winding down
Sep. 7th, 2007 06:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragojustineEarly morning and long bus ride back to Istanbul. The Istanbul otogar is a complete circus. Took an hour to get ourselves to a dolmus back to Sultanhamet. Settled in and decided to e-mail Dustin first thing- good thing too, as I realized my flight leaves Sunday, not tomorrow! I mixed up the end of the tour and though the departure day was the day AFTER the end, not the same day.
Very embarrassing, but good, as I was very disappointed about my lack of time in Istanbul at the end. Freaked out but managed to book at the hostel across the street for 10 Euro. I've been really pinching pennies all trip, so I think one more day will be fine.
Got out to Aya Sofya finally. That building has been the thing I most want to see in the entire world since... I can't remember, but I think it was when I did that paper on the Ottomans winter quarter TS year. So, seven years.
It was more of a mix, more of a hodgepodge, than I expected, but that just made it more interesting. The restored mosaics are beautiful beyond belief- even after all I've read about Byzantine mosaic work, this is my first time seeing really good ones in person and it's just... striking. The dome is boggling, and (even despite the horrible unfortunate scaffolding) the entire impression is of light and air and space and soaring vaults, just like it's always described. It's wonderful.
Spent an hour or so in the bazaar- no buying yet, now that I have another whole day. It really is pretty overwhelming, disorienting, but that's the fun. The jewelry sections are quite satisfyingly sparkly. I'm getting quite a hankering for really sparkly necklaces now. Those lariat style ones, maybe, or the shaped collar ones that don't actually connect in front but curlicue over your collarbones, something in red gold if possible. I would have to be in another strata of society entirely to actually wear such a thing, and I feel a bit little matchstick girl pressing my nose up to those windows, but wow.
Our final dinner together was a place on that pedestrian underside of the Galata bridge. You settle down on these beanbag chairs on the outer walkway, with the restaurants behind you and this incredible view of Suleymanye mosque (there are three mosques right there, actually, and I can't recall the names of the other two) and that huge fountain on the water, and the bridge stretching out to either side, and the Galata tower and the ferries, and everything spotlighted or strung with lights. It's the most incredible date-spot I think I've ever seen, and I would give a truly astonishing amount of money to be there with a date someday, especially when it goes silent except for the splashing of the water and the call to prayer just drifts, eerie and otherworldly and beautiful, from a dozen directions at once. I am convinced that, at least at night, Istanbul is the most beautiful city in the world.
Very embarrassing, but good, as I was very disappointed about my lack of time in Istanbul at the end. Freaked out but managed to book at the hostel across the street for 10 Euro. I've been really pinching pennies all trip, so I think one more day will be fine.
Got out to Aya Sofya finally. That building has been the thing I most want to see in the entire world since... I can't remember, but I think it was when I did that paper on the Ottomans winter quarter TS year. So, seven years.
It was more of a mix, more of a hodgepodge, than I expected, but that just made it more interesting. The restored mosaics are beautiful beyond belief- even after all I've read about Byzantine mosaic work, this is my first time seeing really good ones in person and it's just... striking. The dome is boggling, and (even despite the horrible unfortunate scaffolding) the entire impression is of light and air and space and soaring vaults, just like it's always described. It's wonderful.
Spent an hour or so in the bazaar- no buying yet, now that I have another whole day. It really is pretty overwhelming, disorienting, but that's the fun. The jewelry sections are quite satisfyingly sparkly. I'm getting quite a hankering for really sparkly necklaces now. Those lariat style ones, maybe, or the shaped collar ones that don't actually connect in front but curlicue over your collarbones, something in red gold if possible. I would have to be in another strata of society entirely to actually wear such a thing, and I feel a bit little matchstick girl pressing my nose up to those windows, but wow.
Our final dinner together was a place on that pedestrian underside of the Galata bridge. You settle down on these beanbag chairs on the outer walkway, with the restaurants behind you and this incredible view of Suleymanye mosque (there are three mosques right there, actually, and I can't recall the names of the other two) and that huge fountain on the water, and the bridge stretching out to either side, and the Galata tower and the ferries, and everything spotlighted or strung with lights. It's the most incredible date-spot I think I've ever seen, and I would give a truly astonishing amount of money to be there with a date someday, especially when it goes silent except for the splashing of the water and the call to prayer just drifts, eerie and otherworldly and beautiful, from a dozen directions at once. I am convinced that, at least at night, Istanbul is the most beautiful city in the world.