Istanbul City Tour

July 26

Today we had booked a walking tour of historic sites in the Old Town section of Istanbul. Our tour started in what used to be the hippodrome (horse square) during ancient times. Our tour guide was Arda, and he started the tour by giving us some information about the city.

Old Town Istanbul used to be called Byzantium in ancient times, and the entire area is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is surrounded by the remnants of Roman walls that extended for 22 kilometers around ancient Byzantium. Old town Istanbul is beautiful and unique. Two obelisks stand in the hippodrome: one is from Karnak Temple in Egypt. The other is of unknown origins. The remnants of the bronze serpent column also stands in the hippodrome. The column was given to Byzantium by the ancient Greeks after a successful battle. Made of three twisted lengths of bronze, the top contained the heads of snakes all pointing in different directions. But there was a period of time when strife and violence was prevalent in Istanbul and the structure was destroyed. Two of the heads are now in museums: one in London and one in Istanbul. The other head has disappeared from history.

 At the other end of the hippodrome is the German Fountain. It was gifted to the city by Kaiser Wilhelm II after his visit there. Our first stop in the tour was at Topkapi Palace. If you plan on going, make sure you have at least three hours to spend there.

                      

There is so much to see. Topkapi was constructed during the reign of Sultan Mehmet II, and was in use by the Ottomans until 1856, when they moved the royal household to Dolmabahçe Palace. The palace has three different gates and four courtyards. Walking towards the first gate, we pass by the Hagia Eirene on our left. A smaller mosque built four years before Hagia Sofia, it means “holy peace”.

To our right is the Fountain of Ahmed the Turk. The first gate of Topkapi is called “the gate of rulership”. Topkapi can hold up to 5,000 people. Off of the first courtyard there is a weapons room and a clock room that has SO many different types of Ottoman clocks. Charisse was fascinated by the weapons room. 

 

The second gate is called the "Gate of Salutation" and has European style towers installed by Sulieman. The columns in the palace contain materials from Greece, Egypt, and the Marmara region of Türkiye. Our guide leads us through the many rooms, halls, and courtyards of the palace. Honestly, there are too many to remember them all. But everywhere we go we see the blue tiles for which Türkiye is famous.

 We then go to the eunuch's quarters, where there is a temple, and a hammam, along with the living and sleeping quarters. The eunuch's rooms are right before we get to the harem. In Islam "harem" means "a holy place where not everyone is allowed to enter". These were the quarters of the royal family. The rooms of the harem are expansive. There were rooms for the sultan, his wives, his mother, and his siblings. They had private kitchens, and a long hallway with a stone banquette where the servants would place their food. The harem at Topkapi was initially constructed during the reign of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror and expanded during the time of Sultan Murad III. We also tour the dormitories where the Sultan's personal soldiers lived before being allowed to explore on our own for the next hour. 

View of Anatolia from Topkapi

Huge swimming pool

                                                      

    

                                      

Our second stop of the day was the Blue Mosque. Because today is Friday, we were not able to get into the mosque until 2pm, which is why we did not start here. Friday at noon is the only time Muslims MUST come to a mosque to pray. Any other time they can pray at home. The Blue Mosque is actually called the Sultan Ahmet Mosque and is unique because it has six minarets. It is the only Ottoman mosque that has six. The typical mosque has two. Only a sultan could build a mosque with more than two minarets. A mosque built by a sultan usually has four. It is called the Blue Mosque because of the more than 20,000 hand painted blue tiles that decorate the walls. Many of the tiles have a tulip design because it was a flower native to the area. Later the flower was exported to the Netherlands. Inside the Blue Mosque there are eight circular plaques with inscriptions. They are for Allah, the prophet Muhammed, the two grandsons of Muhammed, and the four caliphs. The narrow staircase/ tower inside the mosque is where the imam sits to call the prayer. 

                       

                       

We ended the day at the Hagia Sofya. We did not go inside the Hagia Sofya but learned a little about the history. Constructed between AD 532- 537, it was originally built as an orthodox church.  It then became a Catholic church, then a mosque, then a museum, and now it is an active mosque again.  For a while it was the largest religious structure in the world. Both Hagia Sofya (holy wisdom) and Hagia Eirene (holy peace) are dedicated to Jesus. If I ever get back to Istanbul, I would definitely like to go inside the Hagia Sofya. 

City at the Crossroads of the World

July 25

After a slightly delayed flight we arrived in Istanbul today where we were picked up and transported to the Sarniç Hotel. The hotel is located inside an old Ottoman mansion and has the type of ambiance that one might expect from such a setting. It is close to all of the major sites in the Old Town section of Istanbul, which is why I chose it. There are drawbacks to staying in an old historic building: the rooms are small, there are no lifts, and WiFi can sometimes be spotty. Because we arrived late, Charisse and I dropped our luggage at the hotel and headed immediately to our first activity: a mosaic lamp making workshop. We were part of an international group of nine.  Our host, Aleyna, was both knowledgeable and patient.

                        

We left the mosaic lamp workshop with our precious bubble wrapped packages and headed to the world famous spice bazaar. Lovely and colorful, it was exactly what I expected a Turkish market to be. We purchased spices, teas, and souvenirs. 

      

Travel tip: wait until you have cleared baggage claim to look for an atm if you need cash. The fees tend to be lower than those in other parts of the airport. 

