Chora Church and Grand Bazaar

One full day into our Istanbul visit, Wifey had blisters.  In a grand effort to minimize the amount of luggage we brought, she didn't have any real alternative shoes.  As a result, our day began with a walk to our neighborhood mall which has a downstairs anchor Carrefour. She just knew it would have band-aids.   Hubby was a trooper and very gracious about walking a mile out of the way for band-aids.  

ALong our walk, we saw many of these signs which were recently put out after a successful election.  They read, Thank you, Istanbul!  

Once we arrived at Carrefour, played a few rounds of charades with the staff, we learned they didn't sell band-aids.  Our gracious assistant kept repeating "Eczane" to us.  Which of course had no meaning whatsoever that we could understand.  Eventually, another employee led us out of their store and pointed .... to a pharmacy on the same floor of the mall ... named Eczane.  Since this occurrence, we've seen them everywhere.  

Now, thoroughly bandaged, we hopped on the friendly neighborhood Marmary and set out to go exploring!  At the end of our ride was the train station where the Orient Express passed from West to East.  This train route was the inspiration behind Agatha Christi's story, "Murder on the Orient Express".  What a cool piece of history!

From here, we took another train, searching for the stop, Edirnekapi!  Found it! 

 I'm in love with this lady's scarf who we sat across on our way to visit our next old building!  It looked like marbled metallic stone!  LOVE!!!

After disembarking the bus above, we began walking.  Here you can see plants growing out of small soft-sided dirt pouches in the side of a wall.  They were in various geometric patterns.  

Our first stop was the Chora Church, built around the 14th century.  This church is famous for its Byzantine mosaics.  It was quite an adventure to find it, as its quite a ways from the Sultanahmet area where most tourists congregate.  

Ceiling art

And a Close Up!

A fresco on another room's ceiling.  This painting is of the Judgement. 

Jesus

After checking out the art, we stayed in the area for lunch at Asitane.  This restaurant is connected to a local hotel and serves dishes from old Ottoman Royalty Chef cookbooks.  

You follow a small alleyway to the back of the hotel to find the outdoor seating.

A panorama of my view.  Sorry for the exposure issues.  Moving from shade to full sun does that :) 

NICE table setting :) 

Wifey had Lamb (left) ... hubby Veal (right).  Both were excellent and for the most part, eliminated the need for dinner later in the day.  

And did you forget?  Wifey ordered Ayran too.

After the Chora Church, we explored the Grand Bazaar.  We were in search of a few spices, and maybe something to bring home and add to our home decor.  Here is a shop where we ended up purchasing a 7 spice mix.  

The Grand Bazaar is HUGE.  According to Wikipedia (awesome source, I know, it has over 60 streets and 4000 shops! 

Thursday in Istanbul - The Food Edition

We have friends who are living in Istanbul and learning Turkish and were able to meet up and have dinner Thursday night!  Wifey enjoyed some sort of cheese filled bread.  The veggies were amazing along with it.  Hubby enjoyed a sampler plate.  Minus his yogurt covered dish.  Wifey enjoyed that :)  Everything's better with a little sour yogurt on it!

Mint Ayran!  Yes Please!

After dinner, we walked around a bit and enjoyed the city!

Wifey loves a man confident enough to hold his woman's purse.  

Fisherman 

Multicolored Umbrellas as Decor!  Awesome! 

Earlier in the day, we walked to a local mall to explore and had lunch while we were there.  Wifey chose Burger King.  She ate a burger, not pictured.  

Hubby chose Bursa Kebap Evi.  He ate some sort of Donar wrap.  Wifey joined him and ordered an Ayran.  It's a theme.  

Both meals were great, for a mall food court!  

Blue Mosque

Our second stop on our first morning in Istanbul, we visited the Blue Mosque. It is located just across a large courtyard from the Hagia Sophia.  Since the blue mask is still an operating place of worship, we brought along clothing to comply with the dress code they're in.  After a few wardrobe adjustments, we found the visitor entrance and entered the mosque.  Most surprisingly, at the door, we were provided with small plastic bags in which to carry our shoes while visiting. 

We expected to see interesting blue tiles at Mosque, with a variety of elegant rooms to view. We were both disappointed. Wifey did find the women's prayer room tucked in the back of the facility interesting.

In addition, the visitor section is separated by a bar of sorts from the active worship section. It reminded wifey of the bar separating the judge and attorneys from the non-participants in a courtroom.

Sweet that they provided plastic bags for our shoes!  We kept the bags and were able to repurpose them later during a shopping experience.  

Here you can see half a ceiling and a sheet printed to mimic the view that would be behind it.  We're guessing renovations?  

If in Istanbul, should you visit the Blue Mosque?  Absolutely.  It's practically next door to the Underground Cistern and the Hagia Sophia so the marginal cost is very low.  But have realistic expectations :) 

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Haigia Sophia

The first sight we explored in Istanbul is The Hagia Sophia. This is an ancient church - turned mosque - turned museum. It was initially built in the 530s in Constantinople. In the 1400s, it was converted to a Mosque with the Turkish conquest of Constantinople.

Exploring Hagia Sophia costs 40 tl per person, and it an exercise in very hard floors and crowds. We enjoyed the intricate mosaics, and Hubby found the areas where mosaics appeared to be partially covered by colored plaster to be particularly intriguing.  If the mosaics were covered, why were they now partly uncovered? 

See here plaster next to original mosiac decoration

Another part of the Hagia Sophia we particularly enjoyed was the lighting system.  The building is lit by a relatively large number of simple chandeliers.  As best we can tell, these could be raised or lowered to allow for lighting of the original candles. 

During the time Hagia Sophia was used as a Mosque, Arabic script was added as decor.  These large circular discs adorn the upper portions of the walls.  Wifey particularly found it interesting while walking around the upper levels, seeing the back of the discs.  They're made of wood (which, considering their age, makes sense).  

All in all, we'd recommend visiting the Hagia Sophia to anyone coming to Istanbul.  We choose to tour on our own using a book we brought along from the Library for reference.  You might consider hiring one of the local tour guides to walk you through the space in order to learn a bit more about its history and usage.  

Old Town Istanbul - Overview

Our first morning in Istanbul we set out to visit the "Old Town" which is home to some of the city's most famous landmarks.  We had slept about 3.5 hours the night before, and really none the 'night' of flying before that so we weren't running on our best level of functionality.  Our first destination was the Hagia Sophia.  (Blog Post to follow)

After the Hagia Sophia, we visited the Blue Mosque.  It was a bit more of a fashion adventure since modesty is highly valued by the Islamic faith.  Luckily, we planned ahead, dressed appropriately and bring a scarf to finalize the compliance.  For anyone interested in visiting but who doesn't want to wear pants, modest skirt, or a headscarf all day - the Mosque does have ones you can borrow for free in order to tour.  

Our selfie attempt included a bit of a photo-bomb ... "Hi Man-in-sunglasses".  

To be honest, the Blue Mosque was a bit anticlimactic.  We've had the opportunity to see various houses or worship around the world from varying religious traditions.  If, however, you're already in the area of old town, we encourage you to stop by and check this destination out.  (Blog Post to follow)

The last destination we wanted to see in the Old Town was the underground cistern.  This underground water supply was lost for many years and rediscovered in the 1500's.  It is an architectural wonder ... but is closed for renovations :(  SAD!