and we're back!

We finally got internet installed in the apartment, so now I have no excuse not to keep up with this :-)

I'll try to post some stuff about what we've been up to the past couple weeks, but for now I'm just going to jump right in.  It's less daunting that way. 

Since it's Saturday, we had to go learn things about Istanbul (that's Dennis's goal for every weekend).  We took the metrobus across town (much faster!) and went to the 1453 Panoramic Museum, walked along the old city walls, and went to Chora Church.  Dennis is better at the remembering of history details stuff, but from what I remember, the walls were first built around 413AD by Theodosius to protect & defend the city when it was Constantinople, the center of the Byzantine Empire.  Then, in 1453, the Ottoman army came & conquered, and then you had Istanbul with Sultans until about 1920 or so when Ataturk led his revolution.  So the museum is all about the invasion & defeat of Constantinople.  The walls are pretty neat.  Dennis climbed up one tower thing (see below). 

old walls

this is inside the 1453 museum -- big panoramic scene in a dome thing

we walked along the wall for a while

view from the wall was pretty sweet...

...but I still wasnt about to climb up that "ladder" thing

Then on to Chora Church, which was built first in like the 5th century, outside the original walls, but Theodosius put his walls around it.  Chora apparently roughly translated to "church out in the country".  When the Ottomans came, of course, it was turned into a Mosque for a good long while.  But since it was made into a museum, they've uncovered and restored the mosaics & frescoes. It's particularly neat to visit because those mosaics are among the finest in the world.  Nicer than the Hagia Sophia for sure.

one of many, many mosaics.  still in pretty darn good shape too

frescoes in the nave(?)

So there you go.  Now you know something about Constantinople too.