After breakfast we walked to the bazaar. It is a large area with thousands of shops.
We spent 3 hours shopping and increased our luggage by 10 lbs. After a little rest we met our friends for a
visit to the Blue Mosque, which is called Sultanahmet here and to Hagia Sofia,
which here is called Ayasofya. First we
visited the mosque. Women had to cover their heads (they hand you a scarf if
you didn’t have one). Men and women with knees uncovered got long skirts to put
on, and everybody got a plastic bag for their shoes. The mosque is huge and it
is indeed blue inside. We went to our friendly merchant and bought tickets to
Ayasofya. When we got there the line to
buy tickets was very long but we could just walk in. The structure was built in year 537 as a Byzantine
cathedral. It was later converted to a
mosque, but served as an active place of worship until 1935 when it was turned
into a museum. It is an amazing place where you really can experience the
layers of history and the spirit of time. We then walked around the neighborhood
and had a nice dinner in a roof restaurant with 360 views of the Bosphorus,
Topkapi, Ayasofya and the Sultanahmet mosque.
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