Mosques
Crossing the Galata bridge to the historic Old Town you can see the minarets of eleven mosques, most quite large. While the week’s big service, complete with sermon, is at noon Friday, five times a day the faithful are also called to prayer by wailing Islamic chanting from the various mosques' minarets. Musically it's exciting to hear the call coming from two or three different directions at once. The first one is before daybreak, so thankfully we don’t have a minaret right outside our window as on two previous visits to Turkey.
People may also pray privately in a mosque whenever they wish. Women (whose must cover their hair) pray separately, hidden behind ornate screens. Devout men wash their faces, necks and feet at fountains in the courtyard and carry their shoes inside in a sack (as do visitors). As I sat to untie mine, one shoe brushed the edge of the carpet extending from inside. With a gentle smile I was quickly made to realize that was a no-no.
People may also pray privately in a mosque whenever they wish. Women (whose must cover their hair) pray separately, hidden behind ornate screens. Devout men wash their faces, necks and feet at fountains in the courtyard and carry their shoes inside in a sack (as do visitors). As I sat to untie mine, one shoe brushed the edge of the carpet extending from inside. With a gentle smile I was quickly made to realize that was a no-no.
Windy and colder yesterday and today so Elsa stayed home and I explored the New Mosque above (newer than the others perhaps but still started more than 400 years ago), the Spice Market, and the Archaeology Museum, one of the great cultural museums of the world. It sits in a lawn of leftover columns and statuary fragments dating back to Greek and Roman times, including this huge sourpuss Greek goddess Medusa about five feet tall. See the snakes in her hair?
Clean streets
Istanbul is cleaner and safer than we expected. All day long, little street washing machines cruise the busy pedestrian street. A guy with a rustic broom goes ahead to whisk dirts away from the shop doors into its path. Other guys roam around with brooms and big dustpans, even in our neighborhood. There are also daily garbage-truck pickups. Police occasionally monitor the pedestrian street to keep an eye on things; as befits that upscale neighborhood, their police car is a Mini Cooper.
It's also surprising that people are quite gracious to us, frequently offering us their seats on the trams. Not yet having felt endangered, we're happy we came somewhere safe for our vacation instead of, you know, a place like Boston.
It's also surprising that people are quite gracious to us, frequently offering us their seats on the trams. Not yet having felt endangered, we're happy we came somewhere safe for our vacation instead of, you know, a place like Boston.
No comments:
Post a Comment