Belinda the intrepid explorer had been scouting out churches on the Internet and along our walk yesterday and is determined to go to Sunday Mass. She would like to go to St Anthony's in Beyoglu (the area we visited yesterday).
She thinks Mass is at 9am so we headed out at 8:15am. She talked to the front desk person to look over the map and to call a taxi to take us to the closest spot we could get to by auto. We then walked a little way to the main street. We discovered that the English Mass is not until 10am.
Belinda decided to try and find Santa Maria for 9am Mass by using her map. We walked down a very long hill and came to what looked like a mosque and a christian church where she thought the church would be located.. We tried to find our way to the church entrance but had to retrace our steps somewhat to find the entrance.
We encountered a person who spoke English and he said service was not until 10am but come in and have a seat. We went into the church but Belinda realized it was not a Catholic Church. We asked the man where Santa Maria was. He indicated that we basically had passed it on the main street. It had a very small opening gate to the small chapel. We walked back up the long hill and found the church. We got there just in time for the Italian service. We were a little sweaty and out of breath at the beginning of the service. There were probably a dozen people in attendance.
Then we went to Starbucks for my first Starbuck's coffee since being in Turkey. While I have stopped into many of the stores looking for city mugs, I had resisted and have been only drinking local coffees (Turkish, Necafe, cappuccino, and lattes). Boy, was that cup of coffee good.
We walked to the same street where we were left off to get a taxi. Belinda gave the driver our hotel card but he had no idea. Another taxi driver basically told him to head over to the Blue Mosque. We did not have good enough street directions in our minds to lead him back to the hotel. We knew the general direction of where our hotel was. We got out of the taxi on the wrong side of the Blue Mosque as there was no way to go back around the Mosque. We had to walk uphill a distance to get back to our hotel.
We got back to the hotel and hung out awhile before meeting the rest of the group at noon. This is Paul's last meal in Turkey for this trip. He has a flight and will be leaving at 3 for the US. We stopped by a restaurant just down the clock from the hotel. After 2 weeks in Turkey I have discovered that my favorite dish is Ali Nazik (roasted eggplant, sweet peppers, garlic, yogurt and cooked lamb). The others say that their meal was just so, so.
We then said goodbye to Paul and we split into two groups for the afternoon. Carl, Margaret and I went to look for a book Carl wanted "Ancient Roads of Anatolia", ATM, pomegranate vase, and to the Archeological Museum. Belinda and Leslie went back to a shopping area that Leslie had found earlier in the day while we were at church.
On our (Carl, Margaret and me) way back to the hotel we stopped at Denizen Coffee for a refreshment. Margaret had a strawberry frappe while Carl and I had iced coffees. Our server was an American from the Jersey Shore who has been living in Istanbul since October. We had a short conversation with him and then we walked back to the hotel by 3:30pm.
Belinda and Leslie saw many nice items while shopping. Belinda bought a silk scarf and Turkish towel.
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