Istanbul, Former Constantinople!

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Things that have recently come to my attention:

-       Pretty much anything that has sparkles on it has the potential to make my day… especially if that item is shoes.  Yes, I’m a five year-old at heart.

-       Conversely, my body is apparently 85.  Or somewhere in that vicinity.  I have recently learned that I have degenerative discs that are provoking sciatica.  This equals an occasional numb leg and intermittent low-back pain.  But, like the trooper (or idiot) that I am, I told the Nurse Practitioner that I refused to stop running, thus prohibiting any sort of healing.  Brilliance, I tell you.

-       I still don’t like eating fish.  It smells gross, it looks gross, and when I get their little fish bones in my mouth, I kind of want to vomit a little bit.

-       And last, but not least, I am so very glad that I get to be an American… Here’s why…

I just got back from a trip to Istanbul, Turkey, and it was kind of great.  I got to see all sorts of monuments and sites that most people only read about in books.  But what I also got to see is what it might be like not to live the life of luxury I’ve become so accustomed to.  It was sad to me to see that this city, with so many beautiful things, was so littered with trash.  Everywhere I turned there seemed to be garbage on the streets and covering the sidewalks.  Then there were the bathrooms that had floors my shoes really didn’t even want to touch.  And of course, the lack of hygiene, which ultimately has a direct correlation with a person’s health, and is often a reflection of education (of course, not always; some things really are cultural).

None of this is meant to be degrading or demeaning in any way.  It was just really an eye-opening experience for me.  It really made me appreciate America.  I know we’re not perfect, but I feel so lucky to have grown up in a clean city where education was both fostered and encouraged, and where I was given so many opportunities. 

Oh, and I’m also thankful that I never really had to master the "squat and pee" (sorry, that might have been a wee bit too much information).

Anyway, I digress, which we all know is not exactly unusual.  So, here are some of the things I was able to see…

-       The Blue Mosque, which was huge and amazing!  All women who enter any of these mosques are asked to respect the Islam religion and wear a Pashmina Scarf on their heads, and all men and women are asked to take their shoes off.  It was definitely a very interesting experience.  

View of the Blue Mosque from the outside.  Beautiful!

 -        The Hagia Sophia Museum, which was formerly a the world’s largest cathedral for over 1,000 years.

Me (obviously) inside the Hagia Sophia Museum.

 -       The Tapkapi Palace Museum, which was where the Ottoman Sultans used to live.  In addition, this was where their harem of women were kept… a situation that I find more than a little disturbing.

One of the sidewalks leading to the Palace.  I thought these were quite awesome!

What pretty much all the walls in the Tapkapi Palace look like.  Copious amounts of white and blue tile.

-       And although we saw so much more, one of the neatest places were were able to go and see were the barracks where Florence Nightengale took care of soldiers during the Crimean War.  Yeah, it was awesome.

View of the barracks from outside the gates.  We weren't allowed to take any pictures once we entered the premises.

Aside from historical monuments, we also got to do some flee market-like shopping, enjoy (or maybe not enjoy quite so much) some Turkish foods, visit an awesome handmade Turkish rug store where we got to see how the rugs are made, and many other things that are slipping my mind because I’m sleep-deprived and am in a somewhat catatonic state as I try to adjust back to a night shift schedule.

Soooo many people at this flee market (this particular one was called the Spice Bazaar).

A silk, handmade rug.  At this point, it's approximately 65 percent finished.  The lady making it has been working on it for about eight months and it's projected to take her an entire year to finish it.  This rug has something like 300-plus knots per square inch.

Alright, I’m signing off for now.  As always, I hope you enjoyed the post and that it was at least 35 percent coherent.