Written by Charles June 18, 2014
On Sunday we left Puerto Rico for Istanbul. We took a four-hour flight to New York and
caught a plane to London. In London we
ran to our next plane, which went to Istanbul.
We caught the plane in the nick of time.
Then we flew for 4 hours over Europe to Istanbul. When we landed in Istanbul we took a van to a
marina and caught a boat on the Bosphorus River (one bank is touching Europe
and the other is touching Asia) to our hotel.
From the boat we could see the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. The sun was also setting, so it made for some
cool photos. We’re staying on the
Bosphorus River (the second busiest strait in the entire world), so there are
lots of cargo ships motoring outside of our hotel.
On Tuesday we took a helicopter tour around Istanbul. We saw the Covered Bazaar (where in Skyfall,
James Bond rode his motorcycle on the roofs), the Blue Mosque, the Hagia
Sophia, and lots of the city. I think
that you can only understand the size of the city from the air. It looked like a sea of red-tiled roofs. Then we went to a museum, which was someone’s
private collection of awesome things.
They had vintage cars, vintage motors, boats, ferries, planes, a tank, a
WWII submarine, and even a shot down B-14.
I thought that the B-14 was one of the coolest things we saw next to the
submarine. It was an American built
submarine that was built for attacking the Japanese. Then it got outdated, so we gave it to the
Turks. Then they decided that it was too
old too, so they gave it to the museum for touring. Inside it was cramped and
claustrophobic. There were pipes waiting
to dent your head at each corner and wires ready to trip you. It looked just like the movies that you
see. We saw the torpedo room, the dive
room, the sleeping quarters, the engine room, and the command room. I thought that it was really cool. That night we went back to the hotel and ate
a quiet dinner. When we went to sleep,
there also happened to be a party going on out our window, so we couldn’t
sleep. By midnight my dad said that it
wouldn’t work, and so we changed rooms.
On Wednesday we visited the Hagia Sophia. It was massive; it was so big that you couldn’t
get a picture of it with an I-phone. It
was larger than the Taj-Mahal (minus the gardens and stuff). Inside half of the
place was filled with scaffolding for repairs, but the other half was filled
with beautiful mosaics that looked like they were made from gold. The dome inside was so big that you could fit
any of the houses that I’ve lived in inside it.
Then we went to one of the underground cisterns (water storages) left
over from the Byzantine Empire. There
were rows of columns that marched along for what seemed like forever. It looked just like a scene from a movie. Two pillars had their bases as Medusa’s head. One head was upside down, and the other was
on its side. 
Lastly we visited the Blue Mosque. It was like a miniature version of the Hagia
Sophia, with all the domes and arches.
When we went inside we had to take off our shoes. Our mom and Miss Jenn had to wear headscarves
to cover their hair. Inside it smelled
like stinky feet because everyone had to take their shoes off. There were no mosaics inside the Blue Mosque,
but there were 22,000 blue tiles that made up the walls and ceiling. We left pretty fast though because mom and
Miss Jenn didn’t like the stink. After
the Blue Mosque we went outside to take pictures. Then we went back to the hotel and did school
work all afternoon.
On Thursday we did a lot.
We first went to Topkapi Palace, which 20 of the sultans from the
Ottoman Empire lived in. When we first
arrived we had to walk in under medieval style walls. We walked in the walls and went through a
huge courtyard, which was the size of a normal city park. Then we walked through a gate and into a
modern day security-screening zone. On
the ceiling there were carvings with gold leaf trim. That gate led to an equally large courtyard
filled with trees and bushes. On the
side of the courtyard there was a room with all the sultans’ robes. There were lots of the long overcoats and
there were some pants. There were even a
baby sultan’s robes!
There was another room that had all the sultan’s thrones in
it, but the line was too long to get in, so we skipped it. The third through sixth rooms had all the
sultans’ expensive jewelry and all their jeweled knickknacks. I liked two of the objects in there: one was a
glass box full of emeralds, and the other was a 64-karat diamond. It looked like it could be the centerpiece
for the Queen of England’s crown. The
funny thing was that the tour guide was telling us that the Ottomans were
having financial problems! After the jeweled
rooms, we went to the armory and saw all the weapons that the sultans
used. There were fancy bows and arrows that
were made out of teak, suits of armor made out of gold and silver, and there
was even a sword that was eight feet long!
They wouldn’t allow photos in any of the rooms we went into, so we can’t
show you photos.
After the palace we went to the Covered Bazaar. It was basically a market with all the shops
and cobbled streets, but there was a wooden roof over it all. In all the stores you could bargain, so my
mom and William had a go at it. My mom
bought a fur coat (in the middle of the summer), and she also got a few silk
scarves. William got a tile and a
keychain. I got the best deal out of
everyone because I got a free keychain.
