Christmas Tree

We bought one of the 4 Christmas tree available in the store !!!
Yes yes, only 4 trees. It's not that we went to the wrong place, no, we went to the local Home Depot.
But as Christmas is not celebrated in Turkey, they don't have a Christmas tree.

It was important for the kids to have it as it's really one of the symbol of Christmas...

And you see, everybody was quite happy to be pictured in front of it.

Creche

Our creche (Nativity scene) is somewhere on the ocean between LA and Izmir.
We had to find a plan B for this year and nothing is better than using our own skills.

It was a family project

We recycled Juice bottles to make houses and we got from France the paper figurines. Even Baptiste was part of the project (not good for our tape consumption)

It was a nice family moment and at the end, the result is not so bad, isn't it ?

We can now wait for baby Jesus to come on Christmas eve...

Istanbul - End of the Journey

We hope you did enjoy this journey of Istanbul as much as we did. These posts were a way to share with you what we saw. We could have shown more and more things...

Like the Grand bazar. Unfortunately, it was kapali (closed) during our entire stay because of bayram, national holiday... Too bad, we'll have to go back only to see it. It's a medieval "shopping center" (4,000 shops) where you can buy all kind of things, especially local art (carpet, furniture, porcelain...)

Sunken Palace Cistern (Yerebatan Saray): an subterranean "sunken palace" of 336 marble columns which could hold 80,000 cubic feet of water in case of drought or siege. Very interesting !!

The Bosphorus Cruise: a excursion, up toward the Black Sea past castles, palaces and Ottoman-Victorian villages. On one side of the river: Europe, on the other side: Asia.

A fish boat

The Bosphore: The bridge between Europe and Asia!

or the Kariye Museum (The Chora Church) and its gorgeous Byzanthine mosaics. It is apparently the best conserved Byzantine mosaics in the world!

We do hope that, thanks to these posts, we made you want to visit Istanbul and, by the same way, to visit us !

Topkapi - Harem

We cannot talk about Istanbul & the Topkapi palace without talking about the Harem...

It's easy to imagine all the histories that took place in these 300 rooms. Only Sutlan's favorites and eunuchs lived there.

The favorites were competing to get Sultan's favors. They were dancing and trying to seduce him. He had to pick only one...

Next to the "ballroom", there is the Sultan's bedroom...

... where water was flowing to maintain intimity.

By visiting all the little rooms, you can imagine all the secrets holded in this place.

"Modern Istanbul"

You will see, the following pics look like they were taken from...

Paris ...

Venise...

But, no. They were taken from Beyoglu, what's called the vitrine of modern Turkey.

To be honest, we were a little bit disappointed by the place. Everybody told us Istiklal caddesi (street) was nice and full of activities. But at daytime and with 3 young kids... nothing special. We have to say that this special atmosphere was due to the holidays (bayram) and Istanbul was not itself.

Some streets are really nice like the fishery passage.

But the most interesting moment for the kids was when we were in the tramway...

The restaurants were also wonderful. It was so good to see these appealing places and we could imagine that this neighbourhood comes to life at night (not for us with our 3 kids:-)
For once and for a change, we enjoyed something very different from the usual turkish food.

But, be sure, we did enjoy a good meal...

AyaSophia

Ayasofya was built on the site of Byzantium's acropolis by Emperor Justinian in 537 AD. It was the largest church ever built until St Peter's Basilica was constructed in Rome a thousand years later. Mehmet the Conqueror proclaimed it a mosque soon after his conquest of the city from the Byzantines in 1453.

Large numbers of columns were brought to Constantinople from temples in Asia Minor, the Lebanon, Greece and Italy, and the finest marbles and noblest metals were used. It is said that the total cost of the building was 360 hundredweight of gold and that 10,000 workmen were employed in its construction.

AyaSophia means the Church of the Divine Wisdom (Hagia Sophia in Greek) and not as many people think Santa Sophia.

The most interesting part of this building is at the mezzanine level: the splendid Byzantine mosaics.

It is really amazing to see the details and the expression of the faces when you know that these pics are make of mosaics.

The Blue Mosque

The imperial Mosque of Sultan Ahmet I (Sultan Ahmet Camii) is called the Blue Mosque because of its interior tiles, mostly on the upper level and difficult to see unless you're right up there with them.

It has six minarets (the Sultan had to offer a 7th minaret to La Mecque to make sure it will remain the biggest one) and a great cascade of domes. It was our favorite visit in Istanbul. The building is impressive and the light and decoration inside are amazing.

It was our fist time inside a mosque despite the fact we lived in turkey for almost a year now.

We let you enjoy the fine state of art of the inside...

The Topkapi palace

Home of the Ottoman sultans for nearly 400 years, Topkapi Sarayi ("Palace of the Cannon Gate") was the seraglio, the heart of the vast Ottoman Empire, ruled by the monarch who lived in Topkapi's hundreds of rooms with hundreds of concubines, children, and white and black servants.

With the visit of this palace, you really understand better Turkey and the power of the Ottomans and its influence in today's culture.

The empire lasted for 622 years ruling over the Asian, European and African lands surrounding the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

The palace is very well maintained and a wonderful place to visit. The treasure is impressive (jewerly for girls and swords for boys) and the ceramics are very nice.

You really understand more the life of the sultan and picture him receiving his guests in his palace.