Istanbul

Landed in Istanbul on Wednesday afternoon and checked into my hotel in Sultanahmet, which is basically ground zero for all of the World Heritage sites. Right out of my window is the Blue Mosque, (lovely but they have 5am prayer chants over a loudspeaker). Once I figured out to close my windows at night I grew to like it a lot more. The mosque is gorgeous inside and out, and the calls to prayer on the loudspeaker during normal waking hours are hypnotic and transporting. The Hippodrome next to it is a bustling street fair and park area with tons of kebap vendors and grilled corn (very big over here).

Also next door is Aya Sofya, whose history mirrors Istanbul's. It started off as a Christian church built by Emperor Justinian in 537AD (the largest, most important one for hundreds of years) and for over 1000 years was the largest enclosed space building in the world. When Istanbul fell in 1453 to the Ottomans, it was converted into a mosque, and remained so until 1935 when it was turned into a museum. Pretty much the definition of awe-inspiring when you go inside.

Finally right next to that there's Topkapi Palace where the Sultan and his harem used to live. This place is more open air than Aya Sofya but ginormous as well. As the treasury of the Ottoman Empire, it holds a huge amount of priceless objects, including crazy jewel-encrusted daggers, diamonds as big as your eyeball, and some of the most holy relics in the world. I saw Mohammed's footprint, his tooth, locks of his beard, a couple of his swords, and St. John the Baptist's arm and skull. Or so they say - I have to admit I got a little skeptical at Moses' walking stick.

The harem area was beautiful as well: wall-to-wall tile and gilted domed ceilings for the ladies in waiting (who evidently wielded great political power as sultans started out pretty young). Fun fact: if you were in the harem and bore a son for the sultan, you got upgraded to a room with a nice view of the city.

One of my favorite things so far has been walking along the huge pedestrian street
Istikal Cad over in the more modern part of town near Taxim Square. It seems the whole city shows up to show off around 4PM or so. Excellent people watching and cafes.

With so many sights right out of my front door, I've turned into a turbo tourist for a few days. At night I've tried to find a few gay bars with mixed success (first night: one bar, closed). The medieval streets in the city are so windy and partially unnamed that even taxi drivers don't seem to know where a lot of addresses are.

Friday night I tried again and had much better luck. Met this very fun couple from Milan, Luigi and his boyfriend, who were celebrating his birthday. They whisked me away from the rather tragic bar I was at and took me to a great dance club, "Love". Luigi is a kinda comic dancer (would be a good match for Brian C. on the soccer team in dance chicken) and he either impressed or scared the locals with his moves (hard to tell). Fun and late night.

The people here are extremely warm and friendly. My hotel receptionist spent a long time explaining to me how everything around the hotel was over-priced (not exactly selling the area to me). Taxi drivers have gone way beyond the call of duty to help me find (possibly non-existent) bars or streets. But they can be too friendly as well when it comes to business - every shopkeeper or restauranteur strikes up a conversation ("My friend! Where you from?"). For some reason everyone thinks I'm French, which is weird. Though at least the Biblical references have gone down...