Journey to Ethiopia - Day Three

One year ago today: 

Friday, January 16, 2009

Our adventure in Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) began with a very affordable driving tour provided by the City of Sultans Travel Agency. Our guide shuttled us through the streets in a comfortable Mercedes coach/van with plush seats and lots of room. As we drove, he narrated the history of this amazing city  situated on the Straits of Bosporus - the dividing line between Europe and Asia. Our first stop was a nice, clean restroom, and then our walking tour began. From then on it was like speed walking through Istanbul, trying to cram centuries of history into a few hours. It was beautiful and interesting, and I'm so glad Mike had the foresight to schedule the tour. I would have hated to have spent that long layover lying around the airport, wondering what it looked like outside.

Although we were dragging a bit from our 3 flights, we managed to squeeze in visits to ancient church- turned-mosque Hagia Sophia, the stunning Blue Mosque, and the ancient Hippodrome where emperors and sultans enjoyed chariot races.

at Hagia Sophia, now a museum

Stunning architecture of the Blue Mosque

Muslim worshippers (in background) come and go throughout the day

Our guide describes some of the monuments at the Hippodrome

 including an obelisk (in background) brought to Constantinople

 by Roman Emperor Theodosius in 390 A.D. 

This pillar was built in Egypt in 1450 B.C. by Pharaoh Tutmose.

Istanbul is a fascinating and confusing blend of Christian and Muslim culture and history.  It was amazing to realize we were in the middle of so many places where the apostle Paul traveled on his missionary journeys.

Our next two stops were at shops owned by local master craftsmen. We enjoyed piping hot apple cider (a popular hospitality drink),  and R was coached by a master potter as she tried her hand at "throwing" a beautiful clay pot. We were encouraged to buy something from the store, and chose an inexpensive, but beautiful little saucer.

Our guide then drove us a Turkish rug dealer. We thought we would be watching a rug making demonstration, but instead, we were shown rugs that were for sale for at least half an hour. Again, we were given hot cider and coffee. The owner would clap his hands loudly and his staff would unfurl the most gorgeous hand made rugs we had ever seen. Some of them had taken the rugmaker an entire year to complete. When we had seen 15 or 20 rugs, with prices ranging from $7,000 to $38,000, we realized that this salesman was not going to let up, and it was time to leave. 

We were all pretty exhausted and the kids were really tired of walking, so we asked our guide to cut the tour short and take us back to the airport. We had thoroughly enjoyed seeing the sights, but wanted to save some strength for the flight that would finally get us to the horn of Africa.


We unloaded our bags, thanked our tour guide, and he wished us well in our journey to bring baby S home (of course, we had shared photos and told him all about her!) We walked around the airport, ate a very overpriced Burger King meal for supper, and finally were ready to fly out. We then went through airport security in Turkey~ which is far more complicated and intimidating than airport security in the states. There were multiple passes through multiple checkpoints, with lots of very serious and scary security personnel pawing through our things.

As we clambered aboard a packed airplane for the 4^th flight of this long journey, we had the sense that this leg of the trip would go by in no time. We'd made it most of the way to Africa~ we were now only a 5 hour flight away from the same city where our sweet baby S was waiting for us in Holt's Care Center. Just 5 hours! Or so we thought.