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 Istanbul 28 October


“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”


Breakfast in the Agatha Christie Dining Room this morning was delicious, wonderful service as you’d expect in such a special hotel. 

Met up in the lobby for the first day of ‘Culinary Delights of the Ottomans’, turns out there are just 14 of us in the group. Have a very nice guide, Azur, she’s easy to listen to and speaks such good English. 

Traffic in Istanbul is apparently awful at the best of times but tomorrow, Saturday, is the National Day and schools and others took a half day holiday today and have been celebrating since. Tomorrow will be worse I gather.  So getting anywhere has been a nightmare but well worth it to see what we did. First stop was at the Suleymanye Mosque, the largest Mosque in Istanbul.  This was designed by the architect Mimas Sinan for the Sultan and is one of the best examples of Ottoman Islamic architecture.  (Grand as it is it’s not a patch on the Mosque we saw in Abu Dhabi a while back. ) But given that it is a 16th century building it’s been able to survive many earthquakes over the years.  And being Friday there were dozens of cleaners sprucing  it up for the 4 calls to prayer today.  We were amazed at the number of cats roaming the grounds - apparently they’re fed and looked after by the Mosque carers, are desexed and vaccinated and live a very comfortable life!  They were very playful and loved the attention of the hoards of people!  

On our walk back to the bus we were taken to a family run store , Vefa, to sample boza, a traditional fermented drink whose origins date back 8000 years!  It’s made from millet and other grains, has a sweet and sour taste, and has the consistency of pudding. It’s then topped with cinnamon and roasted chick peas.  And it’s bloody awful!! One sip was enough for me but others really enjoyed it.  From there we walked to the Women’s Bazaar for a quick look and then on to a lovely restaurant for an appetiser of lamb cooked tandoori style with pita bread.  

Next stop was at the Archaelogical Museum of Istanbul which is the first regular museum appearing in the history of the Ottoman Empire and in Turkey.  It has about a million artefacts from a variety of cultures brought from imperial lands.  Probably my favourite exhibit, at the Armoury, was a diamond of 80 carats!  Several emeralds nearby were almost as big.  We toured the old kitchens of the palace, saw the massive sized pots used to make Turkish Delight and other equipment used for baklava.  Also saw China, pottery, earthenware, utensils, etc from that era. 

I’m sure many of you will have been to Istanbul and can identify with all this but I’m blown away with the culture and history of this city. 

Instead of lunch at the usual time we finally arrived the the restaurant just after 3 pm!  - all looking forward to something to drink other than water!  Well, the food arrived in truckloads - made Maha look ordinary!!! And all so delicious!  The Agean  red wine was also really nice.  By now, of course, we’re all pretty friendly!  We have a couple from Wonga Park, 4 Canadians, 6 from the US and us.  Everyone so nice! Love the boys, Marlon and Peter from San Diego, fun guys, and another couple from Florida have worked with Disney, he’s just retired.  They met as interns with the company. 

Traffic coming back to the hotel was SO bad and we arrived at around 7 pm, footsore and tired!  No dinner required!  Seems as if we walked all day in narrow cobblestone streets and on rough pavements at time but was all worthwhile. 

I don’t seem able to post any pics on this blog site - I’ll keep trying though.  

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