More Turkey stuff, and some photos

We've had an amazing few days in Istanbul, and today in Goreme (Cappadocia region).

Though we only wandered around a tiny bit of Istanbul it certainly felt like a BIG city - felt bigger than London and New York in many ways. Could have had somethiong to do with the fact there were squllions of people (mostly tourists, and mostly Turkish tourists) in just about every street we entered. Turns out we'd arrived the day after Ramadan ended, and there are three public holidays and a big festival at this time of year. Everyone seems to be in a pretty good mood however.

This is the first predominantly muslim country we've been in. There is something fundamentally exotic (for our small NZ ears) about hearing the Muzzein call the faithful to prayer 5 times a day. The minarets of all the mosques are also a constant reminder that you are no longer in western Europe (or the South Pacific). In many other ways however, Turkey really does look like a western European captial. Almost everyone wears western clothes, and almost everyone over the age of about 12 is looking pretty sharp in well pressed trou and a long sleeved shirt- even the labourers! Old Attaturk's decision to encourage his peeps to look to the west is still very apparent.

There is so much obvious history in the old part of town, like the Ottoman palaces and mosques, not to mention the things that remain from the Byzantium empire that ruled here before the sultans. I mean to say, its not every city that can boast an obelisk erected in about 350AD (when emperor Constantine decided to make this city the eastern captial of the Roman empire) that is still standing today. Of course if its 350AD and you want to erect an obelisk in a Roman capital you don't make one yourself, you go and pinch a 1500 year old obelisk from somewhere else in the empire (like Egypt). So this 3500 year old thing is STILL standing in the middle of Istanbul. Ridiculous!!

Anyway. Here are a few photos from Istanbul (and from Goreme, Cappadocia) today. We'll skite about that later.

The one above is the Aya Sofia, built as the centre of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in about the year 800AD (guessing this really), then converted to a mosque in about 1290 something when the Ottoman's conquered. It was then converted to a museum in the 1930's (which also allowed the plaster to be stripped from the insides to reveal the old christian emblems (which were covered while it was a mosque)).

This is just one example of the amazing buildings carved out of the rock terrain near Goreme in Cappadocia. Turns out there is a large christian centre here from the 2nd century. The photo below is a fresco from about the 12th century taken inside the Dark Church (so called because it only has one window hence the colours are still very vibrant).

These chaps were playing at a combination mayoral speech/cooking competition in the main square this morning. We have no idea what was going on and in fact who won (but the music was good and the food looked great!)