Walking across Istanbul

A full day of walking was had by all. We started out walking down, the
neighborhood we're staying in is high up on a hill so we pretty much
always start out walking down, not really thinking about how we will
need to walk back up. We walked down to the water and checked out a
huge building that K thought was a church but turned out to be an
armory or place they made weapons, not sure in the translation but it
was incredibly massive with 2-3 foot thick walls. Then went into the
Mosque and sat quietly--this is the fantastic tiled ceiling photo.
There was a wonderful venus/half shell situation on the wall with a
little ladder for the imam to climb in and speak from the clam shell,
photos on other camera.

 

We left and walked forever past sleeping dogs and a million stray cats
and stopped to have tea and simit at a palace. The palace wasn't open
but the tea terrace was. (palace clocktower in the photo) 

Simit is kind of like a bagel except covered with sesame seeds, they are sold
from little carts all over the city--I think they are a little dry but
K adores them.

Apparently this was the palace that Ataturk stayed at
and died in so there was a huge military presence--soldiers marching
around with big guns and knives, K told me that the guns aren't loaded
but that they carry amunition with them. I guess this makes me feel
safer when looking at a bunch of teenagers with automatic weapons.
We watched a duck swallow a big fish whole and then it started to
pour. Luckily there were tented awnings to sit under and the tea
continued to be delivered in the downpour, although the waiters sent
the underlings scurrying out to get it. The guard continued to march
around in the rain, I snapped a photo of him talking on the phone in
his little guard shack.

We continued walking but it was still raining so we ducked into the
maritime museum where we saw wonderful carved figureheads of dragons
and a sad lion from ships. There were others but I especially liked
the dragons.

Eventually we reached our destination, Ortakoy, where we shared an
exciting but somewhat disgusting kumpir, a giant baked potato stuffed
with everything from sliced hot dogs and olives to pickled cabbage and
some kind of pink goo which they claimed was horse radish. Let's just
say that we decided which place to eat by the number of teenagers
sitting outside!

More walking brought us to the bus to nursey cousins house for dinner,
he couldn't go to the village as planned today so we did dinner
instead. He lives far out of the main city in a pretty seaside town.
We walked around after and found a full nighttime flea market
happening.
By the water there were what looked to be 4 clotheslines
full of balloons strung up--apparently you can pay some money and use
a gun to shoot the balloons. Strange.