The Chronicles of Palace Life: Days 4 and 5

Ok so I'm feeling guilty about not posting. My contribution this week is more on the educational side of things so our readers, when quizzed about one of Istanbul's most famous sites, can spew off facts like a local. We visited the Dolmabahce Palace yesterday which took 13 years to build and was finished in 1856. A number of sultans lived in the palace from this period starting with the majestic Sultan Abdülmecid I, who believed that his current residence was not quite suited to his needs. As a result, he bankrupted the already faltering Ottomon Empire. It cost roughly 1.5 billion dollars which is the equivalent of five million Ottomon mecidiye gold coins. Classic Abdülmecid! Between 1856 and 1922, a total of six sultans lived there ending with the first president of the Republic of Turkey, the revered Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. My handy dandy eyewitness travel guidebook claims that all the clocks in the palace are set to 9:05, the time that Atatürk died on November 10, 1938. He died in the palace so you can sometimes hear him running through the grand halls (one is plated with 90 kilos of gold) and sliding down the banisters of the crystal staircases. The palace is 45,000 square meters and has 68 toilets. I’ll let that sink in for a minute (nothing like a pun or two to keep this history lesson lively). The most significant part of the tour for me was when the guide mentioned that the architects and designers employed Rococo style elements. Consequently, I spent the rest of the tour singing Arcade Fire’s “Rococo” in my head.

Enough boring stuff! Tomorrow we play beer pong with the ESN group. 'Murica!