Arts 'n' Crafts Day! Plus: Cribs, Istanbul Edition

Hello all!
I feel like I should apologize up front for the lack of kitten pictures today- thanks for all of your responses, though. Also, if you have lolcat caption ideas, please do not hesitate to pass them along.
Moving along! Yesterday, we were introduced to two of the most important and impressive parts of Turkish visual culture, rug-making and calligraphy. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (I wish I could've gotten better pictures in the rug store, but I think you can still tell the incredible colors and designs).

The guy is Hasan, who owns the rug store in the Grand Bazaar. He was awesome, so knowledgable and so friendly. Incidentally, in a piece of presumably non-rug related advice, he told us to hurry up with having kids, because our parents want grandchildren (thoughts, Mom and Dad?). Also, the small, lightish carpet in the foreground was $1,600. No one's getting that for a coming back present, sorry guys.

The $1,600 one. It's silk, and would take a typical worker 3-4 months, working 8 hours a day.

The colors in this place were just breathtaking.

Then we went to a calligrapher, about two blocks from Hagia Sophia, who told us about techniques, etc. He drew us our names, too.


Here's my name (Clayton, for those of you who don't read Arabic or who have forgotten whose blog this is). He thought I said 'Clean' when I first told him my name.

After class, Edward, David, Kevin, and I went exploring. Things in this city just never get old to look at, visit, or photograph. I'll spare you most of them, but I particularly liked this view of the Blue Mosque, from the back:
We also persuaded some restaurant manager to let us go up to his terrace to get some incredible views of the Sea of Marmara:

This is looking south-east. The islands are the Princes' Islands, and in the foreground is the almost entirely ruined Byzantine palace, the seaside Boukoleon Palace. It's so tragic how comparatively few vestiges of Byzantium there are in this city, the center of Byzantine life for over a millenium.

Looking south/southwest. On the horizon you can see all the huge supertankers waiting to come up the Bosphorus to fill up at refineries on the Black Sea.

Coming back into the city, we stumbled upon the mausoleum of three of the late Ottoman Empire's most significant sultans, including the Empire's last really autocratic sultan, Abdul Hamid II. It was an incredible building, occupants notwithstanding.

Islamic cemeteries and mausoleums are so interesting. In the back, you can see the three sultans' coffins- they're the ones with the red fezzes. From left to right: Abdul Hamid II, Abdul Aziz, and Mahmud II (who was described on his plaque as having 'suppressed' the Greek Revolt in 1826; Wikipedia that to see why it's funny/interesting)

We explored a little more, but had to get back to get ready for our first night out in Turkey (I borrowed Edward's shirt, because I didn't think any of my clothes were tight-fitting enough to be acceptable in Turkish night-life). Very few pictures of this night survive, but here are a couple:

Dream Team is not a joke. Also- I don't think I appreciated until right now how freakishly tan I've become. Oh my God.

Successful world travelers, and Murat's beer.

We went to a bar, and then two dance clubs, which can only be described as utterly surreal. Turks have appropriated some really disparate elements of Western pop culture: techno, Kelly Clarkson, and The Bump (the dance) come immediately to mind.
Also, as promised in the title, here are some pictures of where we live. We live on the fifth floor (no elevator) of a building on this street:
We pretty much live at the top of this hill. We literally cannot speak for several minutes after climbing this hill AND all 95 stairs- yes, we counted.
The guys' flat is actually really nice- small but cozy.

My eminently clean living quarters. Also, I have become a Turkish nationalist, at the cost of three lira (the flag, fools).

The kitchen. That big jug of water with a pump is how people drink water in Turkey because no one uses tap water for anything except perhaps watering the street (more on this bizarre custom later, hopefully).
That's pretty much it for now; it's döner time. Love and miss you all!