Topkapi Palace

On my last full day in Istanbul I visited Topkapi palace, where the Ottoman sultans lived until 1856. Sultan Mehmed II ordered its construction and it was finished in 1465. When I was 15 I remember taking a tour of Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin. Walking through Topkapi Palace, I caught myself thinking, "Now this is what I call a palace." The grounds are really massive.

The bright colors of the tiling that adorns the walls is a welcome contrast
to the architecture and decor that's common in Europe.

If you ever visit Topkapi Palace, make sure you pay the extra to see the harem apartments - it's worth it. When most people hear the word "harem" they think of the sultan's concubines, but it was also where the Sultan and the princes lived, in addition to wives and concubines, plus other slave girls and female relatives. They also employed eunuchs who lived there too. The eunuchs who were around the women were mostly black eunuchs, often from Sudan, and this was because the black eunuchs tended to have more of their genitalia removed so they were considered the least threatening. The Valide Sultan, the sultan's mother, was in charge of the rest of the women and for the most part they weren't allowed to leave the apartments. Harem means "forbidden".

There were fountains all over the place inside the harem apartments - water, especially running water, was a sign of wealth.

Later that day I went to get some dinner at a place near my hostel. Across the street was an old stone wall that was no longer in use by anyone else, so one of the nearby shopkeepers hung some of his rugs and scarfs up there to advertise. Well, it turns out that there is a family of stray cats that lives on the other side of the wall, and the kittens came out to play. One of the kittens started playing with the rugs and the shopkeeper came over and tried to get him to stop. Later he went into the restaurant and came out with a bunch of leftover chicken that he gave to the cats.

Stray cats are everywhere in Turkey, but the locals seem to take care of them.

Later that night I went out with some of the people from my hostel, and we ended up at one of the restaurants under Galata bridge, which mostly sell fish. I had already eaten and wasn't hungry enough to eat again, but the view was fantastic.

Bosphorus at night