These events bring back bad memories…
When I was 14 or maybe 15 I traveled abroad for the first time without my parents. I traveled to London with a choir. Back then IRA was quite active in England, which I didn´t really grasp in that time. It was just something on the news that occurred from time to time.
That day the whole choir took the metro. It was maybe even the first time I took the metro. I remember just how cool I found it to be in the metro in one of the coolest cities in the world. We reached the station where we had to get out. I remember the sky and my surprise that London was not rainy at all (I had imagined something like tropical rain there). The sky was bright blue and there where no clouds. Imagine our surprise hearing the thunder loud and clearly. Thunder we thought it was. But sadly it wasn´t.
The “thunder” was actually three blasts at the next station. Three people got killed and over hundred got hurt. One station had in my case maybe meant life or death. I´ll never forget that day. I will also never forget the relief afterwards, that I had to get out before the blasts.
My heart is with all these innocent people having been in the wrong place in the wrong moment. But I cannot get rid of the bad feeling that this is only the beginning. People get afraid and start vote for extremists not understanding that in moment like these it is even more important to cool down, and keep the humanity and respect to all people. 
Dogadjaji poput Istanbula i Brisela mi vrate losa sjecanja…
Kad mi je bilo nekih 14, 15 godina ja sam prvi put putovala u inostranstvo bez roditelja. Isla sam horom u London. U to vrijeme su IRA bili prilicno aktivni, mada to ja tad nisam bas razumijela. Meni je to bilo samo nesto sa vijesti, sto se sa vremena na vrijeme culo.
Taj dan je cijeli hor isao metroom. Mozda mi je cak prvi put bio da idem metroom. Sjecam se samo da mi je jako cool bilo da se nalazim u metrou u jednom on najcool gradova na svijetu. Stigli smo na stanicu gdje smo trebali izaci. Sjecam se da je vani bilo prelijepo vrijeme. Plavo nebo bez ijednog oblaka. To me cudilo jer sam zamisljala nesto poput tropski kisa u Londonu. Cula se grmljavina, sto nas je malo zacudilo jer nije bilo oblaka.
Medjutim, grmljavina je ustvari bile tri bombe koje su eksplodirale stanicu iza nase. Troje ljudi je tu poginulo i preko 100 ih je bilo povrijedjeni.
U mom slucaju moze biti da je jedna stanica metroom znacila zivot ili smrt. Taj dan nikad necu zaboraviti. Niti cu zaboraviti olaksanje koje sam osjetila kasnije…da smo morale izaci stanicu prije iz metra.
Misli su mi sa ljudima koji su ove strahove prozivjeli i dozivjeli, sto su bili na pogresnom mjestu u pogresnom vremenu.
Ali ne mogu isto tako da se rijesim tog loseg osjecaja da je ovo samo pocetak. Ljudi se prepadnu i pocnu glasati za ekstremiste koji nista dobro ne nose sa sobom. Ljudi treba da razumiju da je upravo u ovim groznim momentima jos vaznije da se smire i da sacuvaju humanost i respekt prema svim ljudima.
Istanbul
Istanbul Day 3 / Istanbul 3.dan
Finally the internet started working again (for now), so here are some pics from Istanbul. / Napokon je proradio i internet (za sad) tako da evo jos par slika iz Istanbula.
