Palaces, palaces...

Domlabache palace. When I heard we were heading to another palace I must admit the eyes almost rolled into the back of my head. We were stunned by the beauty of Topkapi, how would this compare to that? Well in many respects it showed a new side of sultanate splendour. After donning our plastic slippers, we entered the first room. This architecturally French inspired palace was the epitome of the word ‘big’. Here the sultans took residence from the mid 1800’s and in 1923 when the country became a republic it was home to Turkey’s revolutionary messiah Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and became the place where he died. It has become Turkish folklore that the clocks inside the palace were all stopped at 9.05am, the time of his death. There is quite a posthumous cult of personality when it comes to Ataturk. You cannot go anywhere without seeing some kind of representation of him somewhere.



Front entrance to Dolmabache palace.



The reception halls we saw were quite big and we were fascinated by the grandness of it all but our jaws dropped to the floor when we were taken into the grand hall. This was massive! Hanging in the centre of the room was a 4½- tonne crystal chandelier, apparently given as a gift to the sultan of the time by Queen Victoria.

It appeared that we were given the reader’s digest tour as a school group because there were other parts that we were not allowed to see. Lots of security here and we were not allowed to take any photos inside.

Spent the afternoon walking around the spice bazaar again. I really like it there, more casual and with such a wide range of goods. Lots of spice shops, Turkish delight, any type of tea you want (even found a banana tea), cheeses, trinkets, and so on.

Ayasofya at night.  Took me 27 goes to get this shot.

Spent the evening being wined and dined (without the wine for me of course) in a restaurant in Taksim. It was a very stately affair and I was kicking myself because I had a nap in the afternoon and wasn’t told that the principal and some other school officials were going to be there so while everyone was dressed up here I am in jeans, t-shirt and jumper. I felt a little out of place but as is the Turkish way, no-one made me feel uncomfortable. The food? I won’t bore you with the details but it was magnificent. As I sat there on the top floor of a restaurant overlooking the lights of the city I started to feel like a fish out of water. I began to realise that this must be how the other half live and was it only a couple of days ago that we saw the poor side of Istanbul and kids running through the slums. The extremes are here like in any city but perhaps they are a little closer together in Australia and NZ.



Turkish Guards performing a march at Domabache Palace.



After dinner, I couldn’t help but take a look at the bill. About 1400TL ($1000AUD) which I guessed worked out to 120TL a head. Perhaps that is reasonable for any city but I think it was still too rich for my liking. Nevertheless, I was thankful. Money seems to be thrown in the school’s direction quite a bit. I spoke to Metin about his boarding house budget and he told me his budget for the year was 500,000,000 TL which works out to be $334,000,000AUD. About half is paid by the government and half by the parents. My vegies almost flew off my plate. When I heard this I felt better about the meal thinking that perhaps this is just a blip on their financial seismograph so I ordered the expensive dessert.