Wednesday

We woke up to settled snow all over the city and it was a beautiful site.  It was calm to begin with and not as cold as the previous day (which was quite frankly colder than a witches nipple) but we felt we were going to be in for quite a snowy day.  Garth, my roommate from NZ, wanted a proper breakfast and I decided I did too.  We found a café open at 7.15am and went in.  Food is relatively inexpensive here.  I had an omelette, 2 fresh(and huge) brioche and a hot drink for 10 Lira(6.50AUD) all in a place where many would spend three times that much for the same food and less friendly service.  The food is plentiful in Istanbul.  Vendors on every busy corner sell bread rolls, muffins roasted corn cobs and chestnuts.  You can feed a hungry family of 6 for about $8AUD if you are in a rush.  First place of interest we visited was emotionally overwhelming – Hagia Sofya Museum.  This 1500 year old structure is an engineering and architectural masterpiece of the world that has to be seen to be believed.  A true testament to the Byzantines as this is the place where there emperors were crowned.  It was interesting to see the beauty of the Roman Christian mosaics set against the 4½-   man high Islamic prayer discs reflecting the different uses this building has had over time.  I will admit that it takes a lot to impress me and I was rendered speechless by its magnificence.  One thing that also struck me was the number of cats that are allowed to roam freely in this building and indeed around the whole city.  I asked one of the Turkish kids about this and he said “Yes, people feed them”  I replied, well in our country we shoot them!”  He was mortified.  He looked pale so to set his mind at rest I told him I was only joking, we only shoot kangaroos.  He just about choked on his Turkish delight.

We spent the afternoon in the Military museum.  In many respects it was a bit of a let down.  I mean how many curved swords and depictions of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) can you look at before you start thinking that you’ve seen this all before.  The students had a snowball fight outside and while all the other teachers were having babies I was just laughing thinking I’d like to join in.  We soon realised that we had to be quite serious here.  Not many smiles from the security guards.  It appeared that they were hiding state secrets here such was the feeling they were giving off.  We were treated to a performance by the Ottoman marching band.  Apparently this form of military marching band gave rise to the modern form after being adopted by many European marching bands.  Fortunately those countries improved it for although I appreciate the history behind it, it wasn’t my cup of Turkish tea.