History Lessons Continued

After the palace we took a walk for a simple Turkish lunch at Karadeniz.  Everyone seemed to order a different dish from kebabs to turkish version of pizza (pide).  Leslie tried some turnip juice.  I had to try it and I must say it was really awful red tasting drink.  It was very salty, pickle and spicy drink.  Mehmet mentioned that people would drink it after having raki which is an anise flavored spirt similar to sambuca.

Always the best places to eat are up the side alley.

Delicious food and Efes beer. We went to the counter to choose what we wanted to eat. Very local place..men eating there and wondering at us.

We then headed off to see the Basilica Cistern which was an underground water storage.  It is Byzantine architecture and served the palace and in 532.  

At the time of use, the water would have been up to the ceiling.  The columns were scavenged from old temple ruins. It seemed to go on forever and ever.

Medusa Head (upside down to not revere pagan god)

Our last stop before some of retiring to the hotel was the Blue Mosque.  We removed our shoes and took a brief look inside.

Outer courtyard.

Our group again.

As we were taking a look a Catholic priest and two men walked across the middle of this rug. You can see the black of his clothes to the left of the woman.  We were behind a rope .

Stunning ceiling work.

Ablutions area to wash face, neck, hands and feet before entering the mosque to pray; standard practice.

A lovely collection of headscarves.

The old Constantinople area is bustling with tourists from all over the world.  As expected there are plenty of street vendors offering the tourists street foods, maps, souvenirs, tours, etc.  They seem to size you up and get an idea of what language to lead with.  Along the way we saw a young boy dressed up in a white sultan type outfit.  This is a tradition in Turkey for boys prior to circumcision.

Back at the hotel we were met with the 3rd call to prayer.

We had dinner at 7pm at another Turkish restaurant with the typical meals of veggies, meat, rice, great bread with hummus, rice pudding, etc.

Out of doors again, next to a lamp shop

A menu with pictures. Yay. Actually it was in English.

On the way home there were some nice night views of the city.  Then at the Hippodrome we encountered a vendor who was shooting off little helicopter type projectiles with an LED light via a slingshot.  It looked like a single shot of fireworks going into the air and reentering.  Looks like some Americans will be bringing home some reusable 4th of July fireworks that make no noise.

Vendor selling little flying things with lights.  Leslie and Belinda bought a few.

Blue Mosque at night taken from the Hippodrome.

The last thing we did was pick up some supplies for the bus ride tomorrow.  We have breakfast at 7:00 and then leave 7:30 to cross the Dardanelles for Assos and visit Troy.