Living in white America as I do, it’s good to be reminded of the incredible diversity of people living in this world. Walking through the streets of Istanbul today I encountered an astonishing array of world citizens–in addition to Europeans from every country,there were Russians and slavs,Chinese and Indians, and Muslim women wearing a wide range of clothing–young Turkish girls in jean and t-shirts, others like flocks of birds wearing flowing floor-length black robes and head scarves that revealed only their eyes, many older women wearing shapeless long black raincoats and scarves that covered their hair and framed their faces, and still others who wore scarves that covered their heads and were pulled down under their chins to form a ”V.”  All were accompanied by a males in Western clothes–mostly jeans–who walked ahead of them.

This morning after a breakfast of a feta-like cheese, olives, bread, yogurt and tea. I walked to the Hagia Sophia – a Christian church built by the Byzantine Emperor Justianian around 506 AD and converted to a mosque centuries later. The hodge-podge exterior provides little clue to the elegance of the interior dome which soars above the central marble floor. Gold-hued mosaics of Jesus and Mary, John the Baptist and Empresses and Emperors were tucked into adjacent audience halls and paintings of seraphim – wild body-less angels – floated in the corners of the ceilings. A steep sloping ramp lead to an upper gallery that surrounded the worship space below and provided a close-up view of the the large rondels covered with Islamic calligraphy that were superimposed on the Christian iconography.
After lunch I braved the Grand Bazaar – an immense covered market where merchants sell everything from knock-off Prada to hand-made Turkish carpet. As I passed the tightly packed shops, the men would call after me–’Lady, no hi no buy?” and “Is it possible I could show you one rug?” Amidst the tourist junk–snow-globes with the Blue Mosque inside, belly-dancer costumes, leather slippers with curled up toes, and paisley Pashminas made in India, were some antique miniature paintings,impossibly intricate kilims, and faded silk robes edged with embroidery.
After an early dinner I watched a half-moon rise between the minarets of the Blue mosque.
Barbara