The Ham Nomads

21 Jun 2015. <TR> Istanbul —

Today we ventured into Istanbul. This involved a bus from Kiyos Merkezi stop in Kumköy to Hacıosman Station, then the Metro from there to Vezneciler, where you get out and walk down to the Light Rail T1 line, taking the tram from the nearby Lateli-Universitesi station to Gülhane, where you simply walk up to the Topkapı Palace. Actually, we went one stop further on, as we wanted to drop in to the tourist office at Sirheci Station to pick up a city map — Warren just can't cope in a city without a city map. We also dropped in to a camera shop to get a replacement strap for the camera — the old one's steel reinforcement was fraying, and Warren was getting the weirdest scratches in the weirdest of places!

We walked back up to Topkapı Palace, bought a couple of museum cards, and went in. This place is just amazing. We went first into the Harem, which was the private quarters of the Sultan, his wives and his concubines. We have never seen such blatant opulence in our lives. We went first through the Concubines' corridor, passing the dormitories of the Harem Eunuchs, who were recruited primarily from the Sudan. We ultimately entered the room of the Sultan's Sofa, where he relaxed, watched his concubines dancing for him and selected from them the one to share his bed for the night.

The architecture of the palace is stunning. There are domes throughout the place, each one of which takes your breath away.

And even flat ceilings are incredibly ornamented ...

And tiles are a feature of Ottoman architecture ...

In one room, there were stained glass windows and tiled panels, each with the same motif ... magnificent!

Enough of the private life of the Ottoman Sultans! The palace was an active political machine, and emissaries visited here on a daily basis. There were pavilions where the laws of the land were enacted and interpreted. There were archives, libraries, mosques, a medical centre — the Sultan didn't need to leave the Palace to keep his finger on the pulse of his domains!

The Sultan even had his own private İftar Kiosk, overlooking the Golden Horn, where he would take his breaking of the daylight fast meal (iftar) during Ramadan.

We were able to visit part of the Treasury — not all of it is open — where we were able to see many of the treasures of the Topkapı Palace. We saw the Topkapı emerald knife — Sultan Mahmud I's emerald dagger — famous in its own right, but which also was the object of the heist in the 1964 crime-comedy film "Topkapi".

Midway through our explorations, we went into the Karakol Restaurant for lunch. The prices are a little steep, but the food exquisite, and the view of the Golden Horn unbelievable!

The Jandarma were there, on beautifully turned-out horses. This was primarily to provide a photo opportunity for families with their children —and is not a bad PR exercise for the Jandarma!

We explored Topkapı Palace for as long as we could — basically until they threw us out! This place is a 'must-see' for any traveller!

We then roughly retraced our travels for the morning, via tram, train and bus back to Mıstık Camping. On the way, we passed restaurants with women just inside preparing little delicacies. It took a little longer to get back to base than we expected, as we just missed the bus as we came out of the train station, and it was on a 30-minute schedule. Dammit!

Distance driven — today, nil; to date, 22,733 miles ( 36,586 km )