Istanbul

We were up early this morning and went to the European side with our host Chetin. He took us to the Galatasaray University, where he teaches, showed us around and then we had tea at the university's waterfront cafe. The university is in several old (150 years?) buildings on the Bosphorus. These buildings were originally servants quarters for the Galatasaray palace, but were later converted to a humanities university. Chetin teaches English. He helped us immensely with sightseeing tips and suggestions for getting around the city. I think we ended up walking at least eight kilometers today and saw a number of sights. Above is the interior dome of the Rustem Pasa mosque, near the spice market. The tiles were wonderful and all of the tourists and photographers were very quiet and respectful of the worshippers inside. We were told that this was the only mosque on the second floor of any building in Istanbul. If we hadn't been speaking with a Turkish photographer earlier in the day, I doubt we would have found this place.


Nearby is the Spice Market. I can't describe the smell upon entering. If you can imagine a warm mix of every savory smell imaginable, that is probably pretty close! There were piles of different spices everywhere, tall mounds of lokum (or Turkish Delight candy), dried fruits and nuts in every color! The vendors were hawkers of the first order! We were 'invited' into many stalls to 'try' the wares. Everyone asked us where we were from (Canada? Germany? England?). None guessed the US. Again we replied "American - Obama?". Ahh, yes, Obama good! "I am from Ohio" one vendor told us. "I have a cousin in New York" said another. We enjoyed brief conversations with a number of these fellows, but the crush of people was nearly unbearable. Several spice merchants spoke excellent Spanish. In fact, we found it was often easier to converse in Spanish than English, at least at the spice market!


Another focus of the day was to photograph as many people as possible. We are working out a "schtick" where Robert engages someone in conversation and then I photograph them, or the other way around. We also got photos of people while sitting in parks and cafes. This gentleman was one of a group of four or five men who 'volunteered' to assist us with our Turkish! While Robert was fumbling with his cheat-sheet and his language, I was busy snapping photos. We did this all day long!

I really exhausted myself today. I got a couple of blisters, and my knees and legs are stiff and sore from all of the exercise. Hopefully some sleep will help and we can hit it again tomorrow!