We started our last full day in Istanbul with a guided tour of the hotel.
This wasn’t as lame as it sounds, because it is in fact quite a historical old building. It used to be a prison.
During the tour the guide casually mentioned that the Hagia Sofia was due to close next month for renovations that are scheduled to take 50 – 60 years. So our visit last night was very well timed. It would be fascinating to know what their plans for the inside were. Are they going to get rid of any sign of Christianity inside? The guide said that the main reason for refurbishment was earthquake strengthening, because Istanbul is overdue a big one. Remember there was an earthquake back in February in Turkey, down near the border with Syria, and something like 50 thousand people died. In spite of the outrage at the shoddily built houses thanks to corruption, that contributed significantly to the death toll, Erdogan managed to get voted back in during the last elections. Hakan attributes this to the high population of uneducated religious people in the country. The educated, less strict Muslim intellectuals know each other as Ataturk people, after the great leader. Mustafa Kamal Ataturk modernized Turkey with clothing, changing the alphabet, and separating religion from the secular state before drinking himself to death in 1938.
Talk of earthquakes led to discussions about NZ’s recent tectonic activity, and then onto politics. Our guide positively fangirled over Jacinda and was very disappointed to learn she was no longer prime minister.
After our tour we went to the local bazaar that was behind the Blue Mosque. This was much smaller and less overwhelming than the grand bazaar or the spice market. We all spent a bit of money there, even Simon buying a couple of decorated platters. Turkish ceramics are world renowned. Hopefully they survive the trip home.
There was time for only a short nap after lunch before Hakan arrived to drive us to his house where we had been invited for dinner. We ended up leaving the hotel at 5:20, and we then took two hours to drive the 38 k to where he lived. Apparently this is entirely normal. I just could not live like this. Hakan is a surgeon, operating six days a week, and usually doesn’t get home until around 9 pm. Yikes.
The meal was very nice. Their apartment building has a communal eating area beside the pool, with a restaurant, if you don’t want to eat in your own home. It was very social, people obviously know each other, and there were groups of kids running around playing together. It was lovely.
The highlight of the meal was the shared entree plates or mezes. This was followed by chips and tough steak which I was luckily too full to eat.
The music then changed and Hakan’s wife Aysha, an interventional cardiologist, got up and started dancing. It was traditional Turkish style dancing, and she made us all get up and join her. The people at the other tables were pretty tolerant, some of them even got up and joined us. It was equal parts fun and mortifying.
Dinner was followed by Turkish coffee up in the apartment, where we got to meet the family pets before taking a taxi back home to the hotel, a trip at this hour of around 45 minutes.