Taksim Istanbul and Iznik

This is the trendier, much more expensive and touristy part of Istanbul. It's a great area for nightlife and shopping, but not too interesting beyond that. We're paying a lot more here, for a not so nice apartment and  inferior food quality. It's still nothing compared to what we'll pay in Paris, though.

A few highlights:
Topkapi palace. A bit of a disappointment. The riches exhibited in the treasury were stunning--if you're into that sort of thing. And the relics--John the Babtist's severed arm, Mohammed's sword, a lock of Abraham's hair--might be interesting to gullible religious people--but I was there for the sense of history, of which there wasn't much. The library would have been a wonderfully pleasant place for an afternoon read, equally good for a siesta thereafter. And the bedroom, the bed in particular, would have been great for a good night's sleep or, due to its size, a wild orgy with your harem.

Fatih Mosque, the largest in Istanbul, where we lounged on the carpet for an hour or so and then wandered the area. We returned to Taksim and saw the Galata tower, where they wanted twelve Lira (six dollars) to take an elevator to the top. We decided that if we really wanted a good view, we'd take the elevator to the top of a nearby high-rise hotel or climb a neaby hill (one tourist thing I'll never get is the mania for paying large sums of money to climb or be taken to the top of something). We ended up doing neither and watched a Japanese drum concert at the base of the tower.

Pera Museum. They had an exhibition of Goya's prints. I think I like his prints better than his paintings, and I love the paintings, the latter one's anyway, the ones he wasn't paid for. He reminds me a little of a more modern Brughel, depicting everyday life as both trivial and fantastically mysterious at once. I was already aware of his talent for revealing the absurdity and tragedy of things, but the prints show a more concise satire than I've seen in the paintings. One print shows a donkey carrying a corpse and is titled "Curious Devotion". Below that is a man carrying a statue and is titled: "Even moreso".

The permanent exhibits were so so. Well worth the visit, though, for the Goya prints (and a few paintings, all portraits).

The Cisterns. Built in 1453 to hold the city's water. Mostly drained, it looks today like an underground cathedral (pics to come). Two pillars at the end are constructed with the remains of two roman statues of Medusa, the faces turned upside down to prevent gazers from turning to stone.

We attended a Spanish language couchsurfing event after that. There were around 60 people there. Big and active couchsurfing community here in Istanbul. This is our third couchsurfing event, all of them well-attended.

Chora Church. Arguably the best place in the world to see Byzantine art, especially of the so-called Byzantine Renaissance (the later period). Aside from straining our neck muscles gazing upward at the ceilings, it was pretty nice. The mosaics depicting the life of Mary, scenes from the Apocrypha, were particularly interesting, the only depictions of their kind. Like Hagia Sofia, it isn't much to look at from outside, but inside is quite stunning. The mosaics are fairly well-preserved, considering their age (10th to 12th century), and the frescos in the tomb room even moreso. The Byzantines didn't build their churches symmetrically, like the Catholics, giving their structures a more dynamic and natural appearance.

On the way there, I stopped to ask two hijab-clad women for directions. Both tilted their chins up high and ignored me. I'm guessing that for some Muslim women it isn't proper to talk to male strangers.

Archeology Museum. Excellent. Oldest stuff I've ever seen. They've got something from every early civilization you can think of, at least in Mesopotamia.

Boat tour. We took a self-guided ferry tour up the Bosphorus to the mouth of the Black Sea. At the end, there's a small fishing village, overlooked by the ruins of a castle. Beautiful. We saw a pack of dolphins, too. There's something exhilirating about seeing even a small speck of fin amid all that blue emptiness.

Iznik.

Formerly Nicaea, where the Nicene Creed originated. A wonderful, quiet little town about two hours from Istanbul. We had a hotel that overlooked the lake, where we spent a fair amount of time drinking sangria and watching the sunset. The people there were as friendly as they were in the first neighborhood we visited in Istanbul. Strangers stopped to invite us to tea, a vendor gave us a free watermelon just for asking about prices, and everyone seemed happy to give us directions.

One day we saw a young boy yelling at his three  sisters. When they returned to where he was screaming, he punched the oldest, a girl of maybe thirteen, in the side.

Last days. We couchsurfed with another super friendly local named Daliver. He left us alone in his apartment for the night, took us out to dinner twice, drove us around the city, and took us the next morning to the airport. After all this, he apologized for not having time to show us more.

Sad to leave. I definitely hope to return.