Day 6: Dolmabahce Palace & Military Museum

After breakfast, we headed to the tram stop in order to take the trolley across town. Waiting for it to arrive:Our destination was the Dolmabahce Palace, which the sultans built in the middle of the 19th century, partly to dispel rumors that the Ottoman Empire was in financial trouble, and partly to keep up appearances with their rivals. We were not allowed to take any pictures inside, but it was very glamorous, and rivals the most opulent European palace.

The outside gate:

Buying our tickets:
As an aside, many of the bathrooms we went into had both old-fashioned Turkish toilets:
as well as modern ones:
On several occasions, I would be in the bathroom, opening doors until I found a modern toilet at the same time an older Turkish woman would be doing the same, but looking for a traditional one!

Back to the palace; we had to put little pink covers over our shoes to protect the floors:

After the tour of the inside of the building, we walked around the grounds a bit:
Around the back, we found a little outdoor aviary with all sorts of chickens and other fowl:

These guys seemed to be having an engrossing conversation:We walked through a few other buildings on the ground (pictures, once again, were disallowed). Then, we walked to Istiklal Avenue, which is, according to our guidebook, where much of life in Istanbul centers. Near here is where Agatha Christie worked on writing Murder on the Orient Express.

We had lunch at vegetarian-friendly Zencefil.This nostalgic trolley was running, but we didn't try it:We did stop for ice cream, though!We were nearing the time for the Military Museum's band's performance, so we headed over to the Military Museum.

We sat in the back, so this was our view:Though neither one of us is a military buff, we really enjoyed our visit here! Apparently, since it is a bit out of the way, it doesn't get as many tourists as it really should. I heard, however, that they have plans to move the exhibitions to Topkapi Palace, which means more people will get to see them.

After, we tried to buy a couple of CDs of the band's music in the gift store. We waited for about 10 minutes, but no one came to help us. We sat down in the chairs provided, but lost our place in line when a field trip let out:The kids cleared through quickly, and we went to buy our CDs. They were 1.25 Turkish Lira each, and we tried to buy two CDs and pay with a 5 TL bill. They didn't have change! We just couldn't believe it. We scrounged around for TL change and had 1.25, so we only were able to buy one.

We took public transportation back to the Sultanahmet district, and had dinner at a place recommended in our guidebook, Lale's Pudding Shop:After dinner, we went back to our hotel.

For the most part, Istanbul was similar to any large European city. While there certainly were Muslim and Asian influences, it wasn't as exotic as I expected it to be. The one big exception is the call to prayer that takes place 5 times a day. This rings out from speakers positioned on the minarets each mosque has.

Here is a short video taken from our hotel room where you can hear the call to prayer from the mosque across the street. The actual call is a bit longer; I only taped a portion of it.

Day 7: Cistern & Topkapi Palace

Thursday started with one of the sights that I most wanted to see; an underground Roman cistern.

It did not disappoint! Though, it was quite dark, so some of the pictures did not turn out very well. This was built under the Emperor Justinian in AD 532. At some point it was closed and forgotten about. It was rediscovered in the 16th century.
There were fish swimming in the water.Apparently it was built using capitals, columns, and plinths from ruined buildings, which, in my opinion, makes its symmetry and size that much more impressive.

Occasionally, there would be a gem, such as this highly decorated column:Or these Medusa heads:After the cistern (a highlight!), we went to Topkapi Palace. This is where the sultans lived prior to the Dolmabahce Palace, which we visited earlier in the week.

In the courtyard, we thought we saw a van cat and went over to photograph her; however, her eyes were the same color. She didn't seem happy with our intrusion!Sitting in the shade, relaxing, and planning our next move: Since the line to visit the Harem was nonexistent, we started there.We walked on a stone mosaic path:A beautiful prison, but a prison nonetheless to the women who spent their lives in the harem:We saw indian ringneck parakeets flying overhead, their brilliant green framed by the stunning blue sky. The pictures didn't turn out, though! There were many different buildings, pavilions, and courtyards in the palace. Many of them were under renovation, but we still had a great time.And yet more beautiful views:We then headed over to the Istanbul Modern Art Museum, where we started with lunch.Photographs were not allowed of the exhibits.

Back near our hotel, we stopped off at a cafe for drinks and a cheese plate:The cheese plate ended up being bigger than anticipated, so our appetizer turned into dinner.

This cat was stalking us a bit: We also were watching these birds from our outdoor table:After wandering about the city a bit more, we returned to our hotel. We had to get up early the next day, so wanted to be sure to get enough sleep.