Adventures in Istanbul

Derek smells.

In related news, we've been walking around the Golden Horn bickering and seeing the sights. They're all grouped together quite conveniently.

Aya Sofya (wiki article)

For days I thought we were going to the Eye of Sophia. It's a museum that was a mosque that used to be a church and it's currently full of scaffolding, but it's still rather majestic. The most impressive parts are the surviving mosaics from when it was a church, made with millions of tiny tiles.

I also enjoyed the kitties. I've been all trying not to molest the street cats to hopefully avoid the plague (also the "neck incident") but someone in the Aya Sofya walked over and picked up a cat, slung it over their shoulder and that was that.

One pillar has a hole in it, and if you stick your thumb in it and turn it a full circle you get your wish. There was a long line-up to do this and then the hole was all moist and gross from all the thumbs and I didn't get my wish. Stupid hole.

Topkapi Palace (and harem!) (wiki article)

This is where the Sultan used to live, it's now a museum with the buildings converted into holding various artifacts. There's a neat one that is dedicated to religious items, including Mohammad's beard, and has religious chanting piped in over speakers. I thought it was a tape, but as you are leaving you turn a corner and there's a white room with a man at the end chanting into a microphone. He was the best part of the palace, to be honest it was a little meh. The Harem cost extra, which made the whole thing kind of pricey, and it's been so heavily renovated over the years that it doesn't seem any more impressive then any other large building. Also it smells like mothballs.

The sultan's fire hydrant:

The article on the Kafes is really interesting, basically to prevent fighting over the throne the Sultans used to kill all their brothers, but it was changed later to confining them and other potential heirs to the harem, which was really more of a sequestered family thing, not a sex slave thing. I'm a little 'snort' over how the men get a "being confined made them CRAZY" note, but apparently women are like totally okay with that, but whatever.

Basilica Cistern (wiki article)

This was easily the best thing we've seen, partly because it was so cool, and also because it was the cheapest. It's a giant cavernous room that used to hold water for some palace or another. There's currently a foot or two of water on the ground and a raised walkway to wander around and get dripped upon. At the end they have two giant medusa heads for no known reason.

And fish! Giant ugly fish.

The Blue Mosque (wiki article)

A giant beautiful Mosque. Also, it's free! But you can't go in during prayer time, so we had to hang about outside drinking cheap street tea and watching old men knit hats. Everyone wanted their photo with the hat knitting man, but none of them were speaking english so I have no idea why. There's a sign outside the mosque saying you need to take off your shoes and no short sleeves or shorts allowed (it's cold out, so that's not an issue), and also women should wear a long skirt and cover their hair, but apparently that last bit isn't enforced. They blocked off a large section inside for the people who are there to pray to have their space so all us white people got to stand around and gawk at them.