Istanbul Day 4

Due to late nights and wi-fi problems, I am now rather far behind. Today's entry will be relatively brief because Saturday was mainly a bridge day. So ... on Saturday I checked out of my posh digs at the Grand Tarabyan, went for one final 2 1/2 hour walk along the Bosphorous, and took a cab to the Old City. The hotel here is pretty nice, it's centrally located, the street upon which it is located is reasonably quiet, and the rooftop restaurant is quite good.

The only thing of note that I did on Saturday was to visit the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. While at the museum, I learned several important things.

1) Given the title of this exhibit, "Head of Alexander the Great," apparently Mr. Great was actually made of stone.

2) This is the bell from the famous Galata Tower, which still stands to this day. Paul Revere's great*35th grandfather was the bell-ringer for the Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI during the 1453 invasion in which the Ottomans conquered the city. The senior Mr. Revere, being years ahead of his time, only spoke English. As such, when he was ringing the bell and screaming "The Ottomans are coming!!" people just assumed he was announcing dinner. Constantinople fell, but the story that was passed down from generation to generation played a large part in America's victory in the Revolutionary War.

3) Here is the only recorded instance of a woman with a joey. The side pouch is particularly weird, but whatever.

4) These are the world's first bobble-heads, originally sold at the Hippodrome. It wasn't until after the Ottomans conquered Constantinople that people realized the heads would bobble better if they were actually attached to a base with a flexible joint.

5) This is a piece of the Babylonian wall, from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. Paige and I saw many more such pieces (indeed, entire sections of the wall) in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. The unique thing about this piece is that it represents the first time in history that a building contractor ever said, "What do you mean, 'the paint doesn't match'?"

6) This is my favorite. The picture literally is taken in a lot behind the museum. In Texas, people leave broken washing machines, useless tires, and empty propane tanks lying around on their lots. In Istanbul, they leave relics from the 7th century B.C.

Probably will just have one final entry relating the last two days of events. Might be later today. Might be tomorrow. The good news is that once that one is done, you won't have to read anything else for a while.

Cheers,

Mike