Topkapi Palace and Museum of Archeology - 2009 Vacation Part 3

Topkapi Palace in Turkey is one of the world culture heritage sites. It is a representation of architecture of Ottoman period.

Weather was pretty good the 3rd day we arrived in Istanbul. We took a short walk after breakfast to the Palace.
The gate is not as grand as some of the other palaces we have been in the world before but it holds its own. Everyone had to dismount before the gate except the Sultan back in the imperial days.
This long corridor used to be the place for carriages.

The courtyard is very large. There were many very old trees like this one.
Doors are fine decorated with gold and color marbles.
Buildings are heavily influenced by Greek and Roman designs.There are colorful tiles for decoration everywhere. Patterns show very fine details in design. After so many hundreds of years exposed outside, the tiles are still so colorful.
There are several of finely decorated marble wash with gold by the entrance of buildings.
View is unbeatable. This side looks out to the bridge connecting Europe and Asia. Istanbul is the only city in the world that situates on both continents.Classical decorated building.Beautiful stained glass windows.
Lovely tiles on a wall. I wonder if they have used real gold burning into the tile. Otherwise it would not be so shinny with rich gold color after hundreds of years.
The colorful marbles (under the tiles) reminded me of marbles in Hagia Sophia.

This is where the parliament met.

We went to a restaurant just outside of the park where the Palace and the archeology museum are located. We wanted to rush back to visit the museum.

We have ordered a mixed meat and a beef sausage pita sandwiches to share. There are lots of food. It came with salad too. We were not able to finish all the food among 4 of us. It was good that we have asked before ordering.
Pita sandwiches were not what we had imagined. The pita sandwiches we have had in the US. The pita sandwiches we have had in the US are almost the same as regular sandwich but using pita bread instead. The pita bread puff up with an air pocket. Cutting the break in half, one can stuff lettuce and meat inside. In better places, they use homemade yogurt source with special spices for the sandwich. Other places just use Ranch dressing. Turkish pita sandwich is more like a pizza. They use different spices so the pita sandwich tasted different from a pizza. The just made pita has very thin crest. It is crispy and soft at the same time. The smell of the pita sandwich just make you want another piece. It is delicious!

The Museum of Archeology is big with 4 major buildings. The treasures inside really surprised us.
Alexandra the Great sculpture was done 300-400 BC.

The legendary Alexandra stone coffin. This was also done 300-400 BC. You can still see the colors. The sculptures around all 4 sides depicts the major battles he was in.

Resting in the open coffee shop in the museum.

Another pleasant surprise was seeing these from the Babylon period.

We had very good impression about Istanbul.

Turkish Blue Eye - 2009 vacation part 1

After almost 20 hours of travel, we finally landed in Istanbul from LAX. Hotel has free shuttle. We met a few others from Missouri that going to the same cruise and stay in the same hotel at the airport. The large van is just right size for all of us. It was very crowded going out from the airport. I don't think I would dare to drive in Turkey. The road is wide enough for 3 cars but there were 5. I did not see divider line on the road. How could I? There were just a few inches between cars. And there were so many changing lanes too. I was very nervous sitting in front of the van but the driver was very cool. It took forever to get out of the airport. Roads were not as bad after that. Then I saw a big mosque. The driver told us it was the Blue Mosque. We saw the famous Hagia Sophia on the other side of the van. I knew we were very close to the hotel. Driver told us that the hotel is on a pedestrian only street. We all carried our luggage walking with him. The wheels of our luggage made loud novices on the cobble stone street.

The street was very busy. There were restaurants along sides. There were also water pipe smoking stores, and coffee shops. Tables lined up. There were all kinds of chairs with colorful large thick cushions. It was time for dinner. There were many tourists browsing the menus each restaurants put out. Every restaurant manager were trying hard to convince people to go in. They did not even ignore us with luggage walking by. We all got all sorts of business cards. They also say "Ni hao" (How are you in Chinese) to us.

Passing a few restaurants, we have reached our hotel. Manager had each family/group resting in several lobby sofa. Fruit juice and Turkish candy were served while the manager went through the check-in details with each group. He had given us detailed information on hotel facilities and breakfast buffet. Our rooms included the breakfast buffet. He also gave each of us a blue eye pin. This was the first time I have seen "blue eye". We all asked what is it. He explained that it brings good luck to us. We asked more about it but with language limitation, he was notable to explain more. I have search online after we came back. This is what I have found:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_eye_in_Turkish_Culture

We went out looking for food after settled in our rooms. The restaurant manager across were very warm asking us in. Well, we liked to explore a little bit first. I knew seafood is good in Istanbul. We went to a restaurant with colorful image of their dishes on the menu. It is easier to order when we can see what it looks like. The grilled sea bass was delicious. We had Turkish tea after meal. It was very relaxing sitting in the open restaurant looking at the street.

We walked around near by after dinner. Every gift shops have all kinds of blue eye. Turkey is also famous for their carpet, leather goods, and China. Their originally were imitating Chinese China after they got them from the silk road. Gradually they have developed own designs. There are lots of beautiful designs. It is too bad that China is too difficult to carry. We bought a couple small China magnets with landmarks of Istanbul.