Wandering in Istanbul

View of the Blue Mosque from our hotel roof.

I went up to the roof top cafe for some lunch after posting yesterday. The view was stupendous. The food was less so--I won't be eating there again. Not geared towards semi-vegetarians, that's for sure. While I was eating the muezzins started up the call to prayer--wow. Our hotel is triangulated amongst at least five mosques--I don't think we'll be sleeping through prayer time! As you know, there are five prayer times throughout the day that muslims are required to pray--at very specific times throughout the world, I guess so they are all praying at the same time. You can look up the times online for each city. I remember from Malaysia that one is around sunrise, one around noon, one around sunset, one before sleeping (around 8-9pm) and then one in the very early morning. Really hoping we don't hear them as well as I heard this one sitting on the roof!

Looking down on the closest neighborhood mosque.
I could REALLY hear this muezzin! Notice the rooftop
garden on the neighboring apartment building.  With
a view like this, everyone has a rooftop patio!

The Blue Mosque from the hotel roof. I could hear their
muezzin too.

I did get impatient waiting for everyone--Claire had missed her plane, Liz wasn't due in until around 2pm, and I had showered, ate, blogged...and was ready to get out and see something! So I grabbed my camera, picked up a map and a hotel card from the front desk (so I could find my way back to the hotel-remember, I am directionally impaired!) and took off.

The first thing I noticed was while the sun was hot it wasn't as sticky hot as Shenzhen had been. This made me very happy.

I walked around the corner to the first mosque I had seen from our hotel roof--it was a small one, probably a local place of worship. I have no idea what it's called, since there were no helpful tourist-translated signs, and my arabic is non-existent. The carving on the buildings was exquisite.

Building across the street-reminded
me of the Flatiron building in NYC.

Purse (and of course rug) store.

Intricate carving on neighborhood mosque.

Note the rugs piled along the road.

More elaborate carving.

Rough cobblestone streets--ALL of the streets
look like this!

Column of Constantine 10th AD. Not
sure what the significance of building a tall
column was, but it does create a nice landmark
to help find your bearings.

This Egyptian Obelisk was first set up by Pharaoh
Tuthmosis III in Upper Egypt. Apparently Emperor
Thedosius had obelisk envy though, and he
brought it from Alexandria to Constantinople
(Istanbul) in the late 4th century. 

Turkish kitty sleeping in a window. (You knew I'd have to have
a kitty picture in here somewhere!)

Men washing and purifying themselves before entering the
Blue Mosque.

The front steps to the Blue Mosque.

Looking up at the top of the stairs.

Through the door into the courtyard.

Vaulted arches.

People watching.

Looking up at the main part of the mosque. 

Looking up at the painting on the arches.

The archway above the main door.

Inverse alcove.

I wandered over to the Blue Mosque--walked around, took pictures, people-watched for awhile.

I had a long discussion while sitting inside the Blue Mosque courtyard with a local Turk, Ciman (sounded like "Jiman") about everything from the morality of the US to whether people in the US lie to why I don't drink coffee. (He wanted to take me to his shop, give me some Turkish coffee and show me his high-quality Turkish rugs.) Speaking of carpets, they are everywhere--definitely a big business. Anyway, I didn't 

end up going to Ciman's shop, but I did enjoy our conversation.

Grilled corn and chestnuts for sale.

Cute sidewalk tables for sitting  and
sipping tea and watching the
world go by.

In the Blue Mosque gardens is this floral representative of the
moon and star of the Turkish flag.

Hagia Sofia-the great Byzantine Church converted to a mosque
by the  Turks in the 1400s when they conquered Constantinople.

I chose not to go into the mosque as I know it's on our itinerary later this week, so I wandered over to the Hagia Sofia, and then headed back towards my hotel. (or so I hoped) I stumbled upon many streets of eating places, and then the Grand Bazaar, so I had to meander through there for awhile. I did eventually find my way back to my hotel (yay for tall column things to use as reference points!) and discovered Liz had arrived. Within an hour, everyone else showed up, including long-lost Claire.