Monday, October 5, 2009

Think monday think ATC - Big City


Here's my chosen city, the culture capitol 'Istanbul'. It's THE place to go :). It used to be the capitol of Turkey and prior, the capitol of the Roman Empire, but today it's just a big city and Ankara is the capitol of Turkey.

Istanbul was chosen as the European Capitol of Culture 2010, so I chose to make my big city ATC about this, in my opinion, one of the most marvellous and diverse cities in the world.

The building you see on my card is the 'Hagia Sophia' built in the 4th century. Today a museum that first served as a church and later a mosque due to a change in dominant religion in the country. For one thousand years it was the largest cathedral in the world.

The ornamental background behind the Hagia Sophia is a detail from the Dolmabache palass built by The sultan and finished in 1853. It was to be the last home of the sultan of Turkey. The sultans rule ended in 1924. The sultans used to live in Topkapi palace, which is one of the most fabulous palaces to be found. Dolmabache was made when Topkapi was old, it's smaller but an incredible sight no less.

I went to Istanbul in 1994, and the images are pictures from my trip there. I used the image of the smiling shoeshiner as a contrast to the wealth demonstrated by Hagia Sophia and Dolmabache. Istanbul is a city of contrast. The City is divided by The Bosphorus strait. I tore out a small piece of a map of the strait and glued it in the bottom right corner :) So you can go from Europe to Asia just by crossing the bridge of Bosphorus, still beeing in the same city of Istanbul.

The small copy of the 50.000 bill is just because it felt like so much fun beeing rich carrying 50.000 and 1000.0000 lire bills around. The inflation was hard in Turkey and resulted in bills with hugh numbers on them :)

If you want to see cultural treasures and fantastic palaces, mosques, meet very friendly people and do some shopping, then Istanbul is the place to go. It's a very large city, 5th. in the world, so get a good guide and don't forget to go to the old and famous bazar (market) for some Turkish coffee and a bargain :)

Have a nice trip!!

Linda

7 comments:

  1. Wow! I loved hearing your story and seeing your wonderful ATC!

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  2. WOW..Linda you put your heart and soul into your piece..loved reading what you added. It does look beautiful. That is really cool about the bridge!! It must be so sweet to travel. Glad you enjoyed everything about your 'city'!!

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  3. I enjoyed your commentary and your card. I feel like I'm traveling the world tonight! :)

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