Today we left the house around 12, and decided that today we were going to a different country – the European side of Istanbul. It started out with us getting on a bus in the wrong direction. About 30 minutes down the road, this was realized, we got out and found took another bus to our destination, Kadikoy. This is where we planned on getting a ferry to Emenunu, but before we hopped on board… some yamir donors were in store for us (basically, chicken sandwiches).
The ferry took about 30 minutes to get over to the European side. There was a couple cool sights to see along the water on the way over there. Once we got off the ship, a British lady and her grandson stopped and asked Brent if he knew where the Spice Bazaar was… which is a giant market. That was on our to-do list today, so, we decided to go with them in the quest to find it. It was pretty overwhelming at first glance, thousands of people walking and even more talking (it seemed)… the main items for sale were types of spices and some candy type food called Turkish Delight, in which we bought a kg of. This is more-or-less some sort of jello deal with powdered sugar coating it. Quite good I do say. Once we left the Spice market, Brent and I headed to the Grand Bazaar. This was a market which was a few times bigger and much more diverse in the products that it carried. We chatted with a guy who sold different ornate rugs for a while and then headed towards the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, two huge tourists sights on this side.
On our way there we walked through an old graveyard, as well as saw some old walls and buildings from the Ottoman Empire. The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are relatively close to each other, across the street, they are both huge and great sights! The Blue Mosque is a highly revered area for prayer, and the Hagia Sophia was a church for almost a thousand years, and then a mosque for around 500+ … now it is a museum. We went to the Blue Mosque first, it was impressive standing outside of it, but even more so once we got inside. There were 4 massive stone columns about 15 feet in diameter, extremely high ceilings and intricate pattern work on the walls, ceiling and floor. Brent told me a little about the history of the religious ideals that are involved here, and it was definitely an interesting place!
Next we walked over to the Hagia Sophia, on the way, Brent bartered for an Istanbul book, from 37TL to 12TL. Not a bad deal. We sat around a giant fountain for a bit, and then proceeded to try and enter. Unfortunately, we found it closed about an hour before then. Had some conversation with a military guy who was guarding the front entrance of a palace, of which we will try and see another day as well. The palace wall was very old, easily over 1000 years old. We followed it down to the water, and came into a tea room. We had some çay and looked back as the sunset behind the Blue Mosque…
The rest of our plan for the day was to eat some dinner and play a game of tavla, also known as backgammon. Brent wanted me to see another area, Taxim, which is the young and more modern area. We saw a good place to go, and went for it. Brent ordered curry chicken, and i had some sauced chicken, which was in a Mexican spice. They were delicious, mine was definitely hot, I haven’t had spicy food in a while! We tried to get a game of tavla in before the food came – but the food came before we were able to. So, we played 3 more games after dinner, which took us well into the night without us realizing it! Almost 1am, we followed this up with almost an hour of conversation with our waiter, which was also good fun. Again, the people here are so friendly and welcoming, it is hard not to make friends everywhere you go. At this time, it was hard for us to find immediate transportation back, especially because we are still on the European side, and it is very late! We were able to get a bus that took us a majority of the way back, but had to get a taxi the rest of the way. It didn’t come out to be too expensive, but we got back pretty late. Called it a night, and were getting ready for heading to a local island tomorrow!
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