Today is Mosque day. Mary and Andrea started the day with a walk, disappearing around 7:00 am while Terry showered. It's going to be hot today. Breakfast in Karakoy across the Bosphorus from the Mosques, next to the Baklava store.

Yes, we had Baklava too!

The two main Mosques, the Sophia and the Blue Mosque were packed with tourists. I mean like Disneyland packed. I refused to join the lines and was happy to see that everyone agreed. We got back into the car and drove back towards Andrea's apartment to the The Dolmabahce Palace, built by Ottoman Sultans around 1850. It was packed as well. A line several hundred people long waiting to buy tickets from one window. So we decided to go meet Jenny and Keith who had arrived that morning. After a stop at
St. Anthony's to light candles for everyone we met in Taksim, a collection of cafe and shop strewn streets for drinks and conversation.

Salih read Jenny and Keith's future from the grounds in their Turkish coffee cups predicting a long marriage with at least three children! Very charming.

We adjourned to an Irish pub called "The James Joyce" where Andrea and Salih met on their first date. Keith hit the wall finally circuming to his jet lag. He and Jenny went back to their hotel.

Salih, Andrea, Mary, and Terry met up with Salih's brother Bakki and had dinner at a Kebob place in Taksim. We talked Turkish politics under numerous pictures of Ataturk, a beloved secular leader who's attempts to end religious control of the government is being undermined today by extremists.Then a short walk to a first class bar in the Pera district, a European sector of Istanbul which used to be the terminus of The Orient Express, for a nightcap and then home to bed.