities (which will be brought to you in the following post. You're welcome in advance.) Once the area between the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia was lit up in the dark, I had yet another history-based heart attack when I realized that we were standing in what was once the Hippodrome.

AHH!

Constantine, the emperor for whom Constantinople was named, created the Hippodrome, and, in a demonstration of pure badassery, had three obelisks more or else FedEx-ed to the city to decorate it. Below is the obelisk from Egypt.

At the point in time at which this picture was taken, everyone
had had it with my history freak-outs. 

This, my friends, was a great way to end my first two days in Istanbul. Little did I know what lay in store for us on Sunday... dun dun dunnn. Such suspense, huh?