Palaces and Football

Today was a great 2nd day in Istanbul!  This morning I woke up early to go on a SAS tour of the palaces of Istanbul at 9:00am.  The first place we went to was Dolmabahce Palace which was by far the most impressive one we visited.  We got there earely so there was no line but when we drove by later we saw a crazy line at least 100 people long to go in.  It was huge and we toured the whole thing.  They make you wear little plastic booties over your shoes the entire time (which was very interesting with flip flops on) because they lay down lots of carpet that they don’t want us to ruin.  All the rooms were originally furnished and the palace was extremely gaudy and lavish.  Our guide explained that it was more in a European style than Turkish style which is why it didn’t look much different from palaces we may have seen in Western Europe.  Then we boarded the bus and headed to our next palace which was in Asia!  We crossed the bridge over the Bosphorus and saw the official ‘Welcome to Asia’ sign so it was pretty cool to hit the 3rd continent of the voyage.  There we went to the Beylerbeyi Palace which was a summer residence for the sultans and looked pretty similar to the first palace on a slightly smaller scale.  Then we walked to a nearby park on the Bosphorus shore where we picnicked and ate the box lunch that was provided by the ship.  So I can officially say that I went to Asia for 3hrs and to eat lunch.

After lunch we went back to the bus and drove back over the bridge to the guest palace for the Yildiz Palace.  Apparently this particular sultan was buddies with Kaiser Wilhelm II and he stayed in this little guest palace whenever he visited Turkey.  There was a History Channel documentary being filmed while we were there so there was film equipment and stuff set up all around so we didn’t get the full palace feel.  The crew filmed our group walking down a corridor and looking around so we will have to look out for the documentary.  Then we went to the main Yildiz Palace which was sort of a disappointment because most of it was closed for restoration.  We were able to see the garden and museum area that had some sample rooms and stuff.  But by the time we were on our 4th palace for the day I don’t think any of us really minded the break.

After the last palace we took the bus back toward the ship and our tour guide said he would take us to a Turkish café for coffee and apple tea (a yummy Turkish specialty).  It was really close to the ship so we all went in to find out that it was definitely what we would refer to as a Hookah Bar in the US and we all sat on beanbags and had drinks.  It was really hot so I just had a 7up instead of tea.  After hanging there for a little while my friend Betsy and I walked back to the ship but stopped at a stand selling chicken kabobs for 1TL.  It wasn’t the best food but the fresh chicken was really good and it was a nice cheap snack.

When we got back on the ship I found a really awesome note on my door from Janae saying that she and Kaitlyn bought 4 tickets (for themselves, me, and Andrea) to the soccer game tonight for one of the Istanbul teams.  They said they would just sell them to other people if we didn’t want them but I was definitely going to go!  I was so pumped because I knew European football was something I just had to see!  So we all met up for dinner then left with a large group of people from SAS to go to the game.  It was about a 20 min walk to the stadium.  It was right across from the first palace we had visited in the morning and I remembered our tour guide telling us how the team won some sort of championship last year.  The Turkish team colors were black and white and was called Beşiktaş (pronounced Beshiktash) and they played a pink and blue team called C. Catania that someone said was from Italy but I have no idea if that’s right.  The name Beşiktaş is just an area of Istanbul, so I’m assuming the city has many teams, and probably ones that are better than this one.  It was a preseason game and they tied 1-1 but the soccer just wasn’t all that great.  The cheering fans and everything were out in full force (at least the hard core ones) so that was really fun to see.  After the game we walked back to the ship with the herd of people from SAS, and now it is time for bed because we are getting up to go to the Grand Bazaar tomorrow morning!