Balloon Safari

High on Charisse’s bucket list was riding in a hot air balloon. So we awakened early this morning to meet our driver from Balloon Safari. We loaded into the van where we met our two traveling companions, a mother- daughter duo from the UK. I’ve ridden in a hot air balloon before but this was a different experience. We loaded into the balloon horizontally with the basket lying on the ground. The Mara is beautiful from the air. We saw an exquisite sunrise and many of the same animals that we had seen on our safari. The surprise of the day: sighting two mating hyenas. After the balloon ride was over, we were treated to a champagne breakfast in the savanna. Grazing wildebeests served as our backdrop for a remarkable morning. 

                          

We met up with Sam and Rony at the entrance to the Masai Mara National Reserve to begin our six hour journey back to Nairobi. We checked back into the Radisson Park Inn, but only for a brief few hours, as we had to catch an overnight flight to Istanbul for part two of our journey. 

Phrase of the day: mungu alinipata- “God has got me” - the phrase we’ve used all during our trip whenever something gets stressful or doesn’t go to plan. 

Safari!

 July 22 and 23

Our two day safari adventure started on Sunday, July 22nd. We had two short game drives into the Masai Mara National Reserve, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon. The animals aren’t very active during the midday so we went at times we were likely to see the most animals. And we immediately began spotting zebras and warthogs. As we continued the very bumpy ride our eagle eyed guide and driver were both pointing out various animals and native plant life. Charisse’s highlight of the day was the giraffes. Mine was the elephants.

                             

                           

This wasn’t my first safari, but my 2019 safari in Uganda yielded no big cats and no elephants. Therefore I had a lot of excitement regarding what we would see. We lucked up and saw a female lion with two very playful cubs that we nicknamed Toryian and Navi. I learned the difference between the Thompson’s gazelle and the impala, and we also saw an animal I’d never heard of before, called a topi. We then saw a lone water buffalo. Sam informed us that it was an older male who had been expelled from the herd and would remain alone for the rest of its life. During our late afternoon sojourn we saw an adult male lion lounging by himself. 

                             

Day two of our safari was a long day. We left on our gane drive at 8am and didn’t return to the safari camp until nearly 5pm. We entered a different gate this time- a large structure that was crowded by Masai women selling goods. The theme of the day was wildebeests! As far as the eye could see! Having seen 3 of the Big 5 on day one, we didn’t necessarily expect to see the other two. Leopards are nocturnal, and rhinos are not known to be in the Masai Mara. Surprise! We saw a leopard, hidden under some low hanging bushes. He was near a water source where a lot of wildebeests were. The perfect spot for an ambush.

We drove to the Mara River to see hippos and crocodiles and also saw a lot of dead wildebeest bodies floating by. Apparently when crocodiles attack the wildebeests crossing the river, they just take a bite out of them and leave the carcass. We found a juvenile male lion who was enjoying a fresh wildebeest kill. When he got full (and his tummy was VERY full) the carrion eating birds that had been hanging around swooped in and went to work on the leftovers, removing the meat in strips. There are no elephants in this part of the Mara because they don’t like the wildebeests, who are skittish animals.

                          

We also happened upon a pair of mating lions and one very large adult male who was clearly in a food coma, as there was a large bloody bone lying next to him. The pair of mating lions caused quite the traffic jam as all the safari driver communicate to each other by radio, so everyone currently in the Mara rushed over to the area. At one point I counted 40 vehicles in that one spot, which created a choke point at the one tiny bridge until one driver got out of this car and started directing traffic. For a while we chased the reports of a cheetah sighting and when we found them, there turned out to be two juveniles who were calling for their mother. Later on that day we spotted a mother cheetah and four cubs who left a small bush to find safety in a larger cluster of bushes. In the middle of the day we enjoyed a packed lunch right there under a tree in  the savanna. 

                               

                               

Word of the day: hapana- “no” - a word I had to use a lot as the women selling wares at the gate were very persistent 

Hakuna Matata

July 21

We loaded into a safari van early this morning with Sam and our driver, Rony, and we headed out on a six hour adventurous drive to our camp in the Masai Mara. 

We made one stop to take pictures at an overlook on the Great Rift Valley, which is a geographical feature that runs from Mozambique to the Red Sea in Israel. 

Everyone shows you their pictures on safari but no one tells you what the drive there is like. The term “road” should be used  VERY loosely. Part of it was nothing but a rocky path. Honestly, the journey was so bumpy that my watch recorded it as exercise. Imagine trying to riding a bronco for three hours. But while driving through the savanna we were treated to many instances of seeing animals in their natural habitats. We saw zebras, warthogs, hyenas, wildebeests, giraffes, Thompson’s gazelles, and antelope. We also saw many farmers and children herding sheep, cows and goats- none of which were in any hurry to get out of the dirt “road” (for lack of a better term).  We arrived at the Royal Zebra River Safari camp and was greeted by Napthali, the manager of the camp. We had an excellent lunch and a brief rest before visiting a Maasai village. 

There we were greeted by a group of Maasai men who performed a welcome dance. As we entered the village the women performed a dance and blessing that ended with a high five. We were lead around the village by “Edward” - not his real name- but a lot of them seem to use English names with the visitors. He told us about the jumping demonstration we witnessed and said the young me do it to attract girlfriends. 

After that we saw a traditional fire making demonstration using sandpaper wood and red cedar. They rub the sticks together in a machete and then use the ember to light a fire in dried elephant dung, which they gather for this explicit purpose. He took us into a hut and explained how women were in control of everything that had to do with the household, including the construction of the huts. The huts are made of cow dung mixed with clay. The roof support is a soft wood and the inner house structure is made of a hard wood. He talked to us about the practice of polygamy among Maasai men before taking us to the Maasai market where we purchased some of their traditional beaded crafts. 

                

Word of the day: hakuna matata- “no worries”