Holy Tourism Batman! Part 3: finding my way home

Before leaving Hagia Sophia completely, I visited the Sultan’s Mausoleums.  Each building had a different geometry inside from outside, as in, on the outside it was an octagon, but on the inside a square.  Why? 

The tiling on the inside was beautiful and different in each. 

There were ‘symbolic coffins’ in each building for the sultan, his wives and their children.  I guess many of them died as infants based on how small they were.  Again, unconfirmed speculation, but the ones with turbans may have been sons? 

I took a quick break for lunch and went back to the Kofte place that Metin took us too last week to break the ramazan fast.  It was tasty again, although this time I didn’t have the company or quite the level of hunger, so it was just good instead of gooood. 

Revitalized, I decided I could be a tourist for just a bit longer and followed the signs to the Bascillica Cistern.  I rented an audio guide, but it was a waste of money since it only told me one thing that wasn’t already on the signs posted (in English) around the place.  It was pretty cool, literally and figuratively, a giant cavern under the city with maybe 18 inches of water and lots of big fish. 

(Perhaps this was more interesting to me because the cistern and the water ways also featured prominently in “The Snake Stone.”)  Of course it was dark down there and my pictures are either short sighted, if taken with a flash, or red and blurry if taken without.  It was built to store water from the Belgrade forest something like 16km away, carried there by aqueduct.  There were a couple of different styles of columns, some ionic, doric, and Corinthian.  The one with the peacock feathers was unique and the two with Medussa’s heads under them were pretty cool.  Clearly they were placed there on purpose but why upside down?  And why use them at all?

Leaving the cistern, I was disoriented, but found the tram tracks and followed them until I found a station and retraced my steps back home completing my mega tourist day!  There is still more to do ‘down town,’ at the very least, Topikapi palace and the archeological museum, but I have to leave something to see in the next two years, right?

While I am thinking about it, and as a bonus to those of you who made it to the end of this epic day, I might take a minute to ponder the idea of two years.  I was surprised at the mixed responses from the other new teachers regarding what they see their plans are for staying or leaving after the two year contract is up.  I don’t think any of them have a specific job to go back to and some flat out said that they weren’t going back.  Right now I am heavily leaning towards going back at the end of my contract.  For comparison purposes, let’s say I am at 95/5 for going back.  This is probably the highest percentage I have had since I started the process and that I have been as low as 80/20 at some points.  I am fortunate in that I will most likely have a job when I get back (assuming my second year of leave is approved) and that I liked that job (maybe in two years things will have settled down on campus as well).   What keeps the 5% in there is that I really don’t want to settle right back into the rut I was in when I left.  I recognize that I am still adjusting, I don’t feel comfortable, I am missing friends and family, and this will certainly change over time.  Anyway, maybe I’ll check in with this from time to time to see where I am.