I went up to the top floor for breakfast and saw that the sky was black. Soon enough it started raining. As this was my fourth time in Istanbul, there was no pressure to go do anything so I didn’t really go out till the sun was out in the early afternoon.
It is quite a nice feeling to not feel compelled to go see the various “must sees”. Last year, there had been a gap of 15 years since the previous visit and there was quite a bit I wanted to relive.
I took a random walk around the city. My feet took me to the Blue Mosque then to the Eminonu area where I went to the Eminonu New Mosque on the side of the Golden Horn. Using the trams and metro, I was reminded of the fact that many Turkish men shave their armpits as I believe it is a desirable practice from a religious point of view.
On the sidewalks I see waiters running tea delivering tea to the neighbourhood. The tea caddy is a tray with a tripod-style handle. They swing the tray around wildly but to my amazement the saucers remain glued to the tray and the cups in the saucers. The tea in the cups don’t spill out either.
At the ice cream stalls, the vendors put scoops in cones and then do sleight of hands to amuse the customers, eg. pull out huge bobs of the ice cream from the barrel, knead it, pop them from cone to cone, nearly drop it on the customers face. All this is interspersed with the ringing of the overhead bells with their kneading pole.
Then I stumbled upon the Hojapasha Dance Theatre where the whirling dervishes were performing. Tickets were sold out for the night and running low for tomorrow; last year I had missed out and I didn’t want the same to happen. They run the ritual here nearly every night whereas in some places it is as rare as once a week.
After paying TL60 for the ticket I found another place which charged TL45 but it was in a restaurant. Actually, the next day I found my originally desired venue (the Galata Mawlavi House Museum) still had tickets available when I walked past for TL40. I will never know if one is place is better than another.
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- Sultanahmet Mosque in Istanbul.
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- Inside Sultanahmet Mosque.
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- These blue tiles give the Sultanahmet Mosque its name.
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- Inside Sultanahmet Mosque.
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- Ritual cleansing at the ablution at Sultanahmet Mosque.
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- Looking at Ayasofya from Sultanahmet Mosque.
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- Pomegranate juice stand.
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- Street scene in Istanbul.
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- Street scene in Istanbul.
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- Eminonu New Mosque.
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- Looking across the water of the Golden Horn.
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- Detail of a richly decorated building.
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- Turkish delight.
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- Lamp shop.
