Day 2 was freezing cold. We planned to go to Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Our hotel was literally in walking distance from Hagia Sophia. Hagia Sophia is quite impressive when entering it. I think I read somewhere that it was the biggest building in the world for hundreds of years. Inside it is even more impressive with wonderful mosaics. It is also a big success that the original church was not destroyed but the islamic arts where implemented in such way that it is just making it more impressive and not ugly. My niece was testing the acoustics by screaming. It was quite fascinating, even if we tried to convince her that it is not a place for screaming. Deep inside I was happy to have heard the pretty cool acoustics live, even if it was through my niece. After half an hour my niece was getting the crisis and refused to go to another museum. Btw Ada´s first ever museum is Hagia Sophia , which is difficult to beat :).
Drugi dan u Istanbulu je bio uzasno hladan. Planirali smo otici do Aja Sofije i Plave Dzamije. Nas hotel je bio bukvalno da mozes prosetati do tih dzamija. Aja Sofija je bas impresivna (ili kako se to kaze na nasem) kad udjes. Negdje sam citala da je nekoliko stotina godina bila najveca zgrada na svijetu. Unutra se mogu prelijepi mozaici vidjeti. I veliki je uspijeh da su je uspijeli pretvoriti u dzamiju bez da uniste crkvu nego su je cak uspijeli napraviti jos impresivinijom. Moja sestricna je testirala akustiku tako sto je vristala. Bilo je bas fascinantno iako smo joj probali objasniti da nije mjesto za vristanje. Ali sam bila i malo sretna da sam mogla cuti kako je dobra akustika u dzamiji, iako je bilo to kroz vrisak moje sestricne. Poslije nekih pola sata je sestricnoj bila puna kapa i nije htjela vise ni da vidi neki muzej.Usput Aja Sofija je prvi muzej koji je Ada posjetila, to je vec tesko premasiti 🙂
We had to force her to walk to the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque) , but when we saw people standing in the queue that was over 100m long (in the windy and ice cold weather), we decided we cannot force the children to that. We will simply have to go inside the mosque another time. However, the architecture of the Blue Mosque is stunning. It was built between 1609 and 1616. From the outside I found it much more beautiful than Hagia Sophia. It can be clearly seen that the architect Sedefkar Mehmed Aga had been inspired by Hagia Sophia. As a travel guide says he ( Sedefkar Mehmed Aga) combined the most beautiful christian and islamic architecture in one building. In the night it is even more beautiful when they light it up.
Morali smo je natjerati da ode sa nama do Plave Dzamije ( Sultan Ahmeda Dzamija), ali kad smo vidjeli red dug preko 100 m, i pomislili da stojimo u onoj zimi i vjetru sa djecom, odlucili smo da cemo to morati drugi put gledati. Arhitektura Plave Dzamije je prosto zapanjujuca. Pravljena je izmedju 1609 i 1616. Sa vanjske strane mi je dosta ljepsa nego Aja Sofija, jer izgleda kao palaca iz neke arapske price i samo cekam da izadje neka sultanija iz nje. Vidi se da je arhitekt, Sedefkar Mehmed Aga, bio inspirisan od Aja Sofije. Kako je jedan turisticki vodic napisao ” Sedefkar Mehmed Aga je ujedinio najljepsu kriscansku i islamsku arhitekturu u jednoj gradnji”. Kad je navecer osvjetle je cak jos ljepsa nego po danu.
After a late lunch we went to the Taksim square with the metro. Considering the fact that Istanbul has at least 14-15 million people I cannot believe that the metro is so clean. When I think about it is THE cleanest metro I´ve ever seen. I also found that they had a very interesting version of the pole where people hold themselves when travelling with the metro, simple but genius invention. We walked the shopping street (I forgot the name) and took a rest in a nice café.
Nakon kasnog rucka otisli smo metrom do Taksim trga. Kad pomislim da u Istanbulu zivi barem 14-15 milijona ljudi ne mogu da povjerujem da je metro tako cist. Kad jos malo bolje razmislim NAJciscij je metro kojeg sam ikad vidjela. Vidjela sam isto zanimljivu verziju stangi (u metru) za koju se ljudi drze kad putuju. Jednostavan ali genijalan izum. Od trga smo setali soping ulicom dok se nismo umorile i sjele u kafic.
Resting after a tough day / Odmor nakon dugog dana.
