Vol 50 Day 3 Istanbul

My third day in Istanbul got off to something of a slow start. Too much Raki and dancing…..

After a nice sleep-in Ferhan and I watched a very bad movie. “Revenge of the Radioactive Reporter”. Wow-bad, low budget black and white movie from 1990. Made in the style of a 50’s/60’s horror movie.

Then I hit the streets again. I walked to Dolmabahce Palace. Which is where I took the photo of me in front of the swan fountain. Which is how my brother guessed I was in Turkey. He had seen that fountain on “The Amazing Race” and he remembered it. Bugger. Clever bugger though. So here is a sampling of the photos I took while there. Flash photography is prohibited inside the palace so that is why my photos are once again dark. I've doctored them as best I can.

The clock tower as you approach the palace.

The entrance gates which lead into the gardens.

My guide book describes Dolmabahce Palace as having a neoclassical exterior and an over-the-top interior.

As in London, this dude never moved. Love the hand on the knife.

The gardens were beautiful. And there were roses! So I got to see and smell roses this year after all. Yay!

The Palace was built by Sultan Abdul Mecit and was completed in 1856. To enter I had to take a guided tour and everyone had to wear little plastic shoe covers. Stylin'.

Yup, it's over-the-top all right.

The floors are beautiful.

The Sultan's bathroom. All carved marble. Super posh.

The Sultan's pooper. Not so posh.

A sampling of the paintings for my art buff readers.

This one was lovely.

The chandeliers in the palace were outrageous.

Looking out the windows I could see collections of "spare parts" like this.

Throughout the tour there were displays like these.

This is the grand entrance hall. Oh, it's grand all right.

Out the back door. Or was this the front?

My feeling won't be hurt if you don't watch the whole video. It's long and poorly lit for the most part, but it does give a good feel for the luxury of the palace.

Then I was off to another shopping district. Don't know the name of it but it was a little NW of the Palace. Ferhan had advised me to walk there after the palace tour. I was pretty much the only tourist in this neighborhood so most of the shopkeepers didn't speak English. It was very pretty. Lots of side streets full of shops and cafes and bakeries. The idea was that I would find shoes and a jacket. But in spite of the cloudy weather and my stupid wedge-heeled sandals that I continued to twist out of on the cobblestones, I bought nothing.

Except Lokma. Little donuts that seem to be made out of a sort of tempura batter and then soaked in a honey syrup. I ate about a dozen of them. What could I do? They were warm and crisp and sticky and sweet. I thought I'd died and gone to donut heaven.

By the way, though 98% of the population is Muslim, no one seemed to be fasting for Ramadam in Turkey. Restaurants were all open and people were eating, smoking and drinking during the day everywhere I went. Which was nice for me, having come from Oman where restaurants are closed during daylight hours and I had to hide to eat. I'm told that people in smaller Turkish villages were fasting.

Remember this lady selling flowers? Some women in Turkey wear a head scarf but about 70% do not. This photos very nicely shows the cobblestones that threatened my ankles everyday.

I walked back to Ferhan's to see if I could take him to dinner but he was not feeling any better. So we stayed in and watched two more bad movies- "DC Cabs" and "Rainbow Prison".