What a busy day today! We started out by heading to Topkapi Palace first thing, missing a lot of the crowds. The palace is gorgeous – lots of fabulous mosaics and tiling, inlaid wood/mother of pearl panels and carved wood and marble. We visited the harem which was an eye opener – the Queen Mother had some great rooms, but everyone else was pretty much lumped in together. What a life! No privacy, locked in, the only recreation was gossip… painful!
In the afternoon we visited a bellydance shop, Istanbal Dreams and then the Grand Bazaar.
I ordered a dance costume to be made for me in a gorgeous teal blue, with crystals left right and centre. It was supposed to be like the teal costume right behind me here, but a belt instead of a skirt. Nice!
Then tonight we had a dance class with a Turkish Romany (gypsy) dancer on the other side of town. The traffic was horrendous because of Ramadan – people are eager to get home and spend the feast time at night with their families. The class was hard work, but really interesting! We were looking at music with a different rhythm than what we usually use (a 4/5 rhythm – wow!) and worked really hard at adapting traditional moves to this specific kind of music Very fabulous though!
So by after dinner we were all exhausted! A reasonably early night tonight which is good because tomorrow will be busy too – another dance class, visiting the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia just for starters!
Two Weeks Away 