{"id":485,"date":"2011-04-15T09:05:31","date_gmt":"2011-04-15T08:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leirdal.net\/blog\/?p=485"},"modified":"2011-04-15T10:14:05","modified_gmt":"2011-04-15T09:14:05","slug":"istanbul-in-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/archives\/485-istanbul-in-march.html","title":{"rendered":"Istanbul in March"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The blue mosque<\/p><\/div>\n

So another city has been crossed off my \u201cto-be-visited\u201d list. We visited Istanbul in late march, but we learned that we maybe should have visited the city a month later. March is a very cold month in Istanbul. We arrived on a Thursday evening, and after having left our luggage in the hotel we went for a nice meal in a restaurant with a great view of two of the biggest sights in Istanbul, the blue mosque (or Sultan Ahmed Mosque)<\/a> and Hagia Sofia<\/a>. Hagia Sofia was the biggest church in the world for several centuries (almost thousand years) and was later converted to a mosque, but it is now a museum.<\/p>\n

\"Hagia<\/a>

Hagia Sophia<\/p><\/div>\n

The inside of Hagia Sophia is quite interesting, but equally interesting for a Scandinavian visiting the building; there is a runic graffiti on the second floor balcony.<\/p>\n

\"Inside<\/a>

Inside Hagia Sophia<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Norse<\/a>

Norse tagging inside Hagia Sophia<\/p><\/div>\n

Young Scandinavians haven\u2019t changed a lot in 1000 years. My feelings for visiting this old building were mixed. It was impressive, the building had been build between the year 532 and 537 and it was still standing, even though Istanbul regularly have been visited by quite strong earthquakes. The reason for my mixed feelings was the fact that almost every wall and roof had been covered in gilded mosaics, even though we could only see some fragments of this today. The wealth used to decorate the church so lavishly must have been enormous. The frugal Norwegian in me feels that this was a bit over the top, \u2026 a bit excessive, \u2026 slightly costly \u2026 Well you get the point, use your own words. I still can appreciate their importance as culture carriers though.<\/p>\n

The mix of old buildings and ancient history, yet a modern city was quite intriguing and when confronted with shabby wooden structures next to beautiful mosques or churches you cannot stop wondering why they do not fix these buildings.<\/p>\n

\"Shabby<\/a>

Shabby house next to the blue mosque<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Outside<\/a>

Outside the blue mosque<\/p><\/div>\n

There are 17 million people living in Istanbul and on Saturday while walking in the Egyptian Market or near Taksim Square you feel it. It is like walking inside a subway car in Oslo during rush-hour, crowded.<\/p>\n

\"Busy<\/a>

Busy market<\/p><\/div>\n

Like in Rome, Istanbul has its fair share of cats in the streets and then some. The cats where slinking along the streets, begging from street vendors and tourists everywhere.<\/p>\n

\"Cat<\/a>

Cat -posing as street artist? Missing the shiny statue costume though.<\/p><\/div>\n

Even though we visited in a cold month, the street vendors where busy providing for any and every need. In the markets you could find all the different Turkish sweets and goods that you do not easily find in Norway. The fish market had some of the same types of fish you can get in Norway and several that you can\u2019t. It\u2019s interesting to know that a lot of the fish are not caught, but come from fish farmers.<\/p>\n

\"Drive-through<\/a>

Drive-through groceries shopping<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Another<\/a>

Another street vendor<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Home<\/a>

Home made iPhone covers<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Turkish<\/a>

Turkish sweets<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Turkish<\/a>

Turkish sweets - part 2<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Turkish<\/a>

Turkish sweets - part 3<\/p><\/div>\n

\"On<\/a>

On every corner you could find them<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Hot<\/a>

Hot nuts<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Fruit<\/a>

Fruit juice vendor<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Fishmarket\"<\/a>

Fishmarket<\/p><\/div>\n

\"More<\/a>

More fish<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Olives\"<\/a>

Olives<\/p><\/div>\n

That did not stop a lot of people from trying to catch their own food from the bridges inside the city.<\/p>\n

\"Fishing<\/a>

Fishing in Istanbul<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bridge<\/a>

Bridge crossing the Bosporus<\/p><\/div>\n

As an engineer I also found it interesting to see the traffic jam waiting to sail through the Bosporus.<\/p>\n

\"Another<\/a>

Another traffic jam<\/p><\/div>\n

And finally, just an image of some of the vegetation in Istanbul.<\/p>\n

\"Bamboo\"<\/a>

Bamboo<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So another city has been crossed off my \u201cto-be-visited\u201d list. We visited Istanbul in late march, but we learned that we maybe should have visited the city a month later. March is a very cold month in Istanbul. We arrived on a Thursday evening, and after having left our luggage in the hotel we went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[283,511,18,180,284],"class_list":["post-485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-photography","tag-istanbul","tag-photography","tag-picture","tag-travel","tag-turkey","czr-hentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1xqPf-7P","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":164,"url":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/archives\/164-pyramid-overload.html","url_meta":{"origin":485,"position":0},"title":"Pyramid overload","author":"leirdal","date":"2010-03-24","format":false,"excerpt":"Early this month my girlfriend and I visited Egypt. For years we have wanted to see the traces of what was once one of the greatest civilizations of the world. In order to see as much as possible of the best sights of Egypt we joined a packaged trip from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/archives\/category\/photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"View of Giza from the plane","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Pyramids1-From_Plane-200x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":154,"url":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/archives\/154-china-and-the-2009-solar-eclipse.html","url_meta":{"origin":485,"position":1},"title":"China and the 2009 Solar Eclipse","author":"leirdal","date":"2009-08-02","format":false,"excerpt":"At the end of the Solar Eclipse we got the diamond ring effect.22 July 2009 the biggest Solar Eclipse this century occurred over Asia. Escape Travel in cooperation with Knut J\u00f8rgen R\u00f8ed \u00d8degaard arranged several alternatives for visiting both China and viewing the Solar Eclipse. My girlfriend and I have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/archives\/category\/photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"\/blog\/uploads\/china-solareclipse.serendipityThumb.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1442,"url":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/archives\/1442-city-beauty.html","url_meta":{"origin":485,"position":2},"title":"City beauty","author":"leirdal","date":"2013-07-17","format":false,"excerpt":"Every Monday this summer Oslo Kamera Klubb has a little photo-walk. I have been to three that I have not blogged about yet, but hopefully I will manage to do so very soon. A little while ago we visited an area in Oslo called Vulkan. It is an area along\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/archives\/category\/photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"Around and around","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/5D38177-20130624.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/5D38177-20130624.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/5D38177-20130624.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/5D38177-20130624.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":134,"url":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/archives\/134-another-country-in-my-%c2%abvisited%c2%bb-list.html","url_meta":{"origin":485,"position":3},"title":"Another country in my \u00abVisited\u00bb list","author":"leirdal","date":"2009-02-04","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently visited Estonia and it's capital Tallinn. 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Take a look at some of the photos I captured.","rel":"","context":"In "Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/archives\/category\/photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"European Crested Tit","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSF0834-20190824.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSF0834-20190824.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSF0834-20190824.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSF0834-20190824.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSF0834-20190824.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":74,"url":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/archives\/74-safari-dreams.html","url_meta":{"origin":485,"position":5},"title":"Safari dreams","author":"leirdal","date":"2008-02-07","format":false,"excerpt":"I friend of mine recently visited South Africa. I've never been there, but after seeing pictures like this, I would like to. Especially considering the hours spent behind a computer lately.","rel":"","context":"In "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/archives\/category\/life"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leirdal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}