Day One

I am writing this a day late. Absolute fatigue got me after the trip and I chose sleep over writing. Now to catch up!

The flights went fine.... on time out of Phoenix at 6 a.m. Sunday, into NYC/JFK a little early. About 3 hours to wait for the next flight. We gradually accumulated our entire group (with our two experts we are 14, though 2 had flown early.) We are now 15 with our local guide, a lovely young PhD candidate in art history, named Arzu.

The NYC to Istanbul flight was about 10 hours... in tiny toy seats that might have fit 8 year olds, but not adult mortals. My seat mate was a very nice Turkish American business man going back to a family reunion... he was so muscularly big that I looked petite. Suffice it to say it was not comfy. They fed us dinner, breakfast, many beverages, and showed a boodle of movies. I read, took my melatonin and tried to sleep the trip away. I was successful in 30 minute increments.in both reading and sleeping.

We got into Istanbul about an hour late, at about 10:45 a.m.; found our guide, found most of our luggage (all of mine, thankfully), loaded our minibusu and came to our hotel. We are in the nice older section of Central Istanbul, in the Hotel Bristol. Rooms are comfy but small for two (manageable of both of us don't want to do something extreme like walk around simultaneously......) But we have a bath, hot water, the air conditioning works, and the little teensy beds are comfy. I slept the sleep of the innocent last night.

After half an hour or so we met the bus again and headed for Topkapi.... wow. Saying Topkapi was the sultan's palace is sort of like saying that the White House is the President's condo in DC. Generally close to 4000-5000 people were in residence at any time... staff, slaves, servants, advisors, guards, janissaries, wives, concubines, children, etc. We toured the harem first..... it generally was the most densely settled. Though some sultans were more libidinous than others, for the most part the harem was hardly the Playboy Mansion... the ruler was the Queen Mother and she frequently ran a tight ship. The wives and concubines were often foreigners....sometimes captured in war, sometimes sent to seal alliances or business deals, sometimes the daughters of poor families seeking upward mobility. They got a little job security if they bore a son, but they also had the tenuous circumstance of waiting to see if that son of primogeniture, so it was every little guy for himself when papa sultan went on to the next world.

Topkapi is built on one of Istanbul's 7 high hills, so it catches delightful breezes and views of the Bosporus. It is surrounded by lovely gardens and nooks and crannies out in those gardens.

Then we went on to see the jewels and artifacts and relics of the Prophets. The jewels were breathtaking and sumptuous. In addition to the things you may remember from the movie Topkapi (the daggers, jewels for the turban, pendants, rings, etc., etc.) there were jewel encrusted stirrups; gold and diamond coffee cups, much more. We were not allowed to photograph in there, but no one kept us from drooling.

The last part was the reliquary. Remember that Islam, Judiasm and Christianity all share reverece for the Old Testament prophets... Abraham, Moses, Jacob, David. In fact Muslims believe Jesus was among those prophets. Mohammed is seen to be most significant (and the LAST) prophet. There, in a very solemn display area of several rooms, underscored by someone reading the Koran (live, duty shared by two rotating imams), we saw King David's sword, Abraham's stew pan, various teeth and body parts and several hairs of Mohammed's beard. It was a very interesting display.. I am still a little partial to Abraham's pan.

Our guides had mercy at this point and we came back to the hotel, walkled a few blocks to a very good dinner and then collapsed. A wonderful day.