Oct 12

I don't remember the shower.

We heard the call to prayer about 6 AM. Unfortunately several mosques were doing it at the same time so it's jumbled together. Apparently they were each doing something different. Kinda noisy.

We got dressed and went down to breakfast. Quite a nice and generous layout. We enjoyed our breakfasts here. A few odd things on the buffet but enough identifiable things to eat. They would make an omelet if asked. There was a honey comb dispensing honey.

Norm has set up a professional guide for us. We met Ceren Yalcin, our guide, and discussed our itinerary. She has a degree in tourism and really knows her way around Istanbul and I assume other places in Turkey.

Off we went.

Down a couple blocks to a large area that houses Hagia Sophia, The Blue Mosque and an area used as a Roman hippodrome. There was a fancy fountain here and Roman remains including an Egyptian obelisk and another obelisk.

We prepared to enter the Sultan Ahmed Mosque also know as The Blue Mosque. This is a true working mosque. We had to remove our shoes and put on booties. The women had to cover their heads.

There is quite a large area for ablutions - a ritual washing of feet, hands and face. There is a separate area for women.

We entered this beautiful massive place. It is held up by four gigantic pillars with what appeared to be dozens of various size domes including the large central dome. We were walking on a new high quality carpet. The center area was reserved for actual participants. There is a separate area for women.
   We spent several minutes gawking and taking pictures.

We then moved on to The Hagia Sophia built in 573. Surprisingly these two similar looking buildings are about 300 yards apart. There are gardens and walkways between them.
   The Hagia Sophia is now a museum. It was built originally as an Eastern Orthodox church. When the Moslems took over they covered up the Christian artifacts and art work. It is currently being restored to look original.
   We took an extensive tour including hiking up to some upper levels where we could get a good view of the church.
Extras

In one spot ancient Greek graffiti was pointed out. Suddenly we could see many examples of various graffiti. Some of it apparently 1500 years old.

Quite an impressive place.

We stopped by the Turkish bath to make an appointment for Friday.

We stopped in for lunch in a touristy restaurant area. Very nice, including a beer. We enjoyed this a lot.
Extras

We hiked over to Topkapi Palace. It's a huge walled compound. It was a major palace for the Ottoman Sultans for almost 400 years. There were many buildings including a harem building, an armory and collections of many things including Mohammad's cloak and sword (I don't think we saw this). We were getting tired and sort of skated through.

In walking back we saw some pretty horses sort of performing for the public.

We then visited a rug place. Amazing rugs! They use a double knot technique. It takes a long time to make a decent sized carpet/rug. They offered us tea, coffee or other. The presenter sized me up and ordered a shot of raki for me. We wanted to try this while in Turkey. It's much like Ouzo from Greece - licorice taste and turns cloudy when water is added.
   One type of carpet had a different color when viewed from different angles.
Extras

We didn't buy a carpet. But Deb got hooked on buying a charm shaped like the fountain we'd seen earlier in the plaza. As we left the girl ran out of the building after us to make her final offer. We took it.


Our guide took us to the Grand Bazaar. An amazing warren of 4000 shops. Many selling the same things. Lots of spices, lots of rugs, lots of candy (Turkish Delight), lots of jewelry. It goes on forever. We were quite tired and knew we were going to spend time here tomorrow. Movie.

As we hiked back to our hotel we stopped at a confectioners shop and bought some famous baklava. Interesting enough we passed this shop several times in the next couple days. Every time big hello's all around.

We went up to the restaurant on top of the hotel. There is a killer spiral staircase to get up there. We had an Efes beer and an appetizer plate or two. As I recall we shared a sort of sampler plate of meats for dinner. It seemed to be enough food.

Off to bed and the views of the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque and Topkapi as  well as a lighted bridge and the Bosporus straights.