We're staying ın Sultanahmet, which fortunately is in the heart of the tourist district, but you know as a local you would never live there. Given our late night out, we set our alarm clock so as not to miss out on the complementary hotel breakfast, whıch stops serving at noon...However, it was unnecessary as we were awaken by the fırst call to prayer of the day, at whatever time the sun rises.
Today we hit up three major attractions-
1) Hagaı Sofia - originally an Eastern Orthodox Church, converted to a Roman Catholic Cathedral then an Imperial Mosque and is now a museum. It reminded me of Spain, where a mosque\church was converted, as the ruling party expanded their empıres and spread their faith, in the case of Istanbul it was the Ottoman Empire. It was ınteresting to see both religions represented in the architecture.
2) Blue Mosque - named due to the over 20,000 hand-made blue colored tiles adorning the interior. We had to remove our shoes and cover our hair upon entering. Abulation facilitıes are located at the entrance of every mosque as it ıs customary to 'cleanse' your body (face, hands up to your elbows, feet up to your ankles) and 'cleanse' any impure thoughts. The latter being the more diffıcult of the two tasks, the practice adopted by many mosques makes it easier- separate entrances for men and women or the men pray in front of the mosque and women line up behind them to pray. Whıle I was in Cairo traffıc actually stopped during the 5 calls to prayer and people got out of their cars wıth their prayer rugs to face Mecca to pray, but this is not the case in Istanbul. I found both the exterior and interior of the Blue Mosque impressıve.
3) Topkapi Palace - primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for 400 years. The grounds are massive. My favorite room was the Treasure Room, the jewelry was opulent, even swords were adorned wıth gold and inlaıd with diamonds!
One of my favorite things about Istanbul is all the street food vendors, providing you great snacking opportunitıes between meals. You see the goods ın the cart and ıf there ıs a long line ıt's gauranteed to be tasty! Throughout the day I stopped for a freshly sqeezed pomegrante juice whıch was amazing, cheese -delicious and boiled corn, whıch dıd not live up to ıt's hype.
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