After coming out of the Dolma Palace, the incredibly ornate palace where the sultans used to live, I started talking to this family. I said, “What’d you think? So beautiful right?”
“It is, but I couldn’t spend more than a couple hours in there. I much prefer the Hagia Sophia. There’s so much to absorb and contemplate in there, whereas this is more about the surface level.”
“I hear you, it’s shallower.”
“I wouldn’t put it like that, that’s a smug way to say it. This has a more baroque sensibility. That’s one style. It’s the difference between making something very elaborate on the outside versus creating something simply with a lot of intention and energy internally.”
“Thank you.”