SO much to see!!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Wow! What a day!! Robert likens sightseeing with me to the Bataan Death March! Hmmm…

Up and down for breakfast about 7 a.m. Very nice selection of things – great cheeses and breads, but also cereals and some really terrific scrambled eggs! To be honest, they don’t really look like any eggs I’ve ever seen; they are cooked very, very, very small, but have peppers and cheese mixed in and are really delicious! Had to wait until 8 a.m. for the laundry to open, but were there about 8:05 and yes, the guy was already busy doing wash! Turned over the clothes, and headed to the Topkopi Palace area for the National Archeological Museum. A lovely day out – national holiday – May 19th, Youth Sports Day and commemoration of Ataturk’s ascent to power after WWI. There are red Turkish flags out everywhere; very patriotic! It’s a bit breezy and cool – I’m wishing I’d brought my jacket, but R telling me to toughen up and get a grip…or is that gripe??

The Museum opens at 9, but we were able to climb up the hill to wait on the grounds. Archeological Museum really three museums in one place: The Archeological Museum, the Tiled Kiosk and the Museum of the Ancient Orient. I’ve promised R that this will be our last archeological museum for this trip... he insists that he is not tired of them, but I'm not so sure...(Figuring that we have five full days here, that we should do one major thing first thing every morning, and then fill in with all the other things there are to do here. But Archeological Museum first thing on the list…tomorrow will be Topkapi Palace!)

We started at the far end of the Museum (there are two entrances) and basically had the museum to ourselves for the first hour and a half or so. There are some truly incredible pieces here. It is not labeled as well as the museum in Athens, but the layout and presentation and quality of the finds is incredible. They have a sarcophagus collection that is second to none, and the size, and condition of the works is unreal! (Many of them were found at previously unknown and unlooted locations, which did a great deal for their preservation.) They have a nice display on Schliemann’s discoveries at Troy, as well as works from all over the area. We did find one really hysterical area – boxes and boxes stacked high of PIECES of pottery and bones – all waiting for some archeologists who like to do puzzles to come along, we guess! But we’ve never seen that kind of thing in a museum before – that is generally “behind the scenes.” Very, very good museum!

The Tiled Kiosk is basically what it says – tiles and ceramics from all over Turkey over the years. It’s a small display but incredibly beautiful. I’m hoping the photographs can do it justice.

Last but not least was the Museum of the Ancient Orient – my very favorite, as it contains a remarkable collection of Babylonian friezes and Assyrian objects. We’ve seen some of the friezes before in the Louvre as well in a museum in Berlin, but this collection included some very unusual looking animals besides my favorite blue glazed lions! All in all, a great collection!

It was now about 11:30 a.m. and we were looking for a rest (this is about when the Bataan reference came out…) R had been looking longingly at the tram since we got here, so we decided now was as good a time as any to try it. Hopped on at Guilhane and rode across the Bosphorous Strait (R says it was the Golden Horn, not the Bosphorus but what does he know!) and in to the “new” side of Istanbul. Very comfortable riding; lots of interesting things to see. Rode to the end of the line (literally…the tracks just stop!), got off and turned around and came back on the tram, this time getting off at Beyazit, the main jumping off (or in!) place for the Grand Bazaar…what will we find inside??

Oh, my…what an incredible tangle of shops and people and all sorts of goods everywhere! We ambled through and around various streets and alleys – and this is INSIDE the Grand Bazaar! – there is SO much to look at, and even though I’m not the shopping fiend that I once was, all this beautifully arranged and presented STUFF sure looks good! Today our object was to find me a scarf that I could put over my head when we visit mosques … something that will look good with t-shirts and blue jeans. It is amazingly difficult to look at anything for long, as there is generally someone about wanting to answer your questions or make friends. I hate being rude, but it is actually necessary if you want to cover any ground at all. We finally found one shop that had a silk scarf/pashmina that was quite lovely … and of course, very expensive! The original asking price was 90 TL (1 Turkish Lira is about $0.65) – (and of course I had to leave) and R got it for 60 TL. He thinks it was too expensive, (that’s the equivalent from going from $58 to $39; I think it’s great!) but it’s beautiful, well made and will be a wonderful souvenir of Istanbul as well as being practical! I am going to want to get some porcelain – naturally, we can always use things for the kitchen! But I want to look around first and figure out exactly what I want before I send Robert the Negotiator in to work again. Wish we could take back LOTS of things, but there are luggage concerns!! At this point, we figured we needed food (and I needed a bathroom…) so we wandered out of the Grand Bazaar – with no earthly way of knowing where we were or where we needed to go! Totally lost!! We basically ambled downhill, as R insisted that that would be the way to the water – and even as we’re wandering in this crazy, people-packed bedlam, R says that if we ever find our way out, we can go to McDonald’s – where I know I can get a bathroom! (Lots of interesting looking small places where we could get food, but no bathroom; definitely needed both!) Our route downhill did lead to the water, and out we popped – just down the block from both Burger King and McDonald’s! Relief in sight! So, we’ve now had both our Greek McD and our Turkish McD experience…generally, about the same, I’d say!

After that we decided to head back to the hotel for a rest, just stopping at a local grocery store to buy a box of Kleenex for the room. It doesn’t seem like any but the **** hotels provide it here, so need to get our own! Fortunately, the DIA down the street from the hotel is open.

Nice nap and back up around 4 – have to get the laundry, as well as more Turkish Lira. The hotel has offered us an 11% discount if we pay the bill in cash! So, figuring that’s almost $100, we wanted to take care of that now. Down the street to our favorite ATM, then to the laundry – which was SCARY! I have become VERY attached to our laundry bag from “The Perfect Laundry” back from Heraklion, and asked specially to have it back this morning when we dropped off our clothes. So, walk in, down the steps, and spot the bag – but NOT our clothes!! Wow! A spirited couple of minutes while the man looked for our things – and yes, there they were, just not in our bag. He apologized profusely and rebagged the other folks laundry – so now we’re all complete – clean clothes, sentimental laundry bag AND us! Yipee!!

Back to the hotel, paid the bill then had a drink in the lounge. Turns out they do happy hour, so it’s half price – a decent white wine by the glass. R also had apple tea, which I tried yesterday, with not so successful results. (Tea of any sort upsets my tummy!) Now we’re resting (yet again! Bataan Death March indeed…) before dinner. Tonight we’re eating at the hotel in their rooftop restaurant, supposedly with a great view over the Bosphorus! We’ll see!!

More later!
Love,
m
x