1st Full Day in Istanbul

I've gotten a day behind on blogging due to our wireless connection going down.  Hopefully it's up and running for good now.  I'll write about yesterday in this post and then hopefully get caught up on today's adventures tomorrow morning.

We love Istanbul!  First impressions have been fantastic.  It is a big, friendly city filled with interesting sights and opportunities around every corner.  We are very close to the Galata bridge, so it's an easy walk from our temporary home on the hill to the Old City and the many museums there.

On our first morning here, Leroy and I got up early and wandered through our neighborhood.  We were suprised to find an old, stone Anglican Church just down the lane.  The doors were open, so we showed ourselves around and then enjoyed the beautiful walled gardens outdoors.  Leroy's been complaining that he needed a haircut.  He doesn't let just anyone touch his hair with clippers, so I was suprised that he agreed to let a Turkish barber cut his hair.  The shop opened at 7 a.m., and Leroy was the first customer.  The cut was done in ten minutes, and it looks great!

After breakfast, Jim, Stephen, Leroy and I crossed the bridge to the Old City.  Our plan was to hit the museum circuit hard.  When we saw the crowds waiting to get into Haggia Sophia and the Topkapi Palace, we reconsidered.  We found out that late morning is when the cruise ships bring their passengers to shore, and we  decided to get there earlier the next day.  Around that time, we met one of Istanbul's many carpet dealers who invited us to his shop.  Leroy and I had previously decided to try to purchase a rug while visiting Turkey, so we agreed to hear his sales pitch and see his carpets.

Once inside the carpet store, we were offered tea and given a short lesson on rug-making and the various kinds of carpets manufactured in Turkey.  After being shown fifteen or so on the main level, we were invited downstairs to see more of the approximately 55,000 carpets this particular dealer has in stock.  It was nearing noon, so we were asked to stay for lunch.  A free lunch sounded good to me, so we agreed.  Several men dragged carpets out one at a time, leaving them on the floor if we liked them and folding them up and putting them away if we did not.  Eventually we found a rug both of us agreed will look great in our house.  It's red and gold with a geometric pattern and is about eighty years old.  We bartered a bit and were happy with the price.  While we watched, it was packaged up and labeled to ship out in early-July for delivery.

Leroy and I continued on the the Spice Bazaar, which is one of two large, indoor marketplaces in the Old City.  We bought some Turkish Delight, colorful and sticky squares of candy.  From there we headed back across the "Golden Horn" (a major waterway that connects to the Bosporus.)  Hundreds of fishermen and women lined both sides of the bridge, baiting their hooks with sardines.  At the Galata end of the bridge is a series of fish markets selling all varieties of very fresh seafood.  Shopkeepers toss small fish to the birds (even a heron!) that perch on the shop roofs.

By mid-evening, we were walking up the steep hill near our apartment that leads to a long, wide pedestrian street named Istiklal.  We were astounded by the throngs of people, mostly young, streaming in all directions.  The street is lined with high-end shopping opportunities and restaurants of every description.  We counted three Starbucks in less than one mile!  It was nice to see the general prosperity that exists there and throughout much of Istanbul and feel the lightness of spirit that seems to characterize the city.