Day 16 - Istanbul to Cappadocia

I have just read a couple of my previous posts and realised that at times the spelling, grammar and sentence construction are sometimes incorrect. This is probably the result of fatigue, typing on a bus or the auto correct taking over. I apologise for these mistakes and hope that you are able to make sense of what I am saying!

This morning we visited the Byzantine Hippodrome. There were three obelisks that we looked at. It is amazing how they managed to get the two very large ones in place.

From there we had a short walk over to the Blue Mosque. I have seen pictures of this in text books but to see it in the real was amazing. It is a beautiful building! Of course, we had to take our shoes off before entering but I also had to put a wrap-around skirt on because I had shorts on. I forgot to think about what I was wearing when I got dressed this morning. The windows were beautiful and the decorative ceilings were as well.

From the Blue Mosque we then went to the Hagia Sophia. This was a most interesting place to visit. It had been once a Christian place of worship and then became a Moslem place of worship. To see the Christian images along side the Moslem ones left me thinking about what it must have been like for the Christians living in Turkey during the times when there was the battle with Moslems regarding which tradition would win as the state religion. How lucky we are to be living in a country where we can choose our creed and be free to practise it! This is no longer a place of worship but rather a museum. 'Hagia Sophia' means 'Holy Wisdom'. It was built in 548AD and was the greatest Church in Christendom until 1453 when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire.

In the afternoon we went back to the airport for our domestic flight to Kayseri Airport. From there, we had a coach to take us to Cappadocia. It has been written:

"A visit to the Cappadocia region is like stepping into a fairy tale setting. The rocks of Cappadocia near Goreme eroded into hundreds of spectacular pillars and minaret-like forms. The volcanic deposits from ancient volcanoes millions of years ago are soft rocks that the people of the villages at the heart of the Cappadocian region carved out to form houses, churches and monasteries. Goreme became a monastic centre between 300-1200AD."

I am quite excited about learning about this place.