This is the ninth day of my Oriënt Express Journey.
I just realised today that yesterday I completed one of my big dreams: following the "Venice-Simplon-Oriënt-Express"-route from Paris to Istanbul. As I am finding myself at an end of Europe, it's time to cross the border to Asia. Before sailing over the Bosporus, I still had some sights to visit on the European side of Istanbul. Yesterday I saw the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofia from the outside, but inside they were still a big mystery to me. Thanks to the fact I got out of bed early today, the huge patio in front of the Blue Mosque was still empty. As I entered the building, I got really impressed by it: a huge red carpet was covering the entire floor (and it was very clean, as wearing shoes was prohibited and everybody was carrying their shoes in a plastic bag) and the beauty of the mosaics attached to walls and ceilings disappeared to the comparison of the magnificent stained glass windows.
After my visit to the Blue Mosque, I visited that other mosque-like building across the square: the Aya Sofia, which today is a museum. Before it used to be an orthodox church and later a mosque. Iconography of Christian saints go together with Islamic holy words. The most beautiful part were the chambers on the first floor, from where I had a spectacular view on the interior of the Aya Sofia.
When I left the Aya Sofia, I went underground across the street and visited Yerebatan Sarnici. It was nothing more than a huge underground arched room, but that is exactly what made it so special. Imagining how they once constructed this room in the old days, I passed the Medussa columns and the endless beautiful colonnades.
After my moist visit to Yerebatan, it got time to cross the real water to the Asian side of Istanbul. On the Asian side, I found that there weren't too many sights as on the European side, because it is newer and it contains mostly living quarters. Nevertheless, I was happy seeing the 'gate' to a further voyage: Haydarpasa-station. It won't be a starting point for a long time any more, as the TCDD (Turkish railways) are currently building a tunnel connecting both city sides on the bottom of the Bosporus.
From Haydarpasa station I walked to Kiz Kulesi, passing the old port. Kiz Kulesi is a small island with a tower on it near the coast of Asian Istanbul. It is here that part of the James Bond movie "The World Is Not Enough" has been filmed.
My walk continued past mosques, houses and apartments, not what a tourist like me was looking for. So I decided to cross over to Europe again on a boats. I noticed on the boat that homosexuality wasn't a very big taboo anymore in Istanbul, because a cute young Turkish gay couple was sitting arm in arm on a bench (it might perhaps also have just been the way Turkish guys deal with each other).
Once I arrived back in Europe, I went to the palace gardens, and to get there, I had to pass the train-port. It was very interesting to see how they put trains on ships. In the gardens I saw lots of wild cats, none of which were shy. While sitting on a bench they all paraded proud in front of me showing their tails.
After spending an hour with the cats, I continued to the bazaar. I made a small walk, but I quickly got annoyed by the pushy salesmen. I left the bazaar and had a nice döner for dinner. When I finished my quick dinner, I went to the Kücük Aya Sofia (the small Aya Sofia). This small mosque (which also used to be an orthodox church) was model to it's bigger sister. I strolled around a bit in the area and ended up in an other bazaar. At this bazaar, prices were clearly indicated and there were less tourists walking around. I actually enjoyed walking here and bought gifts for the folks back home and some turkish delight. At this bazaar there were also lots of spices on sale, which made it much more colourful than the tourist trap I visited earlier today.
To finish my day, I made a walk on Kennedy Caddesi, next to the water, having a spectacular view on the lights of the Asian side. At that moment, I regretted that I already had to leave Istanbul the next day and wouldn't be able to see all of this again.
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