The Penn Stater Magazine

Istanbul, Here I Come

April 26, 2011 at 3:58 pm Tina Hay 2 comments

An Istanbul photo by Dick Osseman. See more of his terrific photos at http://www.pbase.com/dosseman/root.

In two days—assuming I ever finish packing—I’m off to Istanbul, the start of what looks to be an amazing Alumni Association trip to Turkey.

A mosaic from the Chora Museum. Click to see larger version. (Dick Osseman photo)

Eighteen Penn State travelers and I will arrive on Friday in Istanbul, where we’ll spend the first three days of the more-than-two-week trip called “Legendary Turkey.” Our tour director from Odysseys Unlimited, Gökhan Özağaçli (whose name I have not yet figured out how to pronounce), will meet us at the airport and deliver us to our hotel, and after that we have the first day to ourselves.

We briefly debated just staying in our hotel rooms that first day and watching the royal wedding on TV, but instead we’re going to go as a group on an excursion to a site called the Chora Museum.

(OK, I was kidding about the royal wedding thing. That was never really under serious consideration.)

A portion of a fresco from the Chora Museum. (Dick Osseman photo)

An acquaintance of mine who has been to Turkey several times insisted that we must check out Chora, which started as a Byzantine church in the fifth (fifth!) century, was rebuilt in the 11th century, became a mosque in the 16th century when the Ottomans took over, and today is a museum.

Chora is best known for its mosaics and frescoes, which the Ottomans plastered over—and thus accidentally preserved. They were uncovered in the late 1940s by a couple of Americans on behalf of the Byzantine Institute of America, and today they are, I’m told, just astounding to look at.

The photos you see here, by the way, are courtesy of a guy from the Netherlands named Dick Osseman, who has been to Turkey many times and has an extraordinarily rich gallery of photos from all over that country. Take a look if you get a chance.

In addition to serving as the Alumni Association host on the Legendary Turkey trip, I’ll also be keeping a blog as time permits, so check back often—or, better yet, hit the “subscribe” link in the upper right to have the blog sent to you. Click here to see a bit more detail about where we’re going.

Tina Hay, editor

Entry filed under: Alumni Association. Tags: Byzantine Institute of America, Chora Church, Dick Osseman, Gokhan Ozagacli, Istanbul, Legendary Turkey, Odysseys International, Turkey.