Wishing for a tripod

Turkey, Day 3 (bad numbering corrected) Istanbul

We got out on schedule. First up was the Palace. Which was closed on Tuesdays. Ooops. Saint Sophia, however was open, along with the nice man who explained this to us, the Cistern and his carpet shoppe. So we went to Saint Sophia. Which was really big and was built in only five years. None of this centuries to build a cathedral, 7k sq metre building put right up. We have a bazillion pictures, but like Canada, its really big. And mostly empty, unlike cathedrals. There were some nice mosaics and they are doing restoration work on it. But on could see how 1500 years ago this was the most impressive thing going. To get the pictures we had to find places to hold the camera steady for about a third of a second. This was not easy.

Then we rearranged our bus for tomorrow to give us time to see the palace, and went to the spice market which was much more fun than the Grand Bazar. First we had lunch at a fairly fancy restaurant with the most amazing view of the straights and the water around the Horn. The lamb with pistachios was amazing and there was a good eggplant and yummy cheese.

First we went though the non-turist market, bought food for the bus, and looked a shops full of things you can't take on airplanes (knives, guns, pointy metal things) as well as pretty much anything else you would need or want.

Then we went though the fancy section, where there were both tourists and annoying shopkeepers who spoke English and charged
~ four times as much.

There was an episode of me trying to cash a traveler's check. But as I fell asleep typing that sentence, more tomorrow...