I had already decided to have a quiet morning doing nothing and to do a tour in the afternoon … because I needed to check out of the hotel by 11.00 a.m. and my flight as not until midnight. I didn’t want to get too hot and sweaty before getting on the plane as there was no where to have a shower. As it turned out it was the right thing to do for a different reason – I would have got wet walking around
The tour went to the Dolambahce Palace. The gardens were lovely and the palace is built on the edge of the Bosphorus so has amazing outlooks. Unfortunately you are not allowed to photograph inside. I have seen many palaces and this is definitely one of the most exquisite. It contains the biggest chandelier in the world – made from Waterford Crystal. It is in the main ballroom which I believe is also the biggest ballroom in the world. To me the beauty of the place was in the symmetry – beautiful proportions and each side of the room mirroring the other. What also stood out for me was the beautiful baroque ceilings. In the ballroom the ceiling was three dimensional – I have never seen anything like it – it was almost like one of those paintings you see today on the internet where it looks like someone has dug a whole in the footpath – but really it is a painting. The other things was the colours – all were original paint and the colours were still so vivid.
Doing a tour to see the palace was a good idea as you have to be part of a tour group to enter. However, that was the only good thing about the tour … it reminded me just why I hate doing tours like this vs. doing it yourself … there were two very loud and very obnoxious couples on the bus and it was made worse by the fact that one of them were constantly bickering … who needs that when on holiday!! I don’t think I was the only one who found them annoying! It is such pot lock when you do a tour – and in this case luck was not on my side.
The remainder of the afternoon was driving over the Bosphorus Bridge to the Asian side of Istanbul and having a coffee at the highest point in Istanbul overlooking the city. It actually reminded me a bit of Sydney – the Bosphorus Bridge has a similar look to the Gladesville (ANZAC) Bridge and you send the city behind it. Here is one photo – not very good at a I don’t have telephoto lense – well in fact I don’t have any lenses as I have a point and shoot camera!!
After the tour I went back to the hotel and as I had already checked out I just bought a beer and was sitting there reading when Seda, my friend I met in Turkey last year, phoned and said she was coming over to the hotel. It was great to see her. She is 8.5 months pregnant so was looking very different from the last time we met. She lives on the Asian side of Istanbul but had been over to the European side to buy gifts for people who come an visit here when she has the baby. It is a tradition whereby the parents give small gifts to everyone who comes and visits. Seda had a huge bag … full of gifts for the 100+ people who she expects will visit her when her son is born. It is so interesting learning about different cultures/customs.
We had a lovely mezza platter in the hotel for dinner and Seda shared with me what was going on in Turkey and what is behind the frustration of so many of the people – very interesting.
Hopefully, we will catch up again when I am back in Istanbul in July and I will get to meet her son.
After that I left for the airport for my midnight flight to Ekaterinburg …. so it was a very long day as I had woken up at 2.00 a.m. that morning and had not been able to get back to sleep!
No comments:
Post a Comment