I Want To Be a Power Ranger or The Hippodrome

So today was a half day for the kids. Princess Peach went to a friend’s house and Benny brought over three friends. So it was a house full of six year old boys. Most people would find that a nightmare but for the most part it was great. After we had ran around for a while we decided to take a break and watch a movie. Power Rangers was the feature film of choice. As I put in the DVD and sat down to watch I had no idea how my life was about to change. But let me tell you within the first five minutes of the fight sequences, lose plots, and mediocre acting I realized I had found my calling. I have decided to become a Power Ranger. What could be better than fighting large costumed men in tight spandex? What job more rewarding than saving the planet every week? If you know of something else please tell me. No but seriously please tell me. I am coming home in less than 6 days and I have no sort of plan.

On Monday I decided to cram in some sight seeing. The problem was I hadn’t been paid in along while so I was forced to get creative. That’s when I remember a History Channel program I had watched about Istanbul. It was a show talking about the ruins buried under the city. One of the major pieces featured was the hippodrome. The hippodrome was the place were the chariots used to race during the Roman period, or back in the day for you who don’t care at all about what I am saying. Well the tourist maps take you to where the track was and three of the monuments that where in the middle of the track still stand. But the TV program showed the back part of the hippodrome known as the sphindome. The hippodrome looks like a sideways U and the shipndome would be the curve. When the track was operational there would have been seating there and underneath was the backstage for the arena. This part I had to see. So I watched the program and picked it apart to find clues about the location of the largest standing piece. Turns out it is holding up a school. Then using the map of where the arena was in relation to the Blue Mosque I made my way down winding alleys and steep streets until out of the metropolis it grew. There it was staring me in the face, a giant brick piece of history. At least a thousand years old and still solid. I felt like a regular Indiana Jones. On the history program they went through a door and went inside but when I went alas the door was locked. There was a window I considered climbing through but to many people were walking up and down the street and I felt like I was to close to the end of this thing to get deported. I laughed and cried. It was a truly magical moment of discovery.