Today is Election Day in Turkey. Before leaving home many people commented to us about “being safe”. In the early days of our planning some folks decided to not travel with us as they did not think it would be safe here. Well, so far the only impact the election has had on our plans is that some of the venues we wanted to visit today were closed. Because we ended up with some spare time we went to visit Taksim Square. This is the open square and park area where there were protests some time ago. It was in the news around the world. Today the square was filled with people out enjoying the sunshine and visiting with friends and neighbours. It was a lively, active, and very peaceful place to spend a little time while soaking in the life and culture of the everyday Turks. And yes, dear Canadian friends, we felt completely safe!
Earlier in the day we visited Kariye Museum which is located in what was the Church of the Holy Saviour. This church was built in the 11th century and was decorated in the 14th century with the most beautiful Byzantine mosaics and frescoes. These incredible artistic renderings show the life stages of the Virgin Mary and the ministry of Jesus. In the 16th Century the church was converted into a mosque and the mosaics were covered in plaster. In the 19th century they were uncovered but were then covered up again by action of the Turkish government. Interestingly, it was American archeologists who restored the mosaics during World War 2 and it became a museum in 1947. We craned our necks and squinted at the ceiling to see these incredibly beautiful works of art.
Following the trip to the museum we spent an hour and a half straddling the continents of Asia and Europe. How would we do that? Well, we took a boat cruise on the Bosphorus Sea and in so doing drifted between the two continents. The Bosphorous is a narrow body of water that separates Europe and Asia. As we basked in the sunshine on the upper deck of the boat we saw beautiful old buildings from centuries past, the lovely summer villas that hug the shore line and the rounding domes of the many mosques that fill the Istanbul skyline . We even saw a dolphin leaping about in the water!
The boat cruise was followed by a delicious fish lunch (yes, the whole fish from head to tail sat there on my plate!) at a charming restaurant up a narrow alley filled with charming fish restaurants. What a great experience.
Tonight we are off to a folklore dinner and show. This will be interesting – I hope they don’t ask for audience participation when it is time for the belly dancing. Now here is the kicker – tonight we lose an hour’s sleep as it is time to turn the clocks for Daylight Savings time! It seem like cruel and unusual treatment to put us through a second change to day-light savings time having done this earlier in the month at home. Tomorrow we leave Istanbul and move to the capital city of Ankara. We will be out of the city and seeing some countryside. I can hardly wait to see what the regions of Turkey look like.
