Topkaki Palace

We bought the museum pass which is good for 5 days and gets us

 in to all the major sites that we want to see.  Today, we go to Topkaki Palace which was the sultan’s residence in Istanbul.  There are 4 courtyards, awesome views of all the water around Istanbul, the church where weighty 

issues like what is substantiation was decided by an ecumenical council, and beautiful pavilions throughout.  We went to the café first to enjoy the view and get some sustenance, I was the only one brave enough to try the serbert that I’ve heard about, but didn’t know exactly what it was.  I get the lemon and it’s like lemonade concentrate.  Not lemon concentrate because that would

 be sour, but take lemonade and take a ton of water out of it.  Oscar had a sip and then exchanged his sprite for it because it was delicious.  I see something black rolling around in the water, but can’t make out what it is before it goes away, but now I believe 

that I’ve spotted the Loch Ness monster of the Bosphorous….The palace is immense and beautiful.  The harem was very interesting because you got disabused of all your ideas of what a harem is.  This was the private space for the sultan and his family, not a roomful of nubile young women.  The mother of 

 the sultan had the main apartment, and the sultan’s rooms were also there.  He was allowed to have women in the harem that mother and wife (if he had one) chose to elevate to this status.  Lots of political intrigue and politics in here though.  John was most impressed with the relics display with gutters from the Kaaba, the casing for the stone and all the trappings that are the closest any non Muslim can get to Hajj.   Oscar was most impressed with the armory which had some amazingly beautiful rifles, long guns and swords.  There was a beautiful chain link suit of

armor and Oscar asked me if someone “crocheted” it.  That’s my boy and it did look like crochet.  I enjoyed the tiles which were stunning.  It kind of made up for the Blue Mosque being mainly closed off, but that could still be the good feelings from the hammam.