What a beautiful sail into this exotic port of Istanbul, a city of over 13 million people, making it one of the largest cities in the world. Every direction you look, there is a Mosque of some size or another and grandeur.
We braved the city on our own again and jumped straight into a taxi to take us to the Topkapi Palace and Harem which now stands on the ruins of Constantine's Imperial Palace. It commands a high position overlooking the water and has numerous grand buildings, housing the likes of the Emporer's clothing to the exquisite exhibits of gold, jade, porcelain and of course, the Topkapi Diamond, which at 86 carats, is the 5th largest in the world.
In the Palace's Harem Quarters, 800 concubines once lived, all hoping to catch the eye of the lucky Sultan – whose mother, in fact, (known as the Queen Mother) had the power to choose the girls for her son's pleasure and she also ran the Harem and ruled over the members of the Ottoman dynasty!! Just an amazing array of beautiful buildings, the interiors all decorated with ornate tiling of blues and greens.
After spending over 2 hours at the Topkapi Palace and Harem, we set off towards the Grand Bazaar, having an early lunch in a nice small restaurant, along the way. The streets again were crowded and eager salesmen seemed to pop out of nowhere to offer to take you to their carpet or jewellery shops – and they were hard to fob off!!!
Unfortunately the Grand Bazaar (the largest covered market in the world offering 4,000 shops/stalls in its 65 streets!!!) didn't offer us quite the same pleasure as it did last time - the shopping did become quite arduous (because we kept going round in circles, I think) and tiring and after almost 3 hours there we only bought a few things – I didn't even buy single thing – now that is something!!!!
Very weary, hot and exhausted, we headed for the closest EXIT, only to realize we didn't really know where we were and there seemed to be a traffic jam. As I do in such circumstances, I approach 'strangers' and tell them of our dilemma – fortunately some 'tourists themselves' suggested we get the tram……... after finding the station and working out how to get the token from the machine (nothing in English), we finally got the tram and another 'stranger' helped us to change trams midway. Boy, were we glad to get 'home' again!!!!!
Photos: All of our big, hot day in Istanbul.
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