From Tarsus, my parents and I spent a weekend in Istanbul before flying to Munich. We stayed in Sultanahmet and once again I took them to the main sight-seeing spots. On Friday night after we arrived, I took them to the main square to see the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque lit up at night. I've seen it so many times over the past two years, but it will always be an incredible sight for me.
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| Sultan Ahmet mosque (Blue Mosque) |
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| Hagia Sophia |
On Saturday we took on Istanbul with an epic day of sightseeing. First we went to the Hagia Sophia. This was my fourth trip to the church. If you are a resident in Turkey, you can get an awesome Muze card that allows you two free trips to most of the museums in the country and is good for one year. The card cost me 30 TL and one trip to the Hagia Sophia is 25 TL so it's definitely worth getting. I found a connection to Tarsus at the Hagia Sophia during this trip. There is a massive door in one of the wings of the church that is from the old Roman temple in Tarsus. The temple has been destroyed and all you can see of it now is the massive foundation. Having just seen the foundations of the temple and then a few days later seeing the door at the world's first cathedral puts into perspective just how important that temple must have been.
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| Door from the Roman temple in Tarsus |
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| A beautiful Greek mosaic |
We also went to Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque, and the Basilica cisterns. We rounded out the afternoon by going on a Bosphorus cruise, checking out the Egyptian spice market, and then finally enjoying a relaxing dinner at a traditional Ottoman-inspired restaurant.
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| Fortress on the Bosphorus |
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| Mom and Dad enjoying some drinks at the end of their epic sightseeing day |
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| Enjoying our Ottoman dinner |
The next day we flew to Munich to stay for the rest of the week. While on the airplane, a pretty severe allergic reaction flared up and by the time I landed I was looking pretty frightening with red eyes and a swollen lip. So unfortunately the first order of business in Munich was not exploring or enjoying a beer in a biergarten, but trying to find a pharmacy and then a doctor to get a prescription. Once I got the right meds in me, things started calming down with my face but I had other symptoms flaring up throughout the rest of my time in Munich. But we did still get around to all the places we wanted to go to. Take note that there's not going to be many photos of me in Munich (just too scary :) ).
We were supposed to go on a castle tour our first day but rescheduled just in case I had another allergy attack. We took the train to Dachau to visit the concentration camp instead. Dachau was the first concentration camp in Germany. It was used as a sort of training facility for the Nazis, many of whom were sent on to Auschwitz and other larger camps. The majority of the prisoners at Dachau were men; some journalists and activists who were outspoken against the Nazis, others priests and members of the clergy. Today the camp is home to a museum that chronicles the history of the camp. You can also walk around the barracks where high profile prisoners were kept, the bunks where the majority of prisoners stayed, as well as the memorial and a few churches that have been built on the site.
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| Sign at the entrance gate that translates to "Work makes you free" |
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| Barracks for the high profile prisoners |
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| Sleeping area in the bunkers |
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| Catholic church built as a memorial |
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| Synagogue on site |
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| Protestant church built on site |
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| Russian orthodox church |
Dachau was an uncomfortable place to visit, yet I am really glad that I had the experience of visiting. World War II has been a topic we have all learned about and seen in movies, books, documentaries, etc. To be able to visit a place where some of the biggest human atrocities took place was a humbling and chilling experience.
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