Exploring and getting lost

A leisurely start to the day today which was sooooo lovely. We wandered down and caught another tram over the bridge to Sultanahmet armed and ready to tackle the Grand Bazaar. What an absolutely delightful time we had!! We weren’t hassled at all and wandered around the labyrinth of shops getting lost and enjoying every moment. We stopped for a Turkish tea and then continued on. We are such good bargainers now; in fact it’s fun bantering and bargaining.
We had a simit for lunch (local street food, like a pretzel) and watched the world go by.
Some more exploring through the spice markets - what a treat for the senses! So fascinating to see and amazing to smell.
We then visited Hagia Sophia which was the world’s largest church for over a thousand years and became a mosque in the 500’s. It is directly opposite the blue mosque which I am looking forward to visiting on Thursday (I think)🤔
It.is.massive!!
The mosaics are interesting and the inside it’s cavernous. It holds 18000+ people. We weren’t allowed onto the lower floor but walked around and took a load of photos (again).
A rest in the gardens outside was welcomed by our side feet. Then it was “call to prayer”, which started at Hagia Sophia and was echoed back by the Blue Mosque which is about 300m away. It was pretty interesting sitting directly in between both and hearing it in stereo.
Just over the road was the Basilica Cistern which was originally built around the same time at Hagia Sophia in order to supply fresh water to the palaces and other important buildings. I remember it from the Dan Brown movie Inferno and it was awesome!! I have realised that I love big groups of tall columns - like at Luxor Temple. The lights changed colour and it became extremely photogenic.
We decided to go to a restaurant recommended by our walking guide yesterday so off to the ferry we went to pop over to Asia for dinner (as you do!). But…..we caught the wrong ferry so ended up somewhere else entirely hahahahaha!
Dinner was still fabulous and the trip home was adventurous.
It seems I was swindled by a helpful guy this morning who was “assisting” me in loading credit onto my travel card - he loaded it onto his!!! So my card didn’t work ☹️
I was pretty pissed off as I had thanked him profusely for being so kind 😡😡
Anyway, once we got off the ferry, back in the European side of Istanbul, we decided to grab an Uber because we were stuffed.
The app just connects you to the taxis (which we’ve been warned about) and wouldn’t accept PayPal, ApplePay or Credit card - only cash and no meter…..no thank you! I will not be swindled twice in one day.
We decided to catch the bus instead. Now the whilst the app or Google maps may say one thing about which stop to get off, or which number bus to get, this isn’t actually the case. Fortunately for us a super lovely guy walked us to our connecting bus and put us in the hands of another super helpful guy who got us off at the correct stop. All bus numbers and stops were different to what all the apps said. Thank goodness for honest and lovely people. I feel better now - swindled by one but helped by two 😊😊
We celebrated with a glass of wine in an Irish Pub near our hotel.
What a memorable day!!Read more