This morning we woke at our customary 7am, and promptly realized that it was 2 hours ahead here, and it was 9! After showering and dressing, we made our way down to the hotel's restaurant, where a nice buffet breakfast was taking place. We had made to order omlettes, and freshly squeezed orange juice.
Today we saw the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofia, Topkapi Palace and the Basilica Cistern. We were able to walk right into the Blue Mosque; which I thought was interesting, because to me, it was as beautiful as the Aya Sofia! They provide head scarves for ladies, although I didnt find that out until we exited. What a beautiful mosque!
From there we tried Aya Sofia, but the line to get in was insane, so we went to the Basilica Cistern next. I would have never imagined the vastness of such an underground cavern! Oh my! Our daughter and I found a booth taking replica photos, and had ours taken. The cistern was an awesome thing to tour. We walked down and enjoyed looking at the fish in the water, as well as the inverted Medusa head.
Aya Sofia came next. Hubby found a way to skip the 2-3 hour line for tickets by purchasing the tickets through one of the street vendors selling guide books. We had to purchase a book that we didn't need, but we were able to get right through, and the tickets were valid!
We tried the line skipping thing again at Topkapi palace, but had to hire a guide for an hour. I would not recommend this if you at all are ok with line waiting. However, we did skip all the lines, and that was very nice! We found out that there are separate entry tickets to get into the harem part of the palace, and although children are free, they still require a ticket to get in. Our 8 year old had to purchase a ticket, so I think kids are free up to a certain age, we just dont know what that age is yet.
We tried to take the kids on a boat ride for the evening, but they weren't having any of it. So we settled on dinner only instead. We went to a restaurant called Betyi's that is supposedly world famous, and is supposed to have the best kebab's around. They had parking onsite and the attendant followed us to the door with an umbrella over our heads. The restaurant was all decked out, fancy looking with waiters that stay on hand through your whole meal. Talk about attentive! The food was fabulous, and certainly lived up to its name. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for a great Turkish meal.
Today we saw the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofia, Topkapi Palace and the Basilica Cistern. We were able to walk right into the Blue Mosque; which I thought was interesting, because to me, it was as beautiful as the Aya Sofia! They provide head scarves for ladies, although I didnt find that out until we exited. What a beautiful mosque!
Ottoman candy from a street vendor. It was as colourful as it was sweet and yummy!
After Topkapi palace, we walked around a bazaar. Not the main one, but a nice one off to the left of the Blue Mosque.
In an effort to save space, I tried packing only the iPad, the new laptop and my camera. However, the iPad's not reading the sd cards from my camera, and the new laptop doesn't have a way to connect to the camera (no sd card reader), so we are unable to pull the pictures off of my card. The pictures on this blog I took with my phone, so that the blog wouldn't be blank! We will upload photos when we get home and will update these pages with the photos. On a sad note, one of my sd cards filled up and the one that I tried to switch it to in Topkapi palace created card issues on my camera; so the only pics we have from the second half of the palace are with our phones. Oh well, at least we have those!
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