Sunday was a new experience for me: I was literally the last person to check in on my Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul. I arrived at JFK I thought two hours before my flight and found not a soul at the TA check-in desk. I had received an email at 2PM advising me that the 6:50 scheduled departure was delayed by an hour and that was also what the TA web site showed. Apparently this was some sort of rogue email and the departure was proceeding as originally scheduled. A TA ground person had to accompany me to the head of the TSA security line so that I could get to the gate. You all know how much time I usually leave for a flight (see Lisa's hilarious email of a few months ago) so this was like an out-of body experience for me.
The flight actually boarded on time but the plane sat on the ground for two hours. The pilot made several announcements but TA seems to have borrowed the public address system used in NY subway stations; all I could understand was the word "India." One more thing about the flight: TA's "comfort class" (premium economy) was very good. Not today's business class with flat beds but very much like business class was 10 years ago: lots of leg room, a foot rest, and a comfortable angle of recline. Business class $6,400; comfort class $2,400. I felt virtuous and exonerated. Service was actually very good.
I found my hotel through TripAdvisor which I now swear by after our Senato experience in Rome.
The Hotel (Sultania) is very much like Senato in terms of size, cleanliness and comfort. Of course, it doesn't come close to matching the beauty of the building and there is no terrace over the Pantheon square (nor is there a fresco on the ceiling). My room is spacious with a couch and Ottoman furnishings. The hotel is in Sultanhamet, the oldest part of the City (where I wanted to be). Narrow crowded streets much like our area of Rome all lead to an ancient main thoroughfare which is restricted to pedestrians and the tram (no cars).
The hotel is a ten minute walk to Haghia Sofia (now known as Ayasofya) which is the 6th Century Byzantine Church of Holy Wisdom, later converted to a Mosque and now a museum. My main interest this trip is to see as much as I can of Byzantine Constantinople. As usual, I have prepared a bit for the trip and think I have the historical perspective necessary to actually appreciate what little is left of pre-Ottoman Constantinople. Haghia Sofia is closed on Monday so my report will have to wait,
I visited the Basilica Cistern, a 6th Century underground reservoir that was fed by the City's two aqueduct systems. The Cistern is a cavernous vault held up by more than 300 columns (mostly Corinthian, some Doric and a couple of idiosyncratic ones including two that have Medusa heads as their base). The cistern is "romantically" lit and the hundreds of columns reminded me of the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xian--forgotten for centuries and suddenly they are here standing 1500 years later (much more in the case of the warriors).
A ten minute walk from the Cistern brings one to what is left of the Byzantine Hippodrome. All that stands are two obelisks and part of an ancient serpentine column. One obelisk from 1500 BC was brought to Constantinople by Constantine in the 6th Century. It is in perfect shape and the hieroglyphs are beautifully clear. This is in sad contrast to "my" Obelisk in Central Park or to London's. It is red sandstone and more beautiful that the ones in Rome. the serpentine column is from the 5th Century BC (1,000 years before Constantine) and is thought to have come from Delphi. An awful lot of awful things happened in the Hippodrome (besides chariot races) including two horrendous massacres, one by a Byzantine Emperor, the other by a Sultan. But now the Hippodrome is a peaceful park just outside the Blue Mosque.
The Mosque takes its name from the many Iznik tiles with which the interior is faced. It was built in the early 17th century to rival Haghia Sofia and, it indeed has a beautiful dome. The Mosque's dome sits on four mammoth columns and doesn't "fly" gracefully on arches as does its more ancient rival.
Each day since about ten days ago, I re-read William Butler Yeats' "Sailing to Byzantium." I was never one for poetry, but I think this poem encouraged me to come to Istanbul. It famously begins, "That is no country for old men." I have been trying to really understand his meaning and the structure of the poem. In the end, I know Adele will explain it all to me. Meanwhile it speaks to me.
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