Zeytin Burnu

A day and night here. Off to see the city sights now...

Caught the BigBus hop on/off and saw some city sights. Crossed the Bosphorus strait (?) which runs through Istanbul and separates the two continents it's built on ... Asia and Europe. Toured Hagia Sophia museum, which was a church from Byzantine era, now a museum. Mosaics inside amazing. It's the 3rd rebuild and many of the original ruins are visible. Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque) the mosaics and decor is fabulous. Shoes off head covering on, this is a functional Mosque and closed for prayers an hour after we went through. Minarets everywhere ... 3000 mosques nearly 2000 churches, synagogues - seems the various religions exist peacefully together here.

Huge city 20 million population, housing and buildings as far as the eye could see. Modern, old and ancient...of particular note the remains of the old sea wall all the way round the waterfront.

Everything is "$$ normal price, for you I reduce it to $$" seems bargaining is a much loved game by the locals. We probably paid too much for everything. .. ah well, kiwis not so practiced at the art eh.Read more