Topkapi Palace, Aya Sofya




We had a long day planned, and thankfully we cut it short. Somehow this one-day tour, with the top 5 things we "must see" in Istanbul turned into:
  • seeing 2 of the most spectacular sites in the world (Topkapi Palace and the Aya Sofya Museum),
  • a much-needed lunch,
  • an "oops it's Friday prayer time" (when we went to the Blue Mosque),
  • and an end-of-the-day, students dropping out from exhaustion (or stomach aches), let's go to the Grand Bazaar on our way back to the hotel kind-of-a-day.
So, we saw great things; we need to see much more; but we just got here and we'll get to these other great places over the next two weeks. And students are out exploring tonight as well - our hotel location is in the Sultan Ahmet area, very close to the Blue Mosque and Grand Bazaar.

Saturday our academic orientation begins with Dr. Itir Toksoz (NU alumna, PhD in political science). And we'll orient students to the transportation system - trams, trolleys, subways, buses, and of course water ferries - that is the best mode of transport in this city of 13 million!


Pictured are the door frame / opening to the Topkapi Palace plus the inside of the Aya Sofya (aka, Haggia Sophia) - former Cathedral, former Mosque, now museum.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You can't get there (Serbia) from here (Kosovo) - go to Montenegro!

Image
“You can’t cross this boundary from here [the Kosovo “border”/Administrative boundary]. You’ll have to go to Montenegro and then enter Serbia from there.” Thus sayeth the Serbian policeman at the boundary/border, yesterday (Thursday) around 3:30 pm. The reason? We had a stamp on our passports that read “Republic of Kosovo”, which Serbia does not recognize as independent nation-state (nor do a small number of nation-states of the international community – Russia, Spain, Greece, and 6 other members of the EU). “Kosovo is Serbia.” What he was proposing was for us to “re-enter” Kosovo (1/4 th of a mile back from where we came); return to the town of Mitroveca (where we just left 90 minutes ago); cut over to the West, and enter Montenegro (another 90 minutes-2 hours); then drive to the Montenegro-Serbia border (another hour); then drive until we catch up with the road we could have been on – only one hour from the point on the map where we were standing that ver
Read more

Student blogs - check them out!!

Image
on the right side of this blog, run your cursor over the second box down from the right - you should see "Student Blogs Balkans 2012".  As students send me their URL (addresses) for their blogs, I will add them here.  the students have unique insights into much of the same thing I discuss - but then again, so much more!  Check them out when you can. While I'm "here", I'll post just two more pictures from July 9.  First, a picture of our meeting with Ambassador Rod Moore, former US Ambassador to Montenegro, career foreign service officer, and now works as the 2nd in command at the OHR - the Office of the High Representative.  OHR is essentially the "authority of last resort" in Bosnia.  We met with Ambassador Moore just after we witnessed the ceremony honoring the 520 souls who were to be buried today in Srebrenica.  Here is one more picture, below, that shows the flowers that were placed on the 3 semi-trucks, carrying the 520 coffins that were
Read more