The AC works in this hotel room!!! Heather froze all night, I slept like a baby. She woke up to the 4am call to prayer, I was busy sawing logs. Rolled out of bed about 7:30 and enjoyed a traditional Turkish breakfast on the roof top terrace, great views of the Bosphorus. Met a friendly older English lady traveling by herself through Turkey for 3 weeks at breakfast, Heather was dying to ask her if she went to the royal wedding...but chickened out. So I chatted with her about the sights and sounds of Istanbul.

Started our sightseeing after breakfast with the hordes of people at Hagia Sophia. The Ottomans may have taken over Istanbul in the 1400's, but it looks like the Japanese are working on a tourist invasion now...we got to the gates at 9am (which is opening time) and there were a couple hundred people already inside the gates and in line. Don't bother taking your tripod... they won't let you take it inside unless you're a professional photographer and have some kind of special pass (so you have to leave it with the security guards, then you have to go back through the massive line of people when you leave to retrieve it...annoying to say the least). It's official, I do not like Japanese tourists; they are rude, inconsiderate, and are a swarm of little black-haired people pouncing on every site. Thankfully Hagia Sophia is MASSIVE, so we were able to get away from the groups of organized tours...they are everywhere, but only increase in number as the day goes on (I counted 47 tour buses drive out as we ate lunch across the street later in the day) How can organized tours be fun? "Walk over here, stay with the group, here's what this is, I'll answer that question later, come on stay with the group now..." BLAH!!! Anyhow, Hagia Sophia was absolutely amazing, I can't imagine how hard it was to construct a building of this magnitude 1500+ years ago with no powered machinery.

Next we tried to go the Basilica Cistern but there was a line down the street so we headed down to the Archeology Museum (its not on the tour bus schedule so its not crowded, plus its huge). Side note, people here have no understanding of the words "personal bubble". You can be the only 4 people in a room that is 500 sf and they'll walk up and stand right next to you...who does that??? Anyhow, back to the museum, it has a nice collection of antiquities from all over the area plus some proliferated ones from Egypt and Mesopotamia, but from one gallery to the next it really starts to look the same pretty quick. The Alexander Sarcophagos is definetly the highlight of the whole place. Again no tripods, but they at least let you carry it around with you. No photos in the special exhibit hall...which is nothing more than some jeweled swords and some gold coins with a couple of nice marble statues. Unless you're really into museums, this place shouldn't take more than about 45 mins to an hour (Heather lasted 15 mins). 

Lunch time at this point, so we headed back towards the Basilica Cistern as there are a bunch of open air cafes around it. We changed some money and had a "magarita pizza" (which was actually just a cheese pizza, but it was quite tasty) under an umbrella because it started to rain (definetly not a Texas thunderstorm! more like a fine misty rain that annoys the hell out of you) But it was good because it cleared the people out of the streets and chopped the line to the Cistern down to a few folks. So we went there next. They have a costum photo gallery inside where you can dress up as sultans and concumbines, so we stopped in and took a $7 photo. Heather asked me, "what's the purpose of this place? Just a bunch of columns and water...", my response, "well babe, they used this to store water during times of war when the people laying seige would cut off the aquaducts," to which she replied, "so when our friends ask you what you did in Turkey, you can tell them, 'I saw a bunch of columns and water'". I thought it was really neat...see the photos below and you tell me.

Next we went to the Blue Mosque. Heather wore a long black dress and a scarf so as not to offend the Muslim sensibilities. Although the sign says women should were a full length skirt, we were surprised because there were many women in pants or jeans and they let them right in (we all know how much Heather loves her jeans). The inside is very intricate in the details and there are like a million wires hanging from the ceiling to supply the lights; however, its just not that impressive after Hagia Sophia. I would recommend going to the Blue Mosque first, then Hagia Sophia so you can have an appreciation for it. Oh, and it smells like a sweaty sneaker...try not to think about how many nasty feet have been on the carpet.

We were pretty worn out by this time so we headed back to the hotel to catch a nap. Slept for a couple hours and then headed out to find McDonald's (pregnant wife was having a craving) plus it satisfied our tradition of trying out McDonald's in every country we visit. They have the McTurca here...McDonald's attempt at a kebab. The fries have no salt and the BBQ sauce tastes funny.

Saw a Twirling Dervish show at a restuarant along the way...how do they not get dizzy?

And got some great night time photos of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia on the way back. A great time to be there is right about midnight because most of the people have cleared the streets and you can get people-free shots.