Day 3 [May 10, 2010]

After a pityful 4 hours of sleep, we awoke to our first day of the actual tour in Turkey. After a quick shower, we headed down to the breakfast area, which was a buffet of some american food (eggs, toast, coffee) but also had a variety of more traditional items, like sliced meat & cheese, assorted delicious pastries (some with herbs and cheese) and fruit & yogurt. I had a little of everything, and discovered the wonders of an automatic coffee machine. It dispensed steamed milk on coffee and perfectly warm mocha cappuccinos at the push of a button. If I had one of these in my house, I would be a hopeless caffeine addict.

            I soon walked out (twitchy and talkative) and we took a short drive in the bus. Our first destination was the ancient Topkapi Palace. The Topkapi was used by the Sultans for centuries, up until 70 years ago when the Dolmabahce was built. The palace is surrounded by a large wall, which leads into a garden where another wall surrounds the inner palace with Sultan’s quarters. The communications between the Sultan and the Prime Minister were very formal at that time; Ugur showed us where the two would sit waiting for written messages from each other less than 50 feet apart. The government was very bureaucratic because of this problem; very little could be accomplished.

            Our next destination was the Basilica Cystern. Built as a an emergency water reservoir in case of land siege, when an enemy would almost always break or poison the water supply on the relatively fragile aqueducts. The cistern is easily hundreds of thousands of liters large; it’s so big it takes a few minutes to walk from one side of it to the other. The most amazing fact is the cistern is sitting directly under a modern urban area, with buildings sitting on the dirt a few meters above it. It makes you realize how strong ancient architecture is; no cheesy construction from them!

            At the far end of the cistern, two large medusa-head blocks are used as pedestals for the columns. They were actually placed there while the city was predominately Christian-ruled and worship or use of ancient mythological figures was strictly forbidden. It turns out they were scrap rock that was probably taken from a decrepit ancient temple.

            Next, our group headed to the Grand Bazaar where we had lunch and explored the massive catacombs of crowded vendors. The vendors don’t set fixed prices like in the US and large chain stores, they actually use the ancient process of haggling and bargaining to determine the final price. The vendor will start off with a high prices, and the buyer will set a low price, and they’ll slowly move to somewhere in the middle where the item is finally bought. Mom bought a beautiful silk scarf from a vendor; he started off with the price of 140 lira (about 70 dollars), she offered 50 lira, and she ended up bargaining the price to 75 lira.

            Eventually, our group re-convened and we set off four a small ‘cruise’ of the Straight of Bousphorous. This straight connects the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, which provides trading access to Ukraine and Russia. The Sea of Marmara connects with the Mediterranean via the straight near Troy (Darden Straight).

            The area is lined with ritzy seaside houses that run for tens of millions of dollars. Even though there are many of them and they are relatively small, this is because the city of Istanbul prevents new development to prevent ruining the view.

            After our cruise, we headed back to the Kent for our pre-ordered dinner. The dinner was four small courses, all of them with many vegetables and arranged beautifully, and were delectable. Soon after, I logged on to the Kent’s excellent internet to post about our flight adventures on the blog, and went to bed for my first full night’s sleep.