訪問日時：2010年5月5日午後5時頃
I’m still working on my travelogue from Golden Week, but this series is coming to an end.
Depart Barcelona in the rain and arrive in Istanbul, Turkey. The flight was smooth. By the way, this is my first visit to Istanbul, but actually I already stayed there for one night on the first day of this trip because of the transit. I’m just staying there.
The flight from Narita-Istanbul arrives at 19:00 in the evening, so the connection to each European city is usually the next day. The airline will pay for your accommodation. Or rather, they take you to the hotel designated by the airline.
Aside from that, we finally arrived in Istanbul in daylight.
We stayed at a convenient hotel in the old town for sightseeing. Rough driving of taxi and a lot of horns, this area is totally different from continental Europe (laugh).
And how convenient is this place, it’s less than a minute walk.
When you think of Istanbul, this is the place to be, isn’t it? « This is the Sultanahmet Camii, also known as the Blue Mosque.
And across the street from it, « Hagia Sophia. »
I chose World History, I love history, and I’ve been inspired by Shiono Nanao for the past few years… I’m so full of emotion that I’m about to cry.
It has been my dream for many years to visit this city. Well, I guess I will have many such moving thoughts for three days from today.
Well, we’ve just arrived, and it looks like we’ll only be able to see the Blue Mosque today.
The Blue Mosque is right in front of me, which I’ve already seen pictures of many times…
By the way, I don’t have much experience in going to Islamic monuments. It’s because there were still many European/Christian cultural buildings.
No shoes allowed inside. But this kind of place doesn’t bother Japanese people, rather they feel familiar. They seem to lend out scarves for women, too.
I don’t know much about architecture or art, but I can feel the « culture of this side » when I see this mosaic. The Byzantine style seen in Eastern Roman churches is also like this. It reminds me of Ravenna in Italy.
And this Arabic? Something like that. Nowadays, Turkey doesn’t use Arabic letters.
Well, it took about an hour to finish visiting the Blue Mosque. By the way, it was free of charge here. After that, I had a light dinner at a cafe nearby and went to take a picture of the mosque at night once more, this time with a tripod. The night in Istanbul was colder than I expected….
From time to time, the water from the fountain splashes on us, and it’s cold again.
さあ、明日からたっぷり２日半、イスタンブールを隈なく冒険したいと思います。
