Back to Istanbul..

Back to Istanbul after an overnight bus from Pamukkale... for the soul reason of hopefully meeting my passport back there. But alas, I arrive back to the Sultan Hostel in Istanbul to find no passport. I send my 3rd abusive email to Australia Post .. and of course my passport arrives 3 hours later.

So ... I hang out for a couple days and see the last of the sights. Above, the first 19 photos are taken from the Topkapi Palace, most of them taken from inside the Harem of the Palace. The Harem, which was actually a grand version of a prison for women, was truly beautiful asthetically, but also disturbing (and revolting) to think that between 300-500 women at any one time were enslaved inside the Palace as sex slaves for the Sultan. The ones who produced sons were elevated to a room with a view of the city, while those that did not were relegated to a room facing the courtyard and the other rooms (the picture 13 from the top of the courtyard with the pink coloured buildings is where the women slept, facing each other on the bottom story, or looking out over the city on the top story if they gave children). The concubines were taught music, arts and etiquette and those who were deemed 'most promising' were elevated in the ranks, given more freedoms and in the social spotlight more frequently.

I realised as I was walking around the Harem part of the Palace, taking shots of this amazing place where gold flakes covered ceilings and walls, with grand mirrors, paintings, woven carpets, grand ceiling paintings and the like, that all the ruins, the palaces, the monuments and the statues seem to be all just grand testiments to men who need people to know they were rich, powerful and MAN. Our allure to them is in their age, their design and their preservation - but the history of most of these places differs little to modern day monuments, buildings and statues. So much so that as each Sultan took over from the last, they HAD to build a new quarter to show they had superior taste, power, money and capacity - heaven forbid sleeping or staying in a room that the previous 'big man' built - they would also 'get rid' of the concubines of each Sultan as a new one took over, it was beleived this was often through drowning of these women because they were 'used'. Fucking revolting.

So ... the ruins of the west coast were old testimonts to powerful men .. and the palaces of the middle and top coast are testiments to powerful men who also like to murder women they were done having sex with .. did I just pay to get into these places??!!

So as I said, the first 19 shots are of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. The remaining shots, all except the last one of the cats on some random carpet shop front, are taken from the Aya Sofya, the most famous monument in Istanbul. This building, oroginally a Orthodox patriarchal basilica was built in 360bc, was made into a christian cathedral in 532 b.c and for a thousand years was the biggest building in the world ... the biggest building in the WORLD for a THOUUUSANND years, how cool is THAT. In 1453 it was made into a Mosque when the Ottoman Empire took it over .. the amazing thing about this building, as you can see in some of the pictures, is that the Muslims didnt take away any of the Christian images, paintings and frescoes. Instead, they simply added their Islamic works around it ... see world, 2 religions can exist side by side and no one need by killed, ya fucking idiots.

The building is amazingly beautiful - hard to capture on camera actually. I hope the shots give some idea of its height, grandure and wonder.

The 2nd last shot of the hand/arm is taken from within the Aya Sofya also, it is a 'sweating pillar', a large marble pillar dating back to 560b.c which has a thin later of bronze wrapped around it, it is beleived that if u stick your thumb into the hole which is in the side of the pillar and get one of the few droplets of 'sacred water' which trickles down occassionally, that it is immense good luck and has a huge amount of healing powers. The pillar is amazing now because of how many people have put their thumb inside the hole over the years hoping for a drop of the sacred water, it has worn down so much of the copper and marble and feels and looks amazing.

Youll have noticed that I have been putting heaps more pictures up, Ive worked out how to easily resize my pictures so they arent so massive if you open them to look closer ... the quality isnt as good, but means I can upload heaps more and much quicker. Thanks everyone for ya comments about this blog too, its a fucking commitment to keep it going I tell ya! Bit of a mission, but worth it I reckon! x

ps i put a couple cat shots in for my cat loving friends, mostly Billi, Finn, Mel and Kel - how fucking cute are those kittens in the cusion covers, they were spooning in there just nappin in the sun arm in arm! and the one of the cat near the 'keep out' sign is from inside the Aya Sofya in the most sacred area!!! Pretty cheeky. I thought of u gals when I saw it cause I knew how much you'd love em !! love yous.