More Istanbul and Gallipoli

It has been a very busy couple of days, and I am still adjusting to life as part of a tour group. It is a very different experience to going round Jordan with just a driver. For a start getting so many people on and off a bus every time is a major endeavour.

The tour started yesterday in Istanbul with a tour of the major sites (see photos below, with explanations) The only place we went I don’t really have a photo for was the spice market, also sometimes known as the Egyptian bazaar. They have lots of spices, as well as loads of other things to tempt the tourist. However, I didn’t buy spices because I checked ahead and I would have to declare them at customs when I re-entered Australia, and there was mixed advice on whether they would be confiscated or not.

Today, we left Istanbul and had a rather long journey west to the Gallipoli peninsula. We spent the afternoon touring sites from World War 1. I kind of have mixed feelings about that. We need to understand history, and learn from it, but in some ways it felt wrong to treat it as a tourist attraction. I suppose it depends on your tour guide  and group though. Our guide gave a very balanced view and made sure the Turkish side of the story got across. I didn’t know that Turkey had tried to join the English, Russian and French alliance and been rebuffed or that so many more Turks died in the campaign than allied forces did. Maybe people travelling there might learn a little bit more about the depth and complexity of the issues rather than resorting to jingoism. The young Australian man I saw today climbing on a wall, waving the Australian flag behind him suggests maybe not.

We started here at the blue mosque

It has magnificent decoration inside.

but it is really hard to get good photos because of the ropes holding up the chandeliers, and the fairly huge crowds.

Next it was on to the TopKapi Palace – Sultans lived here for 24 generations. This is the library building.

This is another one of the buildings in what was a huge complex.

An again – magnificent tiles

Next was Hagia Sophia – a very early christian church that was later converted into a mosque.

It wasn’t in good condition, but there was enough paint an mosaics left to show that in its heyday it would have been a spectacle.

Final stop on the photo tour is the undderground cisterne. This is where the romans stored water brought to the city by an aquaduct. It was huge.