İstanbul - Gün 4

The last day in İstanbul before the big journey South.

We took the light rail to the end, and walked the rest of the way to Dolmabahçe Palace, one of the last built by the Sultans. Sadly, they abandoned the Ottoman palace architecture, leaving behind the courtyards, and adopting the Western palace style. Basically, it was a mess of baroque and rococo, gold and crystal.


Mom and Iris outside of Dolmabahçe palace
Despite the declining of the Ottoman Empire (and the empire's funds) Sultan Abdül Mecit stopped at nothing. All the floors were made of hardwood parquet, carpets were specially ordered for the rooms, ceilings were done with gold leaf, and there was even a crystal staircase. The palace was never looted, like many European palaces, so all the decadent furniture was still in place.

I didn't pay the extra 6 lira for the privilage to take indoor photos, but I don't consider it much loss.

After touring the selamlık, we moved to the harem. It was much less fancy. The typical image of a sultan's harem is a luxurious, wide open courtyard full of the sultan's concubines and wives. What most people fail to realize is that all the sultan's children were living in the harem as well. More or less, the harem was a rather plain place with many small rooms to house the multiple women and chilren that inhabited the area. It really was never that luxurious.


Mom showing off her sweet pink shoe coverings
Before we entered the Crystal Palace we had to wear pink shoe coverings. It was a much smaller place, with a piano made of crystal, with a matching crystal chair. There was a crystal conservatory for watching parades, and it had a crystal fountain with some crystal chandeliers.


Internet, that way
Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped at an internet cafe (not nearly as sketchy as the smoke-filled, male-only internet cafe we had used a couple of nights before). I am so glad I don't have to use a Turkish keyboard while I'm at school.

We had a late lunch, so decided to postpone dinner. Instead, we went back to Omar's shop and bought some more pillowcases. After much noisy fighting and refusals, mom was finally dragged into Omar's carpet shop, where we proceeded to drink apple tea, and look at carpets. She finally settled on a nice, embroidered kilim from the northeast and paid half in YTL and half in USD. Paying in cash gives you a "discount." As we walked back to our hotel, other vendors called asking if we would like to buy another carpet. Mom responded, "I'd have to sell one of my children." The vendor said, "Okay. She is beautiful. I'll take her and sell you a carpet." Nicely done, mom. Nicely done.

Oh, but the fun didn't end there!

We had set our minds on taking a Turkish bath, and so we ended up at the Çemberlitaş Hamamı, designed by Sinan (who constructed the Süleymaniye Mosque). As first-timers we were quite clueless about what to do, but this Hamam was quite touristy, so the staff was used to ushering dingbats like us around.

Nothing says fun like laying on a hot marble slab in a 400 year old bath, sweating all the dirt off your body. Rather, nothing says fun like being in a 400 year old bath naked, next to your naked mother, and 10 other naked strangers, being scrubbed by half naked Turkish women.

It was really relaxing. We were quite ready to go to sleep afterwards, but instead we rested in the reception room, drinking freshly-squeezed pomegranate juice.

Afterwards, we knew we should probably eat something, but mom didn't want to experiment. We ended up at McDonald's.