Day Four, wishing for more

Last full day in Istanbul, and I'm finally getting the hang of this city.  Of course that means I have to leave.  I'm starting to be able to pronounce words correctly from signs and from the guidebook.  I've figured out how to get from the hotel to the old quarter of the city where the sights are without getting lost.  Alas, that's what always happens.

We started at the Blue Mosque, along with the mass of tourists.  I have such a fierce hatred of big tour groups, and today didn't help.  They tend to ignore etiquette signs and block views from others, and there's such a sense of entitlement, that individuals can be shoved out of the way in favor of these groups who are trying to keep to a schedule.  We arrived in the giant crowd and stood in line, then had to cover heads and take off shoes before going inside.   Lots of people with no shoes meant that it smelled like stinky feet inside, not fun.  However, the tile work was beautiful.  The dome seemed impossibly high, with half domes blooming out from it like petals.  The colors were amazing- I wish we could have gone upstairs to see it closer, but I had to rely on camera zoom to do that.

After the mosque we went to the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, which was blissfully uncrowded.  There were exhibits and artifacts highlighting the history of the Turkish people and the Islamic Empires.  My favorite thing there?  A yurt.  I love a good yurt. 

We grabbed a quick lunch at a place that was too touristy for my taste, but I tried pide, sort of a cross between flatbread and pizza, with ground beef, tomatoes, and green peppers.  We then headed back toward the hotel.  Julie and Andrew went to rest while I did some more shopping at the Grand Bazaar.  Then I headed off into the lower section of the peninsula to find some lesser sites.  I found a church-turned-mosque called the Little AyaSofya, with the help of a friendly restauranteur and a cute little old guy in a suit.  Inside it looks nothing like the bigger church, but the outside design was similar.  I also studied the remaining wall of the Hippodrome (called the Spheredrome) which now looks like a crumbling retaining wall, and found another mosque by Sinan that I could only go into the courtyard of because of prayers. 

As evening approached, Julie and I went up to the main street again and walked down to take some nighttime shots of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.  They were lit up beautifully and I played with my camera settings a little bit trying to get the best shot.  We then went back to the restaurant district by our hotel for dinner, and watched quite the show.  The roving Turkish bands were incredibly amusing with a group of Chinese tourists who were dancing and singing, then launched into a Chinese song.  They then moved on to a group of what looked like Turkish business men, who were downing the raki and having a grand old time.  It was a great last night there.