Istanbul, February 27

Here I am in Istanbul. I've just finished the third day. Patti and I left Yerevan at 3:30 in the morning Wednesday morning. No easy flight opportunities out of Armenia. Our country director did us a wonderful favor. Because of political rallies, travel to Yerevan was prohibited so we needed special permission and would have been confined to the peace corps office until time to leave for the airport. The director invited us to her house, where we had a lovely dinner, great conversation and a peace corps driver to take us to the airport. Other than the hour, a very painless travel experience.

Istanbul has 3 areas divided by water. The Bosporus runs to the Black Sea and divides the city into Europe and Asia. The European side is divided into old and new. Our hotel in Istanbul is in the old section, about a 10 minute walk to the blue mosque, hagia sophia and Topkopi palace and a 15 minute walk in the other direction to the spice bazaar. It is a modest place with a modern bathroom, three twin beds (one for our suitcases) and a small TV with BBC. In fact, I'm watching the news now. I don't think I'm missing too much.

The city is full of the contrasts you would expect in a place inhabited by Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Turks over the centuries – 14 million people in Istanbul alone. Old vs. new is one of the contrasts – very modern buildings adjacent to majestic structures several centuries old.

Here's a pic of a cemetary on an active city street with modern shoe stores across the street.

We took a little rest after we arrived at our hotel, then started acting like tourists. First was a 6^th century cistern built by Justinian – 336 doric, ionic and corinthian columns apparently constructed from ruining buildings, each 9 meters tall. Its an erie sight.

Two special treats –

throughtout the

cistern, little tables with old hats and jewelry.

And two Medusa heads supporting columns in one corner. One of the heads is upside down, the other sideways. If y

ou look at the attached pic carefully, you can see the carved snakes in her hair.

Next was the Blue Mosque. Pictures really don't tell the story of how beautiful the tiles are.

As we walked around the neighborhood, we were solicited by every vendor on the street wanting to show us his wares. "Come in, come in, come to my store, let me show you my beautiful..........". After three days, we are much better at saying no thank you and moving on while they are still talking. However, on the first day, we ended up looking inside many more shops than we wanted. Patti and I were lured in there, then involved for over an hour seeing dozens of rugs, drinking apple tea and learning that the man in the pic has a father who has a carpet store in Charlotte, NC of all places. This pic shows me perilously close to buying $4000 worth of rugs – beautiful but not exactly in a retiree's budget.

When we finally escaped from the rug store, we wandered around the neighborhood awhile, enchanted with the people, the architecture, the ambiance, the warm weather, etc. We stopped at a charming place for our first Istanbul meal, and in keeping with our pledge to eat fish every day, ordered a plate of mezes (wonderful little appetizer dishes – think tapas) and grilled calamari. Like eating manna.

The next day found us taking a ½ day cruise on the Bosphorus. We were a group of two, so it was essentially a private tour.

Our guide first took up on top of one of the 7 hills of Istanbul, giving us details that included the romantic story of its name (Pierre Loti, an adventurer in the 19^th century who ended up spending most of his time in Istanbul in a star-crossed relationship with a married woman). We walked around a perfectly sited outdoor cafe, overlooking the Bosphorus and a hillside graveyard, also perfectly sited so the departed will have good views of the river.

Then we mounted a boat and motored up the Bosporus around the Golden Horn and then back, seeing sights on both European shores and the Asian side. Amazing to think about a city bridging two continents. Here are some of the things we saw: I loved the contrast of the modern bridge and the 19th century mosque. I'll post the next several pics and dialog tonite. Right now, Patti and I are going to walk across a bridge that will take us from old Europe to new Europe where we will spend most of the day exploring that part of the city.