Black Sea Navigation: BULGARIA: [Nesebar] [Varna] ROMANIA: [Constanţa]
TURKEY: [Sinop] [Bodrum] [Istanbul: Basilica Cistern] [Istanbul: Topkapi] [Istanbul: Haigha Sophia]
GREECE: [Limnos] [Meteora] [Thira] [Athens: Acropolis and Plaka] [Acropolis Museum Highlights]
We spent the morning at Topkapı Palace, and this turned out to take all the time we had available to us. Just how big an attraction is Topkapı? Well, simply by chance (if chance you call it!), we randomly ran into my brother and sister-in-law, and my cousin and her son. And here we thought we'd have the place all to ourselves.
The initial areas were nice enough - they were so fresh-looking by comparison with the Hagia Sophia, that I assume they have been recently restored.
We went into most of the galleries featuring jewels, armor, and more. Some of it was really cool. But they frowned on photography there, so it's all undocumented.
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| Hollowed out by lightning? Or carved out for a romantic nook? |
The highlight of the day was the Harem, for which they extort an additional entrance fee. But it is stunning and well worth it.
In this room, I started out admiring the trompe l'oeuil on the dome... only to realize it was everywhere, including on the architectural details (particularly an apparent niche in the wall) that I'd at first taken for real!
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| A garden of delights |
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| Painted columns and vistas |
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| This, too, is flat. ENTIRELY flat. |
Every room had its delightful details: paintings, carvings, and mosaics. I took a lot of pictures of corners, where several lovely patterns would meet.
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| A corner |
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| Even the back walls of the built-in shelves were decorated. |
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| A built-in cabinet, perhaps? |
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| More built-in shelves |
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| A photographer as colorful as the mosaics |
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| The inner sanctum |
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| Shelves & Cabinets? |
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| Ceiling, dividing the room into two |
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| Stained glass |
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| Unstained glass |
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| Capping off another rough day of tourism with a dose of Rick Riordan's "The Lost Hero" |
Black Sea Navigation: BULGARIA: [Nesebar] [Varna] ROMANIA: [Constanţa]
TURKEY: [Sinop] [Bodrum] [Istanbul: Basilica Cistern] [Istanbul: Topkapi] [Istanbul: Haigha Sophia]
GREECE: [Limnos] [Meteora] [Thira] [Athens: Acropolis and Plaka] [Acropolis Museum Highlights]
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