We woke up and had breakfast then went straight to stand in line at the Hagia Sophia. It was a good idea. By the time we had been there 20 minutes the line was crazy long. They open the door to the public at 10AM, I highly recommend you get there by 9AM and wait. It’s worth it. We stood outside for 2.5 hours waiting to get in Auschwitz a few years ago, waiting an hour for the Hagia Sophia was nothing. It’s worth it to be on of the first people in the building and get pictures with fewer people.

Here’s the video I’ll use to embarrass my kid when she’s an adult.

http://https://youtu.be/zvz_1-n4OL0

I tried to get as many pictures of crosses as I could. They have the murals of Mary holding the baby Jesus and mural of Joseph covered up with sheets but I at least took pics of that.

There’s a big sign at the front doors talking about the  conquering of Constantinople in 1453 and the conversion of the cathedral into a mosque.

I’m no religious person. I wish it was still a museum, there were cats running around inside,  and I could have gone upstairs to see the rune graffitti, but as a history teacher it was really cool to see this place!

Next, we went to the Sultan’s Palace. We didn’t realize how big the place was. If you like history plan to spend several hours there. We arrived around 11:30 and didn’t leave until close to 16:00.

They’ve turned the property into several museums. We learned about the history of coffee in Turkiye, we saw the history of weapons in Turkiye, we saw the kitchens, we learned that the kitchen had it’s own not one but two prayer rooms, we saw the harem, we saw that the harem had its own elite group of African eunichs brought in from Central Africa, we saw beautiful gardens, a huge library, beautiful views of the sea, and more.

Oh! And I saw two men very obviously check out my husband. I only mention that since in my last post I mentioned a guy giving me his number.

After that we went to a rooftop Indian restaurant. I was a bit disappointed. We asked for spicy. We even explained we had lived in China for three years, we knew what real spicy food was, and we wanted our food spicy. My food was as sweet as candy. It was tasty. My mom probably would have liked it. I ate it. But… it wasn’t what I wanted. The views were gorgeous though and the restuarant sits overlooking the Stone of Million, the Byzantine zero mile marker.

Next we went to the Istanbul Archaeology Museum and it was really cool! They have an entire section dedicated to sarcophaguses! I have been fascinated with cemeteries all my life and spent many a hour strolling through them, picnicking, and taking photos. I like to read the inscriptions to see what people had to say. One of my favorite cemeteries is one I visited in Las Vegas.

The museum had the tombstones translated. Some of them were adorable and some of them were tragic. One was for a beloved pet dog! I also saw some absolutely gorgeous gold jewelry shaped in teh face of dogs in the museum, proving we humans have loved our dogs for a long, long time.

It was about the time I was looking at ancient Roman coins when a friend in the States sent me a message telling me the Georgia Guidestones had been destroyed. Domestic terrorism is becoming a bigger and bigger threat in the US. I have no doubt whatsoever this was the work of some right wing terrorist nutjob. The Guidestones have always been a topic in conspiracy groups, but as of late they have been making the rounds again and then! Bam! Someone blows them up.

I’m glad my husband and I have always been fans of off the beaten path tourist attractions. The Georgia Guidestones were one of our first day trips together wayyyyy back when we first met.

Funny sidenote, I showed the picture to my teen daughter and she asked who are those people in front of the stones? I said that’s your mom and dad! She has no memory of her dad with longer hair, he shaves it now and has for years, or me without several tattoos. I had to zoom in really close so she coudl see our faces and she said “Oh yeah, you guys look cute”.

After the archaeology museum the kid was dying for a shower and we had just enough time to get back to the hotel for that before needing to be at our next destination. If you know anything about us you know we’re not normally the type of tourists that go for preplanned tours or big shows. We travel all summer every summer and avoid all that canned BS but one particular theater looked appealing. The husband said we should go see their shows so we bough tickets.  I’m so glad we did.

We saw Sufi whirling dervishes and a dance show. There were no cameras allowed for the dervishes, also no clapping. They told us it was because this was a religious ceremony and cameras and clapping would be inappropriate. I was wondering the whole time if I was really watching true Sufis or if these were just performers. Either way it was neat.

I’ve read quite a bit about whirling dervishes in the past. I know they get themselves high as fuck with all the spinning they do. I guess maybe if someone started as “just an actor” they’re probably  thinking they’re one with god after doing that night after night. It was really cool to watch. I didn’t realize they would spin for so long.

They also had live musicians. They were all good but the two vocalists were amazing. I could listen to them sing all night. My husband and I had a conversation about how easy it is to understand how the Sufis are seen as a cult in Islam. It was all very New Age like one with everything blah blah blah… and one could easily fall into a trancelike state listening to the music. Okay. I’ll stop going on about how cool it was.

Oh wait. When it was all over I saw two of five of the spinning men kiss their robes before putting them back on over their fancy spinning white clothes. I’m going with those two are true believers and the other three are paid actors/dancers. It was cool either way.

After the spinning guys there was a dance performance. My favorite was the Dark Sufi. That’s what I’m calling him. I have no idea what his real name is. oh. my. god. It was amazing. To be honest dance has never been my favorite artform, but I loved this. Besides the fact that the actual dancer humself was super sexy, everything about the choreography was amazing.

I’m sure the juxtapositioning of we had just seen the “pure” Sufis whirl and now we were seeing this guy dressed in all black do it had a great effect on my mind. That’s the whole point, right? But it was more. They way he moved his body. His jerks. Everything about the whirling dervishes was gentle, smooth, and sweet, they made light flowing transitions, while this guy was up there writhing and jolting and spinning with intensity in the stage. His passion screamed to me.

http://https://youtu.be/uC9U8k8h_dI

Now it’s almost ten o’clock at night. We had left the hotel at 8:45AM and had been going non-stop all day. But who’s hungry and grumpy? My teen daughter. So we stopped for dinner.

We got back to the hotel at close to eleven and went straight to bed.