ISTANBUL, TURKEY

One of my all time favorite stops of this trip, although it started out a bit worrisome. Just a small miscommunication where we had talked to our friends that were also on the cruise to let them know that we wanted to be with them at this port of call, walking to breakfast and seeing them down below already off the ship with no way to signal to them or stop them from leaving us behind. Needless to say my mother was a little bit concerned getting around the city, we are two hot lookin' ladies afterall, and we weren't exactly sure where we were going. So after sitting down to breakfast and trying to enjoy what could have been our last meal on this planet (that is how worried we were) I noticed a family that we had seen on our Olympia excursion eating breakfast as well. I decide to approach them and formally introduce myself and ask them what their plans are for the day... obviously they would appreciate two more friendly faces along for the adventure, right? It turns out that they were very easy going and said it would be no problem, we would just meet them off the ship after we dropped our boys and their girls off into the kids club.

There's more: as we were walking off the ship and doing the introductions back and forth, "where are you from?" "what do you do?"... Emily (the new friend) and Kevin (her husband) mention that they went to school in UTAH and Emily says "So you are going to be hanging out with Mormons today" WELL... GUESS WHAT? So are we!! Such a funny way to meet one another, but at the same time it was so easy to get along with them in the first place and now it just made the rest of the day that much more fun. There is that instant friendship, I don't really know how to describe it, but it just happens anywhere you go when you meet someone who shares the same beliefs as you.

So with Emily and Kevin's trusty Rick Steve's book in hand, we made our way down the street onto the public transportation, and down to the BLUE MOSQUE, HAGGAI SOPHIA, The UNDERGROUND CISTERNS, and the GRAND BAZAAR. And then fearing that we might miss the ship's departure we literally ran back from our last stop on the tram to where the ship was docked! WHAT A TRIP!

So here is the first stop. THE BLUE MOSQUE

I know the pictures do not fully capture the amazing beauty, the BLUE MOSQUE truly was magnificent! I just loved the way that it felt inside this hall that is still used as worship for the people in the area. When you walk into the many cathedrals here in Europe it is so dark and cold, beautiful, but there is that feeling that you are in this immense space and yet it feels small because of the light issue. I was simple amazed by the LIGHT inside this mosque. It was open and airy, I had a very special feeling the moment we walked into the hall. The patterns and colors were really quite amazing. It was wonderful!

and then right across the way stood the HAGGAI SOPHIA (Sacred Wisdom)

The most renowned Byzantine and the best known Christian church in Istanbul, the first church was built here in 325-360 A.D. After a terrible fire that destroyed the building, Justitine ordered a new church to be built of an unprecedented size and magnificence. This took 5 years and over 10,000 laborers working on the site. And in 537 A.D. it was completed. Over time and earthquakes there has been repeated restoration and additions. On the Turkish conquest in 1453 it was converted into a mosque and later the mosiacs were plastered over. With recent work, many of the mosiacs are uncovered so that you can see what this amazing structure must have looked like on the inside. SO much history and withstanding the tests of time over all of these years. This was very interesting to hear the tour that Rick Steven's has in his book, I actually knew what I was looking at, where to walk next, and what to pay attention to. This building was amazing, but it was different than the experience we had at the Blue Mosque. I tried to take a good shot of the mosiacs, but it was just a little tricky. Interesting to know that the doors in the picture above were used only by the Emperor, they were really huge! This picture below is a great view from above taken from the helicopter I piloted and learned how to fly while we were there.... ahh! you got me! GOOGLE images I heart you!

We walked across the street and visited the Underground Cisterns. This was interesting to walk around and see the ancient water source used back in Roman times. Rows after Rows of giant columns, water dripping and occasionally landing on our head, and seeing the two Medusa heads in the back corner was pretty neat as well. The pictures I took down here were not that great. SO here is a little more GOOGLE with some images of the location... Actually this really is my camera and my amazing photography skills at work (only kidding :) 

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We grabbed a quick lunch at a nearby vendor, wasn't the best but we were hungry and then we quickly tried to make the best of our short time left in the Grand Bazaar. That place really was crazy! There were so many little shops set up with people inside, some were nice (one guy was nasty) and one guy just called out "Please come and buy some things that you don't need here"... I liked his honesty. We found some treasures, but really didn't have the time we needed to set up a good barter with the vendors. BUT... that was just the way the day went. Then we missed the first tram after grabbing some Baklava (mmm....mmm) so delicious! and really started to feel the crunch of time when the second tram arrived. It was packed, but we felt like it was building up our adreneline for the run back to the boat. GREAT NEWS... we made it safely only after being chased by a few street vendors "great price for you my friend!"