Istanbul!

Hot off the plane in Turkey, we headed straight for St. Saviour Church Chora Museum. This church, created in the Byzantine style, was converted into a mosque in the 16th century and then to a museum in the mid-20th century. Inside, there are several mosaics and frescoes. After our visit, we drove to our hotel. This place must have been hopping in the 80's but hadn't had a recent face lift. After a traditional Turkish dinner, consisting of weird salad, cheese pie, beef, french fries, vegetables, and bread soaked in honey, we explored the city of Istanbul. The main strip near our hotel was awesome. It had tons of people and showcased the western influences on this city. There were even 3 Starbucks!

The next morning we headed out into the city. Istanbul is known for their tulips and I was very impressed. They are beautiful and everywhere. We explored the Dolmabahce Palace. It was huge and tightly secured. We even had to wear little booties on our feet to protect the ancient carpets. A highlight of my trip was the Egyptian Spice Bazaar. It was an indoor market filled with tons of shops selling lots of spices, nuts, fruits, and random Turkish souvenirs. There were loads of samples, especially of Turkish delight. Istanbul is surrounded by water on three sides and we took a boat tour on the Bosphorus. We saw the Asian part of Istanbul and many other cool buildings and sites. After our boat trip, a group of us headed to a carpet store. We saw amazing wool, silk, and cotton rugs. The owner showed us how they make them and then gave us a 'show' on the different kinds, prices, and uniqueness of the rugs. Seriously, these things were gorgeous but ridiculously expensive. There was one locked in a closet that was priced at one million dollars!

Our first stop for day three was the Hippodrome. This was used as a chariot race arena in Roman times. There are four main monuments on its premise including the Obelisk of Theodosius, Constantine Column, Serpentine Column, and a German fountain. Blue Mosque is one of the many mosques we saw, it has tons of beautiful blue tile on the inside. The second religious building we visited was Saint Sophia Church Museum. Like other museums it was a church converted into a mosque and then into a museum. It mostly resembled the church except for huge wooden circles with Islamic sayings. The dome had to be supported with the highest scaffolding in the world, but you could still see the beauty of the place. Another stop we made was at the Underground Cistern. It held water for the palace originally but is now a creepy eerie underground experience. It has a wooden walkway and is a huge room/pool with many columns. The columns are lighted with orange and red lights and they showcase two columns with the head of Medussa. After four major monuments our day is only half over. Our next stop, Topkapi Palace, has several rooms/exhibits. One of the rooms claimed to have the staff of Moses, turban of Joseph, and hand of John...so weird. All and all we were getting tired of soaking in information, but we still had one last stop. The Archaeological museum which contained the Treaty of Kadesh and the Sarcophagi of Alexander the Great was a short stop. We were all pretty tired and Thomasina (our London assistant) and I got lost finding our way back to the bus!

More to come about Izmir!!