The blue mosque got its name for the blue ceramic tiles that cover the walls. It was a very pretty mosque but I thought it was a bit boring because they are not allowed to have any icons. Then we went to the Hagia Sofia which means house of wisdom. (?) We got a really good tour guide there; he spoke perfect English and was very informative. There were a bunch of pretty mosaics over the doors and in one of the domes. When they converted it into a mosque they covered all the Christian iconography (except the scene of Mary holding Jesus) with plaster and ended up preserving it! The reason they didn’t cover up the mosaic of Mary is because they still believe in Jesus except to them he’s just a prophet not a son of God. There were eight big discs covered with calligraphy which had some names of important Islamic people; such as Mohammed and Allah.
They tried to move them into the blue mosque but they couldn’t get them out of the door! The Ottomans had assembled them inside! Then we went back to our hotel and did some homework. Then our driver picked us up and we went to the Turkish bath! First we changed into the clothing they provided. The pants they had there did not fit me whatsoever so I improvised and used a towel. Then we went into the hot room where you lay on a hot marble slab for about 35 minutes going to dump cold water on yourself whenever you got too hot. The temperature in there was 35 degrees Celsius! Then we got scrubbed and some people dumped cold water on us. Then we lay down again on a bench and got scrubbed with soap in a bag! After that I got a massage. Then we got some fresh dry towels and sat in the tepidarium (lukewarm room) and drank ice tea! It was really awesome and I am really clean!
Bye
Emy
No comments:
Post a Comment