My parents almost bought a necklace for my mom, but it was a touch too
expensive. I thought that the craziest
part was how all 3,500 shops had a roof over them. I also thought that the jewelry shop windows
had more gold in them than the domes on most state houses in the U.S.
That night, after battling through traffic, we picked up our
friends and went to the Whirling Dervishes.
I thought that it was very boring, so I fell asleep twice. They first played music for fifteen
minutes. William fell asleep in the
first five of those minutes. After that the
dervishes came out and did a religious/ceremonial walk that included a lot of
bowing. It also took fifteen minutes,
and I fell asleep for most of that.
Then for thirty minutes they spun around. They had white dresses that billowed out when
they spun. They also raised their arms,
and they just stood there and spun like tops.
I fell asleep again when they got out of sync. I thought the most amazing part was that the
five dancers never got dizzy. Today we
are leaving Istanbul and getting on the cruise ship that goes to lots of
islands and eventually stops in Athens.
Written by William June 20, 2014
Hello again, it is me, awesome William. We were ski racing
in Oregon and Austria for the past six months if you were wondering where we
were.
On our flights we went from Puerto Rico (AKA home) to JFK
New York, then we had a six hour flight from JFK to Heathrow London. We literally
were running through the airport to catch the flight to Istanbul, but by the
time we got to the gate it was an hour after the departure time. The board said
Istanbul boarding in 20 minutes, and we caught the flight. We finally arrived
in Istanbul Monday night. We took a boat ride from the airport to the hotel. I
thought the Blue Mosque was the Hagia Sophia because it looked bigger and
cooler. And then we got to our hotel, which is The Four Seasons next to the Bosphorous
River.
We went on a helicopter ride, which only had two headsets.
We flew over the Bosphorous River, and we saw a fake out palace because it actually
was a high school; we also flew over the Prince Islands, then turned around and
saw the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.
We went to a car and airplane museum, which also had a
submarine that you could tour. All of the cars were someone’s private
collection; there was the flying car from Harry Potter, a car from Top Gear
that they split in half, and lot of other vintage cars. Plus we saw a wrecked B
14 bomber that got shot by an anti aircraft gun, a cool boat, and a tank made
by Chrysler under a bomber. We went on a submarine tour, which had 6 torpedoes
loaded, and I thought it was cool. The guy who was giving the tours worked on
the boat for 25 years as the engineer. Then we came back to the hotel where they
were setting up a full fledge party.
Today we went in the Hagia Sophia, which had a few cool
mosaics, and I thought the architecture was really cool. A little history lesson
now, ok? The Romans first built the Hagia Sophia, and they used it as a
Catholic church. After Rome fell, it became the Byzantine Empire. Next the
Ottomans came, and then there was a revolt against the Sultans. It was last
used as a mosque, and today it is open like a museum.
We went inside the cistern underground. Inside the cistern,
which they only found like 30 years ago, there were a lot of pillars with
lights on them. There was really only one other thing to see in there, which
was two Medusa heads in the corner, which actually was really cool.
The Blue Mosque was our last stop of the day. On the walls
and ceiling there were all types of cool stone patterns that were all blue,
which is my favorite color. The bad side of it was it was really stinky. What I
still am wondering is why the carpet is red inside the Blue Mosque. That was
the end of today, and I am looking forward to tomorrow.
We went to Topkapi Palace, which was giant; it even had 4
courtyards. There were guards everywhere at the entrance because it belonged to
the military. Then we went into a few rooms, which had all types of cool
patterns made out of stone; some were green, some were red, and some were blue.
Then we went into a room that had some really cool pieces like a 64 kart diamond.
The sultans had financial problems, but they didn’t use the diamond to help
them. My brother saw a gold sword too! We went into a weapons room, which was
really cool, and it had spears, 8-foot swords, some axes, and some really epic armor.
After the palace we went to the Grand Bazaar, which was bazaar.
The Grand Bazaar is an oversized outdoor mall that has a covered roof over it.
There were about 3,500 stores, and we walked past about 200 stores (to give you
an idea on the percentage we saw). I bought tiles, which had a cool pattern as
a souvenir, and who knows what my mom bought. I got to bargain for my souvenir.
He asked for 150 Turkish liras, and I got him down to 120.
We went to see the whirling dervish last night. I would like
to tell you how it was, but I fell asleep immediately; like in the first 5
minutes and slept through the entire show.
Today we are getting on a cruise ship, and we are stopping
in six different places in Greece and Turkey.
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