Dolmabahçe Sarayı

Rightful indignation would be the recurring theme of the day; all an indication that we've raised our three girls well. Today we toured the Dolmabahçe Sarayı, which was the home of the Sultan of Ottoman Empire (and later the first President of Turkey). Unfortunately, no photographs were allowed within the palace itself and I'm left hoping that our memories will suffice. Palatial, as a word, fails to describe well what we saw. Just to put some sizes into words: the main ceremonial ballroom was 2000 square meters, with a 36 meter ceiling height and a chandelier with ten thousand pieces of English crystal and 660 bulbs (which did not look oversized for the room)... this room was used only twice per year.

This all sounds swell until you take three (or four) young ladies through tours that highlight the profoundly different treatment of men and women. The palace was amazing and it was very interesting to see a well-preserved, honest specimen of living quarters before plumbing and electricity. It was spelled out clearly where women were allowed to go and where they were not. While the living quarters were beautiful, my trio were repeatedly aghast at the patriarchal dynamic. Each sultan had four wives "on the books," but no one (of the guides) really knew how many they actually had as they tended to cycle older ones out for younger ones. As I understood it, the last sultan begat thirty eight children. Every time the guides brought these details to light, it was like ringing the bell of injustice anew. To make the schooling complete, I reminded them of the vicissitude of equality and the many forces in the world today that wish societies to return to such an order.

The sultan and caliph were both exiled from Turkey just after World War I. Istanbul is quite proud to have moved on and the people here preserve and teach the history well.

A Bit of Curated Nature

There was quite a bit of undeniable beauty as nature always seems to deliver so well. The grounds of the palace sit on an absolutely stunning span of the Bosphorus (as if it were chosen by the Sultan himself). Epic buildings and beautiful fountains offset with simple and elegant flower gardens. I had never seen roses grafted before; apparently grafting roses is totally a thing and punctuates well my completely ignorant appreciation for gardens.

This discovery led to a nice conversation on botany, grafting and everything wonderful we have today due to mad meddling of humans messing with the genetics of other organisms (dogs, flowers, apples, etc.). I will have succeeded if my kids grow up to enjoy as many GMOs as I have in my life. While the roses were beautiful, two daughters found the double daylilies to be much more satisfying. There were many more of them and they were certainly in a less hydrated state than the roses, but there is something about orange in nature that is just charming; orange with the vibrant blue of the Bosphorus as a backdrop even more so.

We spent quite a while sitting outside within the grounds enjoying both beautiful scenery and perfect weather. Today was 82F, relatively low humidity and not a cloud in the sky leading to a completely unforeseeable outcome: I am more tan than Lisa... it is surely temporary.

Building and Satisfying an Appetite

After returning to the hotel, I was ecstatic to find that, as a group, we were interested in going to the gym to work out. Lisa and I have bad habits at home and the trip thus far has delivered us from the evils of lethargy. We're all doing a workout challenge for the month and no one is backing down! The goal is air squats, sit-ups and pushups each day with a target of 100 each at the end of the month. Just enough to work up an appetite and I can say that döner is a hit with the family.

My day ended well with a reasonably-sized plate of iskender and a relaxing lounge on a terrace sofa with my wife and a cappuccino-flavored hookah. She's still my one!

A bit of old Instanbul

I've been excited to actually explore the old city of Istanbul ever since we blurred through it on the tram ride from the airport to the hotel. After two days of local eats and walking, we ventured back across the Haliç inlet to the Bosphorous where the old city sits.

Two epic edifices of history had our attention: the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. The blue mosque is epic and in use as a place of worship, which to me made the whole experience a bit awkward. Like touring someone's house while they're eating and I'm not there to eat. Unlike my visit to Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, I felt little spirituality and almost zero awe. While the construction itself is something to be marveled, I found that I couldn't really invest myself given the atmosphere. To sum it up: meh.

Hagia Sofia was radically different; being about to explore so much of the grounds, stare in awe at is construction, life span and size in an atmosphere specifically designed to allow the visitor to do so made all the difference. The stonework in places was marvelous and the internal size of the structure is a stunning example of what could be accomplished with ambition, science-oriented minds, and deep pockets. Unlike some other churches I've been in, I appreciated the overall lack of bling. I stood in awe of the structure for what it was and what it now is.

Sadly, my photography prowess (read: lack thereof) and the challenging lighting throughout the space made for only a few pictures worth sharing of the multitude snapped.

Despite my overall lack inspiration by the Blue Mosque, I will say that my favorite part of the day was walking out of Hagia Sofia during the adhān Islamic call to prayer (called the ezan here in Turkey). This satisfied many of my preconceived notions of what it would be like to visit this city: epic architecture, old meets new, the bustle of urban life met with old-world traditions. All in all, on point.

My day ends with tired feet and saturated senses. The trio of mio all fixated on Google Fit today. We walked about 5 miles/8km and Tori clocked more than 18,000 steps to my mere 12,000; short legs.

Landing in Istanbul

As the sun sets in Istanbul, I’m reminded that this will be a long adventure. I’m quite sure that an especially long day helped deliver that reminder. I’ve been traveling for years and the bumps in the road are something that my shocks have been tuned to accommodate. Those long flights with fast connections, those uncomfortable public transit legs at the end of a trip that ought be over, that one flight attendant that makes you follow the carry-on size specifications. You can choose to fight these things, or you can simply be loose so as not to injure yourself on impact.

Today I am reminded that all those are truly impotent techniques when traveling with six people. The individual nature of the coping skills combined with the group dynamic keeps everyone engaged through the parts where one should be mentally detached. I believe in some cases this results in epic disaster and family breakdown; in our case it simply meant we arrived tired and our first day in Istanbul was spent doing very little.

We took the T1 tram through the old city to our hotel and passed such amazing sights. Alas, my darlings were eyes shut, heads cocks back and mouths a-gaping in an otherwise impossible sleeping position. One quick walk outside to get Donër for dinner and every returned to our hotel to pass out. Tomorrow should be amazing.

Why would I bring up family breakdown and epic disaster? The three families seated directly behind me on the MUC-IST flight simply couldn’t handle themselves on an aircraft: constant seat bumping, playing video games without headphones at high volume, arguing, and an aggressive and physical game of musical chairs. The coup de grâce was landing. Literally between the back wheels and the front wheels hitting the tarmac, no less than 10 of them unbuckled, stood up, removed things from the overhead compartments and raced toward the unopened boarding door. They had clearly practiced this maneuver as none collapsed during rapid deceleration and swaying from the fervent application of landing brakes. I felt for the alarmed Lufthansa flight attendant attempting to manage the situation from within the confines of her five-point harness. This is why airlines should add people to no-fly lists.