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Giris and Cikis, and the Hagia Sofia
Entry 31 of 108 | show all | print this entry |
The Turkish word for entrance is Giris and the word for exit is Cikis, makes me thing that everywhere that I go I will get girls and chicks, always disappointing.
+ Started out at the Topaki Palace, they have jewels and stuff there. The coolest thing was they had this room with a bunch of stuff that belonged to the Prophet Muhammad (the Jesus of Islam). Seemed to me that when he died, they split up his body because besides seeing his sword and bow and arrow, we saw little boxes that contained a few of his teeth, some of his hair and other random things. We also saw a letter that he wrote (now totally black), pretty cool though
+ they also had these sweet room of weapons, they had these awesome swords from the 6th Century, really old stuff with these awesome Islamic inscriptions on them. Also saw the sword from Metmed the Conqurer (he is the one that reconqurered the city for the Muslims), awesome sword with really cool inscriptions on it. Also saw some swords that were bigger than the sword in Braveheart, I have no idea how anyone could use them, must be ceremonial.
+ went to the spice market, most spices come from Asia. The market wasn't too impressive mainly because most of it wasn't spices
We went to the Hagia Sofia which was amazing. For those that don't know Istanbul (used to be Constantinopal) has been the home to several civilizations and religions and it is basically the bridge between the east and the west. The city has been ravaged and destroyed so many times. The Hagia Sofia was originally a church (it actually burned down once and then was rebuilt). It was later changed from a church into a Mosque. Its so freaking big, its amazing. The crazy thing is, inside there is all this Islamic stuff and inscriptions, but then you will look up and see this amazing mosaic of the virgin mary. There are mosaics every where of all this Christianity stuff in this Islamic mosque. It has been one of the most interesting places I have visited in Europe so far, just an incredible place.
+ grabbed an overnight bus from Istanbul to Kusadasi (its on the western Turkish coast). The bus system is the main form of transportation in Turkey. We were brought to this huge structure the size of the mall, inside and all around where the huge bus liners with about 100 different bus companies (actually it was probably more). It was so weird, because you drive down the highway and you basically say "hey there is the mall", but its not, its just an insane amount of busses (kicking myself for not taking a picture, you have no idea how many buses there were, it was nuts.... did I mention that there were lots of buses there?)
+ sat next to a beautiful girl from Latvia (red hair with blue/green eyes). Turns out she was an oper in Ann Arbor for a year. (Gorski, she lived on the street that you and Miranda liked to drive down) she hooked me up with her info and I will def be visiting her in Latvia
+ bus ride boarder line sucked
+ Miranda has been given the new nick name of "Mir", Miranda is just too damn long to say
+ its has worked out quite well travelling with Mir, although everyone in Turkey thinks she is my girlfriend, so she is kind of cock-blocking me I guess, after a bit of explaining it all works out though (I shall not be stopped!)
+ Mir has had the enjoyable experience of squatting over holes in the floor, damn I love being a guy (Mir thinks that I should create a list of all my reasons why I love being a guy, I think thats reason # 39 now)
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| 31. | Giris and Cikis, and the Hagia Sofia - Istanbul, Turkey Jun 28, 2006 |
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