Mosques are generally open to visitors; however, they are closed during prayer time. Also, everyone must remove their shoes and ladies must cover their heads.
I am standing at the bottom of this column in order to give a sense of scale:
Another view of the Hagia Sophia:
There is a park in between the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque. We found a bench to relax while sitting in the shadows of history. Not too many people were there yet, so it was quite peaceful. This little sparrow was hopping around the fence:
This pigeon landed gracefully in the pond:
All of a sudden, that peaceful pond turned into a fountain; the pigeon knew the routine as he flew away just before the jets started:
For lunch, we headed to a little place where we sat on cushions on the floor:
Then we walked around, heading back over to the area where Istanbul University sits.
We walked through the Grand Bazaar, though we didn't take any pictures. Istanbul ended up having much warmer weather than was predicted. I had brought along mostly long-sleeved shirts, which turned out to be a mistake. Saturday was particularly warm, so we bought a Turk Telecom soccer jersey. There was a big match the next day, so several Turks made encouraging comments to me about my clothing choice.I had wanted to see the aqueducts up closer, so we walked over in that direction. A nice park was located adjacent to the aqueduct, so we stopped to enjoy the city a bit more:
Cats and pigeons, living in harmony:
The aqueduct:
We saw several parks that had exercise equipment in them; every time, there were also some Turks using the equipment, often wearing business attire:
A column, in repose:
You'd think we'd take more pictures on our last days, but the opposite happened. The above picture was the last one we took!
Cats and pigeons, living in harmony:The aqueduct:We saw several parks that had exercise equipment in them; every time, there were also some Turks using the equipment, often wearing business attire:A column, in repose:You'd think we'd take more pictures on our last days, but the opposite happened. The above picture was the last one we took!We eventually made our way back to the area where our hotel was located. We had drinks, and then ate dinner. I had raki, a traditional Turkish alcoholic beverage that tasted like licorice.
Then, back to our hotel.
Our plane left late morning, so we had time for a leisurely hotel breakfast. The hotel had arranged a taxi to take us to the airport, and we made it back home, no problems.
We had another amazing trip. There is so much history in Turkey that we definitely need to go back to explore other areas of the country, and I will enthusiastically recommend an Istanbul vacation to anyone who will listen!
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