Wednesday, October 31. Topkapi and The Road to Ankara
Entrance to Tapkapi Palace
The entertainment for this morning was the Topkapi Palace! Sultans, concubines, jewels, oh my!!!!!! The grounds were beautiful due to their location at the junction of the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Golden Horn. Thankfully we were the first group out, as the place got overrun by tourists by the time we were leaving. The harem is actually the living quarters of the Sultan's family, but also housing the concubines. The ruler of the harem, that is, the c girls, was the sultan's mother (notice the continuation of the mother theme from yesterday). She chose the candidate girls for the Harem who were from 12 to 14 years old. These girls took intensive education for 2 years in languages, protocols, etc. If a girl(s) proved smart enough to ensure an intelligent prince, she was then scheduled by mom to have an interview/lunch/foreplay session with the sultan. If she does well in that phase, she gets to bear the sultan a, hopefully male, child. If that happens, she might just then become the next queen of the harem and repeat the process for her son. If she is unfortunate enough to bear a female offspring, they are then offered to the brothers of the prince (whenever he may get born). It's complicated. Buy me a beer and I'll give you all the gory details.
In the early afternoon we went to the new city for lunch and a neighborhood perusal. We liked that area better than the old city. At 2 p.m. we left for Ankara. The best part of Ankara, so far, was gelato (after dinner) made from local goat's milk. Jackie opted for a very boring vanilla chocolate flavor, but it was very good. We ran into Mert at the dinner and then again at the gelato stand. We obviously made excellent choices for food this evening. And so, good night.