Hippodrome....looks vaguely familiar...
If you look closely you can see the pictures of the horses & chariots.
Blue Mosque, aka Mosque of Sultan Ahmet I, from afar. You can't see all of them in this picture, but this is the only mosque in the world with 6 minarets.
Part of the courtyard area of the Blue Mosque.
Dome of Blue Mosque.
Didn't need to cover my head, but they were giving wraps to women whose shoulders were showing too much. I thought I'd be okay in my t-shirt. I guess not.
Aya Sofia. Was a church in Constantinople. Then the Ottoman Turk sultans turned it into a mosque. Then Atatürk, who founded the Republic of Turkey in 1923 and wanted the country to be more Western, turned it into a secular museum.
Istanbul is an example of how East....
...meets West. (Images from the leftover Christian artwork from when the Aya Sofia was a church.)
Cistern from when Istanbul was Constantinople. Those lights didn't exist back then, though.
Medusa. She is kept at the back corner of the cistern so people wouldn't turn to stone from looking at her. Don't look at her eyes.
Helicopter time. My group looking back and telling me to ride in the front since I had my Flip video camera. They received no protest from me. Stay tuned for the video of the ride.
Blue Mosque (front) and Aya Sofia (back). Now you can see all 6 minarets on the Blue Mosque.
Birdseye of the underground Grand Bazaar. Reinforces why it's so easy to get lost in there and you should keep a buddy. So huge.What a day. Tomorrow we go to Bursa so the other 2 groups can meet and present to their client. The school part of the Turkey trip is over halfway finished. I still need to do a bunch of visit preparation forms and 5 reflections. Unfortunately I can't just turn in this blog...
4 comments:
These are so cool! I can't wait to see ALL the pictures :)
Wow. Wow! WOW!!
Have you had much interaction with the residents of Istanbul? I imagine that traveling with a group -- and being a single woman -- you don't get a lot of opportunity. Just curious what your perception of them is. Are they gregarious? Hospitable? Rude? Helpful? Stoic? (just trying to give you fodder for your class write-ups)
I can't wait to see the video from your helicopter ride!
The people in Istanbul and Turkey in general are absolutely amazing. So hospitable and kind. The Turks are known for their hospitality, and we've definitely been experiencing it. And I did write about their hospitality in one of my reflections! 2 more to go!
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