Shock and awe
Inside the Hagia Sophia
I’ve reached saturation point. I can’t take any more. I am in stunning-mosque shock, have had all the beautiful Istanbul views I can handle…and I feel like a toy with the battery taken out.
The Hagia Sofia, or Ayasofya, is an absolutely amazing place, well worth the wait and fee. I could have wandered around there for days. I don’t know if this is the best photo, because my eye can’t differentiate between the variations of beauty any more.
Any walk on the streets of Istanbul is a spectacle of sound, smell, and sight, and if there is rain touching your face or you stop to eat something, you can involve those senses too. Busy streets make room for small red carts cooking corn on the cob and/or chestnuts, and the smoke is part of the air here.
The Sultanahmet Camii (aka Blue Mosque) is another gorgeous place, worth more of my time than I had to give it, though since then I have visited two more epic mosques whose own visions of exquisite architecture hold strong in my memory. In the last one I realized after a few dozen photos that I was kind of phoning it in, my eye worn out on soaring arches and details climbing massive walls over intricate carpets layered in history.
But all of that beauty is something I can handle. My battery, my core, that left yesterday on a flight to Brussels. My walks have a little of the flavor of city-wide mopes, and I’m not sure if I’m walking because I want to see, can’t think of anything else to do, or because I am scared to sit still.
Istanbul is among my favorite places on Earth, and I think I would like to come back here, but right now I need a change of scenery.
Besides, people have started asking me for directions, and that’s always a sign that I’ve been somewhere long enough.
So in my bag is a bus ticket to Selçuk, which is the accommodation town for the ruins of Ephesus, and is rumored to be a nice little spot in its own right. It’s about 550 kilometers from here, and will take upwards of ten hours on an overnight bus.
Sleeping on buses is a hit-or-miss thing for me, and though I tried to sleep in this morning, the Call to Prayer, beautiful as it is, is hard to ignore. It may be a long night.
I’ll set this to post after midnight (if I can figure out how) and let you know tomorrow what state of reality I was in when it posted…
Oh yes, Istanbul is like a dream. Have fun further down south! I stayed at the ANZ Hostel there in Selçuk – it’s full of young travelers (no traditional accommodation here) and now that I look I see it’s got very mixed reviews on Tripadvisor. We had a great time, though we did only stay one night. There was a large yummy buffet breakfast and the Turkish/Australian owner was very loud and chatty indeed. Enjoy Ephesus. A real wow there!
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I wish I’d seen that recommendation before I got here. The place I picked, also run by an Turkish-Australian oddly enough, is okay, but the dorm is in a cold, slightly musty basement that fills with mosquitoes every night, and I am the only person, now that off-season-French-Santa-Claus and his wife left.
I’m a bit lost as to where to go next. Do you have any recommendations?
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We passed through Troy and the Gallipoli peninsula on the way. Gallipoli is the location of a particularly drawn out and unfortunate battle fought by the Australians and New Zealands in WW1 – today’s its anniversary actually! It’s a beautiful place and interesting if you’re into war history. Find it near fishing village Çannakale.
If you pass by Troy, do hire a guide. We were confused as to what we were looking at, though we still enjoyed the ruins.
We really didn’t have much time in Turkey – just 8 days ish – but if I’d had more I definitely wouldh ave gone to gone to Cappadocia in the country’s centre. It just looks magical!!
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*New Zealanders
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Beautiful. This confirms that I must see this place. Good luck sleeping on the bus.
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Hagia Sophia would be a great subject for the August page of the Travels of Tim calendar. I am overwhelmed just looking at the scant photos you posted here. And now I crave some roasted chestnuts. Like the commentors above, I need to go to Istanbul.
How lucky we are that as non-muslims we can enter some of the most gorgeous mosques? And non-Christians can enter the most gorgeous cathedrals? Time does seem to be slowly stepping toward more human tolerance.
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I hope so. It’s hard to see sometimes, but as states and countries gradually move forward (three cheers for gay marriage!) I hold tightly to faith that we’re slowly getting it. I certainly wouldn’t want to live in the Good Ol’Days of Inquisitions and crusades.
I like the idea of that calendar…do you have more requests?
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I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great.
I don’t know who you are but definitely you’re going to a
famous blogger if you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!
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Wow, thank you! Whenever I’ve gotten a comment on an old blog before it was always spam; suffice to say, this was a nice change! Wait…you’re not spam are you?
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