Rick's Next Adventure: 2021

I have a list of 62 places I planned on seeing in Istanbul. Yep, 62. I won't be seeing them all though. Today I had two of them wiped off the list, one because of Covid of course. I'm sure more will drop off as I try to see them. The first, the Blue Mosque, was "open" but under reconstruction and the tiny part you could see inside was not really what I was hoping for. Oh well, the second was the Basilica cistern, which you might remember from a James Bond movie...that was one of my must sees...Covid strikes again. Anyway, I should really tell you about what I could see...

The day started with walking to the Hippodrome, the old Roman area. There are 3 ancient columns, in varying stages of decay. First, the walled obelisk of Constantine, next the serpent column (sans the heads, which are apparently in some museum) and last the Obelisk of Theodosius, stolen from Egypt, and reputed to be where the end of the world will arise. No action on that today.

And then I met the "English Student", Fetzmin. He just happened to come along, and just happened to start a conversation with me and he just happened to be going my direction and he was so definitely not doing anything except practicing his English. We walked to the Blue Mosque, then he took me on a shortcut so he could just show me the best view of the Mosque, and most certainly he was just being kind. I was most certainly interested in the best view, and unknown to Fetzmin, I also most certainly knew what he was up to. We arrived shortly to his family's carpet store, and then climbed 6 stories to the roof and proceeded to climb up the roof to said view. It was indeed a good view and he happily took my picture standing in front of the view of the Mosque. Then we went downstairs and met his "uncle", who most certainly wanted to make me coffee and maybe, most certainly, discuss buying a rug. I politely said I had an appointment and made an exit. I would later turn down at least a dozen offers of "coffee for you my friend". One guy was offended when I declined until I asked him just how much coffee Istanbulites expected me to drink, then he laughed and said "perhaps you have met my friends..." We parted peacefully.

Then it was off to the Great Palace Mosaics Museum, the tomb of the Sultans, the German-Turkish friendship fountain (a bad omen for their future defeat soon after), and then, most magnificently, the archeological museum. Wow! Hittites and Phoenicians and more fantastic antiquities than you can believe...with the Tiled Palace as the cherry on top. Seriously, this place is the bomb, and virtually no one was there. There were enough intricate and amazing sarcophaguses to be absolutely stunning in the sheer scale, let alone in their beauty, Indiana Jones would be awestruck. Apparently they were found in a cave in ancient Phoenicia, the Kingdom of Sidon to be exact. Totally amazing. And then the Tiled Palace. I was kind of in love with the little place, and I was absolutely the only person wandering its lovely rooms. I'm pretty happy with how today turned out, and I can't wait to see how tomorrow goes...