We started out this day determined not to end up in a carpet shop, and while having several close calls, we were victorious :-).
Our first stop was at the Blue Mosque (named for the thousands of blue tiles).
As a sacred Muslim building, we had to wear modest clothing, remove our shoes and Tammy had to wear a scarf (which was one reason we bought it yesterday).
The mosque (and many of the attractions) are undergoing significant renovations, likely since there are no tourists and the Turkish people need work. While it made the building less accessible, it was still very impressive.
There are four columns like this that support the main domes - look at the size of them!
Our next stop was across the square at the Hagia Sophia. Also under renovations but still impressive because of it scale, age and turbulent history.
**This history became more turbulent the day after we visited as the Turkish government declared that the Hagia Sophia is now declared a mosque rather than a museum...historic and controversial change.
This is an example of the transitional use between Christian and Muslim worship - it looks like religious graffiti.
Another example of the mixed religious symbols in one image.
The outer grounds are also beautiful and filled with many architectural relics.
Now that we were on a roll, we headed up to the Grand Bazaar. On our way to the Bazaar we wrestled to get cash from an ATM (not all are in English and they have different options than in the U.S. - one option translated to “game of chance”). In the Bazaar we finally resorted to just watching a few people use the ATM and realized what we were doing wrong - a small win but felt like we’d solved the ”money escape room”.
Many, many sparkly shops - if you are looking for jewelry, then this is the place. This is also one of the oldest covered markets in the world, dating back to 1455. Tammy was far more interested in the building structure than in the jewelry (lucky me ;-).
For lunch we worked our way down a few back alleys near the Bazaar...
...and found a small place where we had lentil soup and a kabab plate. These two dishes came to ~$4.50
I asked the server what the meat was on the kabab and after some back and forth attempts to find the right translation, he informed me that it was “moo”.
Since it was still pretty early in the day we decided to take a boat tour of the Bosphorus Straight which divides Istanbul into the European and Asian continents. Here are a few amazing views along the water:
Our last goal for the day was to conquer the tram. This required first buying a card at a kiosk, then loading it with money. We couldn’t find how to change languages and the process wasn‘t immediately intuitive, so we got help from a local and managed to ride the right tram back to near the hotel!
Having solved the “tram puzzle” we stopped for some dessert and tea. We tried Fırın Sütlaç (rice pudding) which was unexpectedly delicious.
We took a break back at the hotel and then headed out for a late dinner. We tried exploring a new area and ended up going down into a very non-tourist neighborhood. Unfortunately most things had closed and it was getting dark so we marched back uphill toward a known area and had a lighter dinner there that was perfect.
On a side note, we’ve noticed that restaurants often get some of the items from other nearby shops (like the tea specifically) - in this case a guy came walking down the street to deliver our bread!
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