591 - Topkapi Palace
Today I explored an ancient Turkish palace built in 1465.
But we’ll get to that in a second. First, I want to talk about the cure to jet lag. Because beyond the 500+ years of history, that’s probably more applicable to your life.
The trick, if one could go as far to call it a trick, is to go to bed at your destination’s normal bedtime. That’s it. That’s all there is to it.
The hard part is staying up until this normal bedtime. Personally, I usually pull whatever resources I can to make it happen. And since we were in the tea capital of the world, it ended up being black tea. Or how they say it in Turkish, çay.
I discovered this trick accidentally, because when I woke up after my first day in Turkey, I felt like a million bucks. Which checks out, because we were about to visit a palace worth millions of dollars.
So, naturally, the first thing we did after climbing out of bed was down another piping hot glass of çay. I’d long since accepted that I’d be a full on caffeine addict by the end of this trip.
The thing is, tea is deeply rooted in Turkish culture. It flows like water out here. Every single restaurant in town served it, in the same, distinct, glass cup. People drank it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and everything in between. It was the cornerstone of social interaction.
Thus, by the time we arrived at Topkapi Palace, I was all tea’d up and ready to go. And as it turned out, I’d need it. The palace was over 700,000 square feet. It featured hundreds of rooms, spread across dozens of buildings- it was almost a mile long. My Vans were about to learn what walking is.
Photography wise, I decided I’d flex the real estate photography skills I’ve been learning for the past 10 months. Shooting this place was essentially the same thing, but on a massive scale:
“Golden Goat"
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Sony 12-24mm f/4 G
[ISO 2500 ~ 20mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/400s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
“Cigarettes and Burkas"
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Sony 12-24mm f/4 G
[ISO 2500 ~ 12mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/50s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
“Geometric Infinity"
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Sony 12-24mm f/4 G
[ISO 250 ~ 12mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/800s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
“Pattern of Lamps"
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Sony 24-105mm f/4
[ISO 500 ~ 105mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/250s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
“Sultan’s Gate"
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Sony 12-24mm f/4 G
[ISO 500 ~ 12mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/160s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Not a bad crop.
But by the end of the day, my feet were screaming at me. I also knew enough useless facts about the Turkish stronghold to win trivia forever. Here’s a few of my favorites bits:
The palace kitchen had a collection of over 12,000 priceless porcelain, staffed over 1,000 people, and made over 6,000 meals a day.
The harem had over 400 rooms, and up to 300 concubines (or “wives” of royalty) lived in the palace harem at one time.
The palace had a built-in treasury, which contained millions of dollars worth of items. This includes, but isn’t limited to, an 86 carat pear-shaped diamond (the fourth largest in the world,) and a single strand of the Prophet Muhammad's beard.
Needless to say, the sultans could make a fire hip-hop video.
And what’s the opposite of fire? Water. Which happened to begin falling from the sky moments after we left the palace. I decided to connect the dots one step further.
Tea.
We decided to wait out the storm under the comfort of a local restaurant's awning. And honestly, it became a contender for Relaxing Moment of the Year. With Alara across from me, a hot cup of çay in my hand, the smell of rain drifting through the air, and a lump of good photos on my camera, it couldn’t get much better.
But… I jinxed it. The moment we left, the sky erupted in rain. And it all happened so fast we didn’t even get a chance to find cover. Within 60 seconds, our bodies were completely drenched in water. Completely drenched. I' haven’t been this wet since ‘Nam.
For the next couple minutes, we stood around and wondered what the fuck just happened. We were in heaven not five minutes ago… and now we were miles from our hotel room, soaked and cold.
Then I took a look around. Everyone was in the same boat. Thousands of tourists. All soaked to the gills, gazing around in shock. I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. What an absurd situation.
I guess the sultans really do know how to make it rain.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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