A few pictures from my first two days in Istanbul that have now made it off my camera.
Beautiful domed ceilings in Topkapi Palace Museum
Cityscape from Topkapi Palace Museum
More intricate decoration
There were odd pockets of brightly coloured houses
Inside Hagia Sophia Museum
So many cables holding up all the lights
Hagia Sophia
Sultan Ahmed Mosque (the Blue Mosque)
Seaside amusements by the Sea of Marmara, there at least ten of these “shoot an air-rifle at things” stalls – you can’t see the people swimming just out of shot
Across the Golden Horn – Galata Tower in the background
New Mosque – near Galata Bridge
Leaving Istanbul on a Bosphorus ferry
At the Black Sea end of the Bosphorus – near Anadolu Kavagi
The view from the castle in the previous photo – that’s the Black Sea yonder
Many beautiful palaces & houses line the Bosphorus
The view from Galata Tower
Galata Bridge across the Golden Horn & New Mosque – from Galata Tower
I saw a completely different side of Istanbul today as I got the very reasonably priced ferry up the Bosphorus. It does make a few stops along the way, but seems to be mostly used by tourists. For some reason I’d always thought the Bosphorus was a dirty, mucky waterway mostly used by commercial boats. That may be to do with one end being at the Black Sea and the connotations of that name. Interestingly there are two currents (countercurrent naturally) – the one on the surface is due to a height differential, while the one down below is due to a concentration differential (salinity) between the Black and the Marmara Seas.
But on another stunning warm & clear day, the Bosphorus turned out to be an exceptionally beautiful stretch of water. For most of the ninety minute trip Istanbul kept stretching towards the end of the Strait. It wasn’t more of the same housing either – there were many palatial buildings and it was easy to see why some of the highest property prices in the world are here. Istanbul surprises again. Many nice yachts and other boats too.
At the end of the route there was three hours to occupy before the ferry headed back. I, & many others, climbed fifteen minutes up to an old castle to get a glimpse of the Black Sea – which is more of the same vivid blue. Back down at the dockside town, I shared a seabass with a group of Americans I’d met on the boat. They were on a faculty trip from some liberal arts college in Allentown, PA. Once I told them I’d spent a month just down the road in Doylestown, I was very well received.
There were a few big tankers & naval ships to see on the return voyage – as well as some wonderfully turned out polished wooden launches. Back in town, I crossed the Golden Horn & climbed up to the base of Galata Tower – which was closing just as I got there yesterday. Unfortunately you are not allowed to climb up it, just take the elevator. Decent views of the city – the only picture I have to share today.
On the way down the hill I found myself in yet another market. Belwilderingly, yet interestingly, this market near a lot of tourists, seemed to be given over to small process and maintenance equipment. I was eying up things that we need in the plant back at work. Alas, the photos of that are on my camera – so the only person who is likely to care, Farmer Liz, will have to wait.
A dash home straight after work Friday & a mad pack for nine nights away was all to try & beat the holiday traffic (4 day Diamond Jubilee weekend). I’m not sure I did, but it only took ninety minutes until Reading’s awful road system had me going around in circles.
A delightful evening was spent with Anna & Luke and their NZ visitors – Penny, Kathryn & Megan. That is over half of one of my “second families” from my childhood in Te Puke. As always when visiting Anna & Luke, we ate well – Luke cooked up a storm, before we went out for dessert. A great evening of that easy conversation & banter you get with old friends was topped off with sublime lemon curd tart at Jamie’s (Oliver) Italian. So far away from home, a lot of talk was of travels past, present & future. I did actually remember to snap a photo of visitors from afar – it’s rather unflattering as people seem too interested in their phones. Leaving everyone after breakfast Saturday, I boarded a train to Gatwick to start my week’s holiday. Arriving in Istanbul and walking from the metro, I suddenly realised that this is the first Islamic country I’ve been too – the mosques & evening prayer call gave it away.
As usual, it’s a lot hotter here than home & I’ve spent most of the day walking all around the Old City. The public buildings, mostly mosques, are incredible, things seem cheap, it’s busy and away from the main touristy area the place is filthy – litter, feral cats & dogs everywhere. The food is varied and well good. That’s enough of a brief introduction to Turkey for now, I’m sick of typing on my phone. Here’s all the relevant photos on my phone at once – as Blogger for Android is not particularly useful.
With my sling off, physio started and a few days left to use up my annual leave allowance before the end of the leave year, it was a great opportunity to finally get to Rome – it’s been top of my list for some time.
Didn’t see a whole heap Thursday night after the plane & train in to the city centre – just enough to find my hotel & a late bowl of pasta. First priority, after breakfast of course, was to get out & see that Rome icon, the Colisseum. Like many cities around this part of the world, it’s really easy to walk between all the main attractions & Rome is no different. I got through the gates early enough that it wasn’t too busy & I could gaze at the vastness & wonder at all the ancient engineering in relative peace.
Right next door is the Forum, which was the centre of Roman public life – there are all sorts of ruins of temples, palaces & such like. By now it was getting busy and also proper hot – well hot compared to what I’ve been used to. With the sun streaming down & temperatures touching 30ºC, I was starting to swelter overdressed in jeans. But it was time to walk a bit to try & find some lunch out of the touristy area.
