Nor Byzantium

So today was interesting, to say the least. It was chucking down rain for a good portion of the day which always makes for an interesting adventure... I began the morning by walking down to the Spice Market. I ended up doing a tour from my guidebook backwards, which was a bit harder than expected, but I still think I saw a good deal. The Spice Market, right next to the New Mosque, is just that. Tons of spices, henna powders, turkish delight, dried fruit, turkish desserts, pretty much anything you could want. Next to the Spice Market is the New Mosque, the first one in Turkey that I went into. It's a bit of a mess trying to take your shoes off in the rain and not get your socks wet but somehow I managed. The New Mosque is gorgeous inside, which large domes, Arabic script, and soft carpets. They never tell you about the carpets but they're talking about architecture. I could have lain down and gone to sleep, no joke.

I tried to find the Rustem Pasa Mosque but I wasn't exactly sure where I was and it was raining pretty hard so I managed to wander my way through more market alley ways until a nice gentlemen pointed me to the direction of the Suleyman Mosque. I'll say this for the Suleyman Mosque- it has gorgeous views over the New District and the carpets are also soft but I'm not entirely sure why it is so revered over anything else. The was stunning inside, but nothing too out of the ordinary, at least compared to the New Mosque.

The rain had stopped by the time I left the msque, so I got a nice shot of the New Distrcict. Because I was totally off of the tour by this point, I followed signs that led me to the Grand Bazaar. This market is certainly Grand and there are certainly some bizarre things there. You have to be so good as just ignoring people because everyone wants you to come and look at their wares. Doesn't matter what they're selling, you will be called. It gets old pretty quickly. The Bazaar had everything you could want and I just wandered up and down. I tried furitely to follow the tour in the guide book but eventually gave up becaue they kept saying to pop outside and by that point it was pouring rain again so I gave up. I'm sure I wandered through the same place a few different times but it was so easy to get lost in a place like the bazaar that it almost didn't even matter. I did manage to find the book bazaar, even though it was mostly books in Turkish or Turkish translations. And, weirdly, a ton of textbooks. I wandered around lost for a little while longer, then found out where I was supposed to be according to the tour and popped back through the bazaar one more time, That took me past the Cemberlistas to Divan Yolu, a long street that leads to Sultanhemet. While wandering my way down, I stopped in a print museum, which was fascinating but had no signs in English so I had to guess a bit at what I was seeing.  At Sultahnhemet, I wandered around, looking at the German Fountain and the Golden Milestone.

Turns out, because of New Years, the Hagia Sofia was open. I stood in line for about 15 minutes, got annoyed as all three people at the ticket window were ignoring customers and talking on the phone/dealing with something, and then finally made it inside. The place is unreal. Despite the massive block of scaffolding in the middle, it was just stunning. I didn't enter right away but first went to the 18th century fountain and the Baptismal Pool. Then I headed inside. The pictures don't do it justice, but then, neither will my words. I loved the original mosaics that were left, every inch of the walls and the ceilings had some sort of original detail, the stories behind everything were fascinating and the history of the church itself- from seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church, to Ottoman Mosque, to museum, was informative and etched into the interior of the church. Also, I will say that if I never see a selfie stick again, it will be too soon.

The rain had kicked back up when I left and after extricating myself from a gentleman who wanted me to come see his shop (seriously, it's getting so old...), I wandered through the Hippodrome, passing through the Blue Mosque and then headed to get some meatballs for dinner. I'll have to come back to this area again, possibly Wednesday, in order to see the  Blue Mosque, the Underground Cistern, and the Islamic Art Museum. And possibly a Turkish bathhouse experience! On my way past Taksim Square on my way home, I passed by a museum with an exhibit about the Ottoman's involvement in WWI. Would have been fascinating if a single word had been in English... oh well...Tomorrow's forecast is snow and rain so hoping for the former since I'd rather have it be cold than wet.