![\"IMG_1895.JPG\"](\"http:\/\/www.jude.hanlon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_1895.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n…this is a good thing, as lugging it to the accommodation & back again, and downstairs to the room in the middle of the night, would have been a nightmare. However, had we known that we wouldn’t see the luggage until Nairobi we would have packed differently. More than one of us would have packed pyjamas. I would have had 2 pairs of knickers in my hand luggage instead of just one. We would all have put a towel in. And possibly some shampoo & deodorant. We asked the guest house very sweetly if they would be willing to let us use a towel, as we unexpectedly didn’t have our luggage… so they supplied a single hand towel. Between 5 of us. I won’t reveal who showered from the group, but given the resources, it wasn’t all of us.<\/p>\n
So, having had a fairly ropey night’s sleep where we mostly went to sleep too warm and woke up too cold & reaching for blankets, we set out for a day’s sight-seeing. Our accommodation has been purposely well chosen to be well located for a lot of the major tourist attractions. We climbed up the hill and found ourselves at the main plaza between Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. We ignored both of these and headed straight underground to The Cistern. How exciting, you ask, can a big watery hole in the ground be? It turns out quite enchanting if not actual excitement-filled. It’s huge, about 2-ish feet deep (an approximation – I’m happy to be corrected) with water which has a lot of fish in it. Some of the fish are pretty large (length of your forearm, if not longer) and I can only assume that they have either been introduced or invaded since the cistern held the main water supply for the city. In the far end of the space there are two carved Medusa-heads at the base of 2 of the columns. There is apparently much debate as to the significance of them. My money is on there was spare stone knocking about and, as it would hopefully be deeply submerged in water most of the time, they didn’t bother chipping the existing carvings off. <\/p>\n
On emerging, blinking into the light, we headed over to the Blue Mosque (and on our way were offered many exciting tourist opportunities in many languages) where we were warned we only had a short window to look around before mid-day prayers. We headed in, heads covered in some cases, but no trousers rolled up and all shoe-free (the carpets were very cold – I’d suggest their fabric committee consider some kind of underlay upgrade) . The interior is lovely – blue patterned tiles throughout and clearly very well maintained. Of course, some tourists completely missed the “no tourists past this point” sign & had to be shepherded back to the correct side of the barricades, but we were of course impeccably behaved. Ken even resisted the temptation to go and argue with the Islamic advisor who was ready to educate the curious.<\/p>\n So, from there we went back up the hill to Hagia Sofia, which started as a church, became a mosque, and is now a church again. When it became a mosque, the intricate and opulent mosaics were covered over with Islamic decorations and non-decorations in the form of marble panels. There is rescue\/restoration work in progress in the form of chipping back plaster-work which is controversial all over again, especially as Saudi Arabia still consider the building to be a mosque and are getting very sniffy (bombastically sniffy, I’m told) about Moslem things being removed. <\/p>\n By this time we were well overdue for lunch, so we stopped at a restaurant around the corner from the hostel. Enjoying the lack of nut-intolerant husband gazing at my food, I had a pistachio kebab, which was actually beef-based, but with pistachios included. And very tasty it was, too.<\/p>\n And now, we are at the airport waiting for our flight to Nairobi. I feel a bit nervous at this stage – having never been to Africa before, it’s hard to know what to expect. I’m thinking heat, dust, and smells. And probably no sleep, given that we leave at nearly 8pm on a 6+ hour flight.<\/p>\n This won’t be posted until I have wi-if and enough time to add photos, which won’t upload until I have wi-fi. Apologies for the delay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the *many* interesting facts we learned today was that Istanbul means nothing and was chosen as the most diplomatic new name for Constantinople that they had to choose from. I can’t remember who “they” is, and at the … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nBy the way out, and not *really* given much significance, I’d say, was a gold and silver model of the tomb of the prophet given to the Turkish Government by Saudi Arabia. I’m assuming it’s real gold & silver, given who it’s from. If it was found to be made out of FIMO you’d be incredibly disappointed. <\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThere is another model in the courtyard outside of the mosque itself, which looks like it’s made out of bronze – altogether more charming and clearly less revered as the case it’s in has quite the condensation problem – this is the only angle I could get where the view wasn’t obscured by model rainclouds.
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\nFrom this temple of reverence we went to The Grand Bazaar. It’s possible I may be jaded, but the stalls weren’t super-compelling – individually the stuff was pretty and clearly you were somewhere other than Wigan Indoor Market, but a lot of the stalls had the same goods on them. We had a coffee\/tea in order to get change for the loo, but other than a key ring for Vish, the traders were largely untroubled by us. From there we headed to the spice market, where we were told the best Turkish Delight was to be had. The streets on the way down to the shore were actually a lot more interesting than the bazaar for me – a wider variety of stalls, and a *lot* more people. In negotiating a rate for souvenir TD, Ken was in his element. In the end, we got a good price and the chap’s life story (he’s a Syrian refugee who was 18 months shy of graduating – he’s thinking Germany is a good plan for education completion). <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n