Turkey... Seeing the Sights

This is Part One of the Turkey Blog.  I loved Turkey so I have no idea how many parts this may end up being but indulge me.  Also some great stories will be told, over the course of this series. 

The last week of March we had the chance to go to Turkey.  Our company was having a meeting on the coast so we took a couple of days to see Istanbul. A quick history lesson... Istanbul used to be Constantinople and in 330 become the capitol of the Eastern Roman Empire.  In 1453 the ottomans took the city and renamed it Istanbul.  It sits on the Bospherous Strait and is the edge of mainland Europe.  Controlling this city means you control trade from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.  As a lover of history I have wanted to go here for a very long time.  So this was a big treat.

We only had two days in the city, and we needed to be really cheap and save money so we stayed here:

DO NOT STAY HERE

 It was a dump, the outside is the best part.  Jen would not let the kids bathe while we we there.  However it was cheap and close to the sights.  Also there were no bugs (that we could see) so that is always good.
After getting over the initial shock of our room/flop house we headed out to the Grand Bazaar.  This is one of the oldest covered markets in the world.  It attracts 300,000 visitors daily and you can find anything here (except pork, no pork in Turkey... or turkey now that I think of it).  Sense our family has American written all over it we were lightly hassled for a couple of hours by merchants wanting to sell us scarves, bags, carpets, jewelry etc. I broke and the girls all got scarves.  (this hassling would get worse outside the bazaar and will result in a blog all its own later in the week)UPDATE: click the link and you can read about the carpet scam.

Inside the bazaar, after scarf shopping

Day two was the day I had been waiting for.  We were going to see the Hagia Sophia - The Church of Gods Wisdom.  But before we went there we went to the Blue Mosque.  Essentially this is a 500 year old mosque that is an architectural rip off of the Hagia Sophia.  It was neat to go inside and see but on a 1 to 10 scale about a five.  The interior is decorated with 22,000 blue tiles, so that is impressive.  It did not change my life much... but I did get roped into a carpet scam which you are going to have to come back and read about later because that's a separate blog.

Stevens Family in the Blue Mosque

Now for the Hagia Sophia (History Nerd Alert)...
Emperor Justinian commissioned the building of the church in 532 and it was completed in 537.  At the time it was a structure with no equal.  Upon completion Justinian is rumored to have said  "Thank you for your glory God... Solomon I have outdone you".  Justinian's goal was to create a church that the people could experience the wonder of God in.  He very well may have succeeded.  This was the largest church in the world for 1000 years and after the ottomans took the city it became a mosque.  In 1930 the turkish government declared it a museum.  Today it stands as a contrast between the muslim and Christian world as signs of the mosque still exist next to 1500 year old frescos and mosaics depicting Christian figures.   It very well may have been the coolest place I have ever stood.  

In front of the Hagia Sophia

One happy history geek inside the church

We finished our day with some great friends and a traditional turkish dinner.  Of course like any good American we went to Starbucks for coffee on our way back to the hotel then down to the sea to stand on the edge of Europe, becasue will we ever have that chance again?