After a night flight of 10 hours, we reach Istanbul city at 8 am. The bus stops us at the back street of the famous Blue mosque , somewhere near the Mahmet area to start off our walk towards the Hagia Sophia.
A picture of the Blue mosque at 8am. It is nice and cold (6C) but I didn’t mind that much.
Hippodrome
Anyone going to Hagia Sophia will not miss the Hippodrome. Hippo means horse and drome – course in Greek. It used to be an ancient stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. It was also use for popular gladiators in ancient times.
This is a monument that used to be covered in bronze before the Crusaders came & looted Constantinople city of it’s riches.
And an obelisk can be found here too which is a gift by the Egyptian pharaoh, it is also the oldest monument erected at this square. Carved in ancient Egyptian symbols at the top and the bottom marble carvings of the royals.
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia opens at 9.00 so we enjoyed some hot steamed corns and some local pretzel (cold and hard but tasty though) in front of a big park with seats that one can enjoy views of the Blue mosque.
At 9.00 we entered Hagia Sophia. Hagia Sophia was a Greek Orthodox Church built on an ancient temple for the Athena goddess which later became an imperial mosque and now is an museum. Hagia Sophia means Holy Wisdom.
The dome is beautiful. One can see both the Church and Islamic influences.
And intricate mosaics using gold leaf and glass if Jesus, Mary & a Saint.
The Topkapi palace
Walking distance from the Hagia Sophia, for just 10mins, you reach the Topkapi palace. It was already quite crowded at 10am, so starting early is essential if one want to do enjoy the museums in less crowd.
In one part of the palace is the Byzantine Hagia Eirene (Holy Peace).
The main residence of the Ottoman sultans with many different courtyards used or different administrations. Reaching the Divan square where we go visit The royal kitchen are opened for display where many utensils and porcelain wares are displayed from Song to Ming dynasty. Unfortunately we couldn’t take any pictures of the displays.
Walking further down we got into the weaponry exhibits where the most famous one is where the battlefield shield were adorned with diamonds – but it was mostly for ceremony and only worn by the Sultan. It was interesting that the swords are all curved vs the usual straight ones… which I have to find out why from the guide soon.
Next we went to the quarters where the princes performed circumcision ceremony after which we went to another courtyard where some of the prophet Mohammed relics were displayed – it is extremely crowded here.
One of the main attraction of the many courtyards is the area where one can over see the Bosporus sea and seeing the Old Europe and the new Europe.
After which we went for lunch of bbq chicken kebabs and beef patties which isn’t that great but tasted okay.
Blue Mosque
It was a Friday and it was crowded with worshippers. We were only allowed in at 2.30pm and women are required to cover their hair.
Check out these big police trucks outside the mosque, I guess security are tight because of terrorist threats.
After quick visit of the mosque, we are off to Bolu to retired for the night (halfway stop before we reach Ankara)
The bus use the longest suspension bridge that bring u across the Europe continent to the Asian continent. I guess Istanbul must be the one key place where it’s 1 city living in 2 continents,
Lots of locals were fishing by the bridge, the fishes caught were the horse mackerels.
After a 4 hour ride (Istanbul city has pretty bad traffic), we reached a cold Bolu and it was covered in snow.
And that concludes our surprisingly compact and complete Istanbul city famous sights.
The Muse Travelogues of Sights,Sites & Scenes 