Today was our offical last tour day of our Fulbright-Hays experience. Tomorrow is a "free-day" which really means packing and stuffing! :-)
Today we started by going to the Dolmabahce Palace. This was the last palace used by the Sultan's from the Ottoman and was also the residence where Ataturk lived when he was visiting Istanbul - it actually is where he died as well. The Western European-style palace was finished in 1856 and used until Ataturk's death until 1938 and then was made into a musuem. There were two parts to the Palace - one was the more official section that held the ceremonial suites and the other was the harem section. The grandeur of the palace was amazing - so grand, so intricate - but no pictuhres were allowed. The four and a half ton chandelier was a sight to behold in the huge state room that is still used when world political leaders visit Istanbuhl. President Obama was there for an event when he visited, and just yesterday Sectertary of State, Hilary Clinton was there for a function as part of her current trip to Istanbul.
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| Dolmabahce Palace - an entrance gate, I believe |
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| Today looking from the palace on to the Bosphorous - yesterday I had the opposite view |
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| The outside of the ceremonial section of the Palace |
Lunch was downtown by the Spice Market. The meal was good, but the baklava was mouth-watering. I had always thought baklava was a Greek dessert, but it turns out it is Turkish! And...it turns out that I love it!
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| So many kinds and choices of baklava to try, taste, and fall in love with |
It was another hot and humid day here in Istanbul - but the biggest difference today was that there was no breeze whatsoever. We ended up skipping a little neighborhood shopping stop in order to head back to the hotel air conditioning a little earlier than planned. As it worked out, we were heading back up our well-known, very busy pedestrian-only (and great shopping) street called Istiklal Cad (also known as the Grand Rue de Pera) and heard a large crowd of people coming down the street. I can't begin to possibly estimate the numbers of demonstrations that were coming up the street toward our hotel from Taksim Square (which is probably a mile or more up the road). We found out that on Friday 13 Turkish soldiers were killed by a Kurdish terrorist attack in the southeastern part of the country. This demonstration was planned, and similiar ones in towns around the country, to let the government know of their opinions about the Kurdish situation and tensions in Turkey. I literally stood on the side of a store front watching the crowds march up the street and then back. We never even saw the end of the crowd before it reached the end of the street and turned around and headed back. Such love, pride, and passion for the Turkish people have for their country and their democracy and freedom.
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