Topkapi Palace

Travels in Turkey, Part 2 of 12

On our first full day in Turkey, we had most of the day to explore Istanbul before needing to hop on a ferry across to the Asian side to catch an overnight train to Ankara. Since we were scheduled to have only one other full day in Istanbul, I wanted to make the most of it — while keeping in mind I had two kids with jetlag… We did some downhill wandering in the morning then made our way up the hill to the entrance of Topkapi Palace. The hill wasn’t too much of an issue, since we had bought simit from a street vendor, and there were cats everywhere for us to spot and talk to. (Simit – sesame bread – and cats, along with ice cream, were a common theme of our days in Turkey.)

Despite warnings of lines, we didn’t have to wait to get in and the courtyard was fairly empty. Even the Burger King delivery guy could walk right in. (An aside — we were surprised at how many more Burger Kings than McDonalds we saw in Turkey and also by the fact that BK delivered, even to the palace!)

Our first stop once in the palace was the Harem. Admission to the Harem cost an extra fee, but it was well worth it. The tilework and architectural details in the private quarters of the palace were just amazing! Even the girls were entranced by room after room! Each was enough different from the last to make it worth stopping to look around and take it all in. The girls enjoyed the harem courtyard, where they could skip and be silly. Chloe managed lots of cartwheel practice.

Once we left the Harem, our energy levels were drooping, so we stopped in the cafe for a snack before proceeding on to the Treasury and the Sacred Safekeeping Rooms, where we saw such things as Moses’s rod and David’s sword and Mohammed’s beard. Even the girls were willing to move slowly though all of the exhibits.

As we headed through the main courtyard to leave the palace, we all stopped to look at a cistern, but Chloe kept walking along with the Japanese tour group that had overtaken us. She was pretty shaken by the time Camille found her and rescued her. She wouldn’t talk to me, Rob or my dad for twenty minutes — only to Camille.

Outside the palace near Sultanhamet Square, the girls ordered ice cream from a street vendor who had a whole comedic act of serving Turkish ice cream called dondurma.