Dolmabahce Palace and Bospurus boat trip

My final day in Istanbul started good. I wore my new white dress and sandals and the sun was shining. 36 degrees already at 10 in the morning.
I walked from Kabatas to the Dolmabahce Palace. This palace was built in the 19th centuries in European style, but still had a harem for the ladies. Unfortunately, it´s not allowed to take pictures inside, so here are only two from outside. You can visit the palace on guided tours and have to wear plastic covers on your feet.

Main entrance

view to the Bospurus

After visiting also the harem I walked to the Besiktas Ferry stop and as the Grand Bospurus Tour had already left and for the next one I had long to wait, I decided to take a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul. For luck another Bospurus Tour left in the next minutes so I bought a ticket and boarded the boat.

We spent an hour going in direction of the Black Sea coming across palaces, ...

Beylerbeyi Palace

... bridges, ...

Bospurus Bridge

... forts ...

Rumeli Hisari

... and my new dream house:

I finished the boat trip by going to Kadiköy, Eminönü and and Karaköy. From there I walked to the cable car doing the last shopping: post cards and soaps.

More mosques, churches and bazars

This morning, I took bus 87 from Taksim Square and the bus driver showed me the right stop and direction for Kariye Müzesi (Chora Church), which is a little bit outside from the centre. This church is nearly as old as the Hagia Sophia and faced the same destiny. Here only some small tourist groups (only French and Spanish) were lurking around and the mosaics were amazing in their detail displaying the life of Jesus, Mary and scenes from the bible.




I took another 87 back upto Valen's aqueduct which transported water to the city already in the 4th century AD.



To the right, there is Şehzade Mehmet Mosque and I had nothing better to do, I took a look insight:

Later I also peeked into the New Mosque and the Süleymaniye Mosque. The later one was under construction so only a little part was open to the public. Done with the churches and mosques for the moment, I was looking for more profane pleasures and made another tour for the Grand Basar and afterwards moved on to the Spice Basar buying apricots for my Mom, pistachios for my brother and lokum/ Turkish Delight for all the others.

In a side street behind the spice basar I found a nice clothes stores where I bought two dresses and a blouse. A Turkish who studied in Heidelberg helped me with picking out the right stuff and invited me to come with her on the Asian part of Istanbul and so we went of with the next ferry.


There we ate and drank and she told me about the shop she had just across from the restaurant where we were sitting. So we sat there until nine in the evening and then I took a bus and ferry back to Kabataş and found there the last mosque of the day.

Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Basar and Hamam

After a day with rain, I headed to the Hagia Sophia first thing in the morning today. I joined a group of Dutch and Malaysian for a tour around the monument. The Hagia Sophia is an overwhelming sight which was built by ten thousand people more than 1400 years ago. They used marble from all over the Roman Empire and cut it with silk string to get pieces with symmetrical veining. Above the marble they made wonderful mosaics.

In the 15th century, Istanbul was conquered by the Osmanic Turks who tranfered the church into a mosque. For this, they covered all the pictures of Jesus, Mary and all the others and put calligraphic writings. Some so big that they could not be removed through the doors when the Hagia Sophia was abandoned as a religious place and was turned into a museum.

Afterwards, we went to the Sultan Ahmet Mosque (Blue Mosque), which was built by the sultan of the same name to show that not only the Romans but also the Turks know how to build splendid religious places.

After a tour around Arrasta Basar and the Mosaic Museum, I took a boat from Eminönü to Eyüp. Off the beaten track you can fınd there the tomb of Eyüp and a lovely mosque, but the place was very packed with Turkish coming for friday prayer.

A bus took me to the Grand Bazar where you can shop for jewellery, leather jackets, glass articles, scarfs, tiles and many more. I bought some shawls and a glass lamp for my room.

To finish this day off and give my feet and body some relax, I went to a Turkish bath - the Cagaloglu Hamami - and got myself scrubbed, washed and massaged.

Basilica Cistern & Topkapi Palace

Starting the day with lunch was a great holyday thing. I have to admit that Turkish food is easy to cope with and I did not even think about fleeing to some known place.

First sight for today was the Bassilica Cistern or Yerebatan Sarniçi - that's a big underground cistern with more than 300 pillars with dorian, ionian and corinthic capitels. The pillars are nicely lid so gives the place a magical atmosphere. especially together with the mystical background music. You can walk around there and enjoy the cool air after a hot day with burning sun. There is still some water in it and a lot of fish are living there and becoming really big (much bigger than the fish they catch from the bridges in Istanbul). At the end there are two pillars with Medusa heads as basis and some stories are told about them.

Back to daylight I made my way to the famous Topkapı Palace on the Serail Hill. The palace was founded by Mehmet the Conqueror after he conquered Istanbul and the Sultans lived here from 1465 to 1830. The palace buildings occupy a big part of the hill and you need to plan at least half a day here to admire all the beautiful buildings, decorations, mosaics and the splendid view. I got myself an audioguide and started with the harem which was amazing.

After that came the portraits of the sultans, some pavillons with a great view and a cosy atmosphere, a cafe and the Treasury. In the last there were thrones, gifts from other head of states and the two most pricey items on display - a jewel-encrusted dagger and a 96-carat diamond.
Wandering on the palace premises feels like a day out in the park with big trees and nice flowers.

Having walked and stared for long a returned home for dinner with Anastasia.

Arrival in Istanbul

I landed around noon in Istanbul and took a bus to Taksim Square where Anastasia already awaited me. We walked then to her home and went for lunch afterwards. She had to go back to work, so I headed off alone on Istiklal Caddesi - the main shopping road - in direction of Galata Tower.

This tower has been built by the Genovese in 1348. Today you can take an elevator to the top and have a great view on the Golden Horn, Sultanahmet and Beyoğlu. From across the water the tower looks like a big pencil sticking out of the buildings.

Then I was going to Sirkeci Train Station where the old Orient Express arrived in Istanbul and bought tickets for Whirling Dervishes Show. Two hours later I returned with Anastasia and we ate at a Döner Takeaway before we went to the show in the nice old oriental waiting hall. First we listened to music, then six black clothed persons came in. Music started again and the derwishes meditated until they reached a different mental state, threw away their coats and started to whirl.