Finally -- an Affordable Meal!

Since breakfast wasn't included at the Ciragan Palace for us, we decided on Sunday morning coming down to walk till we found a place to get breakfast. The first few places were all closed up, but closer to a univeristy we found a small family run place called Simitci.

Simit is the round sesame seed bread that is a big part of the breakfast meal. We got two meat, cheese, egg, and olive platters, two simits, and a muffin-like thing for each of the girls -- along with five bottles of water. All for just 18.50 TL, which is roughly $13 dollars. And it was good -- we shared the platters, and Torie really enjoyed the simits (as did I -- much softer to bite into than it looks).

I had let everyone sleep in until 8:30 am. This was part of my throttle back on the Iron Tourist family thing with teenagers, simply to avoid mid-afternoon revolts. To be fair, we do still cover a lot of ground each day.

So, after breakfast, by the time we had walked back to the Dolmabahce Sarayi Palace and took our place in the long line, it was 10:10. The line didn't move -- and then we saw a sign that they didn't open the ticket office till 10:30 (despite the Palace opening at 9am -- I guess for groups and pre-ordered tickets.)

Once we got into the Palace, it was amazing. Built in 1856, the palace was so costly and over the top that it helped hasten the bankruptcy of the Ottoman Empire. Apparently the interior designer had done opera sets in Paris, so it was remarkably over-designed on the inside. A Museum since Ataturk died there in 1938 at 9:05, it has all original furniture in it.

The outside gardens are beautiful, including a clock essentially carved in the grass with flowers and bushes that is approximately 20 feet high. Situated right along the Bosphorous, there are nice breezes and it is very relaxed. The Palace was home to six Sultans, as well as used by Ataturk as his home and office while in Istanbul.

The only way to see inside the Palace is to put little plastic baggie slippers over your shoes and take a guided tour. We didn't have to wait long, and the tour was definitely worth it. Our guide spoke accented English, but he was loud enough and clear enough to be easily understood. I think it was a better tour and more interesting than the Topkapi Palace. Carol's perspective is that they are so different as to not be comparable. Anyhow, a visitor to Istanbul should not miss it, even though it is a little out of the way. (Plan to wait in line to buy tickets, although once inside it did not feel crowded at all, unlike Topkapi Palace).

The guidebooks were wrong on two accounts. One is that all the clocks in the Palace are stopped at 9:05 am, the time of Ataturk's death. I related this fact to the girls, and of course, only one of the number of clocks we saw were stopped at that time. The rest of the clocks were stopped at random times.

The other mistake in the tour books is that they say there are two tours -- covering the main palace, as well as the harem section. It's been combined it into one tour. So it cost us 43 TL -- 20 TL for Carol and I each, and the student rate of 1 TL for each of the girls. Finally a break in entrance fees for children in Turkey.

The very end of the tour -- which winds its way through nearly ALL of the rooms of the palace, up and down ornate staircases, past bedrooms, into bathrooms, and Ambassador's staterooms -- finishes in the enormous ceremonial hall. Built to hold 2,500 people, the entire hall is stunning to behold. We could easily fit two of our house into the hall, and probably more. The dome looks like that of a major church/mosque.

We headed out of the Palace and strolled along the grounds, which run along side the Bosphorous. Pretty. Amazing.