“The dervish whirls so that the true form of the world can be seen. When we whirl all the individual pieces we think are separate blend together and we begin to sense the totality that is God.”
Tag: sultanahmet
A short version of Istanbul’s long history
(I wrote this back in 2010, but happily share it again – though President Erdogan has moved the city backwards by a lot since I wrote this – it’s a shame, he’s sold the collective property of the Turkish people to his capitalist buddies, re-Islamicized society, and gone to great lengths to undo the amazing…
Aesthetic Feasting at the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum
he museum holds a wealth of Turkish and Islamic art from the Ottoman and Seljuk periods along with beautiful pieces and implements from as early as the 8th Century A.D.
The Blue Mosque of Sultan Ahmet in Istanbul, Turkey – #flashbackfriday
On our honeymoon trip to Turkey back in 2010, my wife and I were excited to visit the famed Blue Mosque in Sultan Ahmet, the monument and tourist section of Istanbul. The Sultan Ahmet region is named for Sultan Ahmet I who ruled from 1603 to 1617 AD. The Sultan Ahmet Mosque, known as the…
Cold Turkey – Back in Istanbul Unexpectedly!
Going to Turkey isn’t like travel for me – its like coming home.
Hotel Ayasofya – Top Suite – End of trip luxury
We do alright traveling on the cheap! It’s really a matter of choosing where to suffer and where not to. As I said before, I don’t like to suffer at the end of a journey nor at the beginning. During the middle, I don’t mind a bit. If you think about it, it makes sense. The two things you usually know are when you will arrive and when you will leave. Book a hotel for those nights and play everything else by ear.
Arriving at the Hotel Ayasofya in Sultanahmet, Istanbul
One of my hard and fast rules (which I often break anyway) about travel are that a journey should begin with a small amount of luxury so that you can get your head on straight in a new place and end with a lot of luxury so that you have something to look forward to…
Sabiha Gökçen International Airport in Istanbul
Our flight from Casablanca landed about 50 km from Istanbul in the Sabiha Gökçen International Airport. It’s not nearly as convenient as Ataturk Airport but it services a lot of discount airlines such as Air Arabia. While not a huge airport, it does have a lot of domestic and international flights coming in and going…