Right down from our hotel was an area of outdoor cafes, music, and dancing. Still feeling stuffed from our huge lunch with our tour guide, we decided to just have a drink, the famous raki, while watching everyone having a wild and crazy time. But the lack of women there made me feel......conspicuous. It was mostly men in large groups enjoying themselves.
The shopping was ...... let's say fruitful. How can your resist buying turkish rugs (we couldn't) or exotic spices and knock-off designer bags at the 4,000 stores in the famous covered bazaar (we did)?
We also took a cruise on the Bosphorus, Lyle hoping to see the Black Sea. But it didn't quite go that far, but the narrated ride gave us information about the mansions, palaces, and summer homes of the rich along the water, some now costing millions of dollars.
After our cruise, we had lunch with an Austraiian IT guy, and two other men from "Persia". Lyle said, "You mean, Iran?" Yes...they were hesitant to tell us Americans they were from Iran. Lyle then got into a good discussion about politics, their views, and asking pointed questions....like...."What do you think of Israel?" I about ducked under the table. The guy was very friendly but said matter-of-factly..."It shouldn't exist." End of discussion? Then the daily call to prayer from the local mosque started, and they excused themselves togo pray.
The tour was to continue that afternoon to the Asia side of Istanbul, but Lyle had had enough of the bus so we got off at the leather market (where I am sure they wanted us to buy). We, instead, walked through the streets and decided to go to the Suleymaniye Mosque, with Neal Diamond's "sulay, sulay, sulaymonya" wondering if he was singing about this place. This mosque was built for Suleyman the Magnificent in 1550 and is supposed to be magnificent. Unfortunately, it was being renovated so we just looked at it from the outside. The gate was closed.
That evening we played the tourists again, and were driven by a crazy driver through the narrow streets to the other side of the Strait to the Galata Tower for a dinner show at the top. This tower overlooks the city, the Bosphorus, the Marmara Sea, and the Golden Horn, and was built as a look-out tower around 1350 AD. We had a Turkish meal of 4 courses with tourists from all over the world. Besides our lamb,chicken, and beef kebobs, we had a plate full of (some unknown) appetizers and wonderful desserts.
The views from the balcony outsde were, literally, breathtaking, as I held on tightly to the railing. It would never pass OSHA in the US.
Then the fun began with the dinner show. There were traditional Turkish dancers....
......belly dancers.....
....and then a fun entertainer who sang songs from all of the different countries represented in the room (New York, New York for us, of course), but also coaxed the women in the room to come up on stage, dancing to their home-country's music. It must have been the wine, but I ended up there.........can you tell who is the grandma on stage?
.....but then, so did Lyle!
And did I mention that on our last day before our flight to Mykonos, he went to a Turkish Bath????
1 comment:
Very interesting!
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