After thinking I would have a nice quiet night it wasn’t to be.

The builders had stopped and there was no call to prayer but my room mate brought a boy home.
I woke up about half way through "whatever they were doing" and then had no chance of getting back to sleep.
After suffering for a while a sat up and checked, my phone for the time (4.00am) and had a drink of water (my throat was so sore I could barely swallow) and said “Guys, its 4.00am - I am sick and I can’t sleep with that noise. Can you please take it somewhere else”.

I got no response but there was no more noise!

Anyway after waking up when we I was meant to wake up I first apologised to the roomy for interrupting her but she was very very embarrassed.
I think she was quite drunk and would rather not have done what she did - never mind.
She wasn’t on my tour so I only saw her intermittently during the next week.

Then I went for breakfast which wasn’t all that great.
I had bread and jam which proved to be my staple for the next week!

We all piled on a bus and drove to the Blue Mosque area.
It was just as lovely during the day and the sky was so blue…it was still quite chilly though.

Egyptian Columns (three photos)

We wandered around the Hippodrome where the Egyptian obelisks are.

Outside (three photos)--- One of the Minarets (two photos)

Postcard from Tanya

Walls, ceilings and central dome (three photos)- Arches (two photos)

One of the columns

The interior - Postcard from Tanya

(two photos) Tanya outside the Mosque

Then went into the Blue Mosque.
It was just as lovely inside.
It is still used for prayer and visitors are kept out during that time.
Females must pray out of the sight of the males which is quite funny I think.

Looking towards "The Niche"

The reason is that the men must focus completely on "The Niche" towards Mecca and not be distracted by the female form!

Outside

Inside (two photos)- (three photos)- (two photos)

Inside (two photos)--- The Sultan's Box

The interior - Postcard from Tanya

We then went to the St Sophia Museum which was just like the Blue Mosque on the outside but was a red colour.
It has been turned into a museum and was being renovated.

--Some of the mosaics-- (two photos)

There were lots of lovely mosaics in there but I don’t think my photos do it justice.

Tanya trying out the "Wishing Hole"!!! (two photos)

There was a hole in the wall that you put your thumb in and if you can make it got a full 360 degrees your wish will come true.
I think I was concentrating too hard to make a wish but the photos are good anyway!

Postcard from Tanya

Sign at the entrance

After the Aya Sophia we had the option of going to The Basilica Cistern.
That was one of my favorite places in Istanbul.

Inside (three photos)----- Postcard from Tanya

It was quite an eerie place and my photos are a not great but it was lovely.

The "water-testing" fish

It was where the water for the Palace was kept.
The water filled right up to the roof and they kept fish in there too which I thought was pretty gross but was told that the reason they kept the fish was that if the fish died they would know that the water was contaminated and someone was trying to kill the Sultan - good thinking.

Medusa Heads (two photos)

There was also two carved medusa heads right at the back of the Cistern
The guides are not sure why they are there because they would have been covered in water most of the time but they were quite cool.

A Police Station

Outside the Cistern was a great house - it was bright yellow and with the blue sky looked great.
I took a photo and as it turns out it was a police station.

......and the guard with his "fuck-off" gun!!!

I got a great shot of the guard with his great big gun too.

After the Cistern we went to lunch which was included in the tour cost.
It was great - nice starters and then spicy chicken and tomato rice and baklava.

The next stop was the Topkapi Palace.

Tanya Kylie Jo - outside the Bazaar

A few of us skipped that as we wanted to get to the Grand Bazaar and we weren’t sure that we would have time on our last day.
We arranged a time to meet back for the Bosphorus Cruise and hit the shops!

Tanya is ready to shop!!!

It was great fun.
It was such a vibrant place…it was so busy and colourful.

The stall holders tried every trick in the book to get us to buy.
They were calling out to us “Spice Girls, hello Spice Girls”.
It was really quite funny.

We expected to get lost so arranged a place to meet in time to get back for the tour.

Tanya looking around - and spending "millions"!!! (two photos)

I ended up on my own but brought a great pair of shoes (I got him down from 15 million to 8 million), some Turkish delight (I got him to one box for 10 million to 4 boxes for 10 million), some finger symbols (2 million), some coin purses (1 for 5 million to 2 for 2 million) and bracelets with the evil eye on then (2 for 2 million).
The evil eye is a good luck charm and protects you from evil spirits.
I got one for me and one for Amanda.
I also got two evil eyes about the size of a 50c piece as I bring a girl from work a present every time I go away and we sit them on our computers.

It was really good fun at the Bazaar and I don’t think I even saw half of it.

I was walking along with all of my bags and some guy called out “Miss, you have dropped something”.
I turned around and looked and he said “Not on the ground…on my heart!”
It was really quite funny.
Not sure what he was selling but he was trying hard!

The last remaining pillar (three photos)

Then we met back to the Aya Sophia to take the bus to the site for the cruise.

The crowd on the boat--- but Tanya has a good spot!!!

"The Bread Man"

It was a gorgeous day and the boat was full of people from the Fez tours.
I ran into my room mate and a girl who used to work at Capsticks, Trina.

(two photos)----- Fishing (three photos)

(two photos) The Blue Mosque (two photos)

(three photos)--- (two photos)

The Blue Mosque and St Sophia Museum (two photos)

(two photos)

(four photos)------ (four photos)

The commentary was quiet hard to hear but it was a lovely cruise.
It was quite cold but the views were stunning.

The Old and The New

I took a great photo of an old mosque in front of a new modern bridge which I quite like as it shows the old and the new.

Bridge between Europe and Asia (two photos)

The bridge connects the continent of Europe with the continent of Asia.
Istanbul is the oldest city in the world and is the only city to span two continents.
It is also very very very big.

(two photos) "I love the purple trees" (two photos)

The cruise took an hour and we didn’t even nearly go the whole way up the Bosphorus.

Mosque covered in moss

I also took a great shot of an old mosque that was covered in moss.
I really liked it.

We went back to the hotel after a very long day of sightseeing.

We went for dinner to another great restaurant.
I love the Turkish food.

We had an early start in the morning - 5.30am wake up call to get ready to head to Gallipoli.