Take me to a palace i feel like a princess

FRIDAY

Today we went to Topkapi Palace. It was beautiful and definitely worth the admission price but there were so many tourists there it was a bit irritating.
This palace has been called home by a few interesting people including:

• Selim the Sot who drowned after drinking too much champagne
  
• Ibrahim the mad who went crazy after being imprisoned by his own brother for 22 years when his brother died and Ibrahim became the Sultan. legend has it that he swapped this opportunity with a farmer for a drink of water....
  
• Mehmed II the conqueror was only 12 years old when his father handed over the reigns. his father got a tad distracted by his concubines. Mehmed insisted his father continued to be rule so he could educate himself and by the time he was 19 he was a fully fledged Sultan, turned out he was a pretty good one but he was killed by one of his own sons, apparently with a poisoned fish.
  
• Mehmed III was an interesting chap, he had 103 brothers & sisters and on becoming Sultan ordered that 19 of his brothers and over 20 of his sisters were to be strangled. after basically murdering his entire family he handed over the Empire over to his mother and retreated to his Harem... lovely isn't it...?
  

sorry for the history lesson... i think it's fascinating though!!!

Ok so above is the entry to the Palace, pretty impressive and Disney like i thought!!
here is the ceiling of the entrance to the Palace, basically all of the ceilings in the palace were ornate in some way or another.
this room was used only for circumcisions. they must have been expecting a lot of sons to be born. there were a couple of these bath things around the room so maybe they even did multiple circumcisions at a time...
Perhaps the Ottomans definition of a disco ball??? check our the roof though, all tiny little tiles! At least you dont have to do this in your units Dad!!
Most of the rooms at the Palace didn't allow photography so we didn't get a chance to photograph some of the really interesting stuff. they had lots of rooms filled with displays of crowns, swords, clothing, bowls, cups, cradles (for babies), etc etc all made out of gold, rubies & emeralds. it was incredible!
Above is the view that the Ottomans had over Istanbul from their Palace.
Once we had toured all around the Palace is was time for a visit to the Harem. The Harem was the living quarters for the wives and concubines of the Ottomans.

Here is one of the fire places in the Harem.

A very, very, very old toilet. i find it interesting that the squat toilet hasn;t really involved since 1453 when this one was built.A very ornately decorated room within the Harem.
Me and Ewen chilling out in the park after visiting the Palace.

Having some lunch

This is the clock tower at Dolmabahce palace

We got the tram to Dolmabahce Palace in Kabatas (not too far from Tophane where our hostel is) but it was already closed for the day. we took a few photos of the outside though. it wasn't that much of a big deal it was closed because when we got there we found out they don't let solo travelers like ourselves in, you have to join in with a tour group and pay them so not sure if it would have been worth it. the outside of the palace was very pretty though, and right on the edge of the Bospherus.