The 3rd day we got a little bit confused, or rather we were all a little bit unconcentrated. It happens with 2 children around. Somehow we missed that the archeological museum and the Topkapi Palace are two separate museums. We saw a lot of interesting things in the archeological museum. The one piece I liked most was the small marriage contract engraved in clay (I think it was clay). The only negative thing was that the museum wasn´t made for buggies or mobility impaired people. There are no elevators nor ramps and many stairs. Unfortunately, we couldn´t visit the Topkapi Palace after a certain little person refused to go to more museums 😛
3. dan smo se malo zbunile, ili bolje reci bile smo malo nekoncentrisane. Desi se kad imas 2 male djece na putu. Profulalo nas je da su arheoloski muzej i Topkapi Palaca ustvari dva odvojena muzeja. Vidjeli smo dosta zanimljivi stvari u arheoloskom muzej. To sto mi se najvise svidjelo je bio jedan bracni ugovor ugraviran u glinu (ja mislim da je bila glina). Jedino negativno sa muzejom je sto definitivno nije napravljen za osobe sa djecijim kolicima, invalide, ili cak i stariji jer je jako mnogo stepenica, a nema nigdje lifta. Nazalost nismo mogli otici u Topkapi Palaci jer je jedna mala osoba se bunila da nece vise da hoda po muzejima 😛
The Tiled Pavilion Museum or The Tiled Kiosk is the pavilion of the Topkapi Palace. It was made in 1472 by Sultan Mehmed II, as a pleasure palace or kiosk. It has wonderful blue mosaic entrance, and Beautiful collection of islamic art indoors. I also found the colorful windows stunning.
The Tiled Pavilion Muzej (Poplocani Pavilion Muzej) ili Poplocani Kiosk je paviljon od Topkapi Palace. Napravljen je 1472 od Sultana Mehmeda II, kao jedna palaca uzitka ili kao kiosk. Ima predivni ulaz u poplocan plavim mozaikom. Unutra u paviljonu se moze kolekcija prelijepe islamske umjetnost naci. A posebno su mi se svidjeli raznobojnih prozori.
After the visits in the museum we went to the Great Bazaar. Somewhere we read that 90 million people pass through per year! Imagine 90 000 000! Inside the bazaar they had so much gold that my eyes wanted to jump out. There where so many stands with different things. After walk through the bazaar we had enough and walked out… and then we saw that the bazaar just continued in an everlasting stand. There where tons of dresses, cloths, curtains, shoes, bags and so on. Once you buy something you always feel cheated because if you walk a couple of meters there will always be another stand that is cheaper. Of course half the fun buying things is the bargain 🙂
Nakon posjeta u muzeju odlucili smo otici u Veliki bazar da vidimo i to cudo. Negdje smo procitali da godisnje prodje cak 90 milijona ljudi kroz bazar. Zamislite 90 000 000! Unutra u bazaru je bilo zlata da ti ocu stanu. Dosta je bilo radnji sa svakavim produktima. Kad smo prosetali kroz bazar bilo nam je i toga dosta pa smo krenuli van, kad tek onda podje prava pijaca. Pa to je haljina, robe, pidjama, cipela, zavjesa itd na tone. Taman mislis kako je nesto jeftino kad par metara nize ista stvar jos jeftinija. Imas osjecaj da si uvijek prevaren ako nesto kupis. I naravno pola cari kad kupujes je cijenkanje 🙂
Istanbul day 2
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.
Istanbul here we come / Eto nas, Istanbule
Yeeess, we finally booked the tickets !!! One of my “to-visit” places will soon be checked on my “wish to see-list” 🙂 . I look forward to it. We will celebrate mysisters birthday in Istanbul. She loves the city, I have never been there, so we decided to go there for a couple of days. In Istanbul there are soo many things to see I have already started my list… 1st. I want to go to a hammam, Aysofya, Blue Mosque, panorama 1435 . basar etc. 😀 If anyone has any recommendations please let me know 🙂
Napokon!! Napokon smo rezervisali karte. Uskoro cu na mojoj “hocu da posjetim”- listi imati jednu novu kvakicu. Bas se radujem tome. Slavicemo sestrin rodjendan tamo. U Istanbulu ima toliko stvari za vidjeti, i prvo sto mi padne na pamet je da hocu da odem na hamam, Aja Sofiju, Plavu dzamiju, panorama 1435,bazar itd. 🙂 Ako iko ima neke prijedloge sta vidjeti u Istanbulu nek se slobodno javi 🙂
10 places I would like to visit / 10 mjesta koje bih htjela posjetiti
- Istanbul
2.Prag
3.Dubai
4.Marocko/Marrakesh (Royal Mansour Marrakesh)
5.Maldives
6.St.Petersburg
7.Teheran
8. Iceland
9. Scottland
10. Nekropolis Bosnia
Do you have some place to recommend?
Imate li vi neki prijedlog?