42 years later

I met my first boyfriend on January 10, 1972. Sandy was younger than I by three years or so, but he was much more culturally aware. He had studied piano and took me to my first Richmond Symphony concerts. I particularly remember a Verdi Requiem with Leontyne Price; it was stunning and opened up the world of choral music to me, which was a steppingstone to opera. I wonder if Sandy understands the debt I owe him. Without him, who knows, I might never have heard the Richmond Sinfonia on February 25, 1984, with guest soloist Ransom Wilson.

But I digress. It’s likely that Sandy took me for my first visit to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. It was there that I first saw a video that pictured Hagia Sofia, once a church, later a mosque, now a museum in the heart of Istanbul. I remember the video well; it was displayed in a dim alcove in the Byzantium section and had been created with a pronounced reverence which conveyed not only the grandeur of the space, but also its solemnity and transcendent importance. I returned to view that video again and again; I swore I would someday stand under those massive domes.

Someday has finally arrived.

Celebrity Equinox docked in Istanbul yesterday at 1pm and we headed ashore shortly thereafter: Ransom to give a master class, me to explore. It’s a huge and crowded city, but the tram I wanted stopped very close to the ship and it was a simple matter to figure out what stop I needed.

I visited the Blue Mosque first. With its six minarets and soaring domes and its hundreds of worshippers, it is a stunning architectural gem, a teeming tourist site and an active mosque all at once. I couldn’t count the languages I heard and I couldn’t help but notice the female worshippers sequestered off to the side in their own prayer room while the men were free to commune with their god wherever they found him.

The symmetry and hugeness of the Blue Mosque captivated my camera and me.

Hagia Sofia is just a short walk away and is even more crowded, even though it charges a 30TL (Turkish Lira) fee – about $15. As I said, it is now a museum and one could spend hours reading the various placards and descriptions but I was mainly interested in those domes.

Did it live up to the forty-two year wait? Well no, not really. I mean, what could? In my mind’s eye Hagia Sofia was a mile high and the domes a thousand feet across. It was also dark and magical, with the smells of the old world wafting through the immense space. In reality, HS is grand and busy, rough and unkempt, polished and professional – all the things you’d expect of a fifteen hundred year old edifice.

Huge scaffolding, something any tourist comes to expect when traveling, currently mars the interior. The tour guides compete with each other to be heard in a Tower of Babble constant hum.

But it is still a magnificent place that rewarded my decades long fascination. It was a joy to be there!

Hagia Sofia exterior

Hagia Sofia interior