Our hotel is located right in the centre of old town Istanbul. We are super lucky to be in walking distance of the blue mosque and the Hagia Sophia. With this comes amazing views, it also comes with it the call to prayer from various mosques 5 times a day. Last night not only were we woken up by this amazing thunder storm which created the loudest thunder and most violent lightning ive ever experienced, we were also woken up by the call to prayer at 4:30am. As someone who loves experiencing new cultures I’m fascinated by this different way of life and how religion is so prominent in Turkish culture. It also reminded us of living in Dar where we often heard the call to prayer from local mosques. It’s amazing how loud it is and how mundane it is to everyone around us.
We visited the blue mosque today. For those of you who like a bit of history, the blue mosque was built between 1609 and 1616 during the rule of Sultan Ahmed. Its open every day of the year apart from prayer time. Its free to enter and donations are welcome. In order to enter the mosque ladies have to cover their shoulders and knee and wear a head scarves over their head, there was a place where you could rent long skirts and head scarves if you forgot to bring your own. Guys have to wear trousers. You also have to take your shoes off and put them in plastic bags when you go inside. Its beautiful inside, the ceilings are painted with beautiful Turkish patterns and colour’s and the floor is covered in a red carpet so that you can kneel to pray. The domes were really big and the architecture was impressive. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling and there was a real peaceful sense about the place as people prayed and tourists walked through.
Just opposite the Blue Mosque is the Hagia Sophia. This is translated to ‘holy wisdom’. Back in the day it was a church for 1,000 years then it was converted into a mosque in 1453 and then declared a museum in 1935 as part of a campaign to secularize modern-day Turkish republic. To enter you have to queue and pay, fortunately we had bought a turkey museum pass, so we skipped the queue and walked straight in. Again, the architecture blew me away with how impressive it was. Because it was a museum we didn’t need to cover our heads. Christian paintings out of gold could be seen on the walls along with Arabic canvases hung up high, this mix of religious decoration was testament to how it used to serve the Christian and Islamic religion. We were able to walk up to a viewing platform in the mosque, this was amazing as you could look down into the mosque and truly grasp how enormous the building was. If ever you find yourself in Istanbul, these two beautiful buildings are a must!
We also visited the Basilica Cistern. This was an underground water storage space used to service the palace back in 523. It was then forgotten about when the palace moved and no longer needed its services and was rediscovered in 1545. Its constructed using 336 columns, many of which were salvaged from ruined temples. Its super dark so really hard to take pictures and the ceiling drips water. Apparently it is featured in the inferno film with Tom Hanks. It cost 20TL to get in, I would definitely visit again as it was a unique experience and something fun to do.
So we had a pretty historical day today! We also found out that Turkish local ice cream has some sort of chewing gum ingredient in it in order to keep it cool, it’s weird but I kinda liked it.
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