Today, with one of our friends from the tour, we took a tram and train to one of the finest Byzantine churches, St. Savior in Chora (commonly known as Chora). When we got off the train we hardly had time to decide which direction we needed to walk when a local asked us if he could help. Upon informing him where we were going he grabbed one of us by the hand and raced us out into a 6 lane roadway taking us on to a local public mini bus telling the driver, we presume, where we needed to be taken. After driving up the road a bit, turning right, then doing a U-turn, he told us to get off and pointed to the road we needed to follow. Neither he nor the bus driver would take any money and the bus then headed back out onto the main road to resume its normal route. Not all helpful people were doing things entirely out of the kindness of their heart as you will find out later.

The Chora Church had frescos and mozaics in fantastic condition. The first building on the site occurred in the 5th century and it was outside the city walls although became inside the walls when they were rebuilt later that century. The latest building dates back to the 11th century. The decoration of mosaics and frescos was done during the 14th century. In the 16th century the church was converted into a mosque and then it became a secularised museum in 1948. The couple of pictures included in the blog will attest to beauty of the mosaics and frescos.

After church we moved on to a restaurant nearby that had been recommended to us – the Asitane. Theisrestaurant was famous for preparing old Ottoman recipes from the 15th and 16th centuries. The recommendation was good, the food was excellent and the bill reflected this. It was however time to splash out. Odd being in a restaurant where all the patrons are in touristy clothes among silver service and white linen table cloths.

After lunch we explored the neighbourhood and eventually came to the city walls. Originally built by Constantine the Great. This wall was extended to became the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls in the 5th century.

The section of wall where we were was about 5m wide and 12m high. At some places the wall is as wide as 20m. As we were about to go up the wall a shoe shine vendor told us this way was too dangerous and that we should go up further down the wall. Again we were dragged off this time to a different (safer) area. After climbing 50-70 steep steps we got to the top of the wall although a rock face climber could have gone higher onto one of the parapets. We thanked him very much but, you guessed it, there was more. Yes, he shined our shoes whether they needed it or not. Part way through the shoe shine we were shown photos of his 3 children and wife who were in Ankara. We got out our 5 lira each for the shoe shine to be told it was 10 lira each – reminding us that he had 3 children and a wife to feed. After some discussion (at 12 metres high!) we agreed to pay this at which time he then said it was 20 lira each – the poor children and wife! Needless to say we did not pay this. This was our only interaction with gypsies in Turkey. Had we not been alone on the wall with this guy he would have only got
his 5 lira. Nice job on the shoes though!

After further wandering around we found oursleves in a dodgy area so made our way back to the wall (good landmark) and along it to one of its gates and ultimately the tram back to our hotel area.