Note: I’m breaking Istanbul up into multiple parts because there was a LOT that we saw, and if I tried to sit down and write an entire day at a time I could be here for hours.

We started Saturday morning a little earlier than I expected. The alarm was set to go off at 7:30, but at 5:20 (Frankfurt time, which was an hour earlier) and after only four short hours of sleep, we were awoken by the Islamic call to prayer. I knew they prayed five times a day, but didn’t think about it being so early - or so loud. It was kind of spooky, because it was piped over speakers throughout the city, and I laid in bed listening to it. I guess it is kind of a nice reminder to think of God and the fact that everyone in the city is thinking of Him at the same time is kind of neat. But, I’m a crabby pants in the morning, especially at that time, and I had a little bit of trouble falling back asleep after it was over.

When we got up at 7:30 and I realized it was really 8:30 Istanbul time (and that the prayer had been at 6:20, not 5:20) things made a little more sense. We hurried down for breakfast at the hotel. They had a giant spread of bizarre things, like big bowls of unidentified glop, but for the most part we were able to get some good stuff in our bellies from the extra-large spread.

As Travis popped back upstairs for the umbrella, I made a new friend in the hotel lobby. (I’m pretty sure he was flirting with me, always saying “Hello” and whistling.)

We’d read in our guide book that it was best to visit the mosques in the morning to avoid prayer time crowds, so we made the famous Blue Mosque our first stop. Our hotel was just a block or so from the tram line

Before entering a mosque, it’s required to remove your shoes. We did this and padded in. I sure wished I’d worn my thick woolen socks - even with the Turkish carpet, the floor was cold! The Blue Mosque is named such after the more than 20,000 blue tiles that decorate the interior. Most of them were too high for us to photograph well.

There was an area called the Women’s Section that I was able to sneak into (as a woman - though I don’t really know that it was sneaking). There I was able to get this picture of the tiles a little closer.

The mosque was really beautiful but different from anything I’d ever been in, and very different from Christian churches. Note the lack of pews, just a few benches off to the side. I guess that’s not needed when everyone kneels! (And I guess that’s also why the shoes must come off, so you’re not kneeling in dirt.)

As I stood there with my own cold feet, I thought about how funny it was that we were all crammed in there with cold tootsies.

After the mosque, we slipped back in to our shoes and went across the courtyard to the Hagia Sophia. We decided to come back for a tour later, and just took pictures outside.

Our guide book suggested a stop at the Basilica Cistern next. It’s basically a giant underground water tank from the 6th century that’s been reopened for tourists. It was one of the coolest things ever! We had no idea what to expect and almost didn’t pay the $4 entry, but I’m so glad we did.

They also had big giant Medusa heads (one upside down and one sideways) and apparently no one really fully understands why they’re there.

After the wonderful walk through the Cistern, we wandered off in the direction of the Grand Bazaar. We may or may not have gotten a little confused wandering around. We thought it would be easy, seeing that the Bazaar is one of the largest indoor markets in the world. How could we miss it, right? Finally we found it!

Unfortunately we weren’t in the mood for rugs or tea or fancy lights, so we didn’t do any shopping, but we wandered around a bit.

It was really cool. There was a restaurant mentioned in the guide book, but with 58 streets and about 6 street signs, we were mostly wandering around with our heads on swivels, ignoring the calls of “Hey lady, do you want to spend your money here?” (Someone actually said that to me!) We didn’t find the restaurant that we were looking for but we did find a restaurant, so we sat down and had some ok, but not amazing, Turkish food.