Ayasofya and Gülhane Park

We made the most of a sunny (though cold) Saturday morning and finally went to see the Ayasofya (i.e. Hagia Sophia) as it was a little bit shameful that we've been here almost a year and hadn't yet been.

Also, one of the plus points of living here is being able to get annual Muzekarts, which are cheap for residents and give us free entry into lots of museums (such as Ephesus, where we originally got them, and including the Hagia Sophia) - so we wanted to make the most of them.

Ayasofya from the outside

The Ayasofya is a spectacular building - first built as a church in the 6th century AD and most famous for its huge dome, it's considered one of the finest examples of Byzantine architecture. Following the Ottoman Empire's conquest of Constantinople in 1453, it was converted into a mosque, and about 80 years ago it was opened as a museum.

Although it did feel like a slight historical anachronism to have a call from IKEA about delivery dates for J's new big-boy-mattress (otherwise known as 'kicking the older child out of the cot to make room for #2') while wandering around a building built 1500 years ago... but maybe that sums up this city that is so ancient in so many ways and so modern in so many other ways!

And then, after we'd had our fill of culture, we headed to a local park that was very close by. I'm fairly sure that the highlight of J's visit was seeing a digger and a lorry in the park.

The wall/buildings that can be seen through the trees are part of the Topkapı Palace Museum and Istanbul Archaeology Museum complex - a trip for another time!

Spring has come!

One of the interesting things about public parks here is that many of them tend to be fairly well developed - as in, lots of paved paths, flower beds, even slightly random electronically controlled water features. Gülhane Park was definitely in the 'developed' category - not really the sort of place for a kick around or game of ultimate frisbee, but still lovely to see some green here!

No other name

Family is very important to Turks, and my Turkish teacher has mentioned different members of her family at various points in conversation. The other day she happened to mention that she'd been talking to her father (aged 92) who told her he was scared of dying. She said that her response to him was along the lines of 'don't worry, you'll go to paradise like your friends who have already died, the rest of your family will join you there later' (that's a paraphrase by the way).

Most of the class smiled and my teacher (who in many ways seems like a fairly religious person) clearly didn't think there was anything to be scared of.

I could have cried (and with the pregnancy hormones currently flooding my body, I mean that literally). Judging by what my teacher has said about her family and upbringing, I'd assume he's a fairly religious man - yet he told his daughter that he fears death.

It's probably fair to assume - though of course I can't be sure - that this gentleman has never met a believer or heard the good news presented in a way he can understand. (If you want to know the basis for my assumption, click here or here and have a look at the statistics on the top of the page). The only person in whom salvation is found is considered to be only a prophet by almost all the people in this country.

And as I was sitting in class, it struck me that this is why we're here. We miss family and friends and England, we feel like foreigners here and we're still getting to grips with the language. But it is all worth it if we can play a small part in supporting and working alongside the groups of believing people here, so that they can shine like stars in the darkness as they hold out the word of life.

I'll never meet this gentleman, but I hope that before he dies, he will come to the one person who can give him rest. The sobering reality is that there are millions more in the same situation in this country and no other name by which we can be saved.

March... the month that spring came and went

It's been a bit quiet around here recently but here's some of the things we've been up to in the last few weeks (in no particular order):

• I've been at language school for the last 6 weeks and have 2 more weeks to go (and still walking up 9 flights of stairs each day, though it's taking slightly longer now!). One of the most random things I learned last week was that elections in Turkey are always held on a Sunday and that alcohol cannot be sold on an election day.

• We attended our first wedding in Turkey. Two friends got married, one is German and the other Syrian and though they had the official wedding in Germany, they chose to have a religious marriage ceremony here. The bride and groom had talked with us before hand and said it was their tradition that the youngest (presumably male and not a baby) guest at the wedding was the ring bearer and did we think J was old enough to do it. While it would have been lovely, J isn't a fan of huge groups of people and has recently developed a habit of throwing things over his shoulder then saying "oh dear", so we thought he was a little too young right now. 

We managed to get at least one pic at the wedding where we were all looking at the camera (even if not quite all smiling)

• After a decidedly English-style winter here (wetter than usual apparently!) spring broke through and we had nearly a week of sunshine before winter returned last Friday.

• Our Turkish vocabulary now includes quite a few boiler related words as ours is broken (technically it's not actually a boiler, it's a termoşifon, which means it just provides hot water, not heating). We've also learned that sometimes there are cross-cultural misunderstandings because the repairman assumes that one part of the process-to-get-a-new-termoşifon is so obvious that it doesn't need to be said when the foreigners have no clue at all. The upshot is that after 2.5 weeks with no hot water, we are hoping to have hot water again this week...

• L's friend (who he does language exchange with) came over for dinner and brought içli köfte that his mum had made. The inside is a small köfte, (a Turkish meatball) inside a shell made of bulgar wheat dough, which is then boiled and fried. They taste seriously good but apparently are notoriously difficult to make, so I don't think I'll be attempting them any time soon.

• J has developed a strong interest in vehicles. And by "strong interest" I mean his idea of a fun walk outside is one which involves seeing cars and buses, preferably metro trains and boats as well, and lots of pointing at the sky and optimistically saying "neeowww" in the hope of seeing a plane. If we see a digger, cement mixer or street sweeper, that's a bonus. This is where it does help to live in the middle of a city where there are plenty of buses and always construction work going on!