So over the Tiber I went & wandered aimlessly through narrow streets before popping in to a small store. While contemplating all the cheeses & cold meats on display I noticed a small sign over a staircase pointing to a cafeteria up the stairs. Lo & behold there was a small cafe up there with a large rooftop courtyard – excellent.
More walking & I was back near the Forum checking out the museums & statues around Capitolini, before heading up a huge staircase & around Foro di Triani.
Typical dinner while I’m out exploring cities is to get on the Metro & head out of the city centre & get off at any stop that I feel like & wander around aimlessly until I find a restaurant that looks likely. This served me well as I had some great meals in little restaurants surrounded by crowds of loud & excited Italians. While I remember, there were very few British accents around, most of the native English speakers I heard were Americans & a few Australians.
Heading in to the Metro stop just around the corner from my hotel – Repubblica
After the heat of Friday & all that walking, I was proper exhausted so started a little more slowly on Saturday with a wander down to Trevi Fountain – which is well impressive, but not very fountainy. Rather some elaborate waterfalls.
Not a great picture, but it’s one of the few I have of me in Rome – so you’ll have to tolerate it
Not far from Trevi is the Pantheon, which quickly became my favourite sight in Rome. It started life nearly 2000 years ago as a Roman temple, before eventually being taken over by the Church. With large Corinthian columns out front it starts out pretty impressively, but then you wander in & see the huge dome that is both 43 metres across & high. It’s astoundingly large considering how old it is – it’s still the largest dome ever built with unreinforced concrete. Then you see the big hole in the top & the engineering becomes more incredible – the geometric pattern on the ceiling was neat too as the sun slowly moved around as it shone through the oculus.
More wandering to find food got me fed, into a castle (Castel Sant Angelo) with good views, popping in to Vatican City & then over the river again up a decent hill into a big park with more views back over the city – before realising my legs were about to fall off again, so a bus home to rest before dinner was a good idea. That evening I was well off the beaten track until I crossed the Tiber again & found that bridge with all the padlocks on some of the railings – there were thousands & some of the metalwork (more likely the welds) had failed.
Sunday morning I avoided free day at the Vatican museums due to crowds & took a long bus ride south to visit the catacombs. Dad’s got much better photos from forty years ago as he was allowed to take photos & there will still many bones down there. Still, it was interesting wandering a small length of the miles of tunnels where various tombs have been sitting for centuries.
For some reason, mostly just curiosity as to what other parts of the city look like, I thought it was a good idea to walk all the back in to town. I came across a fascinating grocery store, a huge park, some sort of fun run (an oxymoron if there ever was one) & what I thought was ruins of a huge old castle. Intrigued I went in, and found out this massive complex was once baths. Incredible that they bothered to have 9000 men building these over six years.
More wanderings took me to the Spanish Steps (not far from hotel), which were alive with colour & people.
Monday was Vatican day, I spent most of the day in the smallest country in the world. With May 1 (the following day) being a public holiday, the queues were very long – but worth it. A completely insane collection of art – this is just part of the similarly decorated hundreds of metres to walk through just to get in to the Sistine Chapel. Which of course is something else besides, but no photos again.
More hours spent queuing to get in to St Peter’s Basilica & somehow I ended up queuing to go up the dome as well. It was sometime before I realised this, so I figured I may as well pay my five euros and climb the 551 stairs to the top. That was well worth it as first you got to the bottom of the dome inside & could look down at the people below & marvel at the intricacies of the dome paintings & mosaics.
With the ascent of a much tighter spiral staircase the steady stream of people led me in between the two layers of the dome as we gradually bent our necks further & further to keep from bruising our heads. The views all around were well worth the climb.
Yes, the camera is horizontal – it is a dome after all
Down to St Peter’s Square & beyond to the Tiber
Looking up to the dome
I still had time to return at various times to Piazza Navona, the Pantheon & Trevi Fountain around packing up, enjoying more of the local cuisine & getting to the airport. Only downside to the long weekend was the three and a half hour delay to my flight home – I’ve been a little slow at work since then, but a three day week isn’t too hard to survive tired.
Beautiful domed ceilings in Topkapi Palace Museum
Cityscape from Topkapi Palace Museum
More intricate decoration
There were odd pockets of brightly coloured houses
Inside Hagia Sophia Museum
So many cables holding up all the lights
Hagia Sophia
Sultan Ahmed Mosque (the Blue Mosque)
Seaside amusements by the Sea of Marmara, there at least ten of these “shoot an air-rifle at things” stalls – you can’t see the people swimming just out of shot
Across the Golden Horn – Galata Tower in the background
New Mosque – near Galata Bridge
Leaving Istanbul on a Bosphorus ferry
At the Black Sea end of the Bosphorus – near Anadolu Kavagi
The view from the castle in the previous photo – that’s the Black Sea yonder
Many beautiful palaces & houses line the Bosphorus
The view from Galata Tower
Galata Bridge across the Golden Horn & New Mosque – from Galata Tower
Heading in to the Metro stop just around the corner from my hotel – Repubblica
Not a great picture, but it’s one of the few I have of me in Rome – so you’ll have to tolerate it
Yes, the camera is horizontal – it is a dome after all
Down to St Peter’s Square & beyond to the Tiber
Looking up to the dome